DENMARK DREAMING

Classic Sunrise

Blue Beauty

Yes.................well, it’s a very good thing that you don’t actually wait with baited breath for my next blog post – it has now been more than 2 months since the last entry and do you know, I really don’t have any excuse for my lax behaviour!

We are currently in the tiny wheat-belt town of Perenjori (north east of Perth) but I will tell you more about this place and the whys and wherefores later (next blog perhaps).  In the meantime I did promise a blog about Denmark.

Stunning Coastline

Rocky Tumult

What Can I Say?!

We headed down to Denmark late February (I think) and stayed for a glorious and very busy 5 or so weeks.  For the benefit of our Eastern States friends, Denmark is a very pretty town on the southern coast of WA –some 50odd kilometres west of Albany and around 400 ks south of Perth.  I have to tell you I just consulted the DD guru about the distance from Perth (you would expect him to know) but as he has his face buried in a book, I received a response that was both curt and incorrect.  As I am too delinquent myself to go and find a map to confirm the distance, we will stick with around 400ks.

Instead of heading directly to Denmark, we stopped off for a couple of days in the delightful town of Bridgetown.  In the past we haven’t stayed in town, but have stayed at a farm-stay some 10 or so kilometres out.  This time however we set up camp at the Bridgetown CP right on the Blackwood River.  It was a pretty little spot and within a couple of hours we were entertaining the local Splendid Wrens, a family of very friendly magpies and a couple of very large black shiny skinks.  While in Bridgetown we caught up with our old mates Rod and Rita and were introduced to their new family member Rebel, a gorgeous and still somewhat gangly young Golden Retriever.  Bridgetown is a very special picturesque town nestled amongst steep hills.  The town is one of the very few places in Western Australia where you can enjoy autumn colours.  The area has long been an orchard area, predominantly producing apples and pears.  Plums are also a popular crop in the area and fresh fruit was in abundance when we visited.    Bridgetown is still high on the list of places I would like to live.  DD is not quite so sure as it is also one of the coldest spots in WA!

Leaving Bridgetown we trundled on down to Denmark. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know that this is one of our favourite spots, we are so fond of it in fact that we went all the way down there two years ago to tie the proverbial knot.  The area is stunningly beautiful encompassing the best of ocean, river and bush scenery.  There is plenty to do there including culinary pursuits, wine appreciation, bush walking, fishing, boating etc, etc, etc.

More Early Morning Bliss

Storm Approaching

Denmark is in our humble opinion so much better than Margaret River on the west coast.  It has not morphed (yet) into a total tourist trap.  There are signs of this, but so far the town has managed to retain its quaint character.  The area is very hilly and this enhances the beauty.  Stunning views from the ‘highlands’ swing across heavily wooded hills to the winding river and the sparkling Southern Ocean. 

Wine-growing has increased in the region along with berries and other cooler weather agricultural endeavours (including truffle growing slightly inland from coast).  The usual retail outlets, selling chocolates, cheeses, honey products etc are all very much in evidence along with cellar door sales, rustic little eateries and larger-scale breweries.  As I said, there is plenty to do.

Do You See Why We Love This Place?

Iconic Greene's Pool

A Dip Perhaps

The area encompasses a large estuary like water-way and the fishing is great if you know where to go.  The locals are understandably a little reticent to give away their fishing secrets but it is possible to get some very good catches with a little perseverance.  The estuary also boasts some very decent crabs and we managed to find a source of these while we were in town.  In fact, for the very first time, I think I OD’d on crabs.  DD did his usual thing of going just a smidge overboard in his purchasing of crabs and we still have some in the freezer.  Just as a matter of interest, what we did with the excess crabs, was to remove the meat (a joint effort) and to bag the meat into small snap-lock bags.  We have since leaving Denmark, periodically been able to treat ourselves to the odd crab ‘sanga’ and delicious crab-cake meal.  In fact we had crab cakes last night using a recipe I found in the Saturday West for Swan River Crab Cakes.  They were delicious and if anyone wants the recipe I will be only too happy to provide it.  I imagine you could adapt it for any white fish.

The Before

And the After

Our time in Denmark was social indeed.  The first week we were there we were joined by our mate John and his very high-tech and not always well behaved Kimberly 23-2 – a super upmarket van designed for the roughest of off-road travel.  This beast was one of the first ones made and was predictably giving John a bit of a run for his money.  The van is so hi-tech, computer driven with all the ‘fruit’ as they say, that poor John has his time cut out keeping up with all its idiosyncrasies.  We had met John previously in Kalbarri when he was taking his van for its maiden run.  It was good to see that many of his previous wrinkles had been ironed out (the van’s not John’s!) and we believe that it is now even better. 

John is a keen fisherman and he and DD disappeared from time to time in order to try to convince some of the local fish to jump on their lines.  I have to say they had limited success.  They enjoyed this manly pursuit however and as I had some time to myself for painting, it was good for everyone. Speaking of painting - you will no doubt be amused to hear that I am still doing 'gnome makeovers' - DD spotted a couple of very sad old fellows sitting by the boom gates at the CP - the manager was only too happy for me do perform some magic on these little folk!

Just as John was leaving to go back to Perth, another good mate, Peter turned up.  As Peter and his lovely wife Fleur are currently waiting to pick up their new van and their current one was sitting in a caravan yard awaiting sale, Pete very bravely came to join us with his tent!!!!  We were impressed.  A tougher man than us it seems.  Peter is also an avid fisherman and so off the blokes went once again in pursuit of fishing excitement.

Intrepid Fisherman John

The Studio - Artist Within

Yet another good friend, a local in Denmark, Colin, took the blokes out on his boat.  The men went out seeking Snapper – they were not particularly fortunate in this pursuit but once again a good time was had by all.  Both Peter and DD were somewhat shown up by Colin who obviously has a great deal more stamina than these city fellas.  By the end of a day on the water, followed by a couple of hours of cleaning and scaling (I think largely done by Colin) these two city-slickers were totally wrecked.  Rarely have I seen two such tuckered out blokes!!

From the Studio

Would You Trust These Men?  DD & Peter

Not only was Colin tougher on the day, but he also has a mean streak it seems.  After the very mediocre catches the trio had while we were there, the first two weeks after our departure Col went out yet again and caught the proverbial bucket loads.  That in itself is OK, the mean-streak surfaced however, when he sent us photos of his catches.  Not Nice Colin!!  Poor old DD has only just recovered and only recently has he stopped muttering things like “Bloody Col’n”.

We had some lovely visits with Colin and his wife Bev while in Denmark and they gifted us with some of their lovely home grown plums – yumm!

The Craft

The Not So Crafty Crew

Photographer Ahoy

As I said it was a very social event this time around, so much so that we missed out on visiting another three sets of friends who also live in the area.  As the men were so heavily involved in their piscatorial activities I had a heap of time to spend with a brush in my hand and as a consequence turned out a couple of rather different paintings/inks while sitting on the water-side.

Didn't Know Pete Could Fly!

Charming Wooded Drive

River-mouth

The area is stunning – rather than bore you with my very inadequate descriptions, I have instead included a good few photos, taken both this time and during previous visits.

After some 5 weeks away from Perth, we reluctantly hitched up Jezabelle and headed back to the Vines CP in Caversham.  We needed to be back in order for me to attend my ‘knee appointments’.  As soon as we had attended these, we once again hitched up the van and headed out of town to Perenjori where you now find us.  We have to be in GreenHead mid-June in order to house/dog sit for our friends Steve and Sylvia and wanted somewhere quiet and peaceful to spend the interim weeks and so here we are.  Next time I will tell you more about this place and the wonderful friends we made this time around at the Vines.

Until next time, be kind to yourselves and each other.  Steph.

Just a little add on – while we were in Denmark we discovered these strange birds.  I have since Googled and discovered they are a cross between a Galah and a Little Corella.  It seems that the Galah is the only parrot which inter-breeds, crossing with Little Corellas, Major Mitchells and Weiros.  From what I can determine, these feathered marvels are commonly (or uncommonly) known as Garellas!!  

Toooo Cute!