DARLING, DARLING DENMARK

Placid Pelicans in the mouth of the River

Early Morning Peace

We managed to get away from Northcliffe unscathed and headed still southward in a generally eastern direction to the beautiful coastal town of Denmark. On the way we passed through another of our favourite spots, Walpole. It was a real tussle with our collective consciences not to stay there, but we had decided that we should try something different this time, so it was with some sadness we drove through that delightful little town. Doubtless we will stay there another time and tell you more about it then. Doubtless too, while we are here, we will ‘go visit’.

The colours of Morning

Yes, you have finally caught up with us, we are currently in Denmark and I must say, in a somewhat bemused state. In the past, for some obscure reason, we have shunned this pretty spot. We seemed to think it was a bit contrived and yuppie for our tastes. Perhaps, we had not spotted this particular CP before and perhaps while here we simply visited friends and didn’t really look at the place. We are staying at the River Mouth CP and as luck would have it have a bay right on the banks of the Wilson Inlet. The weather here is balmy and fine (currently), the nights delightfully crisp, the mornings brisk with fine mist rising from the waters of the river, the days kept pleasant by the barest zephyr of a breeze fanning across the inlet and all in all it is just a little paradise. We are in love with the place and now have a new venue to add to our list of favourites. We only arrived on Friday (today is Sunday) and so far have not done a great deal of exploring. We will go driving around of course, but we have seen most of this area on a number of times previously so it will really be revisiting favourites once again. While here we will ‘do’ the tree-top walk at the Valley of the Giants and we will also visit a little ‘bird place ‘ up the road a piece. I also plan on doing the tourist thing this time around and visiting some of the local producers of this and that (honey products, toffee, wines, chocolates, art, pottery and all that sort of lovely thing girls!) This hectic activity will be fitted in around visiting some friends, sitting painting and generally reflecting on life whilst watching the water and the water-fowl float by our front door. As I mentioned previously we are right on the water-front. There is a pathway between us and the water where everyone walks their puppies and so we have plenty of folk to chat to while we are out there surveying our ‘temporary’ kingdom. This place has reminded us all over again why we live the way we do and why we love it so much.


The caravan park here seems excellent and is once again dog friendly.


As far as personal issues are concerned, mum is doing OK sort of, in our absence. The first week we were away she fell over in the middle of the road in Midland. She had to wait for someone to help her to her feet and then she tottered over to her chemist where at her request they patched her up. They then charged her $5 for the service provided. She must have been going to this particular chemist for some 20 years and I might add would have spent an absolute fortune there in that time – says something about our world I think. I know they have to cover the cost of the stuff used and the time of their staff too, but really.....................! Oh well, that is the world I guess. Anyway, since then she has been OK but it is becoming more and more apparent she just cannot live alone much longer. We are currently casting around for ideas as to how to look after her whilst maintaining a good quality of life ourselves. Of course it will all work itself out in the end, but it is a worry nevertheless.


As far as we know the kids are all OK, as we have been out of range a great deal of the time we haven’t really been in touch and as they haven’t contacted us, we must assume all is OK. Say no more!!


DD is still really TBBITW (The Best Bloke In The World) and we bump along. I do worry that he spends too much time doing serious stuff and while I am endlessly grateful for his capacity to work the market, I think he needs to lighten up somewhat for his own sake. He is getting the hang of his new camera and I will post some of his new photos for your enjoyment. My painting is sort of coming along, although I have just birthed a most strange child with the last one – half of it is exceptionally good and the other half....well, odd to say the least. Ahhh, what does it really matter? I am a little disappointed but will get back on the proverbial horse and start something else. I just will not re-do this one again as I have re-done it at least 3 times already and the canvas will be sagging with the weight of the paint if I try again! As you will have guessed, my writing has taken a back seat to the painting at the moment, and while the weather is good and I have all this wonderful time, it will stay that way. I will do a final blog of this journey when we have finished enjoying this wonderful place and that will most likely be it for a little while again. So, once again, sorry to be so long winded, but there was a great deal to cover.


Love each other and remember that when you judge others, you define not them, but rather yourself as a person who needs to judge. This is a misquoted passage from an excellent book I once read and has been one of my greatest lessons. I am happy to share it with you. Love until next time – Steph.




From the Van



Naturally Northcliffe

Locals!

We reluctantly dragged ourselves away from Augusta and headed east towards our destination of Denmark, but on the way we decided to stop overnight in Northcliffe. In our trusty little Beautiful South book we could only see one CP in Northcliffe – called the AroundTu-it CP. Well, folks, it was very different. For a start, when we followed the signage, we thought we had made a mistake and taken a wrong turn as the road seemed to be just heading bush. We duly arrived however at a very bushy caravan park set right in the Karri forest. The location was quite beautiful, but mine host and wife were a sour couple. Mind you, things didn’t look that rosy for our hosts and when we arrived he was carting water to the animals as they haven’t had any rain for some considerable time. This would be most unusual in this area and I dare say they are just not geared up for dry weather. There must also be an over-riding fear of bush fire all the time as the forest in tinder dry and in those steep hills and giant trees it would just be disastrous if a fire did get out of control there. They had some considerable number of Alpacas on the property along with an abundance of roos. It seems that they rehabilitate wounded wild-life to the bush and release the critters in the surrounding areas. We expected to be visited by one of the possums who had been released in this manner, but were disappointed. In fact, considering the location we saw very little in the way of bush animals and birds (apart that is from the roos and a few wily maggies and 28s). The park and its general demeanour had us thinking that this couple had started out with grand ideas, as most of us do, and time and experience had simply knocked the stuffing out of them. We could see the remains of old signs advertising burgers and all sorts of other stuff that it seemed had been tried and failed. They obviously need more trade, but have forgotten to smile at folk so the word of mouth is probably not working for them anymore. Of course, it is said of Northcliffe that it is ‘Banjo-Pickin’ country, in the same ilk as Deliverance, so perhaps there was more to the problem than met the eye!!


The surrounding areas are stunningly beautiful and the coast is not far away so there is plenty to do there. They charge $14 per head per night and the park is dog friendly.

ADD ONS

Hi again, just thought that while the Internet/Laptop/Blog site is behaving I would throw in a couple more of these beautiful photos of this beautiful part of the world.  You will also see a couple of my recent paintings, just to give you an idea of how I spend my spare time while we are on the road.  Forgive the amaturish attempts, but I do believe I am getting a little better as I go along.
Steph.

Island off Hamelin Bay



Still Hamelin Bay



AMAZING AUGUSTA

Early morning on the Blackwood

The Old Water Wheel - Fresh Water!

Feeding Rays at Hamelin Bay

Speccy Pic taken by DD

Some of the Waves that made Margaret River Famous

Lighthouse on the point where the Indian Ocean Meets the Great Southern Ocean

Addictive Augusta



After wishing our new found friends a fond farewell we trundled on down the coast to one of our favourite spots Augusta. Augusta is a small village right on the south-western tip of the country. It is where on the map, the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean. The town sits right on the entrance of the Blackwood river and is surrounded on three sides by water, the River on one and the two oceans on the other two sides. It is without a doubt one of the most picturesque places I know. We have been visiting Augusta for many years now, but this is the first time we have stayed in a caravan park. We chose Turner’s Caravan Park right in town and we found it to be very good indeed. The only drama we had was the weather. I know some of you will find this hard to understand, but one of the reasons we headed south was to get away from The Hot. Well, while it has been considerably cooler (and I do use the term lightly) than Perth, we have still had pretty much warm weather everywhere, the only saving grace being that the nights down here are much, much cooler. Augusta was no exception. It was remarkably warm there. Not realising this, we accepted a bay without any shade and found to our regret that it was too hot and we were compelled to use the air-con quite a bit. Thank goodness that we had it to use! I have to say, it never occurred to us that we would be compelled to use air-con to cool in Augusta.


As usual we spent a good part of our week in Augusta revisiting all our old favourite scenic spots. The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is particularly good, although we didn’t pay the price to actually go in this time having done it plenty of times in the past. We visited the old Water Wheel and all of the surrounding coastal spots. There is some spectacular coastline in that vicinity, rocky and wild. It is even more spectacular in stormy weather, but as you would realise by now, we certainly didn’t see anything of that!


We visited beautiful Hamelin Bay where they feed the big rays in the bay. It just so happened that we wandered in at the end of feeding time and we were just amazed by the scene before us. Several large rays still loitered along the shore-line hoping for a hand out, and mingled amongst them were an abundance of Silver Gulls and Great Southern Gulls. The water of course is crystal clear there and it was quite a spectacle. We were told that 3 different types of Ray come in to feed there, I’m sorry but I cannot recall the names, but suffice to say they ranged from the dinner plate size to the rather large when we were there.


We also did a coastal drive from Augusta up to Margaret River visiting along the way a place called Redgate Beach. This was an amazing spot with enormous waves and huge rocks strewn along the coast. The beach was very popular with surfers and we were somewhat surprised after travelling along what appeared to be a remote back track to find the car-park at the end overflowing and the beach well populated. We discovered the same thing when we arrived at Prestons Beach (the main beach attached to Margaret River) where the considerable waves were quite thickly peopled by surfers. We were quite perplexed to understand how so many folk were there, on a week day, driving expensive vehicles and using expensive equipment. We are aware that the National Pro-Surfing Championships are happening at this time of the year, but must admit we had no idea as to the popularity of the event/sport. Every car park was full to over-flowing and every beach and part was full of animated well dressed youngish people – how do they afford to do this???


Anyway, the surf was spectacular and the waves were huge so we enjoyed the spectacle presented. We also took a drive over to East Augusta where we discovered there really wasn’t a great deal to see and down to a well known camping area called Alexander Bridge. Alexander Bridge is along the Bussel Highway not far from Augusta and is one of the best off-road camping areas we have seen. Now those of you who know us know that we are soft and don’t usually free camp, but we do go and have a look to see what we are missing out on. This was certainly a lesson for us – the place was right on the banks of the Blackwood and was heavily wooded with delightful little camp spots set amongst the trees. Mind you, a fire would be a disaster there and while that would normally not be an issue in this region, due to the prolonged dry spell at the moment, it could be a problem just now. We may have tried to get into Alexander River campsite after leaving Augusta except for the fact that we really felt it would have been too difficult to get Jezabelle into the tight spots available.


While in Augusta we caught up with friends Ken and Robin. Ken and DD are old work-mates and always talk up a storm when we catch up. As we caught up at the local watering hole, the Augusta Pub, it was no great hardship for Robin and myself, who while enjoying the stunning view from the hotel, spent a happy time running down and complaining about our respective blokes and ruminating over the foibles of our family and various children and grandies. It was lovely to catch up but it always strikes me as odd that whilst we all reside in the suburbs of Perth, we wait until we get to Augusta to catch up!! Says something about the stresses and strains of living and in their case, working, in the big smoke. Ken is now well into his 60s but is one of those blokes who thrives on his work and is finding it difficult to let go of the reins. I’m not sure that Robin who herself still works part-time, is looking forward to having him home all day every day. I know that all of you women who are in my age bracket are now sagely nodding your heads as it is a dilemma for most of us, isn’t it girls? The Augusta Pub incidentally must have the best pub view in WA – it is situated at pretty much the highest point in the town and overlooks both the mouth of the Blackwood and the surrounding bay – speccy to say the least!!! Enjoying the view with a good simple meal and nice ‘drop o’ somethin’ is a hardship, I can tell you!!


Turner’s Caravan Park incidentally was quite good, well situated right on the river and within walking distance (for the fit) into town. The amenities were fine and the park is dog friendly. There is a Factory Direct Fish outlet in town which sells (unusually) local catch including at the moment very well priced blue swimmer crabs. The local bakery is excellent and there you can purchase your mandatory crusty white with which to make the fresh bread, butter and crab sandwiches with salt, pepper and vinegar – doesn’t that sound awful?


I must warn you too, of the dangers of feeding the birds in that park! Of course, in my inimitable bad style I spotted and fed a maggie that I saw hovering one day, well.... before I knew where I was I had 11 of them and were they tame!! They were a pushy gang and all of them vied to eat from my hands. This exercise was hampered somewhat by the antics of one in particular of a group of black ducks that had also cottoned on to the available feed-train. One of these admirable critters would sit all day at my feet while I painted and every so often just gently tug at the towel I had draped across my lap. If the towel was absent, he would simply peck at my strides, just to remind me he was there. When the maggies were being fed he would literally jump up and down in agitation as they received what he obviously considered to be his tucker. In addition to the maggies and our ducky mates, we also had a very animated Wattle bird who jumped around on the table amongst my paints and a Grey Butcher Bird who literally sang for his supper – it was all just delightful – of course the gulls tried to get in on the action too and we had to suspend feeding operations when they came around .

See you soon Steph.



Surf Rolls in at Yallingup and Rocky beaches of Cape Naturalist

 

A Patchwork Cow at the Olive Farm

 Bustling Busselton



From Pemberton we took the scenic drive along the Vasse Highway to Busselton on the coast. Busselton is not the sort of venue we would normally visit as the town is quite large and the parks all a bit too ‘residential’ for our tastes. This time we were not there for the scenery however, we were there for the company. Whilst on the road last year, we met a delightful couple, Annie and JC who look after the Supreme Owners Group (SOG) in WA. Of course, they convinced us to join the group. Since then we have enjoyed the monthly News Letters and the odd question or enquiry from other Supreme Owners that they publish from time to time. Sadly we had not been able to participate in any activities until now and we were very happy indeed to be able to join the group at a get together in Busselton.


We booked in at the Kookaburra (No 3) park in Busselton almost right on the ocean front and only a short walk to the famous Busselton Jetty. I think they ended up with 11 vans and we had a most enjoyable week with our new found friends. Not all was smooth sailing however. The first casualty was my own beloved DD. Now those of you who have met The Bloke will know that he has an admirably smooth and bare pate these days and being of reasonably tall stature, his shinny dome is often decorated with bumps and scratches from where he constantly scrapes and head-butts various parts of the interior of the van. On this particular day, yours truly was outdoors happily throwing paint at a canvas when Helen who was walking towards me suddenly paled and gasped at something behind me. Well............I turned around and there stood my beloved with both hands clamping a white cloth to his head whilst blood cascaded in gory streams down his face. It appears he had been bending down under the awning struts to get something out of one of his splendiferous bags, when he stood up quickly, neatly sconing himself on the overhead strut. Now folk, he didn’t cut his head, instead, he came up so quickly and forcibly that he literally SPLIT his scone. When he gingerly lifted the cloth from his head, there was a gaping wound some 4 inches long right along the middle of his head running from front to back. Annie was on the scene quickly and both she and I were of the opinion that DD (Dilapidated Doug) should at least go to the Drs where we felt he would be stitched up. Of course it was like trying to put the proverbial cat in a box and our staunch hero simply refused to go. Now if you have any ideas how to get someone of DD’s stature into a car against his will I wish you would tell me.........as it was we had to acquiesce to his wished and instead we patched him up to the best of our abilities. It was thanks to Karen and her trusty medical kit that we ended up putting those neat little strips across the wound which acted pretty much like stitches anyway. I don’t think any man has been better looked after than The Bloke in the next few days – so many ladies looking after him and asking how he was. We monitored him closely particularly for the first 24 hours just in case of concussion and then of course infection. It seems he is made of pretty stern stuff after all and has recovered well from his mishap. He is still sporting a couple of those strips Karen and only removes them when after showering they sort of spring attractively away from his head!


The next disaster was poor old JC who suffered unmentionable distress when one of his body parts refused to function. A trip to emergency in the early hours of the morning followed by a couple of days of bionic type apparatus attached to his nether regions saw poor old John through the first part of his ordeal. The worst part was yet to come, I gather, when he returned home and his condition deteriorated. For the sake of John’s privacy I won’t go into any further details except to say how much I admired both John and Annie in their hour of difficulty. Considering the delicate nature of John’s situation I was just blown away by how well he dealt with the constant enquiries from all and sundry regarding his situation. Annie too was stoic in the face of difficulties and stood-by her man through all the problems. Not once did either of them shirk in their hosting duties and they continued to look after all of us without stint. What’s more they continued to smile throughout the whole ordeal. It reminds me of a quote my granny put in my little autograph book when I was a girl...


“A man worthwhile is one who can smile when everything’s gone all wrong”


Annie and John, thanks so much for the wonderful work you did to make us all feel welcome and to make the week such a success.


We met some lovely people in that week, particularly Helen& Jim and Karen & Fay who were our most immediate neighbours. Jim outdid himself in catching heron and JC complimented his efforts with diligent use of his smoker. The subsequent delight of freshly caught and smoked heron was delicious. Daily sun-downers were a feature of the week and I am sure we all left with an added kilo or 2.


The weather was kind to us as we enjoyed warm and balmy weather just a little cooler than those poor folk still sweltering in Perth. All good things must, they say, come to an end, and so too did our week with the Supreme Owners Group (SOG) as slowly each of our new found mates lumbered out of the Kookaburra Park. The park incidentally was very good and it was dog friendly. As I said before, it was perhaps a bit tame by our standards as we tend to prefer more unkempt surroundings, but it was level, grassy, shady and well appointed. Busselton itself is surprisingly large. We hadn’t really looked at Busselton for many a year and we were pretty well blown away by the growth there. Like many of our South West coastal towns, there have been quite extensive housing developments and land values, even now are pretty steep. The town sports everything you would be likely to need to live there and then some.


From Busselton we drove down to Dunsborough and Yallingup and much of the Cape Naturalist National Park. There is some very pretty coastline along the northern edge and some starkly beautiful wilder scenery on the southernmost end. Dunsborough is a delightful spot and very popular with retirees and Yallingup is a well known and popular surf beach, where once upon a time in another life altogether, I was part owner of the now rather upmarket Caravan Park and cafe.


In truth we didn’t do the area justice and will perhaps revisit to better describe it at a later date.

BRIDGETOWN & PEMBERTON

Giant Reflections

Gloucester Tree

Into the Heart of theKarri

Beautiful Bridgetown



While at Maranup Ford we drove into Bridgetown to visit our friends and old ‘neighbours’ Rod and Rita and their beautiful old dog Rebel. R&R have recently built a lovely new home in one of the little developments that have sprung up around this picturesque township. Their home was predictably lovely and the outlook from their back veranda quite delightful, overlooking a large spring-fed dam and plentiful jarrah forests. They have accomplished a great deal in the short time they have been there and have already made considerable inroads to establishing a garden. We were made very welcome by our hosts and they spoilt us terribly with a delicious meal eaten with a nice drop overlooking their new kingdom. Just beautiful!


The township of Bridgetown is in my opinion one of the prettiest spots in WA. It is only 3 hours drive from Perth and is set pretty much in the middle of the Blackwood River Valley. The country there is steep and green, and is one of the very few places in WA where you can actually enjoy beautiful autumnal colours at the change of the season. The town has a distinct ‘village’ feel to it and most of the buildings there have been either built or decorated to fit that particular vibe. It does have the dubious reputation of being the coldest spot in WA and we were amazed to see, only a couple of days after we left there, they enjoyed a minimum of 4 degrees while the rest of the state pretty much sweltered.


Priceless Pemberton


From Bridgetown we delved yet deeper into the South West and wandered down to the beautiful little town of Pemberton nestled deep within the Karri forest. For those of you who haven’t experienced our Karri forests, it is worth knowing just a little bit about this wonderful and stunningly beautiful part of the world.


The Karri trees of the SW forests are incredibly beautiful and amazingly tall trees, soaring high above the Jarrah and Marri which also grow in abundance. Karri timber is super strong and sadly that made it a wonderful subject for railway sleepers and the area was heavily logged in the ‘early days’ and in fact right up until not so long ago. I believe the timber is still logged today but a little more assiduously (I Hope). There has been much action to protect the ‘Old Growth Forests’ and many of the old timber towns have now been re-directed towards tourism as a means to survival. Of course the South West is also now a Mecca for gourmet foods and wines and even truffles are now grown in this region. The area is also dotted with a plethora of little studios displaying and selling a wide range of arty/crafty stuff from paintings, to pottery and glassware and so much more. I must confess, we have never really done the ‘tourist thing’ here as DD is (like most men) pretty adverse to wandering around these little boutique style venues. I think truth be told he is even more adverse to having his pockets ‘picked’ by the outrageously priced stuff that is sold by some of these establishments. The sad thing is that a great deal of the products really are very good, but they will overprice to capture that tourist dollar, leaving the rest of us in the cold. Can’t say that I disagree with Doug on this one!


There are many really good tourist drives through the Karri forests and many of these feature particularly large and impressive individual trees. One of the most famous of these is the ‘Gloucester Tree’. This was one of the original fire spotting trees where they built a platform at the pinnacle of the tree where resolute and brave individuals would sit and watch for the first ominous signs of forest fires. The Gloucester Tree sports 153 rungs which spiral up the tree to a platform 60 meters above. The rungs are really just steel pins protruding from the tree. There is some rather flimsy looking wire protection wound around some of the tree to protect climbers from falling from their precarious steps. The Gloucester Tree is a favourite climb for tourists and there are surprisingly (in this day of litigation mania) very few rules pertaining to the climb. The reason I am telling you all this is that around 5 years ago when DD was just a lad?!! We took we took some friends of ours on a brief tour of the SW and of course stopped to see the Gloucester Tree on our way through. Now our mate, Peter, is one of those folk who can never pass by a challenge and he was bound and determined to climb the tree. Not so, my sensible and staid man, who being of saner mien, maintained that nothing would induce him to do anything so radical. Well, girls, this is to prove that men will be boys and peer pressure is alive and well at all ages and intelligence levels. When we arrived at the place of the tree, DD parked the car and he and Peter went over to survey the monster tree, whilst Jenny and I followed at more sedate pace, well..........by the time we arrived at the base of the giant, what do I see but Peter well and truly on his way to the top, and hot on his heels who, but my sensible sane Douglas!! They both climbed to the top where a surreal moment in time occurred when Peter’s mobile rang and being the business man that he is, he paused to conduct a business transaction whilst 60 meters above the forest floor! Needless to say, this time around nothing could have induced DD to do anything so foolish and considering his (and my) state of unfitness it is a very good thing too.


The Pemberton Caravan Park is very good but sadly not dog friendly. It is set right amongst the Karri and is rather euphemistically described as the prettiest park in WA.

MARVELLOUS MARANUP



Rod & Rita's Lovely New Home




Maranup Crossin




Reflections



Shades of the Past




A Litte Friend Who Came to Visit

  From Donnybrook we meandered southwards and ever so slightly east to the beautiful township of Bridgetown. To our dismay, Bridgetown Caravan Park was full due to a couple of festivals and a large bike-riding event so we were compelled to find an alternative spot. This proved to be fortunate indeed as we ‘discovered’ a beautiful little spot called Maranup Ford. This is a ‘farm stay’ where the very intelligent owners have decided to make caravanners welcome. They have around 8 serviced sites in the some of the prettiest country you can imagine. They raise cattle there, although I suspect the farmer (Hugh) is probably in what you might call semi-retirement and currently only runs around 100 head. The property sits on the banks of the Blackwood River, Hugh’s ancestors having settled there many moons ago. When we first arrived we were privileged to be the only guests and were warmly greeted by one of their 3 dogs who immediately made us at home in her owners absence. The nearby bush was almost awash in bird life, particularly the beautiful little fairy wrens which were quite tame. A large and somewhat noisy family of geese wandered around happily fertilising the grass, and in the background a vigorous rooster competed for sound rights with a bevy of Pea-fowl. When Hugh and his wife Melva arrived home they greeted us warmly and we met the other 2 dogs and the 2 cats which all follow Melva everywhere she goes. We arrived there on a Thursday and by Friday evening pretty much every bay was occupied. There was no phone coverage there although DD did find that by taking his lap-top up to the top of the hill in an adjoining paddock he could just pick up sufficient signal to check the stock-market. He was an incongruous sight, I can tell you, sitting on his little stool, at a tiny table, in the middle of a huge paddock. We took some interesting and delightful strolls along the road checking out the river banks and some of the placid looking cattle grazing there.

Maranup Ford is some 18ks out of Bridgetown on the Greenbushes/Bridgetown Rd and we strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to take a bush holiday away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was truly lovely and the amenities whilst not very pretty were more than adequate and DD tells me that the showers there were excellent. (No, it’s not that I don’t shower, it’s just that I prefer to use the shower in the van!) For all the dog-lovers out there, it is also ‘dog-friendly’.