The South Coast
Western Australia, 2012-02-14 12:42 by Laerke


Day 16:
We drove even further west to Esperance and Cape Le Grand National Park. Here we did a great hike to the top of Frenchman Peak, admiring all the local flora and fauna on the way and the superb views from the top. The campsite at Lucky Bay was very crowded, with a young and noisy backpacky crowd – especially we were not fond of the group of 17 year old Germans playing guitar all night…I think we both wished that kangaroos were fierce predators with a taste of young blood, that night. Only redeeming feature at lucky bay, was the funnily squeaky sand and a great photo-shoot with a group of kangaroos at the beach.




Day 17:
The day started out overcast and gloomy, but after a morning spent on the internet in town, the weather cleared up. It turned out to be a gorgeous day for us to do the great ocean drive, which runs along the coast west of Esperance. We stopped at all the beautiful beaches, walked part of the coastal trail, and swam at twilight beach. It was a bit cold and windy, but the combination of blindingly white sand, the intensely turquoise water and orange rocks made this place quite unique. Even though the waters were shiveringly cold, it was great for bodysurfing, as small but powerful waves and shallow waters made conditions perfect.


We’d had our fill with lucky bay campsite, so in the evening we drove to Dun’s Beach, which lies in a deserted corner of the national park. You are not really supposed to camp here, but a few intrepid people still do, and rangers don’t seem to mind. The road there is long, graveled and horribly corrugated; it was bit of a nerve wrecking ride in our two-wheel drive. But when we got there, it was perfect: Peaceful and quiet! There are no facilities, but a peaceful full moon walk at the beach, dead quiet night and perfect solitude made this place great. We had an lovely, undisturbed night’s sleep!


Day 18:
We woke up at Dun’s Beach and had a nice breakfast in the dunes. Upon leaving, we had to turn the car around on the narrow gravel/sand road and got bogged down in the soft sands! Argh, not good!
We dug and we dug and tried pushing and shoving, but to no avail. Lærke fetched some big granite slaps from a nearby mountain and we placed them under the wheels to get a firm foundations, but just as we were about to try our last hope, an Aussie couple in a four-wheel drive showed up and pulled us out… Thank you friendly Aussies!
Spent the day exploring the park, swimming at Hellfire and relaxing. This night we camped at the campsite near Le Grande beach, which had personal slots and where we were surrounded by “normal” people…loved it!


Day 19:
We decided to have an extra day in the park, as we really felt it deserved more time. We did an awesome 10 km trek from Thistle Cove to Little Hellfire and back. It was tough climbing up and down the massive granite boulders, but the view and serenity was worth it! This park is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. We ended the day with bodysurfing in one of the stunning coves.


Day 20:
We left Cape Le Grande and drove east to Fitzgerald National Park. All the roads inside the park were gravel, but we managed just fine. We found a cozy camping spot at the campsite at Point Anne; Laerke braved a swim at the beautiful but windy beach. It rained at night, but the tent stayed dry.


Afternoon light at our campsite in Fitzgerald National Park

Day 21:
We left Fitzgerald National Park and drove towards the town of Albany. We had a look around the town and the surrounds, nothing too exiting though. But at the coast, we did stand on some rocks that were once connected to Antarctica! We then drove Cozy Corner camp, seriously overflowing with Grey Nomads but further on at Shelley Beach there were luckily plenty of room, plus it was free!


Misty ocean air at Shelley Beach

Day 22:
On our way to Denmark we drove through Bornholm, both small towns with not much of anything other than quaintness. We set up camp at a campsite at Perry Beach and later drove to Greens Pool beach for a swim; very beautiful but freezing waters.

Day 23:
The overcast skies made for a great hiking day, so we set up to do part of the Bibbulmun track. We did a 6 km hike, had lunch a top a granite hill and enjoyed the nature. The rest of the day we did pretty much nothing…


Day 24:
We set off for Walpole-Nornalupe National Park and Giants Tree Top Walk in Valley of the Giants. The Treetop Walk is a steel walkway, taking you from the forest floor up among the treetops, 40 meters at its highest point, and build to sway in the wind, just like the trees. We were both pleasantly surprised, as it was actually a really cool experience, and we were quite impressed by the non-intrusive, simple yet genius idea of it all. We ended up doing the 600 meter walk twice and enjoyed viewing the world from a birds or maybe squirrels perspective. Afterwards we went for a short walk amongst the giant trees at ground level; it was fun exploring these ancients beautiful trees. Several of them had interesting features, such as ‘caves’, giant knolls or weird shapes. One tree you could walk all the way through.


We drove to Pemberton and set up camp, on the way we were suddenly driving through thick smoke. The smoke engulfed everything and was lying as a thick fog on the road and amongst the trees. The afternoon sun’s rays gleamed through this thick soup and made the surrounds look gloomy yet beautiful and ethereal. It was a bit scary at first, as we had no idea where the smoke was coming from, but was most probably from a bushfire nearby – luckily other cars soon came by and did not seem to notice at all, so we felt safe again and continued on. Later we discovered that it was indeed smoke from a bushfire, roughly 20 kms south of the main road, but it seemed to be under control, and the locals in Pemberton didn’t think the fire would spread north. In the evening, our campsite was still engulfed in a light smoky mist, but the next morning it had cleared up.


Day 25:
The day started with an energetic walk around Big Brook Dam. We capped of the walk with a nice swim in the clean waters of the reservoir. We then proceeded to Glouchester Tree, which at 72 meters in height is the world's tallest fire-lookout tree. Climbing up was quite an adventure, as the gaps between the steel bar acting as steps were pretty large and it was a hell of a long way down, when closing in on the top. It was a breathtaking view from the top! Thinking about how this tree had actually been a warning station for the settlements in the past and the fact that just the day before a bushfire had actually ravaged the nearby areas made us realize how genius a concept the fire-lookout trees were and made the experience more real in some way.


Back in the car again, we drove on to the Karri Forest Explorer Drive, which winds through some of the south-west's most magnificent karri forest. Peace and quiet was guaranteed. Later we drove all the way back to the Margaret River region and to Hamelin Bay, were we took a dip in the cool ocean.

Day 26 and 27:
We went to the beach and drove to Augusta to see the Cape Leeuwin and its lighthouse. In the evenings we were once again visited by possums and also a funny bird sounding like a lot like a monkey or someone laughing when it ‘sang’. We enjoyed our last days in Australia with good food and lots of sunshine. On the 28thof February after more than 7000 kilometers we returned the car and headed off to Singapore to meet up with Lily’s family for a new adventure!


Bye bye Australia – thanks for some good times!