The South West Corner (Out of Esperance and onto Augusta)

1. Brendan surfing wave rock

2. Linda being eaten by the Hippos Yawn, near Wave Rock

3. Wave Rock

4. Sunset from the top of Wave Rock

5. Quoin Head, Fitzgerald River National Park

6. Track to Quoin Head

7. With Ina and Nic and their bushcamper, on the track to Quoin Head

8. Quoin Head Track, Fitzgerald River National Park

9. Brendan, Nic, Ina and Linda - Camping at Hamersley Inslet, Fitzgerald River National Park

10. Hamersley Inlet Campground, Fitzgerald River National Park

11. Whalebone Bay, Fitzgerald River National Park. (The waves here were huge, but it can't really be seen in the photo).

12. Bushcampers on the Whalebone Bay Track

13. Bella and Lio the bushcampers, Whalebone Bay

14. Fitzgerald River National Park, coming out of the tracks

15. Bluff Knoll, the highest peak in the Stirling Ranges National Park and the second highest in WA

16. The top of Bluff Knoll, Stirling Ranges

17. The top of Mt Trio, looking across to Toolbrunup Peak, Stirling Ranges

18. The scree slope, Mt Toolbrunup, Stirling Ranges - this climb keeps gettings steeper and steeper!

19. Linda makes it to Toolbrunup Peak - Yay!! (It's just like bootcamp but in the mountains!)

20. Views across the Stirling Ranges

21. Little Beach, Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve to the east of Albany

22. No bushcampers allowed

23. The road disappears, Herald Point, Gull Rock National Park, near Albany

24. Natural Bridge, Frenchman Bay Road, Albany

25. The Quenta, camping at Torbay Inlet

26. Torbay Inlet

27. Going for a surf, Ocean Beach, Denmark

28. Greens Pool

29. Giant Red Tingle Tree, Walpole

30. View to the coast near Walpole

31. Point D'Entrecasteaux

32. Dave Evans (Bicentennial Tree) - over 60 metres tall and used as a fire lookout

33. The Gloucester Tree - another 60m tall fire lookout

34. Linda climbing the Dave Evans (Bicentennial) Tree

35. Linda at the top of the Dave Evans tree - looking out over all the tree tops

36. Camping with Claire and Jen at the Big Brook Arboretum

The South West Corner

April – May 2010

After dragging ourselves away from the Esperance beaches, we took the coastal route across to Hopetoun and up to Ravensthorpe, where we decided to take a detour of 360kms to visit Wave Rock near Hyden. Wave Rock is one of WA’s most photographed tourist attractions. It is a 15m high and 110m long granite cliff with an unusual shape caused by weathering and erosion which has undercut the base and left a rounded overhang. While in this area we also visited the Hippos Yawn and Mulka’s Cave – one of WA’s best aboriginal art sites – but nothing compared to the art at Nourlangie and Ubirr Rock in Kakadu. We split this short detour with a night at Wave Rock and then headed back down to Ravensthorpe the next day.

Our plan then had been to head into the Fitzgerald River National Park for some more 4WD tracks, though as seems to be typical for us at the moment – the road was marked as closed as we started to head down it. We went back to the tourist office and found out that this was to stop the spread of die-back a plant killing disease which spreads quickly in the National Parks down here after rain. We decided to camp another night and see if the roads opened in the morning. We pulled up at a free roadside camp, and ended up joined by another bushcamper, carrying Ina and Nic. We got chatting to them and they decided to join us on the tracks the next morning. As it turned out, we were lucky – the sun was shining and the roads were open. We spent that day driving down to Quoin Head and walking up East Mt Barron – followed by a drive to Whalebone Bay the next day. We have continued to cross over with Ina and Nic along the South West Coast and will probably meet up with them again in Perth.

After the Fitzgerald River, it was onto Albany to try and stock up. (Little did we know how difficult this would be as Albany doesn’t have Sunday trading (this was a Sunday) and everything was also closed all day on Monday for the extended Anzac Day which fell on the Sunday but Monday was actually the public holiday in Australia. For those NZers these holidays move like Xmas unlike in NZ – great idea really – Australians definitely don’t want to miss any of their days off! An employers nightmare (according to Brendan)). It was then another detour up to the Stirling Ranges via the Porongurups, for a few days of walking. We loved these ranges, and managed to walk up Bluff Knoll (the highest peak in the National Park and second highest in WA), Toolbrunup Peak (the second highest in the National Park) and Mt Trio. Toolbrunup was definitely the most interesting here. It started nice and easily along the river bank, then turned into an uphill climb up a track, which turned into a steep scramble up a scree slope and then turned into a rock climb up a cliff to the peak! Warning signs read “do not proceed past this point unless you are fit and agile” so after reaching the peak we can now officially declare ourselves as being fit and agile!  It was all worth it in the end (even though our knees and calf muscles were telling us to stop) as the view was magnificent.

Back then into Albany – and the shops were open this time – where we spent a day exploring this area and visiting Little Bay, Nanarup Beach, Ledge Point, Cheyne Head, Gull Rock and the Gap and Natural Bridge of Frenchman Bay. We then pushed on through to Denmark (where Brendan realized he was out of practice in the surf) and then onto explore the forests and giant trees around Walpole and Pemberton. The highlight of this area was definitely the Dave Evans (Bicentennial Tree) near Pemberton. This tree, together with the Gloucester Tree, has been pegged as a fire lookout tree. The pegs are put around the outside of the tree so that people can climb to the top – which of course we wanted to do. The trees are both over 60m tall and apart from the pegs and a thin net on the side, have relatively little protection. We were surprised at how exposed they made you feel as you climbed higher and higher, looking down through the rungs of the ladder to 60m of fresh air down below! We were very pleased to reach the platform at the top where we could adjust to the feeling of being so high up before beginning the backwards climb down. See the photos – but they still don’t really do it justice.

Previously in Esperance, we had met Claire and Jen, a couple of English girls travelling in a Nissan Patrol on a similar trip to ours. We kept meeting up with them at random spots along the road, and decided to team up to travel some of the tracks in D’Entrecasteaux National Park. We explored Windy Harbour and D’Entrecasteaux Point and then further west to Jasper Beach, Black Point, the Milyeannup Coast Road and into Augusta at the southern end of the Margaret River area. It was good to have some back up on the sandy tracks in this area – although as always – when you have it – you don’t need it! We will probably end up crossing paths with Claire and Jen as we work our way north now.

So that’s the end of the trek West. Now we begin North, planning on being in Perth in about a weeks time. We extended out our time down south here, as we realized how many places there were to visit and explore and not enough time to get through it all, so hopefully we will still have enough time to explore places as we get further North. We have no idea how people spend a few weeks travelling through this whole area – we still don’t have nearly enough time!

Hope everyone is well. Take care.

Love Linda and Brendan. xo.

P.S. For those that know Linda’s parents – Dad has taken a new job in Cairns as HR Manager for the Cairns Regional Council. It is a 5 year contract. After the last 20years in Rocky, he moves there at the end of the month and mum will join him at the end of the year. Big changes happening. 