Whale watching and tree climbing - a Rainbow Coast weekend!

 Friday 22^nd August.

Today we took a break from being tourists and had a shopping day instead. I think during the course of the day we must have explored every single shop (worth exploring) in Albany. OK, they were mainly clothes shops and knick-knack shops, with a book shop and internet café thrown in for good measure. We also did a food shop to restock the fridge and freezer from IGA (plus we got a cask of wine too). We even hit Albany Plaza too. This is a rarity as I am usually averse to shopping malls of any kind. Three stops at cafés other than the internet one kept our hunger pangs at bay too.

We drove around the area rather than stroll everywhere as the area seems rather more spread out and York Street seemed a lot steeper than I remembered. We discovered there is a Farmers’ Market tomorrow, which we’ll visit and then on Sunday another Market so we’ll go that one too.

From the internet café this morning I contacted the whale watching tour people in Augusta and we have got ourselves booked on a Monday morning sailing, weather permitting. We also booked the Silver Star whale tour from the harbour here on Saturday afternoon, it leaves at 1pm. This is the one where, if they don’t find whales you get a free trip next time. I did it with Jill and Annabelle last year. I wonder if Paul will remember me? I doubt it; thousands will have been out since then.

Having spent what we thought was going to be a leisurely and relatively untiring day shopping we were knackered by the time we got back to the van again after the Plaza. I had been buying the little set of Aussie trinkets for the people at work and Uni when we get back. Laura had the brainwave of buying a pencil case and then filling that. We found some beautiful aboriginal design ones which will hold a goodly amount of sway and then went about choosing stuff to put in them. I decided we could enjoy a cuppa and our cakes at the top of Mount Clarence, so I drove the trusty camper up there to the war memorial and we had a brew and a bite. We watched the sunset from there and then made our way down to the site for a shower and a proper meal.

We headed for the spa section again and had it to ourselves for ages and ages. I was half expecting the two boys to return but maybe we had scared them off. Two blondes in bikinis being extremely sarcastic probably didn’t fit their mental picture of what women ‘should be’ like! We even had a go at the table tennis (terrible) and pool (not quite so terrible) in the games room before retiring for the night.

Saturday August 23^rd

Up fairly pronto to look at Dog Rock without traffic around. I had to take several photo’s for Laura to send to her Mum & Dad. I had told her about this rock when we were on Arran as there is a Cat Rock there. I may have mentioned this before. I then zoomed us round to Torndirrup National Park to look at the Natural Bridge – as spectacular as ever – and the blow hole (always a bit of a disappointment, I feel). This left us enough time to drive to the end of the point and look back at the town of Albany. It does look good nestling in the hillsides with the double bays in front of it. As we drove back  Laura asked about the Whaling Station Museum and I told her I had never been to it and didn’t really want to now as the very idea makes me sad. I was kind of scared she might express a desire to go and see it but she said she felt the same as me. (Phew!)

I don’t know what I was expecting from the Farmers’ Market but it was quite small and fairly well stocked, I suppose. There were quite a few stalls selling ‘exotic’ meat; emu, roo etc and I could see that Laura wasn’t keen on the idea so I didn’t press it. We bought ourselves a ‘healthy’ burger for lunch with really nice chunky chips and then headed for the jetty where the whale cruise departed.

The cruise went from the same jetty, was the same boat and had the same guy in charge too. I don’t think he remembered me but then I wasn’t accompanied by two precocious children who talked about sailing their Mum & Dad’d yacht up the top end. I had warned Laura about how chilly I got last year so we dressed in clothing which kept us fairly well covered with an extra sweater in our rucksacks just in case.

The boat was only about a third full, I think and we seemed to have plenty of room to move about and grab a rail at the gunwales if necessary. Once again the difference between Princess Royal and King George was quite noticeable and Paul headed due south immediately having been there on the morning cruise (9.30 start) and found a pod of about four humpbackeds. They weren’t making their progress at all today, they seemed to be just restocking on whale food and larking about. He told us they looked like young adults and were probably four males. We switched off and drifted towards them, being rewarded for our patience by two of the group coming to investigate us.

I had told Laura about being snotted by whale blow but I don’t think she realised just how wonderful it is until it happens to you. We got showered about five or six times and Laura had to keep wiping her phone to remove the splashes. She filmed for ages and ages, in the evening we found she had over half an hour’s footage of them and some of me being squeally and girly when I got showered while she was filming me. (She is going to send that to my Mum to show I am not as rufty tufty as I make out.)

Paul then headed towards Two People bay where there had been some Southern Right whales there yesterday. He hadn’t spotted them this morning but thought it might be worth a look just in case they had returned. They hadn’t! That was a pity but we are going to Augusta tomorrow and may spot some on Monday if the weather is good enough to put out. Flinders Bay can be another good stopping off point for both types of whale.

We had a bit of a surprise as we headed back towards Princess Royal Harbour as the humpackeds we’d seen earlier had moved further up the sound towards the Middleton Beach area. We circled round to have a look see but they weren’t too bothered about visiting our boat this time. Paul thought they were the same ones as there were four of them too.

After landing we zoomed off back to Middleton Beach (where the site is) and sure enough you could seem them quite clearly from the beach and with bins they were a great sight. As we sat on one of the benches along the shore we could make out their spray; their humps as they breached the surface and their flukes (the easiest to spot, obviously) as the dived. It was a really unexpected treat.

After a shower (shared) and our evening meal we headed to the spa again to find it full of a family; mum, dad and three little ones – two girls and a boy, the oldest (girl) about seven. They had come down from Perth and were staying for the week. They hadn’t been south before and were wondering what to do. I did wonder how they had got the kids out of school for a week but didn’t ask, it may have been contentious! Laura enthused about the whale tour we had done this afternoon and they decided they would probably do that, if they though the kids would cope with being at sea. The only time they had ever been on a boat was either the Swan River Cruise or the Rotto Express. Laura expressed surprise at this, she said she thought everyone out here had a boat or was a sailor of some sort.

I told them about the tree top walk in the karri forest at Denmark. We were going there in the morning on our way across to Augusta. It is a place called Land of the Giants and even though you are many metres above the forest floor, the walkway is constructed in such a way that even inquisitive littlies can’t squeeze through the railings. There is also a trail through the forest floor which, in some places actually goes right through living trees! I told them about Pemberton’s climbing trees too, which will be beyond the scope of their children but are worth a look just the same. These are spiked and you have to use the spikes like a spiral ladder round the tree to get to the fire lookout at the top. I was hoping to do those too. They are further away from Albany though and might be worth a detour on their way across to Augusta.

The kids were really sweet and full of fun. They loved the idea of going to see real whales in the water! Laura went to fetch her phone and showed mum and dad (Roger and Leah) her footage of the day. The kids loved the sequence of me getting a whale spray shower; I think it was the spray rather than my silly squeaky reaction to it they liked!

They seemed surprised that we were using a camper van. I told them it was a palace on wheels which they seemed sceptical about until we showed them round after our spa time was over. The bed wasn’t made up so the two long benches gave enough space for us all to sit down. They were very impressed with it after I had given them the grand tour. I had to confess it wasn’t mine, it belonged to my sister and brother-in-law, but I had unfettered use of it when I was over visiting. They were even more gobsmacked when Laura told them I had done the whole circumnavigation of the continent in it in 2010. We talked about that for a while too. The kids loved the idea of the high level bunks, which we never use obviously. You could see little cog wheels spinning round in Roger and Leah’s heads. I had to mention the only downside was the fuel economy. It does tend to be a bit thirsty if you try to clog on, but with steady pottering I could get 40 miles to the gallon. They had no idea what that meant (they use metric out here) so Laura did a swift mental translation for them. 7.1 litres per 100 Km. That impressed them too.

This led to a discussion about what we did and what our plans were. (We didn’t mention we were a lesbian couple – you don’t know how strangers may react.) Laura had the, by now familiar, “You don’t look like a maths wizard.” The oldest girl described a maths wizard to us: “She will have old fashioned clothes, her hair in a bun on the back of her head, really big glasses and will weigh out all her food before she eats it!” Laura said she was like that usually but was on holiday for a while so had left all her old fashioned clothes at home.

They wandered off to their cabin and we had a cuppa and a bun. I was going to offer the family a bun and drink too but realised with horror that we only had four buns left! It would have been good to have entertained them in our mobile palace.

Just before charp hitting we went for a final stroll along the sea front; it had dropped in temperature quite a bit, to probably not much over 12 degrees. The sea breaking on the shore and the wind whistling through the trees was so typical of sea-sides around the world. I said if you closed your eyes you could be on any coast anywhere. Laura said, “Not Blackpool, though!” We giggled and shivered and snuggled together for warmth as we walked. At the point where Middleton Beach rounds the headland of Mount Barker we stopped and I kissed my lovely girl. Getting seriously chilled by the breeze we scurried back to van, made up the bed and continued where we had left off.

Sunday 24^th August.

Breakfast  and a final shower at the site before we drove off to the karri forest. We headed for Denmark and the Valley of the Giants, which is a brilliant experience. The walkway through the tree tops has to be experienced. Sadly I guess the structure must have driven off a fair number of wild bird and mammals from the area but there are still some tough old bird hanging around in the canopy. We saw a few pretty, colourful specimens but we have no idea what they were. They ranged in size from the tiny to bigger than a parrot. If the family from Middleton Beach come here they will really enjoy it. The walk is fairly short but very spectacular and when you descend you are immediately taken on the low level walk they have called the Ancient Empires walk. This is a board walk which does take you through one of the Karri trees. It does look a bit clean and sanitised compared to the wild bush that you encounter if you head out to the Serpentine area (and I guess most of the other managed state national parks). I told Laura we’d have a hike through truly wild bush if we go to Dwellingup during our visit. You get there by train and it’s a great day out.

We hit the visitor centre and had a shop in the gift shop (fridge magnets mainly). I then explained how to get to Pemberton (up Highway 1 and then along the 10) as Laura was going to drive the next bit. It isn’t too far and we were there fairly quickly. We found the Gloucester National Park, parked up and had lunch before setting off on our arboreal ascent. The tree is about a twenty minute walk from where we’d parked and when we saw it, it was nothing like I remembered. I knew what spiked meant but to see the thing in the flesh, as it were, was impressive. The spikes are just huge nails driven in to the tree to make a spiral staircase where the steps are like rungs of a curving ladder. There is a mesh net type thing on the outside to stop you falling off and the spikes are spaced so close that you couldn’t easily fall through them. As there was no-one attempting the climb when we got there we swarmed up it. Laura went first and I offered guidance from behind.

The platform at the top gives stunning views over the canopy of trees and is quite breath taking – you are panting anyway as the climb is pretty physical needing both arms and legs to assist the ascent. The last bit is from the platform up a proper ladder to a sort of cage enclosure at the top which is quite roomy. Enough space to allow someone to wait to descend, whilst someone else is climbing. This happened to us and we waited until two kids clambered through the trap door. The boys had left Mum & Dad down below and climbed up by themselves. I was impressed at their pluck. I think they were impressed that two girls had climbed up, too!

The descent was tedious compared to climbing up. At the visitor centre I said they ought to offer the choice of abseiling down for experienced climbers but I doubt if they took my suggestion seriously. They did tell us about the two other climbing trees – The Diamond Tree and the Dave Evans Tree. We were told that the Dave Evans was the tallest of all three trees, so after buying our certificates of proof of climbing, we headed off on the Old Vasse road to try and find it.

We found a wonderful road name: Snottygobble Loop as well as the tree. It was a bit bigger than the Gloucester tree but seemed thinner, if that is possible. Once again the spikes and mesh and half way house platform were the same (or similar) and the tree top hut was slightly larger. The views were just as stunning but they seemed to be over a different type of tree to the ones the GT looked out over. Well, they had a different coloured canopy anyway. You could even see the sea from up here. Unlike at The GT, here there was almost nothing. A platform / seating area type thing at the bottom and some dunnies and that was about it. It seemed a much less commercialised experience than the GT, too. Maybe that’s just me being silly. After our climbing exertions we decided to press on to Augusta where I had booked two nights at the Turner Caravan Park. We arrived mid-afternoon with me being the navigator again and after the desk formalities were allowed to choose our pitch. We selected a triangular one right on the edge of the foreshore reserve which seemed ideal. Especially as we were told it was a short stroll into town and the hotel where I had planned to have our evening meal.

The Augusta Hotel is right on the Blackwood River and has glorious views down over that and south to Flinders’ Bay too. We dined from the a la carte menu and had a glorious gourmet burger (Laura) and grilled barramundi (me). We got through a bottle of Rivendell Claw Cabernato with our meal, being Tolkien fans we just had to, and after we’d eaten we took a second bottle into the lounge bar to keep it company for the evening. I sort of expected we’d get company in there and throughout the evening the odd couple of guys would wander over and attempt to engage us in conversation every now and then. We didn’t get plied with free drinks all night as we had earlier, at Northam, which was a shame as the Cabernato was really nice.

As we left, two of the guys who had come across to try and chat with us were waiting outside, probably to see if they could escort us home. They had a ute and were perched against the back but once they saw that we were heading off down the riverside path they seemed to lose interest and got in their car and drove away. My torch was pretty good at finding the path but no matter how many times we shone it over the river we saw no marine life. Two bottles of wine are pretty good at making you sleepy, but coupled with the bottle of water we had served with the meal and a cup of drinking chocolate as a nightcap, it was really no surprise I had to do a 2 o’clock walk, and a 4 o’clock one as well. Good thing the van has its own loo.