Wednesday 29 April Yallingup/ Busselton

Preparing for the reality that we will be back on the road tomorrow, I left Tim and the kids at Yallingup to spend time with Libby shopping, post office, library and stuff. Had a coffee with Libby at the Goose near the Busselton Jetty (which is 1.6kms long!) and then we went fishing rod shopping with David. We are now the proud owner of 2 fishing rods and will head off tomorrow optimistic that David has taught Tim and Sammy enough to catch some fish as we head north. Thanks David!
Tim and the kids went to Yallingup beach for the morning and then had a Pictionary session. Seemed to be a bit of cheating going on…
We watched Sound of Music in the afternoon. Loved the scene where the father introduces the kids to Julie Andrews after having them march into the room to the tune of his whistle. Love to get the whistle thing going with our kids so that we could hustle them out of the house and into the car in a reasonable timeframe.
Enjoyed meeting Justin over dinner with Kate and the kids. It will be sad to say goodbye to the family in Yallingup....til the next time

Tuesday 28 April Augusta - Most South Westerly Point of Australia

Another action packed day. Herded the Bannigan cats early to try and get everyone into the car and on the road early. We drove through the vineyards and Karri Forests to Augusta an hour or so away. Stopped at the bakery heading into town for a bit of morning tea and sat by the river next to the last eating joint before Antarctica. Drove on to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse which is located at Australia’s most south westerly point, where the Indian and Southern oceans meet. A bit of a wander, a few photos and we were back in the car.
Stopped at the Voyager and Leeuwin wineries. The Voyager grounds were amazing. Manicured to within an inch with rose gardens and rose archways blooming everywhere. Felt like the grubby camping hicks wandering around the palace. Wine was beautiful at both and the kids enjoyed playing hide and seek amongst the flowers.
Noted on the map that there was a cheese factory up the road, so thought that might a good outing for the kids. However, when we got there the “factory” was just a brand name not a factory. Despite the fact that was no cheese making to be viewed, the kids enjoyed tasting the various cheeses.
On the way back to Yallingup we stopped at the chocolate factory which really was a factory. The kids hoed into the tasting chocolate. We suffered with hyperactive children for the rest of the evening.
Topped off the day with a ride on the back of David’s tractor. Loving our Yallingup visit!

Monday 27 April Yallingup - Sand dunes, swimming, fishing, caving, Simmos ice creamery

Spent the morning with David, Libby, Kate, Karri and Huey at the Injidup beach. Lara and Nick showed huge amounts of energy running up and down the nearby sand dune. Sammy chose to hang out with the boys and fish off the rocks nearby. According to her she would have caught a lot more fish if Tim hadn’t kept taking over her rod. Between Tim, Sammy and David, they managed to catch enough herring for tomorrow night’s dinner (supplemented by baked chicken). I think they would have kept on fishing if it weren’t for the loss of much fishing gear on the rocks.
Although Tim thought he might need a little nanna nap at lunch, he managed to reenergise with a scooby snack and coffee for an action packed afternoon. We spent a couple of hours touring the local Yallingup caves which we all enjoyed. It was discovered in the late 1800’s and opened up for visitors in 1907. Felt a bit sorry for the guide that sits at the bottom of the cave with his flashlight to show tourists the unusual shapes in the various cave formations. Didn’t necessarily understand what he was pointing out half the time. Just nodded, smiled and said sure we can see the funny elephant. (refer to serisier’s blog (serisier.blogspot.com) for more detail on the cave – good work on the blog Tom!)
Hustled out of the cave to ensure we could make it to the Simmos ice cream factory before it closed. The kids (and Tim) were in ice cream heaven. Every taste was satisfied. There was an Emu nearby surrounded by empty ice cream cups which was all that remained of the ice cream of those children that chose to ignore the “Ice Cream Eating Emu” warning sign.
Bought some Rum Raison ice cream for David in exchange for all the fishing gear we lost off the rocks earlier in the day
Highlight of the day was the lamb roast dinner that Libby made. Yummo!

Sunday 26 April Yallingup

Being Sydney city slickers, the novelty of being somewhere with bush, fruit trees, chickens, veggie patch etc kept everyone very entertained. The kids probably checked the chickens for eggs about 10 times before lunch.

After breakfast we headed down to Yallingup Beach with Libby, Huey and Karri. We have so far been very lucky with the weather on our trip. Apart from the first night at Wollondilly and a few scattered showers when we were at Walpole, the weather has been perfect. Today was no exception as we were all able to have a swim in the lagoon, albeit the water was a bit on the chilly side.

After lunch David took the kids down to the bottom of the paddock to hunt foxes…

Went for a drive in the afternoon to Dunsborough and Cape Naturaliste. The area was quite burned out by a recent bushfire and looked like a moonscape. A lot of the walking paths were closed so we decided to try out a nearby 4WD track a go. This is despite Bec’s warning. We thought she was just taking after David with her advice of “if you want to get bogged and have a tyre blow out, then go down the track”. I spoke to a guy at the start of the track who said we’d have no problems in our car. What he should really have said was the car will have no problems, but I can’t say the same for you guys.
Both Sue and I were guilty of leaning into every corner and hill as we carefully ventured along the track. In hindsight the track probably wasn’t too bad (rated “Green – AWD” in our 4WD book), however the stress headaches were beginning to emerge. Although the kids were probably sick of being told to shut up along the drive, they enjoyed all the wild bumps.
We made it out safely, and after a stiff gin and tonic the afternoon memories began to fade. Relaxed with an evening BBQ and a few glasses of red, while being entertained by David grooving along to his favourite Kylie Minogue tunes.

Saturday 25 April Yallingup via Gloucester Tree

Left wet and windy Walpole for Part II of the Hunts at Yallingup. We stopped at the Gloucester Tree on the way through. The Gloucester Tree is 70 metre tall tree that has rungs knocked into the side of it so that you can climb 60 odd metres up the tree to a platform. In the past the tree had been used as a “firewatch” for the area now it is a tourist attraction. The sign in the carpark said 220,000 people come to the park every year and 40,000 make it up the tree. The ratio of visitors to climbers was a good indication as to how scary the climb looked. No way was Sue and I going to climb it. Not even a glimmer of doubt in our minds. Sammy and Nick carried on with a convincing show of bravado, but each of them backed down after climbing a few rungs. I know the stories back at school will be “We were going to climb it but Mum and Dad wouldn’t let us!”
Reached Yallingup mid afternoon and headed down for a walk along Smiths Beach. The kids enjoyed the evening playing with their cousins Huey and Karri.

Friday 24 April Walpole

Another enjoyable day in Walpole. David launched the “Manta” at the wharf early in the morning. The Manta is pretty much the same as when I came over to Perth in 1979, except the bench seat has been replaced with a couple of individual seats. Still in good nick.

The weather was a bit windy, but David still took us through the smaller Walpole inlet into the larger Nornalup inlet to some fishing spots. We hoped to be able to supplement the three fish we caught the other day with a bag full. Hopes were high when Sue immediately pulled in a nice herring, and I hooked a Skippy (although undersize). At least the fish were biting. Sammy “Bream” Bannigan lived up to her new found reputation by bagging another nice Bream, and David also caught a few in between sorting out the kids lines. Hung around there for an hour or so, but decided it was time to move on when I landed a Norwest Blowfish – horrible looking thing that puffed up and floated around the shore line. By this time we had 7 fish in the bag – Bream, Herring and a Mullet.

We moved over to a more protected part of the inlet, and got a few bites but nothing we could keep. It didn’t really matter as it was a beautiful spot to relax. The water was crystal clear, which was handy as we could skip out whenever a sting ray moved near.
A very windy and bumpy trip back. The kids loved getting saturated, but I was grateful when we pulled back into the wharf. Relaxed for the afternoon and had a nice meal of fresh fish, supplemented with a few sausages to fill us up.

Thursday 23 April Walpole

Libby and I went for an early morning walk to the Walpole river. When we got back to the house the gentlemen were getting the kids sorted to go fishing down at the river. The kids have been looking forward to going fishing ever since we left home. The weather was a bit problematic, which David assured us means the fish will be biting. The first hour seemed to involve David having to sort out lost bait and tangled fishing lines. Lara soon lost interest so I took her home to spend some quality time painting rocks.
The fishermen arrived home with their catch. Sammy had caught a couple of black bream and Tim had also caught one. David caught a few trumpet fish which were thrown back with disgust. We then watched David de-brain and fillet them. Sammy wasn’t quite so happy having caught a fish once she saw it being turned into dinner.
After lunch we drove to the Tree Top Walk at the Valley of the Giants where there are trees over 400 years old and 45 metres high. I’d debated about going on the 45 metre high tree top walk as it is a narrow metal walkway that you can see through to the ground below. Considering I am not so good with heights… Decided to overcome my fear and do the walk. Sammy was right behind me talking the whole way…”Gee we are really high!” “Doesn’t the walkway bounce a lot!” “Do you think the tree is strong enough to hold up the walkway?” and other comments that didn’t help my nerves. Tim and the girls went and did the walk again while Nick and I carried on for a wander amongst the Tingle Trees.
In the afternoon we all went to the Rest Point to see the pelicans and the most enormous sting ray – at least 2 metres. No way were we going to go for a swim! What a lovely day.

Wednesday 22 April Walpole

Woke to rain and the comforting knowledge that we would be staying in a house for a few days. Caught up on the laundry, finally got the blog up and running and just generally chilled out. Libby and David arrived at lunchtime. Kids were quickly onto David asking him when we were going to go fishing. Not today! Instead we went for walk down to the jetty and then into town to mail our postcards.
In the evening we sat down David and Libby, the map, and a few glasses of wine and planned where we were going to go up the coast of WA. Lots of great camping and fishing recommendations!

Tuesday 21 April Albany

Having a look at the weather report there appeared to be a few rainy days ahead so we decided we would head onto David and Libby’s house at Walpole rather than camp at Albany. We have been very lucky with the weather as the only rain we’ve had so far was on the first night of the trip.
We stopped in at Albany to do the sights. Wandered around Princess Fort which was the site of the defence bunkers and ammunition depots used to protect Albany during WW2. Hard to imagine anyone coming this far south to attack Australia?? Great views of the bay and the kids enjoyed climbing on the military equipment. Had a picnic and then drove on to Whaleworld just outside Albany at Frenchman’s Bay. Whaleworld is at the site of the last whaling station to close in Australia in the 1970’s. It was very informative and had lots of things for the kids to see and climb including a whale chasing boat. We spent a few hours there and learned lots about whaling and the history of whaling in Australia. There was a skeleton of a blue whale that was immense at 31 metres.
Just as the rain started to fall, we hopped into the car and headed onto Walpole thanking our lucky stars that we didn’t have to set up tents. Arrived at Walpole in the early evening and had a great night sleep in real beds!

Monday 20 April – Waychinicup National Park for a bit of 4WD

Woke up to a heavy fog and wandered down to the beach to check it out.
Determined to make the most of Wally’s capabilities, we headed down to the Cheyne Beach local store to check with the locals about the 4wd driving in the area. We have a book “Top 50 4WD trips in WA” which said there was a must see trip near Cheyne Beach point rated green which meant Wally was more than capable just a matter of whether the drivers were. The lady at the shop said it was a great drive, however, a bit overgrown and only for the confident 4wd driver. As we did not (more specifically me) fall into the confident category we thought we should double check with David and Libby. So gave David a call and he said nice drive if you want to trash your car. Libby said a good drive but a bit “hairy”. That did it for me. So Cheyne point was a no go even though Tim was still interested. Tim thought Sam and Kate probably would have done it towing their caravan. Still didn’t convince me. In the end we decided to go for a drive that wasn’t in our top 50 book but had been recommended by the camp host at our campsite. Needless to say the track wasn’t as easy had we had been lead to believe. Wally got a real work out and Tim got some good sand driving experience. Got lost and ended up on a beach that hadn’t been noted on our map. Luckily there were some fishermen on the beach that very kindly pointed us in the right direction. So we made it back to the gravel road an hour later having navigated through narrow sandy tracks, beach and overgrown bush path. Saw a few kangaroos hopping on the path in front of us. Again I have to question my enthusiasm for 4wd driving. I think I’d much rather go on these drives with someone who is experienced and can help us get out of any mischief. Coward.
Since we both felt we needed a drink after our 4wd experience we headed into Albany to do a bit of food shopping and a medicinal wine. Back to the campsite to cook up dinner. As the evening settled in and we sat around the table eating dinner, a loud buzzing could be heard. Then “ping” a large beatle hit the side of my plate and then settled on my pasta. Then another and another. Beatles were raining on us. Lara and I scarpered off to eat dinner in the car to the sound of beatles falling on the windscreen and roof. Love the wild life. The others wandered outside of the car taking pleasure in stepping on beatles. After awhile. the number of beatles got too much for the others and we all ended up in the car until the beatle rain had stopped.

Sunday 19 April – Waychincup National Park (near Cheyne Beach)

A leisurely start (we have a lot of those) and we were soon packed up for the short drive to Cheyne Beach. The kids waved goodbye to their friends and we hit the road. Cheyne Beach had been recommended by Tim’s aunt Libby, so we were looking forward to a few days staying at the nearby national park and doing some more 4wd driving – yes I still was keen to give it another go!
After a 2 hour drive we arrived at the small campground in the National Park. Quickly set up, had a spot of lunch and then headed down to the beach where Lara and Nick spent an hour adding to their already extensive rock collection. Sammy sat on the beach engrossed in the book that Grandma had given her (Almost as good as Harry Potter!). We went on a bit of a bush walk to the nearby waterfall and then back to the beach for more rock collecting. A beautiful spot with bandicoots, ringtail possums and wallabies.

Saturday 18 April – Bremer Bay and Fitzgerald National Park

Headed into Fitzgerald National Park along a dirt road to Point Ann. The kids were entertained collecting rocks on the beach, especially Lara who came back up to the car lugging twice her body weight. As we had enough weight in the car with all the gear we told her she could only keep 2 rocks. She then spent an agonising 15 minutes going through them all deciding what to keep. We had morning tea at Point Ann with views of the coast and dolphins (or seaweed being tossed through the waves).
We then drove to West Mt Barren to hike up to the summit. After a relatively steep scrambling climb we made it up. Had a quick sandwich, but were forced to make a quick evacuation due to the number of flies (don’t know why flies hang out at the summit – not much food up there). We raced back down to the car and made the return trip in around an hour. Nick was pretty pleased because the information suggested a 2 hour round trip. The Swiss would probably do it in 20 minutes return!

Where's Wally?

Catching up on the blogging – gotta get this sucker up on the web. Kid’s played well into the evening at the playground

Friday 17 April Esperence to Bremer Bay

A leisurely start to the morning as we packed up and prepared for our first beach driving experience. A 20 km stretch of beach from Cape Le Grand back to Esperance was described in the guide books as an exhilarating experience so Sue and I were looking forward to it. We had scoped out the start of the run the previous day. Sue even had the kid’s taste the water across the route to ensure it was fresh, which they quite willingly did. No explosive diarrhoea at this stage, but we are still on high alert.
The first 50 meters of the drive was fantastic. After that it went somewhat down hill considering our rather low level of 4WD experience. The ranger had told us the beach was “hard” sand all the way. If that is his understanding of “hard”, I feel sorry for his wife. Within 100 metres of the start, the road was a slippery as a butchers prick. Sue was doing her best to keep a calm exterior, but I’ll tell you if she mentioned the word “momentum” again I was ready to momentum her right out the passenger door. The combination of the soft sand and a rapidly incoming tide made for a stressful half hour journey. Thankfully through a combination of the power of Wally, and Sue physically counterbalancing every slight slip and slide we managed to make our way back to Esperance.
After restocking supplies in Esperance, we made our way along the coast to Bremer Bay, where we pulled up in the local caravan park to clean up and refresh for a couple of days. Bremer Bay is probably one of the most expensive places we have stayed. So have decided to rethink our initial plan to stay for 4 days.

Thursday 16 April Cape Le Grand – Lucky Bay

An early start to climb the nearby Frenchman’s Peak. So named for the odd shape on the top of the mountain that looks like a French Beret. The kids had heard from Amber that if you climb the mountain, the camp ranger gives you a certificate of achievement. This had the kids very motivated. Nick was even further motivated by trying to beat the round trip time indicated at that the start (I feel a theme building here). The path started off very sedately across scrub, sandy paths and boardwalks and soon turned into a bit of scramble up a granite cliff. Testing out my vertigo! Nick was leaping up the cliff like a jackrabbit and we had to keep calling out to slow him down. Past the really steep bits we had everyone walk single file behind Tim. I didn’t want to lose anyone over the edge. The climb was well worth it because the views were 360 degrees up and down the coast and across the plains. We stopped for photos and a re-energising scooby snack and then made our way back down Nicky doing time checks all the way. I was so impressed how well the kids did with the climb and distance.
We drove on to Cape Le Grand beach and went for a swim and a play in the sand. Nick asked Tim to build a spiral staircase in the sand because Sam Serisier had built one and Sam is the best sand hole digger that Nick knows. Tim took up the challenge and met an early logistically issue (too much water) so soon tossed the shovel aside. Nick will have to wait for a spiral staircase until we meet the Serisier’s in a few weeks.

Wednesday 15 April (Happy Birthday Panda!) – Cape Le Grand

Decided to venture into the nearby National Park Cape Le Grand for a few days bush camping. We have plans to spend some quality time on the swimming, walking and trying out the 4WD on the beach.
We set up camp at Lucky Bay – named by a sailor that found shelter there in a storm 100(ish) years ago. Beautiful bush setting with kangaroos and the beach only a few meters away. We all got changed into swimsuits and headed to the beach. Lucky Bay is a long white stretch of beach with crystal clear turquoise water. Unfortunately, you couldn’t sit on the sand because of the number of 4WD drives moving along the beach made sitting on it precarious. The kids didn’t mind and headed straight into the water for their first WA swim. Must say a bit too cold for Tim and I. Due to space saving requirements, we had not packed beach towels for this trip, so once the kids got out of the water they had to share a couple of hiking towels the size of a small child’s arm as protection from the chill wind. Brrrrrr! To warm up we got the kids doing the 100 metre dash up and down the beach. Nothing like a competition to motivate these kids. The Bannigan genes are strong.
Back at the campsite a lot more people had set up camp and it was the first time we have camped with other kids. N,S and L made immediate friends with an 11 year old girl named Amber from Perth. She very quickly became part of the gang and the kids spent lots of time together playing handball and Uno. We went for a late afternoon walk to Thistle Cove (incl Amber) which was about and hour away. Great to be out walking on a sunny afternooon. Nicky took an early lead and kept up a powerfully quick pace. He was determined to beat the time to do the walk that had been indicated at the start (loves a competition!). He also seemed to enjoy looking for the waymarks that marked the trail and leading everyone down the path. There were spectacular views up and down the coast and lots of granite islands and cliff line. We didn’t finish the whole walk as the day was getting on. Nicky was very keen to come back the next day to do the walk again
On the way back Amber nearly trod on a brown snake basking in the sun. Needless to say we kept a sharp eye out for snakes on the way back!
Tim and I spent the evening, whilst the kids played Uno, gazing up at the stars. We could see the milkyway stretching across the heavens.

Tuesday 14 April – Esperance

Where do the days go? Doesn’t feel like we did much today, but it’s gone. We spent the morning cleaning all the Nullarbor dust out of everything. It’s great to be camping on grass, and no dust being kicked up with every step. Headed into down town Esperance to re-stock the food drawers and grab a (semi) decent coffee. Wandered out along the jetty to watch Sammy the sea lion frolic in the water. Had a bit of laugh at the sign warning people to stay away from Sammy. A sentiment we could all really relate to as our Sammy is pretty scary when she is lacking a bit of sleep.
Back at camp, the kids spent hours running through their self designed obstacle course built around the camp site. Something Sue and I should have joined in for a few laps as we could do with a bit of exercise after a week of sitting on our backsides driving, scoffing junk food and bottles of red.
The kids have been fabulous about finding things to do and games to play everywhere we go. Today Sammy designed a board game that kept them all entertained for ages. Nicky tends to design more active entertainment eg the obstacle course. Lara happily plays along with whatever.