Rain stops play, part 2.

Pitter patter, Pitter patter most of the night and we awake to a grey morning, take our time and by the time we are heading for the Great Ocean Drive, backwards, it's beginning to brighten up.
We get to the pink lake but it's grey, no sunlight on it, get to our first beach and it's flat, dull and damp, however by the time we get to Twilight Beach the sun is beginning to win and the sea is becoming blue.  We stop and talk to a couple and then find out they know Javea well as they have a place out in Murcia, by the time we have finished discussing campsites and places to visit, the cloud has gone and we see Twilight Bay in all its glory, no wonder it won best beach in 2006......
We carry on doing the other 6 beaches, all of which Esperance is proud of before setting off to the Kepwari Wetland Walk Trail.  It's down a gravel road overlooking a lake so we stop here for lunch and although the sun has gone it's still bright.  Now officially birdwatchers are called 'Twitchers' and some conjure up the picture of 'Anorak's'.  Well all I can say is After this afternoon, I now have half membership to the club, so just call me Twit and boy could I have done with an Anorak..........
We set off in shorts, t shirt, sports sandals and camera, I leave the camera case with its built in waterproof cover in the van and after 35 mins of walking through what can only be described as dead bushland we come across  a bird hide and take a seat inside.  After a while there is quite a lot of activity on the lake, especially when two eagles fly overhead, never seen so many ducks poo themselves so rapidly....... And then, Pitter patter on the roof of the hide, I remember that sound I say and look at the lake to see it's raining, just slightly so a decision is made to wait it out before calling it a day and rearming to the van.
It starts to Thunder, it continues to thunder only now with lightning, the rain gets heavier, the sky gets darker and the noise on the roof gets louder........  We wait ten minutes and then decide it's got to be done, so camera up t shirt and out we go, it begins to ease, oh Thank you, Mother Nature and then, well if we had stayed in the hide we would now be deaf, it buckets down and continues to do so, not only for the next 20 minutes that it took us to get back to the van but an hour or so after that.  Once back to the van at least we could strip off, dry, change and hopefully save our electronics (cameras & phone).  The van is all steamed up so after a five minute blower on the Windows we realise we cannot see much further due to the amount of rain, however we start our journey along the gravel road which is now a mini river, we manage to climb up a small hill but then when we look down the other side there are huge channels now gushing with water, they weren't there earlier my co pilot states as we quickly drive to one side with two wheels basically in the bush and the van at an angle of at least 40 degrees...... We survive and find a sealed road, it's sealed but has no drains as it runs off into the lake so we are making waves so to speak until we join a main road.  Phew you might think, that's better as we did until you realise, that at this moment in time there are now basically only three types of driver on the road, 
1. Those driving as we were at a reduced speed, with care, but driving.
2. Those that have panicked and have simply stopped at the side of the road causing an obstruction to driver no 1.
3. The 4x4 moronic dickhead who belts about, mainly to the side of the road where the water is deepest so as to make the biggest splash possible........
It's just gone 4pm but I'm heading down the center of a two lane road making it one lane to somewhere I know we can park, hopefully not many people, we can have a drink and with luck dinner, we go to the bar in the Port, park up and give a sigh of relief as we venture out to get wet all over again.  It's an early dinner for us but the deluge turns into simple raining and then drizzle, we get back to camp and surprise surprise no one is using the laundry.  We soon put the machines to good use when it's starts thunder and lightning again, now we just hope the washing/drying cycle finishes before we have a power cut..........

    Our lunch time company.

    Dead bush walk

    Blue Haven

    Twilight Beach Rocks

Running from the Tain.....

We awake to find a new weather warning, heavy rain, thunderstorms and high wind, a quick decision is made, why hang around here......... And so the day is spent driving to Esperance, 480 kms East, it's our most easterly point apart from the National Parks outside of the town and tomorrows forecast is Thunderstorms.......... It not just us that's fed up with this wet summer the aussie's are definitely not pleased as its coming up to their National Holiday long weekend basically the equivalent to the UK's August Bank Holiday only called Australia Day!  
So booked in for 4 days expecting one day at least to be a damp and a quiet day......
The only good point about the rain is that the locals are hoping it will stop the morons who have been starting bush fires near here, as we drove here we could see miles and miles of burnt bushland that we had heard about earlier when we just missed the other big fire.
Now we have just seen the news and found out that Pemberton where we stayed in the forest and climbed those trees, has been deluged with rain last night and some areas flooded.  We are just keeping in front of any grief weather at the moment, hope it continues...... It should as the forecast for the holiday weekend is Sunny and 35 degrees, we can cope with that.......
Had to laugh at the sign on the inside of the doors in the toilets....... Apparently they have an international week where they have a lot of people from other countries come, some of whom have no idea how to use the loo and more toilet seats get broken in that week than the rest of the year.......
Had a quick look around Esperance and even though it's a Holiday resort, the the best beach in West Australia, it has four restaurants to choose from and one of those is a hotel restaurant, yes it has numerous Chinese restaurants, burger joints, fish and chip cafes and no end of different chicken fast food outlets etc but somewhere nice..... No wonder the locals love their BBQ's.....

  How to use the toilet......

    Esperance

Is this Oz or the UK

It rained during the night and after awhile you get used to the old torture method of putting you in a tin can whilst it is being water bombed....... Somehow we awake refreshed, step out of van and squelch, we are parked on grass and it appears we have had a lot of rain.......
It's also a bit cool, 16 degrees, it's the first long sleeve job since we have been here..... 

What to do in Albany on a wet day?  We start off by going to the National Anzac Centre, remembering the 41,000 Australians and New Zealanders who set off from Albany to fight in the First World War, it's not really for us but keeps us dry for an hour or so.  It also makes you question the makeup of the Aussie male, they travelled thousands of miles with and fought alongside Aborigines who enlisted with them but when they returned they shunned them, even the Government treated them very differently but then I think of the way the UK treated the Gurkhas, perhaps it's something in the ancestry of Aussies that's responsible?  Right, off to the 2 lookouts, one being the most visited lookout in the region, from where families watched the 1914 convoys set sail but the cloud is so low, we are in it and can see nothing.  

Next it's off to 'The Old Farm, Strawberry Hill' in the publicity pictures it looks as if it could be in Surrey/Kent, we get there and it's still raining, do we really want to walk around the first historic homestead farm established in Western Australia?  Not if we cannot walk around the 'Beautiful' gardens.  So we drive straight back out and go for an early lunch in an out of the way secluded lookout, fine until we start getting single guys drive up, get out, walk around in the rain, looking a bit shifty according to the wannabe PSCO, (they would not make eye contact ) and then drive off after doing nothing whatsoever.  

Okay then it's the Brig Amity for us, a replica of a sailing ship that brought the first European settlers from Sydney to Western Australia.  We smiled most of the way around, thinking "We paid money for this" and then went back up on top deck, two families arrive and fluff about so as to ruin any chance of a photo.  They appeared even less impressed with the Amity than us as they left not long after arriving, that said I feel the fact you had to climb down some stairs backwards, through a two foot square opening and then walk hunched up on the middle deck, even her of the height restriction had to bend at the waist to walk...... May, due to their build, have had some bearing on their decision.........
Next stop is the Old Gaol, a building saved and restored by the local historian society, one of whose members was inside collecting the entrance fee, this rain is beginning to cost us dear!  However he takes it for granted we are 'seniors' so we get a 50% discount on the entrance fee, yes that's the equivalent to £2.50 saved........  For first ten minutes it's fine but then the family with three young children arrive, why bring three children all under the age of 7 to a place like this, they were not interested one iota.  All they did was run around, shouting, calling for attention, touching things that should not be touched and generally being a nuisance, the mum did what all Mothers do and tried to control them but in doing so also added to the noise, the dad did what it appears all Australian dads do, he ignored them...... He walked around as if he did not know them and if they approached him, he would pass them onto their mother, we have seen a lot of this type of behaviour and it's as if because he is on holiday, then he does nothing, whilst the wife/mother has to do it all.  Still we saw photos of Albany a 100 years ago, what surprised us is, that even though we had been in the town centre once a few days back, we immediately recognised it from the photos, it has hardly changed, the main buildings and a tree are the same, progress stops in Albany with new car parking bays.........
We look up what's on at the cinema but it's all children's films (still school holidays) until 20.30hrs so back to camp site pleasantly surprised as its 5pm, we notice because, as we pass the pub there are a dozen Utes parked up outside........ With that it sounds like a good idea to open the fridge and test whether it's keeping the liquids chilled........

    Lookout for low cloud

    Brig Amity

    The realistic historical interpretation of the Old Gaol Warder........

Sedately Sunday

We slept a lot better last night in our new spot away from the thumping doors and by the time I have the kettle on, most of our fellow campers are up, eating breakfast, packing up, letting toilet doors slam or walking about in their PJ's.........  Now whilst the odd one in their PJs may be okay the majority are enough to make you choke on your super smooth extra creamy porridge......
Still it's Sunday and so whilst I'm out grafting, organising an extra day's stay and generally being a nuisance to other campers, someone else is........... See picture below!
The forecast is rain but it's sunny at the mo, so quick change of plans and we are off to Little Beach in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve as its reportedly one of Western Australia's finest beaches.  We arrive and yes it's okay but we happen across another smaller beach over the rocks from it, WOW!  It is my all time favourite looking beach so far this holiday, not a soul on it, the sun comes out to add colour, the sea is calm,  it is easier better in my opinion than Little Beach.  I speak to a local fisherman who explains they call it Waterfall Beach as in the winter when it rains a waterfall forms and runs down on to the beach, he also explains that on New Years Eve this year, someone letting off fireworks caused a bush fire that burnt 1200 hectares around these two beaches, hence the dark bits in the photos.......
It starts to cloud over so we head in land to Porongurup National Park, get there to find it's basically several huge lumps of granite with trees growing around them, a few trail walks, sky walk bridge that connects two granite rocks after a two hour walk up hill and that's it, except for 'The Tree in a Rock' I kid you not, this is a tourist attraction and all it is, is a tree growing in/on/through a rock, we climb up onto said rock and find a family of Skink's living in the tree, so it goes some way to alleviating our disappointment re said tourist attraction........
We drive around the park and see Trees, Trees and more Trees, no point trying to do the skywalk as cloud has descended and the view may be what we would consider insufficient after a two hour walk.....  So we find Porongurup Tea Rooms, in we go and we are served by a nice lady who looked like the sort of woman you would threaten little children with if they were naughty, so as to frighten them into being good......  Coffee is fine, tea is real tea leaves in a minuscule tea pot but comes with small jug of hot water and jug of milk.  Now I'm not a betting man but I'm willing to have a small wager to say this 'Children's Scarer' needs to consider purchasing some spectacles, as along the rim of the jug of hot water you could see five strands of a cobweb all leading to the bottom of the jug, where in the Center was a small white spider, drowned if not boiled alive.........  She who likes tea, only had the one cup.......
We step outside and there is a bird she has not seen before, that's it, next half hour spent up to our ankles in Death Adder territory getting photos of a Robin that looks like he has had a bath in a painters easel.........

    Hard at it........

    Waterfall Beach

    Little Beach

    New Bird.  "Scarlet Robin"

    Kept the best till last, 'A Tree in a Rock'

Rain stops play

Yesterday when we booked into this campsite, we thought oh that's a nice spot, clean, tidy and near to the bathrooms, I can be first one in after the cleaner has been.......
Then it started at 20.30hrs and continued until 22.00hrs, our fellow campers going to do whatever before they go to bed...... There are 8 units directly behind us, all relatively new with super spring loaded door closers, so as to keep out flies, moths, spiders and Skink's......  This meant that doors were being closed automatically as people went in and also when they went out with a slam, it was incessant and together with Isaac's mum who wanted to know if he was alright and the 2.30am lovey dovey couple, we had had enough.
First thing this morning into reception and change our pitch from no 8 to no 30 we are far enough away not to hear any thing now but have to guess when the cleaner has been.  It's a brilliant bright sunny morning so we head to Torndirrup National Park and head along with a multitude of others to the Gap and Natural Bridge.  This is where the sea has eroded away the rock over millions of years to form a 'Gap' and a 'Natural Bridge'...........  The Gap is closed until March due to a new state of the art viewing platform being erected so we head to the Natural Bridge and the notice boards actually tell you they are waiting for it to collapse, so do not try and walk over it........Killjoys.....!
We do the other sights, mainly beaches, Discovery Bay, Cable Beach, Goode Beach, The Blowholes and then Stony Hill, this being the highest point in the park and it's Stony...... It's a challenge and I leave her that does not like heights and within 20 minutes, I'm the plonker getting in everyone's photographs as I stand on top taking in the view, the fresh air and my own photos.  Next stop Misery Bay for lunch and the weather looks as if it's changing, right quick let's get to Whalers Cove so I can swim in the Southern Ocean.....
Whalers Cove has a publicity paragraph that states it is excellent for snorkelling, we get there but someone is not happy with a car of three men who are obviously not out for a day at the beach.  We are parked next to a sign stating " Look, Lock, Leave" Thefts have occurred in this area...... So we look, lock and stay, we make it obvious what we are doing, even recording their car reg number, they obviously Looked and saw us, failed to lock but then Left....... One happy bunny next to me, who wants to apply to become a PCSO when she gets back, I've told her she can't, they have age restrictions.........
And so, Mr G W Shark, you failed to have the tastiest morsel known to great whites today, I got in your territory, swam about, got bored saw 3 fish, had a leak and survived the Great Whites Southern Ocean, the first time I have ever been able to swim in it, result!  As for Australian Publicity propaganda, I should have learnt by now......
We get back to the van and find a note from the Police saying we had messed up a covert undercover operation.........
Not really, we hear the 'You are out of Red Wine alarm going off' instead, this we realise is an emergency as the Bottle Shops (The only places you can buy alcohol) are closed on Sunday's, so we do 62 in a 60 speed zone, that's 60 kilometres on a dual carriageway and go shopping in still wet swimming gear........ We get a bottle and I stop hyperventilating but then someone wants to go to Woolworths food shopping, now have any of you ever been in the chiller aisles wearing wet swimming gear?  It was freezing and I can confidently state that men you are never going to impress anyone in those circumstances........
The sky is black, thunder is rumbling and some serious lightening is occurring in the distance as we park up in our new spot, next to and under a sort of weeping willow type tree, no banging of ablution doors for us tonight, however now when the rain is falling and the wind is blowing the hanging branches against the van, instead of boom, thud, clump, tonight
we have scratch, tinkle, scrape........... Oh the joys of the life in the great outdoors........

    The Natural Bridge.

   Misery Beach

   Steve'summit.  Note the regeneration after a fire.

    Cable Beach

Over that bit of Sea is Antarctica..........

We depart Denmark and head towards Albany, this is the furthest point South that we are going, which is telling us something, ' You are on the final part of your trip '. We will be going further East, next week and that's where we turn around and start the final leg back to Perth.

So we are in Albany at 10.30, shower, cup of tea and back on the road by 11am.  We are going to a forest walk around a lake where someone is hoping to see her favourite bird AGAIN......

The receptionist at the camp site has warned us that as it's sunny, that it's around a lake, we will see snakes and more than likely, Tiger Snakes who will chase us if they feel threatened.  2.5 hours it took to walk around the BIG LAKE and we did not see the slightest hint of a snake but we did see enough to hopefully keep someone happy until she is 60yrs.......

As we did not know how long this walk would take, we are slightly thirsty and hungry so off to Emu Point, a delightful if crowded beach with an exceptionally highly rated Cafe.  Don't get me started about the scheming old lady that managed to push in front of me, grrrrrr!

Off next to the City Centre and a walkabout, problem is, it's not really a city as we know a city, so 20 minutes and we have done it.  We do a lot of window shopping and then to satisfy my short fetish, I buy another pair, I will see a therapist on our return.........promise!

Best part was, we are in Albany's version of Bluewater, only on a slightly smaller scale, it has almost 20 shops..... When I see a family walking along and the mother has a sling around her, forming a type of pouch and inside is a baby kangaroo......... It's having a great time looking around at the shoppers.....  We did see a tv program here where if you kill a kangaroo on the road you should always check its pouch to see if it has a 'joey' on board, if it has then to remove it and take it to a animal adopter, who will then nurse it until it can fend for itself.  Thought of doing the same with these pretty black with a red stripe down its back, spiders, could bring them home so you can have one each.....

Whilst browsing in one of the shops I see a picture of Dog Rock, that's it I think, you have seen Monkey Rock, Elephant Rock so let's give you Dog Rock, we try to find out where it is and eventually find out we have gone past it twice........ We return and a photo for your pleasure is shown below.......

It's Friday, it's Fish and Chip night so we head off and buy flathead, hake and chips from the most nasally high pitched Australian voice we have heard so far before motoring as fast as we can to a secluded beach where we end up sharing the chips with the local wildlife.........

And so now, back in camp where if I roll out of bed the wrong way I'm likely to be sharing with the heron below and that if we go out in the dark to take a torch as there are a lot of King Skink's living behind us and the manager did not want us to think they are snakes and cause a Stink....

    20 feer from my bedroom......

    Some of the Big Lake walk.......

    Dog Rock

Denmark Disaster Day

We awake to the good news that the fires around us are now under control, not out but contained, from there on in, it went down hill and we should have stayed in bed..........
Not a lot got done during the morning, simply taking it easy around town before boredom sets in and we are off to snorkel in a safe Southern Ocean spot called the aquarium via a stop at the Blueberry Farm for a snack disguised as a photo opportunity for someone with the local bird life.  We drive up and turn onto its dirt road which has a sign unsuitable for caravans and trailers, we keep going, yowsers, look at that hill....... The van struggles but makes it up and down the other side and then only just manages to squeeze into the car park.  We walk into a shed and wait, eventually Mrs Grey comes out, she has very long straggly grey hair, grey trousers, a grey top and a grey complexion, she would be perfect in a pantomime of the wicked witch, without a lot of help from wardrobe........  I ask for an iced coffee, "can't do that we don't have ice", she replies, de ja vu, I think........ We settle for Blueberry ice cream, Blueberry Cordial and a Muffin, blueberry of course...... She has pictures of blue wrens up and I ask if the wrens frequent the farm, "They used to but we don't see them so much of late, they use to be in the bird bath a lot". Someone smiles and sits down eagerly near the garden and waits and waits during which time we notice the silver tape tied to plants, the CD's swinging from things, the birdbath having no water in and a plastic bird of prey swinging in the breeze from a tree branch........ Perhaps this would explain why they are not seen so much of late......... Suddenly she is besides our table asking us "What have you seen?"
Are they frogs? we ask, indicating the roof cross beams, she replies in a tone as only annoyed people can "How many are there, there? " She then counts them three times, huffs and puffs and disappears, which is what we suspect will happen to the frogs, once we have gone......
In the car park a family have turned up, parked next to us, have all the doors open and are having a picnic in the car.......  Grudgingly they pull the near side doors to so we can reverse out, however A hole Jonny, a 17 yr (approx) is at the rear of the car with the side opening door open whilst he is changing his trainers, the fact that this large van cannot move forward without hitting him or the door is a fact that he is oblivious to or is just being awkward, we sit and wait with the rear audible warning from the van sounding, after possibly a minute, it seemed longer, his father comes around, looks at us, looks at his son and pushes the door closed half way.........  I now have to do a three point turn to get past them, down the exit and with a friendly toot toot and a wave with three fingers and a thumb clenched in my palm, we leave and head towards the Aquarium snorkelling bay......  2 kms from it we come across a gate blocking the road, it has two CCTV cameras and a sign saying 'Private Property'  ( a New Housing Project) damn that's put paid to that but how the hell are we going to turn around on this single track road?  I'm trying but failing miserably when someone is coming out. They open the gate, I roar through, start to do a three point turn in front of them and crash into the fence......... The fence is still standing and no sign of damage to the van so I give the couple in the car coming out a friendly five finger wave and get back out, result!  So we thought until an hour later when we had overshot our turn off to another bay by 18kms, we read that the gate was installed to stop vermin entering the site and the public still had access by pressing a electronic button near the gate........... We drive back the 18kms and turn towards Shelley Beach in West Cape Howe National Park, when we run out of road......... We then have to travel on the worst road so far this trip, it is dusty, seriously rutted, has pot holes, is hilly and is 8kms long, the van is shaken just ever so slightly, we cannot hear each other for the vans rattling noise, we get to the Beach lookout and decide no more, we are still 2 kms away from the beach which is possibly 200ft below us, that means easy to get down but we could be risking it getting back up and so I do my Chicken impersonation over a cup of tea and use the tea bags as ear plugs for the return journey............

    You have just blown our cover

    The Beach we never got to........ Shelley Beach.

    Wild Flowers from Shelley Beach lookout.

    Found him this morning on the grass verge in the Street.