Week 15, Monday 10 May – 16 May 2010

On Monday we pushed on up the coast to Freemantle. We stopped at Mandurah on route, which is a bizarre town centred on a new (in fact not quite finished) marina village, which seemingly has no permanent residents - if you build it, they will come. We found our camp ground at Coogee just south of Freemantle, set up camp and watched the sunset on the beach with a small beer and some crisps, and a lone dolphin which appeared to say hello.



We spent the full week in Freemantle, doing some tourist trips around Freemantle and Perth, and carrying out minor repairs and cleaning dear Priscilla.

On Tuesday we did the tourist tour of Freemantle, walking around town and visiting the Maritime Museum (turned out to be free Tuesday, which was good, as I would have been a bit disappointed if we'd paid!). We went for a drink in the Norfolk Hotel, which has a lovely beer garden, and then caught up with Lee and Jennie, who we'd met back in Esperance, for a nice dinner out.

On Wednesday we had a day at camp ground having a full clean out of Priscilla. In the late afternoon I had a swim and got stung by a jelly-fish! Watched sunset again with more beer and crisps. We spent Thursday in Perth, but didn't have a great day as the rain was upon us and Australia just doesn't look good in the rain wherever you are.

Friday and Saturday were days of great achievement for Priscilla, at no little cost to us. Some $800 later, Priscilla had been serviced, had her windscreen fixed and had a new deep cycle battery. Ouch! We spent Friday at a shopping centre waiting for her service to be completed (spending more money...!), then had a night out in Freemantle watching Freemantle lose to Collingwood in the AFL. On Saturday we drove up to Lancelin via the Perth northern coastal beaches (stopping at Cottesloe, Scarborough, Trig and Sorrento).



At Lancelin we met up with Linda and Brendan, ready for a little 4wd excursion up the coastal track to Cervantes via Wedge Island the next day. The track was pretty hard to follow in places, and we lost it altogether a few times! Climbing up the sand dunes at one point we radioed Linda and Brendan to say we'd and spotted another vehicle and were going to ask them directions. When we got to the top we discovered the (not that old) vehicle had been rolled and dumped – perhaps someone else at their wits end with the track. Luckily, as we made our way down, a ute appeared from nowhere out of the inland track we needed to take. It was scratchy and tight, but at least we didn't have to turn back.

Dropping the tire pressures


Priscilla likes being back on the sand


Which way is our track?


Still can't see our track...


We finished up on a new road (erhem, for “new” perhaps read “under construction”), and followed our noses out on it, only to discover we really shouldn't have been on it at all!



That evening we stopped at Hangover Bay before heading to the Pinnacles for sunset, which was quite something. The Pinnacles are limestone formations in the shape of, you guessed it, pinnacles, which create a very odd lunar landscape. The basis of their formation is debated, but we liked the theory that they were once tree stumps in an ancient forest which have calcified.







Pumping the tires back up


That night we had a very cold night camping at a free camp in the Tuart Forest. More of which in the next instalment....

Love to all,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame

Week 14, Monday 3 May - 9 May 2010

On Monday we headed into the D'Entrecasteaux National Park for a little off-road trip with Linda and Brendan. You'll notice a lot of French names in this area – nos amis francais were quite intrigued with Western Australia, and spent more time charting its waters and investigating its species than the English in the late 18th century. Britain, recognising the risk of a French colony being established, settled Western Australia in the 1830s. We called into the Pemberton DEC for some very helpful advice on track conditions (once again, quite a few closed due to the wet weather), then set off for Windy Harbour, a (surprisingly) windy harbour, full of holiday beach shacks and homes for local fishermen. After touring around the headland to Point D'Entrecasteaux and Salmon Beach, we headed back to the main road, to cut into the park again further north at Black Point Road. On reaching the coastline, we set off onto sandy tracks down to Jasper Beach. It was deep in parts, but Priscilla handled it all with ease as usual. The surf was up, and looking fairly messy, so there was no chance of us going in the water. After watching the waves for a while at Jasper Beach, we back tracked to Black Point for lunch.

Linda and Brendan


From Black Point we followed the 4wd track north-west behind the sand dunes. It was a little disappointing, not as challenging as sandy track that morning, but nice enough. We left Linda and Brendan at Karridale feeling a bit guilty about leaving our new friends to camp while we headed up to Margaret River to our little cottage. A holiday from our holiday! The cottage was lovely, and we stayed for 4 nights. Really wonderful spot, just outside the town, we'd highly recommend it – link: http://www.stayz.com.au/18691. We made day trips out to see the surfers at the main break at Margaret River and other breaks which line this coast, pottered around Margaret River itself (nice little town, bit posh for us on our current budget though!), and drove down to Cape Leuwin to see the lighthouse and the views. We cleaned and preened Priscilla inside and out, cooked nice food indoors, watched tv and generally had a very relaxing little break!

Margaret River Main Break (Bit big for me!)


Surfing Cow (Margaret River had a Cow Parade from March – June)


Red Gate Beach


Rainy Day at Cape Leeuwin with the Moorine Marauder


Accidental 4wd trip in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park


Margaret River Cottage


Stowaway cat!





On Friday we left the cottage and headed up the coast, stopping to see the various surf breaks on route (Lefthanders was the busiest surf break I've ever seen!) before staying the night at Yallingup. First night back in the tent for a while, and we promptly fell out about the how level our site was and what the optimum position for Priscilla might be! Once we settled in, we watched the surfers at the nice left-hand break, but I didn't have the nerve to get in. I'm a bit scared of reef breaks, not quite up to that standard yet!

On Saturday we drove up the coast to Cape Naturaliste lighthouse. We took another little random 4wd track down to beach before following the coastal route through Dunsborough (stopping for a while to watch the salmon fishermen at Rocky Point) to Busselton.

Rocky Point


We stopped the night at Busselton, visiting its “famous” pier (the longest in the Southern Hemisphere according to the blurb) only to discover it was closed for refurbishment. Nice pier nonetheless. We went out that evening to watch the premiership, only to find it wasn't on until the next day (doh!) We watched an AFL game instead with a couple of grey nomads who originated (40 odd years ago) from the UK.

On Sunday we attempted to follow the coast road marked out of town, but discovered the road did not exist. We wound up, having gotten ourselves a bit lost, stopping at a new marina which is being built just outside Busselton. We stopped to check out how the other half live (a little house with its own jetty would do me fine...), and found two dolphins feeding in the marina. Its our closest encounter to date with dolphins (other than my swim with them), as they were chasing fish up and down the walls of the marina just where we were standing. After a long while watching them, we set off again on up the coast, hoping to camp in the Yalgorup National Park at Martins Tank Lake. This involved a 3km trip along a fairly corrugated road. Not long after we'd set off down this bumpy track, I noticed Priscilla making some new noises... After some investigation, it became clear her windscreen had become detached, and was simply wobbling around in its rubber casing! We got to the campground a bit shaken up by the whole experience, and decided it was a bit too isolated and eerie - no oone else there. So we chickened out and headed back down the corrugated track and out to Preston Beach (where of course there was no camping), so set carried on up the main road in the dark to the next commercial campground at Lake Clifton. It was one of the worst campgrounds we've been to – lots of people seemed to actually live there. I kept expecting to see Britney Spears tumbling out of one of the trailers...

We survived the night though, and continued into week 15 unscathed...

More soon,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame