Friendly Stranger

 

 

After our lovely walk on the beach, we encountered the same fella who chatted to us the other day, he works near Cosy corner. He offered to fill up our water containers with rainwater then bring it back to us the following morning, when he was working again, sick of drinking tap water we kindly accepted. We carried on with the rest of our day, and had an early night, as he was due to arrive about 7 am. So alarm set we went to bed, and it was a cold night!!!

We awoke to the sun, and i stayed in bed until the alarm went off (brrr). Then Mark arrived with our water and after more chatting he invited us to his house to use his washing machine, and have some showers!!! Can you believe it!! So we t'd up a time to meet him after work. Nick had another fish and i tidied up inside. One the road and tuned into channel 40 we had a guided tour back through the out skirts of Albany.

Once we popped in some washing I showered, best shower ever (it had been tooo long) then nick was in. We both got along well with Mark and chatted and the girlie's were impressed to be able to run around a back yard and sniff Millie, their dog who stays with grandma during work. Once we had 4 loads through (there was still more, but i didnt want his to think we were taking the piss) We took him out for fish n chips for lunch, he drove and we ALL got to go for a drive, we ate at the amazing Emu cove, which is Albany's marina. When we returned we packed up all our washing and Mark loaded us up with home grown produce; lemons, chilli's, capsicum & bay leaves, and we were on our way.

We did a little last minute stock up in Albany (late night shopping thursday) and splurged by going to Dan Murphys and getting some grog!!! Then we headed back to cosy corner for the night.

We moved onto Lowlands beach where Nick did some rock fishing, and we ALL accompanied him to the rocks, because rock fishing is dangerous. They had an silent sentinel on the rocks, in case there was any trouble, which was reassuring. I'm just not too sure how i would have gotten to it if i needed it, being located so high up on the rocks. Was great to lie down on the rock, get some sun, read my book and watch Nick doing what he loves. The beach was a funny one too, because you had to walk down this little pathway and down a granite rock, then hurry across the sand, before a new wave came in and covered the "beach access" path with sea water. I took some pictures...

Well we decided that we would camp at the top of the road which was somewhat like a lookout for the night. We had the top of the sand dune to block the back wind and we thought we would hit the red wine.... well needless to say was a great night, and we slept well...

We woke up bleary eyed, with headaches to match but had this view...


　

After a very slow start we slowly moved on to Lowlands beach, which a local told Nick about when they were talking in the morning. After dragging the snail through some tedious tracks (maybe i was still a little bleary eyed) we set up at lowlands middle beach, and i got some more sun, we both had an arvo nap, and Nick some more fish... 2 Salmon and 3 Tommy's, that was his dinner taken care off, and i had a lovely Zucchini and potato soup (thanks Auntie Pam for the instant Potato, worked a treat in soup). After watching John Carter the movie which we both enjoyed and a Documentary about the Bermuda Triangle we slept.

This is the view from our car...

 Walkway down to rocks and beach

Woke up to an amazing Dolphin display to keep entertained...

Then we need to be in Denmark by Wednesday night to meet Basil our host for WWOOFing! So we have a couple of spare days then we will be setting up for a while...

Albany

Isn't he cute...

Hello, I am writing this from a lovely little camp spot just out of Albany called Cosy corner. We are going to stop adding to our "places we could live list" because, from  what we have seen of this coast we could point to anywhere on a map and be happy to live there.

We had a stock up at the shops, and have visited the famers market ( we have been having lovely lunches)

 

 We visited the "cute" Dog rock, and got some Japanese tourists to take our picture, they also snapped us with all there cameras too (haha) I really think they wanted to dog-nap Delta as they couldn't stop looking at her and talking about her .

We also checked out the Trondirrup National Park and saw the natural Bridge ...

 And we tried to make our own bridge..

 While we were there we also saw the "gap", which is a huge 25m sheer drop to this mass of white water and churning ocean underneath. If you fell in and by chance survived the fall, there is no way out an you would just keep getting smashed into this rock face. Not pleasant, and we took notice off all the warning signs up and had heard that there had been many "accidents" here, from over keen tourists.

We visited the Salmon Holes, which also has a very sad story to it, but not with over-keen tourists, but fishermen. One just drowned last week. There is a t of coverage in the media, if they should close this beach of not. In stead of fishing off the beach people have been walking the rock in the middle left side of the picture , and when a big wave comes in washes them off, and into the water...

 

 Did I mention that on our way here we stopped in at this yummy Whiskey brewery.... Single malt, and some spirits. Too bad you had to pay per tasting, so we were limited but still had a few each, Nick on the whiskey and I had a whiskey liquor, and tried some absinthe.... mmm

While out this was we thought we had better spend a night "out of town" as we had slept at the lookout previously, and didn't want to be "found out", so we found a nice little spot to camp at for our second night. Nick rocked out the Kayak the next day at check ship wreck called the "Chestly 2". Where he also caught some Trevally and some Tuna. Was a stunning day and we managed to get some decent reception, and got to Skype with our friend Isla over in Canada. We then met some locals who were real friendly and told us of a few other spots to check out, gave us  weather report and we ended up having a big long chat. They also told us that these ticks were no problem to our bogs but were Kangaroo Ticks (we still front-lined "em anyway)

We decided to move on, we had encountered too many locals, so we "checked out" Mistaken Island, then had a bit of a drive around the coast and came back later and snuck a camp at Mistaken Island, the beach is below.

 

 

 After driving around the coast of the lovely King George sound, and its harbors, we found a nice look out to take it the sunset. We like "sounds" not just your vocal kind, but the actual scenic kind.

 The weather had turned a bit cold wet and dark, so we decided to have an explore at the museum, plus I had seen an exhibition that I wanted to check out.

 

 This is a meteorite that was found near Mundabrilla, which is where we drove through crossing the Nullarbor. It was made of Nickel, Copper and Iron and this one weighed nearly 5 tonne.

 They even had a kids section, out the front, and after looking at the adult displays, well we felt like playing.

 

 

This is a replica of the first ship that came to Post Albany, called the Brig Amity.

They had a great Exhibit on called "Line of sight" and we kinda sneakily took some pix... it was love at first sight for nick....

 

 

 And this guy was giving me attitude....

 

Having a yummy lunch at the lookout near this "Telstra" tower was great way to spot the black clouds rolling in,  we got great reception so we applied to a couple of WWOOFing places that we are interested in, after all that eating and applying we thought we'd finish the day off with a beer. We visited the Albany pub, on Yorke St. Well wouldn't recommend it, we were charged $10 per pint, of James squire, the bartender was rude also.

 

 Sahara was looking to make sure I was coming, then at the snail, maybe wanting to get back to ground level... an ever curious pup.

 

 

And that takes us to Cosy corner, where I'm sitting now typing this.... Nick just got word that we have been accepted  to WWOOF at Denmark, so next Wednesday its on!!! We are both excited to meet some new people and we keep hearing from people that Denmark would "suit us", what ever that means. Off we go for a beach walk.....

Bremmer Bay & Millers Point

After a few days driving we landed at the magical Bremmer Bay! WoW, stunning... words cannot describe this place, its on our "places we could live" list. We got to spend mothers day here. Wish our mums could be here to share it with them, as it would be the best gift.

 

 



After deciding we aren't going to fork out for a caravan park at $30 a night (we never do anyway) and noticing all the signs around requesting us not to camp at this beach or that, we had almost given up hope on being able to stay in this spot.

 

Well.... I suggest a left turn off this road we were on ad it leads to this dirt road, with a turning circle at the end, no "no camping sign's". This'll do for the night, surely they wont find us here.... who- ever they are?

 

 

After a short walk to the beach on this lovely track, and walking through some over grown bushes, tackling the spider webs we end up at this remarkable view...

 

 

 

We met some other like  minded people who refused to pay $30 per night on our second night, they decided that where we were was fine for them too!! Nick and Ron even went fishing together, the salmon were taunting and teasing them but they didn't land one( lucky fish, unlucky boys)

 

We shuffled into town and met some locals who had say hi to us at Gordon's Point who recommended where to head for some good fishing and free camping, and after going to the information centre to grab our supplies we were invited to "the biggest morning tea"

 

After a quick scrub up we went into the hall, and donated some coins, and nicks eyes popped out of his head when he saw the spread of cakes laid out on the table. I was happy they had green tea and with my dairy free lifestyle I didn't even get to much down any goodies, but what I didn't eat nick made up for. As the only other man in the room (bar a local)Nick was invited to draw one of the raffles. We were sitting on a table with to other "tourists" who both lived in WA, and they gave us the low-down of places we should visit etc. After the official raffle drawing business was completed (the same lady won both raffles) we moved onto try and find these spots, at Doubtful bay(?)

 

Well after crossing these muddy paths, and feeling our car (and home) skid and swerve under (and over )us, with heavy black clouds hanging silently in the sky I insisted that we, not continue any further and not stay here, for fear of not being able to leave if it rained too much... as the roads were already flooded. The shot below was taken as a last minute thought, as we were leaving on the road out, and doesn't really show the conditions we were in. Imagine puddles like our water crossing at cave hill, with no relief. I remember saying to Nick " I thought we had mud tires" and the response "this is what mud driving is like"... aggh no thanks.

 

 

 

After a bit of searching, this spot did not come easily we came across Millers point. Again on our "places we could live "list. After ignoring a $7.50 per person per night, collected by rangers sign (we drove the opposite direction so we could pretend not to have seen it ... cheapskates haha)  

 

 



 

 After driving through this, we came across this.....

 

 

 On the Pallingup River lay this amazing spot. Another on our "we could live here" list. After listening to the wonderful wildlife settle, an amazing camp fire, a clear night with an awesome display of stars, which produced very frosty and cold night, we woke up the next morning to mist and fog covering the lake...

 

Then after it had cleared and we all decided to get off the bed (was very cold = 2 dog in bed night) we walked outside and were greeted to this...

 

We all stood around and watched these lovely Pelican's "preening" themselves, at (what we named) Pelican rock, amazingly right next to where we had chosen to camp. They make some crazy noises and Sahara was a bit stand-offish, as she could have easily reached them but preferred to watch from the shore, and Delta wasn't to concerned at all.

 

 We went for a little walk following the track, this may give you some idea of how stunning the spot that we had found to camp in was...

 

 

We had some amazing sunsets...





 

 

 

Did some great bushwalking, discovered the Crocodile rock (below)

 

 

Walked to the top of a lookout to look over the bay, stunning...

 



 

Nick even encountered a yellow belly blacksnake on one bushwalk. We met the ranger, Steve, who took our rubbish, had a yarn with us for an hour or so, then gave us his business card so we could call if we did plan on coming back this way and he would hook us up with some work. He didn't even charge us for staying because he said he liked us, and he had made $1100 over the Easter weekend.

We also found out from him about why so many towns end with "up", its the Aboriginal word for fresh water, so hence marked the towns with fresh water supplies.

 

 

We sadly left here after 4 magnificent (sunny)days, cold nights, and started to had towards Albeny.