Augusta... might see some whales ??

 

 

 

 

 

We made our way to Augusta, which appeared to be a sleepy town , reminding us both of Victor harbor in Adelaide. The lady working in the tourist centre promised us that whales were around, and we could do a boat tour for $80 pp. She also assured us that Augusta is "dead" after 8pm, with the highest rate of residents over 65, she said it was like one big retirement villa. We drove to the whale watching "area" and had no luck, and refused to pay $160 for the both of us to go on a quick boat tour. After checking out the historic water wheel (and being some-what disappointed) we drove to the lighthouse, that the new Aussie movie drift features. It is special as the southern and Indian Oceans meet here.

We were feeling like we had enough driving and the water was calling Nick, so after a bit of scouting we found an amazing spot, tucked in the peppermint grove next to the ocean, on our own private beach. Nick had a fish and came back with some whiting and tommys and I read my book. The sun was setting so we cooked up a feed then went to sleep.

 

We woke to the ocean lapping at the rocks, not 5 meters from where we had camped and then we spotted two dolphins coasting around these rocks. Thinking this was my day to spot a whale we were slow to pack up. Nick again went fishing and when the weather started to turn we thought we should begin to pack up, and start heading towards Margaret River. We planned to have lunch at the Colourpatch cafe, (its claim to fame is that its the last eating house before the Antarctic) That did great hot chips, then we took the route out of Augusta through the Karri forest. We found some interesting sea sponges.....


Was stunning drive, all the trees ended at the same height and it was beautiful driving through this karri tree top canopy. We took a few 4x4 paths looking for a way down to the coast, Nick had to muster all his skills turning around when we were in this tight spot. The sun was sneaking down and we still had no where to camp. We went and checked out "conto's" campground in National park, but as a ranger lived onsite didn't want to risk it with the dogs.

We pushed on and made our way to Redgate beach. We were both surprised at how many surfers were still there as the sun was sinking below the ocean and the sky lit up with amazing colours. We thought it'd be rough camping in the car park with surfers coming and going so we made our way back up the road. We came across this off shoot to the right, and checked it our. It was an amazing lookout and we thought it served our purpose quite well for that Thursday night. We set up and watched the last of the sun sink below the ocean.

The next day we took the dogs for a big walk along the ocean. We took our time and when we came back couldn't be bothered moving on again. We set up our table and chairs and had a picnic lunch in the lovely sun and played some Uno and sequence listening to Portishead from our little speaker system. Nick even rigged up some crazy wiring so we could charge the ipod, speakers and mobile phone of the goal zero solar charger panel that my folks had got us.

 

 View from the lookout where we spent a couple of nights.

 

 

We had a wicked van arrived late afternoon and ask to spend the night here too, for sure we said, its not our spot. We settled in then noticed Sahara pawing and trying to bury something. After Nick pried it away from her we found it was a dried bit of meat, and became worried that it may have been a 1080 bait. Lucky we were in range (or maybe unlucky for Sahara) so we get onto Google, and find that making the dog vomit is the way to go. Nick had already stuck his fingers down her through, to which she tried to bite them off, so not advisable to try that one again. So we tried feeding her salt, again she took it, without showing signs of vomiting. We decided that we would feed her and make her comfortable, so after a awesome doggy dinner of snappy tom (she really likes fish) we set the bed up and had her lir between us and we popped on the Disney classic movie "bolt". The website had said that if she is still around after 2 hours she will survive. So bolt was our timeframe, after worrying about every noise and movement the two hour time was reached, relief, and she is still barking at people and sticking her head in the front when we drive, so we were lucky just more careful now.

Later on that night, I went to bed around 1am, so maybe at 3-4am some douche bag rocked up, with his speakers blaring and revving his engine. He then started honking his horn, once he had woken us this went on for a while. I begged Nick not to go over as I was worried that this person was obviously unstable and maybe looking for a fight. So we went outside and he saw that we were up, after another 30 minutes or so, of him just sitting in his car he took off.

 

We then got woken by fun-police Ranger "Mr follow the rules" at 7am, and asked to leave as we were camping in a National Park, and he didn't want to fine anybody that early on a Saturday morning. After listening to him repeat it to the couple in the wicked van I was sure I wasn't dreaming and woke my self up. To be greeted by the coldest morning....brrr. A slow, groggy pack up ensued, with both of us not having much sleep the night before, we finally got away and headed to the farmers markets in Margaret river, held on Saturday mornings. It was our plan to get up early so the fun-police ranger was like our alarm clock.