Southern Western Corner of Australia

So, along with a lot of W.A., Izzy, Darren and I headed south where it is, supposedly, a bit cooler. Bill Bryson dubbed this bit 'the pleasant peninsula', which, much as I normally don't like to agree with him, is about right. It is full of gourmet food, wine, beaches, older towns, forests, caves and the odd lighthouse all of which we enjoyed. At another time of year there would have been a lot of whales, but you can't have it all!

Firstly, we spent four nights in Busselton which is all white beaches, nice views and the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. Because of its shallow bay, it also has warmer waters and therefore quite tropical fish that you normally wouldn't expect (if you were in the know). Due to the high quantity of shipwrecks it's also good for diving, but we missed that. We enjoyed the underwater observation at the end of the jetty, as well as the shark netted place to swim in. Lots of suncream and swimming on this day!

Busselton Jetty

Busselton Underwater Observation

The end of Busselton Jetty

Busselton Underwater Observation

 All around Busselton, Margaret River and Augusta are a huge number of limeston caves. We didn't particularly feel up to exploring all of them, but we went into Jewel Cave, which is enormous. I was quite interested about the thylacine skeleton they found down there from an animal falling in the one tiny shaft hole that was the original access to the cave. There were also a couple of straw stalactites, really quite close to the longest in the world, but I can't quite remember the statistic. From there we went further south to Augusta, which is the most south westerly point in Australia. We saw the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet at complete flat calm and got some good views from the lighthouse. This was all followed by an immense meal courtesy of Megan and Edward (thank you very much) with scallops, seafood spring rolls, lamb and an awful lot of chocolate and hazelnut pudding. We rolled home from there and Izzy assures me it was worth the tummy ache she had that night! Very appropriate for the time of year anyway...

Jewel Cave

 

Stopping for a paddle and a swim, something we did every day, often more than once!

From the top of Augusta Lighthouse

From the top of Augusta lighthouse

Sunset coast! Taken at Prevelly

The following day was our epic Margaret River day. Margaret River is famous for its wines but has also grown up as a place with breweries and gourmet foods. We took FULL advantage of this. We did an awful lot of wine tasting throughout the day, chose our sparkling wine for NYE and the like, but also explored coffee tasting, toffee tasting, cheese tasting, yoghurt tasting, chocolate tasting, cider tasting, nut and cereal tasting, all on top of lunch at a winery.

The final two nights were spent at Albany, further around and along the south coast. On the way, we visited Walpole and 'The Valley of the Giants', as this part of the country is full of karri, jarra and tingle forests (I'm slightly unclear on which of these terms overlap), which are very tall varieties of the eucalyptus tree and really very beautiful. I think they are also the tallest flowering plants, or flowers, or something along those lines, but I obviously need to verify this. The tree top walk was really quite high with a grated floor so you could see down (!), unfortunately the March flies slightly ruined the walk around the bottom.

Tree top Walk

Another beach stop

Albany itself was actually settled before Perth and had quite an interesting historic walk and museum that we followed. The oldest building in W.A., the first church to be consecrated in W.A. etc. It did well with trade and being linked up on the railway until mining rather took over everyone's attention in W.A.... It was also the last stop for ANZAC soldiers on their way to Gallipoli and therefore has an impressive war memorial and a famous ANZAC morning service. It is hillier than elsewhere on the coast so we got some good views too. A nice meal out and some fireworks to celebrate the New Year as well.

Replica of the Brig Amity that settlers first arrived on

Finally, we made our 400km plus journey back to Perth. Quite uneventful with a pleasant detour via and through the Sterling Range, which are hills that stick up in an otherwise completely flat plain. One night in Perth and then on to Sydney and the Blue Mountains!

Sterling Range