TAYLOR HOWELL

Its been a few months since we got back and time is flying by. We have been busy setting up our own practice called Iteriad, generally trying to settle into life in the Lakes and have started to keep chickens (or chooks as the Aussies say!). The weather earlier this year has been great, but lately (as its Summer – of course!) the rain is coming down in torrents!! The Olympic torch relay came through Ambleside, Waterhead and Bowness yesterday, as quick as it went but a piece of history witnessed!

Paul’s aunt Jean and cousins Carolyne and Andrew dropped by last week on a lovely fine day. Andrew’s girlfriend Robina took a great photo of us all, edited it and here it is!

Between Christmas and New Year we gave Hilda a thorough clean inside and out and she looks like new!  We advertised on Gumtree website and got quite  few hits, then a nice couple from Switzerland called Alain and Ireen who had just arrived in Melbourne came to have a look and bought her!
They are embarking on their trip round Australia, and Hilda was just what they wanted. We now hand her over to people we know will look after her as she will do another c 24,000km again!
Whilst Melbourne experiences its coldest summer days on record (must be trying to ease us back into UK temperatures!) and tans rapidly fading we think of our journey back to Blighty! Hope its not too cold as we have gone a little soft. See you all soon!

We spent the last few days of our long trip back at the pretty seaside town of Lorne on the Great Ocean Road. It’s back to Mount Eliza on Sunday and travel tales to tell Karen’s family as we join them for Christmas. Merry Christmas to everyone back in UK, have a great holiday, thanks for following our travel blog, we’ll see you all in late Jan!

Swallows gathering to sing Christmas Carols!!

Lookout over Great Ocean Road at Lorne

Gary, Kirsty and the lads rejoined us at Kennet River camp site where by all accounts it is one of the best surfing spots along the Great Ocean Road, and home to koalas and echidnas! Gaz and Archer were bursting to get on the waves on arrival.
The next day we headed to the beach in wetsuits armed with various sizes of surf board. Gaz with his experience was able to handle the really big waves with style and ease, whilst Archer made it look easy on some hefty looking waves too! Kirst also showed the surf who was boss and glided along the waves with expertise in horizontal mode on her boogie board. Wooz liked to have a go and kept to the frothy surf nearer the beach showing some great skill and balance as he steered his smaller board along. Nadan was quite happy to play in the sand.
Which brings it to the two of us – yes we also donned our wetsuits to join them to try our hand at surfing first time ever. Ha ha! Paul went first on the spare surf board (which was very slippery!) and after a brief lesson from Arch he paddled out to sea. After a few attempts and getting pretty battered by some big waves, and swallowing most of it, he headed up the beach and handed the board over to me saying go on you have a go…its fun! OMG it seemed a good idea at the time……… Gary got me to paddle out and wait for the right moment then pushed me along the wave – shouting go for it!!….aaagh….I got totally barrelled, and not only nutted by the board but given an underwater sand sandwich still under the wave at the same time. Then just as you think you are going to surface and take in air another wave crushes you and sea water forces its way up your nose so that you feel like your head is a gold fish bowl!. Right that’s enough of that I’ll stick to the boogie board to learn on! (luckily there is no photographic footage of our surfing attempts).
After that we stuck to exploring the hinterland and saw loads of koalas, some even walking on the ground during the day which was delightful to see….shattering the myth that they sleep in trees all day! About five or so lived in the trees within the campsite and at night would make grunting noises, wonder what they were up to!
One koala decided to take a walk and tried to climb a brick barbecue unit mistaking it for a eucalyptus tree trunk and ended up falling off – ouch too slippery!
We also saw an echidna which immediately curled up in a ball hoping we would go away, they try and dig themselves into a hole and display their spines – he had plenty of those. The lads also enjoyed feeding the many Parrots and Crimson Rosellas around the campsite – uh oh once one comes they all want a look in!

Is anyone in there - Echidna in defence mode!

Well hello there!

Koala taking a pose

Okay that's enough posing for now!

I'm off......

...up me tree!

Here come the birds

Arch showing his hand to a hungry Green Parrot

Wooz handles a friendly Green Parrot

Nadan tries out a different technique....

Uh oh Nadan you've gotta hope its digestive system is'nt working too quickly!!

We say our farewells once again to Gaz, Kirst, Arch, Wooz and Nadan as they stay at Kennet River for a few more days and then head to Kirsty’s parents for Christmas. The lads are all excited to be going to their Grandma and Pa’s. We have had great times with them, they are a fun family, full of life and now firm friends. We’ll meet them again in Melbourne before we go back to the UK.

We moved onto Apollo Bay for a couple of days whilst Gary, Kirsty and lads stayed in a farm cottage above Johanna to sample the delights of a snug open fireplace, gathering eggs and milking cows which the lads were excited about.
The weather in Apollo Bay was mixed but gave no apologies mainly for the wind and some spectacular thunderstorms – full exposure to all that the Bass Strait could give but we had a nice sheltered camp spot so got the better of it! Although as we’ve been reminded though by kind friend Roy Taylor back in UK who after reading our blog about Port Elliot says  – “cool and damp you should see what we’ve been getting here”! I think we’ve gone soft but don’t worry we’ll be back in late January to experience our Great British winter again!!!
In the meantime we got some lovely walks in the unspoilt and pristine rainforests at Maits Rest and Marinners Falls above Apollo Bay. Maits Rest is home to some of the tallest flowering plants in the world – Eucalptus reglans (Ash) that reach upwards of 100 metres in height.

Can't get it all in - tallest flowering plant in the world

A walk through glades of rainforest tree ferns

Tree fern heaven!

Stepping stone walk to Marinners Falls

Marinners Falls

We joined the dots up on the Great Ocean Road calling in at the Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, the Grotto and of course paying homage to the Twelve Apostles again. All features of the spectacular limestone coastline along the Great Ocean Road. We then headed to Johanna Beach camp ground nestled in the sand dunes for a couple of nights. Two beautiful warm sunny days spent on an unspoilt beach. Paul and Arch fished, and Paul caught three big salmon which we all had for lunch. Gary did some surfing although it was reportedly not decent surf as wind in wrong direction but he did some pretty nifty moves from where we were standing.
We decided that we would open the Secret Santa presents on our first night at Johanna as the lads could contain their excitement no longer! Gary had bought Wooz a remote controlled battery operated red ferrari and by coincidence Paul had bought Nathaniel a remote controlled battery operated red porsche (from Cars 2)  – both had independently negotiated a good deal from the lady in the same gift shop so she must have been a few dollars down that day! The lads were made up and of course spent every opportunity whizzing their cars over any hard surface they could find which was difficult as we were surrounded by grass and sand! Kirsty had bought Archer a picture frame with photo to remind them of their trip to Byron Bay plus a big fake moustache! Archer bought his dad sweets and nodding gnome for the car. Nathaniel got Paul another nodding gnome, wine cooler and purple dog. I bought Kirsty a very tasteful new mug (as hers was literally on its last legs and had started leaking) and golf tees and golf ball. And lastly poor Wooz had picked out to buy for me but came up trumps with Bridget Jones knickers, a vase and koalas in snow storm shaker. A fun evening had by all!

Bay of Islands Great Ocean Road

Bay of Martyrs Great Ocean Road

The lads at The Grotto Great Ocean Road

Paul and Karen and who's that at The Grotto Great Ocean Road

The big and little lads at Twelve Apostles lookout

The girls and little lads at Twelve Apostles lookout

What's left of the Twelve Apostles revisited

One of the cliff lookouts at Twelve Apostles

The opening of the presents!

Nadan can't open it quick enough!

The Two Gnomes!!

Archer's new moustache.....just a little itchy!

What's Karen getting?

Putting on the BJ's!!

Cool cars!

Set up camp at Johanna Beach

Gaz on the surf

Paul and Archer onto the fishing

Those will do nicely for lunch!

Kirsty, Wooz and Nadan on to building sand castles

Well we crossed the final state border into Victoria to rejoin where we started through Mount Gambier and to Port Fairy. We’ve done the full coastal circuit of Australia! I’ll tot up the statistics when we get back to Mount Eliza but feels like we’ve covered over 23,000km, not sure how many litres of petrol that’s taken! Hilda has done a sterling job and still more to go though as we are still a few hundred km from Mt Eliza.
We found a different campsite this time but weather like last time was mixed, some sun but mainly cool and very windy. Port Fairy is a lovely historic town but always catches the raw winds off the Bass Strait. That’s probably why its called the Shipwreck Coast.
We spent a great few days with Gary and Kirsty and lads again. Kirst came up with the idea of us all doing a Secret Santa (or Christingle as known by Aussies). So we agreed on $15 each, picked the name out of a hat and on our first full day we all disappeared into different shops emerging with secret bags and bundles with knowing looks on our faces. Of course the lads had worked out who was getting whose! Woodley and Nathaniel wanted us to open the presents that evening. We negotiated a few days promising to do the opening at the next camp stay.
The lads did some more fishing whilst Kirsty and I sampled the delights of a facial at the Port Fairy Spa ( first one I have ever experienced….probably long overdue!).
We had a day walking the crater rim up at Tower Hill and saw a koala in a tree plus an emu and two chicks which was delightful to see. Apparently the female emu leaves the male emu to bring up the chicks – so no motherly responsibilities there then! we all then visited the Lavender Farm up the road from Tower Hill which surprisingly the lads did’nt liked. Kirst said normally they would’nt want to be seen dead going to look at flowers and much preferred skateboarding but a fun day was had by all!

Kirst, Nathaniel, Archer, Paul, Wooz and Gaz on the Big Squid bench at Port Fairy

Karen, Kirst, Nathaniel, Wooz and Arch posing at campsite games area!

Gaz's catch of the day!

This pesky sea lion scared all the fish away!

The gang on Tower Hill crater rim walk

Aaah a koala asleep as usual at Tower Hill

Mr Emu and two little emus

Karen and the gang on Tower Hill crater rim walk

Crater lake and who's that?

Smell the lavender!

Amongst the lavender beds!

We all packed and left Port Elliott in sunshine (typical) and headed east along the Limestone Coast towards Robe. A lunch break at the Big Lobster could not be missed…meaning a giant replica lobster was a landmark for the Big Lobster Cafe just outside Kingston that you could’nt really go past without sampling the seafood offering for lunch. These Aussies have a big replica tourist attraction for virtually everything here – we’ve seen the Big Banana, Big Pineapple, Big Prawn etc on our travels round the country.
Following our big lunch (or feed as the Aussies call it) we convoyed to Robe in search of a campsite eventually settling on the Lakeside camp ground which was nice and sheltered unlike the coastal ones which were more exposed to the elements. The wind was pretty strong and raw by then and the promise of more rain by the end of the day decided it for us all.
The next few days were another mix of wind and rain with some sun but cold but we managed to find plenty to do including a homemade tightrope walk rigged up by Paul and Archer together with cliff walks and a round of golf. Paul and Kirsty against Gary and Arch. Gaz and Arch just pipped them but it was a fair game with Woodley helping Paul and Kirsty out, whilst Nathaniel played his own game (potentially a budding Tiger there!). I acted as caddy due to the odd numbers but probably would have been a bit of a handicap anyway having only just got to grips with learning the game before we left the UK.

Hilda and the Big Lobster!

Karen and the Bug Bats on Big Lobster!

Coastal walk at Robe

Coastline at Robe

Archer on the tightrope, Paul lending a steadying hand

Wooz concentrating hard with a helping hand from Paul

Gaz taking his putt for a par on the third green at Robe Golf Club

Aagh! We had two cold and damp days in Port Elliot and Victor harbour so it was a case of don the warm clothes and get out there. We all headed into Victor Harbour and walked around Granite Island via the tourist train bridge across the water. Plenty of brisk fresh sea air finished with some lunch at the cafe on the island, and then a walk round town. We completed the day with some coffee and hot chocolates for the lads to warm up at the coffee shop. The next day it was partly sunny so all the lads went off to Goolwa Beach to gather some cockles to use as bait for fishing later. They came back with a bucketful and as it was about lunchtime Paul and Gaz cooked up a splendid feast using half the cockles in a Spaghetti Vongole. It was lip smacking delicious! Everyone had a clean plates except for the empty shells.
The afternoon brought on a mini golf match down at Victor Harbour, Nathaniel got his eye in with some great scores per hole but Archer won the match overall. Later on Paul took the lads fishing off the pier whilst Gaz and Kirst went to see the new Twilight movie and Karen acted as chauffeur fetching and carrying (as standing around fishing was too cold and I haven’t been following the Twilight Thing….and thought G & K might like a romantic time together!).

Granite island rocks!

Its nippy on Granite Island!!

Getting whooped at mini golf!

Wooz showing us how its done

A bucketful of cockles

We headed south down South Aus’s prettiest of peninsulas – Fleurieu Peninsula via McClaren Vale home to hundreds of hectares of vineyards (Rosemount wine fame). We knew our mates Gary and Kirsty Hall and the lads were down at Port Elliot, near Victor Harbour. We had arranged to meet up again about now after they had travelled down the middle of Aus and we down the west coast. They were’nt sure we would catch up after two near misses at Streaky Bay and Adelaide where we were supposed to meet but the timing was slightly out! Our original idea of meeting at Kangaroo Island was quashed because the ferry to get across and back was too expensive.
So we arrived at Port Elliot campsite on Horseshoe Bay around lunchtime and pitched our tent on the site next to theirs but they were out. This would be a surprise as they were’nt expecting us today. We then nipped to have a look at Port Elliot before they returned. Its a pretty historic town overlooking the harbour with historic railway station dating back to 1850’s.

Port Elliot heritage trail

Port Elliot street

Overlooking Horseshoe Bay towards campsite

Port Elliot Railway Station

We returned to the campsite and caught up with Gary and Kirsty and lads who were pleased to see us, and us them. Great to see them again and catch up on all the adventures we have all had since we last saw them in late September!

We hit the big city of Adelaide after a five hour drive from Arno Bay. We drove through Port Augusta (southern gateway to the Outback and Coober Pedy opal mine country, skirting the edge of the Flinders Ranges) which was a strange place, through more endless wheatfields and then into Adelaide!
Our campsite was only 6km from the city centre so pretty handy. We hit the city over two days.
DAY 1:
We spent the first day spent getting some retail therapy or rather aimlessly wandering along the main street called Rundle Mall looking at the tasteless Christmas decorations in 28C degree heat! Madness! Its only just over a month away – crikey its come round quickly!

Letter to Santa!

Bronze Pig on Rundle Mall (a kind lady took this photo for us)

Reflection from stainless steel bean ( yes its Adelaide not Chicago!)

We then took a look at an area called Melbourne Street further out which was renowned for its historic mews houses. These properties were built around 1876 – 1879 as part of the Chichester Gardens Estate owned by George Stevenson who led the earliest types of housing development during the process of settlement in Adelaide.
Most these had been beautifully restored and now expensive residential properties with well maintained streets.

Melbourne Street area of Adelaide

Example of the semi detached 1876 houses

1876 Mews cottages

DAY 2:
On our second day we got some plant therapy by visiting the city Botanical Gardens which were right in the heart of the city next to the Torrens River, the National Wine Centre and the Adelaide Zoo. These gardens (like all the main Australian cities) are very extensive and well laid out. Many of the trees are over 100 years old planted by the early settlers with a mix of old historic building and contemporary new pavilions. A beautiful setting by the river and a great place for a lunchtime escape for city dwellers!

Waterlily Pavilion

The South Australia Garden

Glass sculpture at the Rainforest Pavilion ( who's that!)

Rainforest Pavilion

Smell those roses!

Green wall at entrance to Adelaide Zoo

After a few pleasurable hours at the Botanical Gardens we investigated the National Wine Centre, a new piece of architecture next door to the gardens. The wine exhibition was informative albeit only one room but the main use of this building was for conferences and offices. It described all the famous areas across Australia for wine growing such as Barossa Valley (Wolf Blass, Jacobs Creek), Clare, Margaret River, Hunter Valley, Coonawara,Victoria etc There was quite an impressive cellar of course but for looking at only unless you are in the know ( which of course we were’nt!).

Entrance ramp to the National Wine Centre

Wine cellar and a half!

Wine map of Oz!

We headed back up the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula through some unremarkable landscape -mainly wheat fields that seem to go on forever. We dropped in at Port Lincoln on the way before finding Arno Bay a small village on the coast. It was great for a pitstop for a day or so before we intended getting to Adelaide. Maybe we have been spoilt by the pristine beaches of Western Australia, but it was okay and a haven of wild sea birds set on a wild coastline.

A walk along the samphire and mangrove salt pans

Pelicans and seagulls on sandbank at Arno Bay

On the boardwalk at Arno Bay

Seagulls!

These seagulls get everywhere!

Hey Kaz did you know there's a pelican on your head....!

We headed into Coffin Bay’s own National Park to see the vegetated coastal sand dune landscape with its own unique ecosystem and to a place called Point Avoid………and when we got there we knew why it was so called. We called it Point to Avoid……
The only sealed road into the national park took us to Point Avoid along some winding lanes fringed by heathland vegetated sand dunes. Kangaroos and Emus springing out in front of Hilda, it was hazardous to say the least. We were’nt used to such narrow roads after the long straight highways we had experienced over the wider Australian roadscape. We headed to Point Avoid a limestone headland reputed to have spectacular views over the ocean. When we approached the point all we could see were some major storm clouds and mist rolling in like a steam train, and view what view? It was quite spooky, cool and very windy but spectacular all at the same time as the waves crashed against the cliffs. Then as we drove away from Point Avoid the mist and clouds seem to clear so that when we reached Coffin Bay again they had disappeared…..a phenomena! So maybe that’s is why its called Point Avoid.
We did get a thunderstorm later that night though.

Uh oh ......dark clouds on the approach to Point Avoid

Disappearing view at Point Avoid

Don't go near the edge its windy!

Surging waves against the cliffs at Point Avoid

Its actually called Avoid Bay!

back to blue skies again at Coffin Bay

Another strange name for a place but its not as spooky or a place of illness as you might think. Coffin Bay was named by that chap Lt Matthew Flinders in his ship The Investigator again but not because of any deathly secrets but when he returned to England in 1810 (after discovering this line of coast in 1802) he named it after Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin who was Naval Commissioner of Sheerness Naval Dockyards who had been responsible for the fitting out of the ship for the voyage to Terra Australis.
Coffin Bay is a pretty little oyster fishing village set around the bay. Oyster beds can be seen in the bay as the main industry. There is a walking trail known as Oyster Walk running along the coast from the village around the headland set amongst some lovely heathland vegetation that takes you round to the boundary of the Coffin Bay National Park. A delightful walk, and even got some fishing in as well…….! We did have to compete with the fishing trawler that tipped out hundreds of fish called Ocean Jackets on the jetty next to us. They were already beheaded ready for market….but not sure what they were like for eating they did’nt give us any!

Coffin Bay viewed from Oyster Walk

A view captured from the front of a little house called Catherine's Balcony....what a view!

Wildflowers on Oyster Walk at Coffin Bay

Who's a pretty pink boy then!....(no I'm a Galah not a parrot!)

Oyster board Walk

A spot of fishing at Coffin Bay jetty

....here's some we caught earlier!

.......no these are all mine!

Our route south along the Flinders Highway towards Coffin bay took us past some strange natural features standing in two distinct groups on a hill surrounded by wheat fields known as Murphy’s Haystacks. These are actually ancient granite inselbergs dating back 1,500 million years. Their formation are pillars and boulders (German meaning island and mountain) is caused by uneven weathering of the crystalline rock and fracturing of the cracks to separate these rocks. They have been exposed by thousands of years of erosion of the surrounding land surface along this exposed coastline.
You must be wondering why Murphy’s haystacks? Well local legend says that over two hundred years ago a Scottish agricultural merchant saw these pillars from a distance and thought they looked like haystacks. The farmer whose land they were on was called Denis Murphy, so the name stuck and was passed down through history as they became known as Murphy’s Haystacks! Strange but true!

Walking to the first group, distinctive forms on the hill known as Murphy's Haystacks

Walking to second group of Murphy's Haystacks

Like sentinels on the hill

They look like giant rock mushrooms

Our first stop in SA. A peaceful little bay called Streaky – so called by explorer Matthew Flinders in 1802, who thought the water looked streaky due to the reflection of the light on the water and the seaweed. Not much seaweed here, our camp spot is right on the waters edge and its peaceful…….and no streaking the sun is far too strong! Noticeably the ozone layer is thinner here than anywhere in Aus. Its the first pretty seaside destination on the Eyre Peninsula after the Nullabor so it attracts weary travellers who just want to recover after the drive across the Plain.
The town of Streaky Bay is quite hip with a strong sense of civic pride. The cafes and shops seem to be thriving well, and the camp site owner even served fish and chips from his little kiosk daily….and they were good. We had two relaxing days here before travelling further down the peninsula…..and not a bad spot to be!

Hilda and camp on the waterfront at Streaky Bay!

Staying in the shade

Its not so bad 'ere is it?

Totem poles by the town jetty

Streaky Bay - the town

We knew it would come round….. the big drive along the Nullarbor Plain – the main route from West Australia to South Australia along one of the loneliest places on earth and one of the windiest places on earth as well! Great! It also has the longest straight road in Australia stretching 145km ( known as 90 Mile Stretch) part of the Eyre Highway on the western side of West Australia before you get to the border with South Australia. A total distance between Esperance (WA) to Ceduna (SA) of 1397km. With two time zone changes with clocks going forward 45 minutes at Caiguna still in WA, and another hour and a half as we cross into SA. That added to our time driving challenge!
The Nullabor is literally interpreted as the treeless plain so we expected a Nullarboring drive ahead, so got the ipod ready to hand to get some music blasting out along the way.
We planned to hit it in two days with one night stopover. Stocked up with plenty of trail bars, fruit, water and sandwiches, we set off at 5.30am on the Sunday morning from Esperance and headed up to Norseman before the right turn to the Nullarbor.
Day One:
Our first day’s drive between us notched up over 930km reaching Eucla Roadhouse camp site at gone 4pm. The 90 Mile Straight was indeed straight with endless horizon of road but there were still alot of trees up to Eucla so we did wonder about the treeless bit. We saw alot of the Aussie wildlife warning signs about kangaroos, wombats, emus and camels on the loose but only saw a few roadkill (not camels) and hundreds of dead green budgies on the road on one particular section. That was strange we could only assume they died catching insects off the road as the roadtrains come blasting through…nothing survives if a roadtrain hits it here. Even when they zap past Hilda she gets shaken around. The wind was luckily behind us so helped to keep the petrol consumption down and was’nt too strong either so Hilda’s lack of aerodynamics were’nt too tested apart from the odd thermal blast in the side that seems to come from nowhere!

Metal camels at Norseman

Start of 90 Mile Straight

Roadtrain approaching

Heck its a bit Nullaboring flat!

At Eucla roadhouse the halfway point of our journey

We've come this far!

Day 2:
We set off at 6.15am the next day ready for another long drive (luckily not as long as yesterday) as we wanted to get to Streaky Bay about 693km away. We crossed the SA border at about 6.30am (now really 8am ish) Today’s drive took us closer to the coast and some spectacular cliffs called Bunda Cliffs – they reminded us of the White Cliffs of Dover. The sun was low over these cliffs as it was early in the morning and they stretched away stacked like massive silver wedges looking out over an endless big ocean…..The Great Australian Bight. Amazing!
We  the hit the real treeless plain section at Yulata and boy was it treeless!! It went on for miles and we could count about half a dozen windswept trees the whole length! We also came across hundreds of Harley Davison Motorbike Club riders all going west in various groups to a convention at Margaret River, WA the next weekend. We saw a few of them the day before and some of them must have been at Albany too.
No more dead budgies but swarms of small locusts featured highly along the section of treeless plain as there was nothing else but grass to attract them. We had to drive a bit slower so that they would’nt splatter the windscreen. Yuck!
We reached civilisation again at Ceduna and then turned south into the Eyre Peninsula arriving at Streaky (Bacon) Bay at 3pm. What a welcome relief a beautiful peaceful beach and we got a camp space right on the beach. Heaven!

Bunda Cliffs

Don't go near the edge its a long drop!

It really is a treeless plain!

Wildlife on the loose!

Sign at the end of the Nullarbor

Friends Sarah and Nandor caught up with us at Esperance on the Thursday afternoon. On Friday and we all headed into Cape Le Grand NP to see why everyone was raving about the beaches there. Well the raving was justified the beaches were absolutely stunning! Australia really has some of the best beaches in the world we felt very lucky to be able to see them. What made them so special was the white sand running flat into the sea highlighting the shallow crystal water for several metres out. The beaches are intercepted by fantastic rock outcrops creating more intimate coves than the Great Ocean Drive section.
We headed to Cape Le Grand Beach, past Frenchmans Peak then onto Lucky Bay. Then toThistle Cove for picnic lunch, and where the lads did a spot of fishing off the rocks, whilst Sarah and I explored the beach about 1 km walk away.  Despite us waving like mad at them from the beach they were so engrossed in fishing they did’nt notice us …..! They both caught a few exotic fish of various colours and shapes but not sure what species they were – even the fishing guide did’nt give any clue. A big Seagull managed to pinch one of the fish off the hook that Nandor caught as he reeled it in and was just about to release – the bird was just hovering to get one and crikey he was like lightening!

Karen and Sarah at Cape Le Grand Beach

Cool waters at Cape Le Grand Beach

Frenchman's Peak

Paul and Nandor striding out along Lucky Bay beach

Paul walking the rock bridge out into Lucky Bay

A jelly bean rock at Lucky Bay

Lookout over Lucky Bay towards the rock bridge

Lucky Bay - apt description for anyone who visits it!

Okay do you reckon this is a good fishing spot?

and onto the fishing!

Even the seagulls are big in Australia...keeping his eye on the fish bait and the fish being caught for that matter!

That Seagull is not getting this one!

Funky rocks at Thistle Cove

Sarah on Thistle Cove beach......lads right in distance fishing off rocks

Sand so white at Thistle Cove

We headed further east along the south coastal highway of WA towards Esperance on a very windy and wet day so Hilda was getting a bit of a blasting along the way but we made the 500km to Esperance by late afternoon just as the rain cleared……great! The following four days spent at Esperance and its neighbour Cape Le Grand National Park were warm and dry!
Esperance is a seaside town and major port on the south coast. There’s nothing but the Southern Ocean between the mainland of Australia and the Antarctic. So it does get some windy weather (luckily not when we were there). Although Esperance itself is not that pretty it does lie on some of the most spectacular coastline we had ever come across in our travels so far round Aus.
On our first day there we took the Great Ocean Drive, a 30km circuit along some amazing coast sitting opposite the Bay of Islands (The Recherche Archipelago). Around every corner gave some gobsmacking views of big ocean. Massive rock outcrops and frothy surf on a bluer than blue ocean and beaches with sand whiter than white! ( and we had’nt even got to Cape Le Grand National Park yet where there are arguably the best beaches in Aus!). As you can imagine we took loads of photos which still don’t do it all justice. There was also a lake called Pink Lake (but it was’nt pink) on the return loop back to Esperance which has the same betacarotene infusion as the one south of Kalbarri.

Coastline of Esperance!

Overlooking Salmon Beach

Paul rocks at Salmon Beach

..hmmm looks like a good fishing spot!

Overlooking Twilight Beach

Plants grow in every crack

Natural rock sculpture

Hilda at Observatory Point

Art wall describing the history of Esperance ....again those French explorers got here first!

Karen after a much needed haircut!

We left rainy Walpole and hot footed it to Albany on the south coast of WA. It was sunny as we arrived at Middleton Beach campsite in Albany so we thought great we can pitch the tent and get set up….! Just as we started hammering in the tent pegs it the heavens opened and we both just stood soaked laughing like idiots  (anyone who saw us must have thought we were nuts….!). Anyway 10 minutes later and the sun came out again and stuff slowly dried out.
It was a few days of sun and showers but Albany was a great town (apparently the oldest town in WA established c 1880) with plenty of old interesting buildings and events going on. Middleton Beach set on a picturesque bay known as King George Sound with plenty of coastal walks with views out to the Southern Ocean, and the odd visit by whales (although we did’nt see any). About 50 or so years after Captain Cook discovered the east coast of Australia the French were busy discovering parts of the west coast, so Albany and other towns such as Esperance further west have a strong French connection.
Albany is also the last place on Australian soil that the Australian and New Zealand soldiers saw before they sailed for Gallipoli in the first world war.
As well as a bit of history we saw a weekend of Vintage motorbike mania. Every shape and size of motorbike was on display on Stirling Terrace in the town, then the next day they raced their vintage bikes one to one along Apex Drive. It looked like great fun as we were taking bets as to who would get to the first corner ahead of the other. Some of the bikes must have dated back to the war….(as ridden by  Steve McQueen in the film The Great Escape).

Outside oldest church in Albany...and I'm looking cross because its cold!!

Vintage motorbikes on Stirling Terrace

One of hundreds of vintage bikes on display

........one that dates back to the war

and they're off!......Vintage motorbike racing on Apex Drive, Albany

Paul fishing at Middleton Beach

Paul on the coastal walk around the bay

Hey you Skink!

...who are you saying I skink...I'm a Goanna!

Lookout over King George Sound

Black Cockatoos playing at Middleton Beach