WA
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Wed 10 Apr 2024 04:39
After our sojourn in Tasmania we flew to Western Australia, commonly known here as WA. You’d think that flying from state to state in Australia would be a short hop, but no. It was a five and a half hour flight from Hobart to Perth on the western Australian coast, and when we arrived in WA we were also in a different timezone, three hours behind Tasmania. Once again we were struck by the size of this vast country. We based ourselves for the first four days in Augusta, about 3.5 hours drive south of Perth. In fact Cape Leeuwin, just outside Augusta, is the furthest south westerly point in Australia and is where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean (34* 22’ S, 115* 08’ E). We walked to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse from Augusta one day - at just over 20 km there and back it was a 'route march' in John’s terms, a ’nice long walk’ for me!  John between the two oceans, and 5,000 km behind him lies Antarctica Between Perth and Augusta lies the Margaret River wine region. Throughout Australia the wineries offer cellar door tasting sessions and many also have a small bistro so you can sit sipping a glass of their wine, eating lunch whilst looking out over the sun-drenched rows of vines. We couldn’t pass through the region without sampling the experience so we went to the Hamelin Bay winery and had a very nice lunch on their terrace. It was a beautiful sunny day but what you can’t see is the wind whipping round the corner so hard that John kept having to catch the sun umbrella before it launched itself off over the sun-drenched vines!  Lunch at Hamelin Bay winery When people said to us that Margaret River was a ‘must see’ place in Australia we got a bit confused because we weren’t exactly sure where or what it was we were supposed to be seeing. Margaret River is a town, a region and an actual river! Margaret River the town, seemed to be a popular place, full of restaurants, nice shops and bustling with people. Margaret River the region was indeed full of rows of vines, but also forest, pastureland, shrubby bushland, expansive sea views and sandy beaches. Margaret River the river was surprisingly small, brown and sluggish but then we learned that in Australia river flow can be seasonal and sometimes they don’t flow at all. Where the Margaret River meets the sea there was a sand bank preventing the river from flowing out and apparently it’s a highlight of the year in the local area when the Margaret River breaks through at the river mouth to flow into the sea again.  Prevelly, the mouth of the Margaret River As we drove through the village of Prevelly we passed a tiny chapel which looked as if it had been airlifted here straight from a Greek island. It’s no accident that it is here. Prevelly was created in the 1960’s by a man who had been among Australian soldiers given refuge in the Preveli monastery in Crete in 1941 prior to their evacuation. As a tribute to the people of Crete and the monastery he named the settlement Prevelly and built the chapel of St John the Theologian in Cretan style. Whilst we were planning this Western Australia trip we came across a travel documentary about the area by the comedian Bill Bailey. One of the attractions he visited was the Valley of the Giants, a treetop walkway constructed amongst a forest of Tingle trees, a species which only grows in a small area of WA just outside Walpole on the south coast. It looked so interesting that we added it to our itinerary. The giant size of the Red Tingle is impressive, not least because it has no deep tap root, only very shallow fibrous roots concentrated around its base, but also because the trees’ trunks can become hollowed out by fire and yet the tree itself still stands. The treetop walkway was a series of bridges between the trees constructed so that it didn’t disturb their delicate roots but transports visitors through the branches up to a point 40 metres above ground. Walking along at treetop height was a really novel way to experience the forest, so different from looking up from ground level.  Inside the base of a giant Red Tingle  At treetop height holding on tight to the railings - it was a bit wobbly!  It was here that we also spotted a Bandicoot, a small marsupial with a pointy nose that it uses to forage for underground insects. The holes they leave in the ground are called snout pokes! All along the WA coast we came across huge, smooth granite boulders and mounds. The forms almost look man made at times but are caused by natural erosion by high winds, salt and rainwater. We walked a trail through the William Bay National Park one day and came across the Elephant Rocks. They really did look like a herd of elephants gathered to drink from the pool of water in the bay.  Elephant Rocks, William Bay, WA We finished our WA tour in Albany which didn’t really appeal to us a great deal. The surrounding area has some fabulous sandy beaches and clear waters but Albany itself was not very beautiful nor was much happening there to say it’s one of the larger residential areas in WA. The architecture is a mix of heavy Victoriana and 1960’s box-like structures and there's a huge modern Conference/Entertainment Centre that dominates the harbour front but doesn’t seem to open very often. We had fun on a Segway tour which took us from the summit of Mount Clarence down to Middleton Beach. We also saw the replica ship the Brig Amity, a full size replica of a convict ship which sailed into the area in 1826. It was good to hear the audio commentary covered the arrival of the ship from the aboriginal perspective as well as the European story, and also pleasing to hear that the ship’s captain rescued four aboriginal men, who had been kidnapped by Sealers, and returned them to their people.  Albany Docks from Mount Clarence. The granite boulders in the foreground cunningly conceal a gun emplacement.  Segway ride along Middleton Beach  On board the Brig Amity From Albany we had a 250 mile drive back to Perth Airport which we divided in two with an overnight stay in a tiny place called Wandering, which seemed appropriately named for two people wandering about Australia! From Perth we would fly to Adelaide, 1,700 miles east and forward in time by 2.5 hours. |