Great South West - 16th October

Cape Riche to Pemberton...



See Photo - Cape Riche Beach.



See Photo - Our camp at Cape Riche,
the beach is right there...

See Photo - Lots of ladybugs on the beach...

Here we are on the south coast of WA, by the camp fire in the late afternoon drafting this blog entry. We have camped at Cape Richie on the beach surrounded by trees just  as we like it........and can you believe it Aiden has just dropped his entire dinner on the ground, lucky we have a pack of 2min noodles in the cupboard :) 

Just another day in paradise, with less than two weeks to go.

See Photo - Another snake to write home about as we leave Cape Riche.

Today Bell did all the driving (400km) as Chris had done something to his back, hopefully a few days rest will do the trick. Our day has been great with an afternoon at the beach, lots of cute little bugs followed by an evening by the fire.......then the lightening rolled in! What a great location, the couple that run the site arrived 13 years ago when no one was managing the campsite. Long story short the council offered them a permanent role, built them a house and they are just loving it, we could easily see ourselves doing this following our retirement trip around Australia.



See Photo - Amazing electrical storm over the bay at Cape Riche.




See Photo - A relaxing moment in the sun with the kids.

See Photo - A nosey Kangaroo at Cape Riche.

As Bell sat writing this diary, night fell and movement came from the bush, at first she thought it was Dad and the kids playing tricks, but then emerged a couple Kangaroos looking for a snack. With not much in hand, she dashed inside and got them a weetbix each which she thought would be good for all Aussies! We were then treated to an amazing electrical storm across the bay, the kids were so excited and a little scared all at once. We watch this while chatting to John and John (from Bunbury) who were up here for their Sunday  BBQ after working at the local mine, another amazing night in paradise.

See Photo - Zebe, Aiden, Riley & Harrison.

With a short run to Albany (80km) we caught up with our Cousins Drea, BC, Harrison and Zebe. We arrived and parked the van across the road, Drea was entertaining two of Harrison's friends so we setup in the spare granny flat and hit the park with all the boys (5 in total) they all instantly clicked and spent the remainder of the afternoon playing like only boys know how to...... rough! We headed home to get dinner on the way while Drea went to pickup their little cyclone Zebe from day-care. All the boys had a great day and finally hit the sack around 7pm, BC arrived home at 9.30pm and we managed to sit up until midnight generally catching up for the past 13 years!!!!!!!

See Photo - Boys in front of the Brig Amity.

Tuesday we took Harrison and the boys for a walking tour of the town, we visited the Brig Amity which is a full size working replica of the first vessel. From there we headed for the museum along the way where the boys checked the little train cars. We headed over the road to a view of the site where the Anzac departed for Gallipoli, then the rain came in and we headed for the local book store and morning tea! The boys got to order there own drinks , now known as "little manchinos" not "baby chinos" and after we headed for the library for a few books and waited for the weather to clear. Around lunch we headed back home as Drea and BC had finished there appointment with the glass fitters they are using for their renovation. 

See Photo - Harrison, Riley, Aiden, Bell
Zebe, Drea, Brian, Chris & Cedar the dog.

Drea and BC are renovating their home so we headed over for a look, the place is fantastic and should almost be completed by early next year, good excuse for another trip down south for the house warming party! The boys had a play at the park down the street then we headed home for dinner and our last night in Albany, this time we finished up at 11pm as we all had a big day, next morning we all said our goodbyes and headed for Denmark to catch-up with Aaron, Paula and the girls whom we hadn't seen for 5 years!

See Photo - The Somers with Samba the calf..

Well the directions said "head up the gravel road and straight thru the gate to the cottage" ......... well they forgot to tell us about the fantastic trees along the way, the views and the amazing little home they've built on their 100 acres!!!!!!!! We arrived and in typical Paula fashion we were treated to plates of nibbles and Pink Champagne! We had tour of the farm and the boys settled in for some LEGO time while we caught up on where the last 5 years had gone! They currently run some cattle and recently they had a calf which was abandoned, the family decided to hand rear the little one and named her "Samba". Paula and Aaron called her from the bottom paddock and up she came for a bucket of milk! As she was being fed she noticed that Riley had red shorts and might be part of the snack! Anyhow after her drink she proceeded to run around the paddock with the bucket on her head!!!!  At 3pm we headed out to pickup the girls from school and then to Little Athletics for the afternoon, dinner was marinated lamb with potato bake and red cabbage salad......... none of which lasted long on any ones plates!

See Photo - Shianah, Riley, Aiden & Citrine.

See Photo - Hanging out with the chickens
(We ended up leaving 'baby brown teddy' here.
We have had to have him posted to Perth!)

Aaron got a fire going and we managed to get the short ones out to cook some Marshmallows and watch the stars. With the kids in bed we sat inside and chatted about Denmark and Aaron's involvement in Triathlons and the upcoming Ironman
event he has entered at Busselton in early December!!!!. The next morning we sent the kids out to forage in the chook shed before breakfast, we then all we said our goodbyes and the girls headed off to school while we headed for the Walpole Treetop Walk.



See Photo - The view when you have 100 aces ... Denmark.

See Photo - Waiting for the cows to come and say 'Hi'.

See Photo - Somers family with our hosts from Denmark./

Walpole is situated about 70km north within the huge Karri Forests of Western Australia's south west. We arrived at the treetop walk which the largest of its kind in the world! The highest point of the walkway within the canopy reached 40 meters and offers the most amazing view down thru the "Valley of the Giants" which the boys thought was pretty cool!

See Photo - Bell and the boys on the tree top walk.

See Photo - Boys on the Gloucester Tree.

We then headed for our last overnight camp in Pemberton, the date was 20th October which was exactly 6 months from the day we started our trip back in April! Along the way we stopped in and Chris climbed the Gloucester Tree which was 61 meters tall. We arrived and setup the van when we noticed some ducks coming over for a bit of a look, they were followed by ducklings and soon after we were inundated by local Rosella Parrots!, with Bell myself and the boys covered in birds it was an entertaining afternoon to say the least! The following morning after breakfast we set off to Dunsborough and along the way the realisation that we were almost at the end of our trip started to sink in so we stopped after Nannup for a photo opportunity with the massive Grass trees along the way to lift the mood and have some fun!


We arrived in Dunsborough at Matt n Bethos place and parked the van out the front, it was great to see the family but at the same time sad to realise this was effectively the finish of our "Caravan of Courage" Australian tour.



See Photo - The 28's flying in for their snack whilst we
feed the ducks at Pemberton.

 

See Photo - Now that's a Grasstree.