The Southern Seas

The Southern coast of Western Aussie, has ancient Tingle tree forests and stunning beaches (the latter part can be said of the entire coastline).  There is a long treetop walk through the forest 40m in the skies between trees.  The giant tingle tree is 23m around and all of us fit in the trunk.

We made a point of getting to Green Pools beach and it was amazing.  You can watch the surf pounding away out from shore, but a series of giant granite boulders protect the pools from the tide.  So the kids and (adults) can swim and snorkel in calm waters.  Throw in some crabbing and lizards sunning themselves on the rocks and any kid are more than covered.

 

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving down here with a meal of turkey steaks (best I could do), garlic squash and hazelnut toffee.  No pumpkin pie or stuffing L.

The next day was our foray over to Albany to see Whale World and a couple of spooky coastal features- he Gap and the natural bridge.  Both of these chasms look down into a raging sea at even the calmest times.

The kids , Diana and Grampa Boatman then get a couple of days respite before they head off to Queensland for “second Vacation”.

Tall Trees

Once one turns inland, they are surrounded by the tall Karri forests and farm country.

The feature of the local area is three mammoth trees that were set up as firewatch stations.  When we went to the local information centre, the kids got to watch baby kangaroo feeding time.

Visitors can climb them if they wish and this is comprised of scaling a ladder made of metal bars hammered into the trees and circling up for 60 m.  I volunteered to take pictures while Meggie set some sort of record scaling the height ahead of Diana.  Liam put in 100 feet of climbing and I did not even make it that far.

We also uncovered an art walk through the forest where various sculptures have been arranged.  My favourite was one that I renamed “Timmie’s in the sky”.  We also spotted the elusive “firetail” a local rarer bird.

Vintage Surf

Our “last” two week vacation started with our favourite place out here- Margaret River. We have been down a couple of times and wanted to fill in the gaps and revisit our old faves.

The area juts out into the Indian Ocean between two lighthouses just over 100kms apart.  The Northern terminus, Cape Nauturaliste provided us with Whales.  I would like to say we captured a photo of the humpback whale breaching out of the water, but we did get to see it.  The Southern end, Cape Leewin, is where the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet.

In between is Caves road, the Cape to Cape trail and about 80 vineyards.  One of the ones we visited, Flying Fish, has a winemaker who is also one of the area’s top surfers (and a great Shiraz).  We chose Lake Cave to visit, which features a 300 step climb down into a depression in the earth and then an underground walk along a 80m cave with a lake.

Barrie and I managed to fit in a round of golf at the Margaret River course and negotiated nine holes around the crew of kangaroos on the course.  There were also visits to the Chocolate factory (purely for the kids, not Diana and I.  J), the Maze and Madfish Wines.

 

But the main mission was to surf in Margs.  Meaghan, Liam and I took a lesson down at Redgate Beach, the spot we bodyboarded at on our first trip.  Both kids are getting the handle and can get up on their own.  I need some more practice and a bigger board.

After a gutbusting  brunch at the Bakery we reluctantly pushed inland to the forests.