Southern corner of WA

We had a relaxing few days in Northam with Jill’s nephew, which was good after quite a bit of travel with only short stopovers. We then spent 3 days in Perth and while there enjoyed visiting Al’s nephew and family. It has been great to see some familiar faces and being treated to roast dinners is a real bonus. Roasts are something I haven’t worked out how to cook in a frypan over the gas! We went to Freemantle and had a look at the old prison. This was built by and used for convicts and was operated as a prison until 1991. The complex included many houses also built during convict times. We also spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around Kings Park, which is a lovely park quite close to the Perth CBD. It has large areas of native plants representing the many different areas of WA.

After several days in the country and the big city it was time to get back to the beach and we found some lovely beaches near Dunsborough, 250km south of Perth. Lots of small bays with white sand and blue water but with the days being a bit cooler than we have become accustomed to a paddle in the water was all we managed. One morning we just happened to be in the right place at the right time and were treated to a 15 minute display by a few whales. They were relatively close inshore and we watched them breach, wave their flukes and saw them dive down and flip their tails in the air. The humpback whales are on their migration back to Antarctic waters and over a week on most days we have seen them passing by, but not with the display we saw on the first day.

We travelled to the Margaret River area, which is well known for its wine. As you drive along the road you pass vineyard after vineyard, very few with a name that we have heard of before. It is lovely looking country with rolling hills covered with lush green grass, dairy farms and vineyards amongst a backdrop of gum trees. From here we went east to Pemberton where there are large stands of karri trees (a type of eucalypt). In it’s hey day it was a timber milling centre but now days the attraction for people is the standing trees. Those who are game enough can climb up 60 metres to a platform in a tree, by way of about 150 steel spikes driven into the trunk. Fire spotters used to spend their days on platforms like these looking for signs of fire. There are three trees that can be climbed but we decided it wasn’t for us and chose to admire the trees from the ground.

The area is known for it’s wild flowers and although it is late in the season we are coming across quite a few. One day we stopped so I could take a photo of some kangaroo paw flowers and while walking to them found half a dozen more different flowers. A little later we stopped at a rest area for a cuppa and saw yet more new flowers. Yellow banksia and bright red bottle brush trees are in flower along the roadside.

The weather in the SW corner has been like that in the SW corner of NZ at this time of year, variable with passing showers and cooler temperatures. This has been hard for us to accustom ourselves to as we have spent most of our holiday under clear blue skies. We have enjoyed seeing the lush green pastures, which remind us of home, and big eucalypt forests so these offset the minor detractions of the climate. We had a couple of days where it was too wet to do much but apart from those days we put on a few extra clothes and got out and about. We visited the light houses at both capes in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park and several bays along the coast in between.