Albany to Margaret River via Cape Leeuwin

Bussleton Jetty

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

No explanation necessary

In the trunk of one of the tingle trees

Day 49
I have decided that since I am having trouble moving this morning after my big day yesterday that I won’t submit myself to the arranged game of golf. Thinking a day in bed would be a good idea but the house work needs to be done!! Oahhh!!! Where are those hand rails next to the toilets when you need them!!

Alan takes the car to Albany town for a service then I catch up on the blog. Alan has a massage booked in town and in a delirious moment I arrange to ride my bike to meet him for lunch later!! Well at first nothing seems to work but once things loosened up it actually wasn’t bad. After lunch and a look at the museum etc. I get a chance to have a leg massage myself...again very relieving for the poor sore muscles; I even manage a swim later in the lovely little Emu Point Bay near our camp. We have Wendy and Nick over for happy hour then dinner and ready to head West tomorrow.
Day50

We drive through Denmark and some lovely farmlands and forests arriving at The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk near Walpole before a bit before lunch. It is as its name suggests a walk through an enormous tingle tree forest of an incredible age. Makes you feel very small and insignificant. We head on west and decide to try and make Augusta which is the south western most tip of Australia. In the afternoon I discover to my horror that my lovely gold bracelet is missing!! I am really upset but as I don’t know where I could have lost it there is no use retracing hundreds of km. L We arrive at a caravan park in Augusta and it is very crowded and not at all clean and we are given a very dusty dirty site. We figure we will put up with it for the night very begrudgingly. It doesn’t improve during the evening and night with many people having very smelly fires and with the still night didn’t improve our bad feeling for this park.
Day 51

We pack up early and leave the camper while we take a drive to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, stopping for a swim on the way in a lovely little protected beach in the Southern Ocean. As this is the south western tip it is also where the Southern Ocean and Indian Oceans meet. I dip my feet in both the oceans but don’t feel much difference in temp. The weather is just glorious and we hook up the trailer and head up to Margaret River. It is very busy in the township as the Margaret River Wine Festival is on. We have lunch and decide to try and find accom. A bit further north away from the crowds. After taking a look at Prevelly Beach we drive north about 10 minutes and find a lovely little park at Gracetown, It is a bush setting but clean and well set out so we book for 2 nights. The beach is only a couple of km away so head there for a swim in the Indian Ocean. Alan reckons it’s warmer than the other ocean, I’m not sure but it is so lovely a clean and clear. This is another popular surfing spot around this area and there are a few stand up paddle boards as well as surfboarders. A more peaceful night and no smoke so Happy Jan...and Al. Only one little drawback we have no mob. Phone, internet reception and there is no digital TV reception so we manage to get a bit of reading done and plan our next few days.
Day 52

We decide to take a drive up to Cape Naturaliste this morning. The drive through Yallingup and Dunsborough were just lovely with the sea calm and the sun shining. We stop at Dunsborough on the foreshore for a coffee and a read of the paper. Just the thing to do on a Sunday morning. Our visit to Cape Naturaliste was a little disappointing as the walking tracks were closed and you could only see the lighthouse if you did a tour. We just looked from afar and drove on to Busselton to have a look at the caravan park which had been recommended and check out the jetty. The van park is filled with school kids so we change our options for tomorrow! The jetty is under repair but we were able to have a little look and take some photos of the quaint boathouses painted in a lovely blue with white trim at the start of this jetty which is the longest in Australia (about 2km). We drive back and visit a couple of wineries, Vasse Felix and Mad Fish and an olive plantation. We have booked a couple of games of golf, tomorrow at Margaret River and Wednesday at “The Cut “at Mandurah, which Alan has played a few years ago and says is magnificent. We have decided to stay here another night and leave for Mandurah on Tuesday.