February 2018 – 21 to 25

Day 39 – 21st February 2018 – Bremer Bay

Col finished his video editing of Rock Fishing at Lucky Bay.  We caught some Tommies, a Snook and a Squid.  This also shows you how to clean the Squid that you catch.

Packing up camp today and heading off to somewhere near Albany tomorrow.  We have Erin, Jake and Hamish flying over to meet up with us and hang out in Margaret River early march and are super excited about it.  Not long now.

A little sad to leave Bremer Bay, I feel like there is heaps more to do around here but it is time to move on.  They have some beautiful bike tracks around and I would have like to have gone for a ride.  We also found a lovely spot to go for a meal at the Bremer Bay Resort near the Caravan Park.  It is also a Bottle Shop and we dropped in there to grab a bottle of wine and it looks like a really lovely place to go for a meal too.  Oh well – too many things and not enough time.  Maybe next time!

Day 40 – 22nd February 2018 – Bremer Bay to Torbay Inlet near Albany

We decided to camp at Torbay Inlet which is about 28km West of Albany.  Prounounced ‘Al-bany’ like your mate ‘Al’.  Col was corrected by a local as he keeps saying ‘All-bany’ as in ‘All of your mates’.  It looks like a beautiful spot.  It is a free camp and is nestled in amongst the trees.  You can walk to the inlet as well as to the beach.  People seem to be fishing for Black Brim here, someone caught one  that was 37cm long yesterday, so a good size.  There is an Eco toilet here which is clean and no smell.  There isn’t any water here, so you need to be self-sufficient.

We hadn’t long arrived and were still unpacking and setting up camp when we were approached by two young guys, one from Denmark and one from Germany, who are in Australia backpacking from the West Coast to the East Coast.  They were driving around scouting for a good camp spot when they got themselves bogged in a deep sandy patch.  They were looking for assistance to get their car out, as it was belly deep in sand by that point.  They were driving a Suburu Forrester and it got bogged about 500m from our camp.  As the car was packed full of camping stuff (and Col doesn’t have a back seat at the moment), the guys stood on the back bumper bar and held onto the roof racks while Col drove slowly to the spot where they were bogged.  The car was well and truly not going anywhere in a hurry!

Col hooked up his winch to their car and was able to quickly get them free of the sand and back on the road again.  They kindly brought over a Thank you gift for Col to show their appreciation.  It was very cute.  We got video footage of the recovery and will post it once Col has done his fancy edit.  Col was able to disguise his excitement at getting to use his winch.  He acted very professional, but I know he was jumping with joy on the inside!

Day 41 – 23rd February 2018 – Torbay Inlet near Albany

We had a funny/not funny moment here this morning.  I was sitting in my ‘Jetty’ (the nickname given to my big lay back stargazer chair by Col), sipping my coffee and enjoying the peaceful start to the day.  Clean washing dangled from the line above.  Just sitting and enjoying the serenity (before the Genny started).  Col was pottering around making bacon and eggs on the BBQ and doing a bit of a tidy up.  There is dark sand everywhere and we had a bit of rain overnight, so this has quickly turned to sticky mud and it was getting traipsed into the van constantly.  So Col thought he would do the right thing and whack the foot mat against the tree to clean it.  Only… he chose the one tree facing the van, the washing and me!  With one great thud against the tree, small blobs of mud went flying and splattered the washing and the van, and my face.  I even got some in my mouth hahaha.  He instantly knew he had picked the wrong tree.  Just one of those moments where I have looked at him, mouth gaping and he looked instantly sorry.  I very quickly started to laugh about it, it was a very funny moment.  Looks like I will be washing again today

There is rain predicted for today and tomorrow and it is meant to be pretty windy, so not great for fishing unfortunately.  We headed into Albany today to have a bit of a look around.

Still working on my cross-stitch, pretty sure it will take me the whole year to finish, but that is ok.  I will occasionally update on the progress (sorry Tania).

Col found this little visitor to our van last night.  Very cute!  Although I was in bed when he brought it in to show me and I was slightly paranoid he might jump out of Col’s hands to join me.  Luckily he stayed put.

Col finished the video edit of the scorpion in his fishing shirt that ended up in the car door.  Relieved he couldn’t get out!

Day 42 – 24th February 2018 – Torbay Inlet near Albany

We packed up the fishing gear and thought we would go for a drive around to Shelly Beach and try and find a good spot to fish.  Unfortunately it was just too windy, so settled on exploring instead.

The first place we checked out was Cosy Corner Beach and Campsite.  This is a free camp and looked like a great spot.  It is popular though, so may be full when you arrive.  There are toilets and a dump point there, but no hose.  There is a beautiful day spot too – Cosy Corner West, and they have lots of shaded tables and chairs and BBQs, if you are looking for a place to spend the day.

We then drove onto the Cape Howe National Park, another beautiful spot to check out.  On the way in I saw this tree and it caught my eye so had to get a photo.

We checked out Shelly Beach and there was another good camp spot there but no caravans allowed.  It is a bit open to the elements though as there is no protection on the beach front.

Col found this critter when he went to the toilet.  Glad it was him and not me this time!  Even though he is pretty cute.  I would rather not share the toilet block with him.

We then went down another sandy track and got to a point where we thought we should pull the pin.  It got to a really steep section that was very soft, so we turned around, let the tyres down and headed back.  It was an interesting drive though.

There are these beautiful orange flowers dotted all around the landscape here.  Some are so bright, they really stand out.  They look a little like a bottle brush.

Day 43 – 25th February 2018 – Torbay Inlet near Albany, visit to Denmark

Today was a full day and I need to warn you that there will be a lot of photos in this blog!  In fact I have found it really hard to narrow it down.  We visited Denmark today, which is a beautiful little town with so much to do and see nearby.  I would definitely like to come back to this place and stay a while.  We couldn’t get to everything, but we did pack a fair bit in.

We did the scenic drive near the town and this is a pic of their Surf Club and beach.  A huge club with a significant turn out for their training session.  Such a beautiful place.  There is an inlet that is protected too, so a great place for all skill levels.

We stopped at a fishing spot and spoke with a guy that had just landed this monster Samson Fish using live Tommies (Herring) for bait.  This was at McGeary’s Rock on the Ocean View Road Scenic Drive near Denmark WA.

Col’s shoes in this photo give it a bit of a size perspective.  I don’t know how he reeled this in!  He said that people catch Tuna, Kingfish, Samson Fish, Blue Groper and Hammerhead Sharks off these rocks.

We then visited the William Bay National Park and this is really a must see.  Our favourite place that we visited here was called Elephant Rocks.  There is no filter on these photos either, that is the actual colour of the water.

We had to time our entrance as the waves come right up between the rocks and then flow out again.  Apparently they can be quite big sometimes and go all the way back to the bottom of the stairs!

We also visited Green’s pool which is a beautiful place to swim and snorkel.  There are also good fishing spots around and we passed one man who had caught some King George Whiting and Squid.

We stopped to see Madfish Bay where the water current comes around an island from two different directions and collides into each other, this causes some spectacular waves if you see it in the right conditions.  Because it was a beautiful and calm day we didn’t get to see big waves.  Still a beautiful spot to visit.

Another stop was to Waterfall Beach.  The sand was marbled black and white and really striking.  The waterfall is meant to be a great place to visit in Winter.

We then headed to a place called Harewood Forest Walk on the Scotsdale Tourist Drive and did a 1.2km hike through some Karri Tree Forest.  It was beautiful and we were accompanied by butterflies along the way.

The Karri Trees are so tall, but these ones are just babies compared to the Valley of the Giants which we are hoping to visit in Walpole/Nornalup.

And one of the cute little butterflies that stayed with us today on our walk.  When I stopped near the creek he sat on the ground near my foot and waited with me.

We then headed back into Denmark for a cup of coffee at a cute little Cafe.  There is a beautiful shaded grassy area by the river that runs through the town.

Home then to pack up as we leave here tomorrow to head to Walpole for a few days.  We are going to try to come back to Denmark for another day as it is a short drive from Walpole and we feel like we only scratched the surface of things to do today.  We will see how we go, as Walpole is meant to be amazing too.