February 2018 – 26 to 28

Day 44 – 26th February 2018 – Torbay Inlet to Walpole

The pack-up went well and the two hour drive went smoothly from Torbay Inlet to Walpole.   Be aware if you are staying at Torbay Inlet that the camp fills up late in the day and gets really busy by morning.

We picked the Rest Point Holiday Village in Walpole and we are really happy with our choice!  We have views of the water and there is green grass and beautiful trees all around.  There is a boat ramp here and fish cleaning table.  There are two inlets you can explore before you reach the ocean mouth.  We did hear that a few boats have flipped going out of Wilson Inlet into the Ocean, so we will be staying in the Inlets.  They are protected from the wind and there are plenty of good fish around – Yellow Fin Whiting, King George Whiting, Black Bream (I spelled it right this time Sam!) and Trevally.  We are planning a fishing day tomorrow, so will let you know how we go.

We were able to fit everything on our site too, so that was a bonus.  They were happy for us to put our second car and boat down the back of the park if we couldn’t fit it onsite.  But Col has developed pretty good skills at playing the Caravan Park Site Jigsaw Puzzle.  I would like to say that I am now learning to back the boat trailer in and did do it this time, with guidance from Col, and more than one attempt.  But will be a professional at it by the end of the trip.

It is $36 a night here for a powered site.  The lady who runs the park is really lovely.  The facilities are old but clean, which is all you need.  I do really love this place.   The March flies are bad around here though, which is why we decided to put up the annex.  We don’t usually put it up if we are only staying a few nights, but it would not have been comfortable to sit outside otherwise.

We are heading out to explore the area today.  One of the must sees while in Walpole include the ‘Valley of the Giants’ Karri Tree Top Walk, but Erin, Jake and Hamish will be staying with us for a week next week in Margaret River and this is on the list of things to do with them.  So we may just be checking out places we want to take them next week.  Getting so excited to be seeing them in a week.  Yay!!!

Col has also finished editing the first Catch’N’Cook Calamari (Squid) video.

Day 45 – 27th February 2018 – Walpole

We started the day with this beautiful breakfast view!  Not a bad way to start the day.

We then went for a bit of a drive around and visited the Giant Tingle Tree on the Hilltop Road drive.   We couldn’t get a photo of the biggest tree as the light was wrong and the photos we did get just didn’t do it justice.  But there were plenty of other amazing trees to see.

It is amazing that the trees are burnt out and hollow and yet still continue to grow.  And they are enormous!

I saw this plant scattered around the forest and the new growth looked just like a flower.

After that we drove to the nearby Circular Pool that joins the Frankland River.  The water cascades among the rocks and it was a very beautiful and tranquil spot that was worth visiting.  Apparently there is a spectacular waterfall in winter.

Col has finished another video of the recovery he did using the winch to help Finn and Louis get their bogged car out of the sand.

Day 46 – 28th February 2018 – Walpole

We decided to take the boat out today and fish in the inlets and had a successful fishing day.  The launch and the retrieve of the boat both went really smoothly for a change!  It is a really beautiful part of the world.

We started fishing in the Nornalup Inlet, we fished the sandy patches near Coalmine Beach, the Western side of the boat ramp, and caught a lot of King George Whiting.  We managed to get 6 that were a good size and a heap we threw back as they were under.   Col accidentally caught a small stingray which caused some excitement for a while.  He managed to reel it in and cut it free.  Not long after that I was fishing away and noticed a large dark shadow, and it was a huge stingray with a wingspan of about a metre and a half.  It didn’t want to leave us, and it scared all the fish away.  Neither Col nor I wanted to catch that one!!!  So we decided to move somewhere else.

We drove over to the opposite side of the inlet and tried fishing the sand flats near the mouth but didn’t have any luck there.  We then headed to the Frankland River to see what we could catch.  We managed to land a sizeable  Flathead, a few Juvenile Snapper and a small Tharwine that we threw back.  So at the end of the day we had 6 good King George Whiting and a Flathead.

We got some footage of the stingrays, so they hopefully show up well in the video.

Col worked his filleting magic and had a nice view while working.

We made some new friends who hoped they would get lucky if they played their cards right.  I was put on duty to guard the fish and shoo the birds away, there were quite a few of them!

Col cooked up a great dinner of Whiting and Flathead.  We also had a cute visitor tonight.