Whilst it was definitely the road less travelled, Western Australia did not disappoint. Wildlife encounters, walking amongst giants, surfing rocks, gawping at huge holes and machinery, listening to some rather saucy stories, and more……..

Having picked up our large luxury 2 berth MoHo, our first job was to load up with food and find a bottle shop for wine and beer.  Then the sightseeing began with The Thrombolites at lake Clifton Lake, just down the coast. 

They are the oldest living things on earth at about 2000 years old.  They are extremely rare and only found in only a few places in the world, including Western Australia and Argentina, so we felt it was worth the short diversion from the route to pay homage to these extraordinary creatures.  They don’t do much, don’t move, don’t make a sound and definitely don’t answer back. 

Our first overnight was in Bunbury as first thing the following morning we went to watch and paddle with dolphins that come in very close to the shore.  It’s a weird experience as they seem so tame and almost want to play. 

That was followed by a walk along Bussleton Jetty.  It’s almost 2km long and at the end there is an underwater observatory where you can walk down a spiral staircase to see beautiful multi-coloured coral and fish.  It was a very hot day but well worth the long walk to see the amazing colours.

We had booked into Margaret River Caravan Site so that we could visit some of the interesting sights nearby including caves, beautiful coastline, a lighthouse and to get back into living on a campsite and using the BBQ’s provided.  Of course, you couldn’t come to Margaret River without doing a wine tour or two!! 

We had a great tip off from our young guide Max on the first tour – go to Hamelin Bay where you can wade in the water with sting rays.

Land of The Giants

Travelling further along the coast we stopped at Manjimup to see The King Jarra tree. It’s estimated to be somewhere between 300 and 500 years old it is almost 40m tall.  Next in line was the Diamond Tree lookout which is a Jarra tree over 50m high. 

This tree was pegged in 1940 and a cabin built at the top. The tower person scaled the pegs to the cabin and scanned the surrounding landscape looking for bush fires.  You were, until recently, able to climb it, if you had the balls, but it’s now closed due to H&S plus the tree is diseased.  There are also 4 Jarra trees in a line, The Four Aces, and nobody knows if they were planted like that by Aboriginals or it just happened that way.  Standing at the base and looking up at the 400-year-old giants standing at 75m tall offers quite a remarkable view and memorable experience. 

All aboard

We are blessed in Seaton by having a tramway which is a huge draw for tourists to the town.  So, when we heard about The Pemberton Tram we couldn’t resist.  Maybe not such an impressive set up as Seaton but a good history just the same.  The Pemberton Tramway Company was established in 1987 to operate a service on the Pemberton – Northcliffe Railway.  It closed in February 2023 with the possibility to never re-open and then a local family stepped in to buy the business and it’s been a tourist attraction since.

Having had our ‘tram fix’ we were now getting tree withdrawal symptoms, so we set off to see The Valley of the Giants.  It has a 600m long tree top walk suspended 40m high in the canopy of the ancient tingle tree forest.  It was truly spectacular, as was the walk through the bush following a board walk and being able to stand inside a tingle tree. 

Windy City

We moved on to Albany which has so much to see and do where we stayed four nights.  The site was good and very convenient for the town. 

In 1914, more than 40,000 Australians and New Zealanders left Albany, bound for the Great War, – The Anzacs.  The National Anzac Centre is set within acres of land with footpaths that explore gunnery points and buildings.  There is a road up to the main memorial, The Avenue of Honour, which we chose to walk, and we were glad we did.  It’s an avenue of trees that were planted in the 1950’s and each tree has a plaque in memory to a soldier.  What was interesting is that many of the soldiers that fell in Normandy were quite young.  The Anzacs, however, ranged from a few young men to many in their 30’s and upwards. 

The weather in Albany wasn’t great, cool and very windy but, thankfully, dry.  This meant that it made it great walking weather so we headed off to Torndirrup National Park. which had loads to see.  There were several things to see including blow holes that we could hear but not see as the tide was down and the waves were in the wrong direction. 

The Gap, where we stood on a metal vantage point to stare down at a very angry sea hammering against the rocks.  For some reason, it was particularly windy and we had to hang onto each other let alone our hats! 

We didn’t quite get to Bald Head which we could see in the distance during a cliff top walk as it was too far in the time we had.  Torndirrup N P was lovely and on the way back to the campsite we had a first.  The police were making random checks and our vehicle was pulled over.   Neil had to blow into a breathalyser, something he’s never done before.  All clear and we were waved on. 

Another natural phenomena are the underground caves around Albany. We chose Jewel Cave, and it was spectacular.

Everybody’s going surfing……

After 4 nights we headed inland to Kalgoorlie stopping first at Wave Rock for a night on the way.  Once again, we had a lovely walk, although this time it was very hot and it was the first time we had to wear the head nets because of the annoying flies.  There was a clue in the name, Wave Rock, and it was well worth the diversion to see it.  The pictures don’t really do it justice but it is an amazing piece of natural geology. 

We knew that the further inland we went that the temperature would rise and the forecast for our arrival in Kalgoorlie was 45C, phew.  Regular readers know that Lucky is Neil’s middle name and it was fine as the next day the temperature dropped and it settled back to around a near perfect 30C.  It’s location in the outback meant that the heat was very dry making our sightseeing and evening BBQ’s a real treat. 

The Kalgoorlie mine, also known as the Super Pit, is the largest open-pit gold mine in Australia.  It took us a long time to absorb the sheer scale of the place which we observed from a viewing point plus a guided tour. It’s approximately 3.7km long, 1.5km wide, and more than 600m deep.  Whilst on our tour the driver, who used to work at the pit, said that they were in the process of enlarging it, by 50%!  Most of you will have heard of Tonka Toys, well the trucks are as a big as a house, and they can carry rocks in the back equivalent to 110 large cars.  The drivers work 12hr shifts, 7 days a week, three weeks on three weeks off.  We could go on and on with the stats, they are mind blowing, but we know you have a life!

The gold rush town of Kalgoorlie has some beautifully preserved buildings, several museums dedicated to the long history of mining that was started in 1893 by Paddy Hannan and his buddies.  This guy has had a fascinating life, he’s worth putting into Google. 

Of course, being a mining town, the miners had certain needs which need to be met – alcohol and ‘ladies’.  Questa Casa is a brothel that was still operating until a few years ago.  The Madam now offers tours with some great stories and photo opportunities. The Elders of Kalgoorlie took a unique approach to managing the situation as the growing wealth brought respectable families to the town alongside the rough and ready miners.  They moved all the brothels into Hay Street so everyone knew where to go or not to go depending on their preferences.  The ladies had to stay on the premises from dusk to dawn and could only go into the town during the day accompanied by The Madam.  The girls were regularly medically checked, and as numbers were limited they were able to make a small fortune so it was all very civilised.

Our tour of Western Australia was coming to an end, and we had to return the MoHo within a couple of days.  Heading back towards Perth we had a night at Merredin to do a walking tour which came highly recommended – sadly it wasn’t great.  That was followed by a night in York.  Whilst the campsite was, mmmm, interesting, the town was beautifully preserved, and the motor museum was very quaint and low key – well worth the visit.

You know when you get the feeling someone is staring at you? We spotted him in the tree looking down on us at the campsite.

Australia is vast. Australian Roads are generally in great condition and some stretches go on for mile after mile through huge never ending landscapes where you can see for miles and miles. That makes for some incredibly dull and very long drives. Unless you like looking at vast expanses of nothingness, with a few subtle changes to the trees, dust and rocks (Cheryl) or get excited by roadtrains (Neil).

Finally It was time to say goodbye to the MoHo. Luckily for us we were checked back in with the guy who had a sense of humour rather than Cruella Deville.  With the all clear and full deposit returned we had a night at an airport hotel before flying to Melbourne to have a couple of days sightseeing.  We had a fabulous afternoon sightseeing with friends Sally & Ken from the Silversea Cruise.  They invited us over to their house in the Melbourne suburbs for dinner and several bottles of excellent wine.

Next day we took the train to go and see Cheryl’s cousin Roy and his partner Heather.  Always fun and excellent hosts they always manage to fit in a wine tasting!  They are coming towards the end of a major renovation and extension project on their house which has been transformed since we last visited about seven years ago.  We were able to swap tales of our own reno experiences during lockdown.  They kindly drove us back to Melbourne airport for our flight home to the UK via Kuala Lumpur. 

That’s the end of our winter trip this year. We’ve done some amazing things, met some wonderful people and caught up with old friends.  It had some interesting moments but overall – It was more than Fine!!

This post has been brought to you by the following sponsors – who as usual didn’t give us anything at all for all this valuable publicity………