Week 40: Margaret River WA - Kendenup WA

 Stats Overview

Kms Travelled: 770

Kms Hiked: 16

No. of Camps: 4

The Adventures

This week we have officially made it to the milestone of 9 months on the road!  On the journey so far we have travelled 38,978 kms, used 6024 litres of diesel, hiked 508 kms, stayed at 151 different campsites and visited 43 national parks. We have certainly packed in a bit since we left Queensland back in January, with the pressure now on to see as much as we can before Christmas. It is scary how quickly the end of the year is approaching! 

This week we have been living the high life exploring and enjoying the produce of the Margaret River region. Honestly, we could have spent weeks in this area sampling our way through all the delicacies on offer. We did have a pretty good crack while we were there, sampling olive oil, wine, chocolate, nougat, gin, beer, ice cream, fudge, mead and coffee. We ended up having to draw the line and only try one of each place, otherwise we would have spent all our money and would not have been able to afford the fuel to get home! Aside from food, the Margaret River region is also home to some pretty impressive scenery. We forced ourselves to do some hiking to try and burn off all the calories we were consuming, and we also paid a visit to the Jewel Cave, which is WA's biggest show cave.

After Margaret River we made our way south to Pemberton to visit the Gloucester Tree. The Gloucester Tree was initially used as part of a network of trees and towers to watch for fires in the densely forested south-west region. In 1947 the tree was pegged and a platform was built 53m high so that foresters could keep an eye out for smoke in the distance. Now days the tree is just a tourist attraction which is still available for thrill-seekers who want to have a go at climbing to the top. However, unfortunately the structural engineers beat us to the tree this year and deemed the structure unsafe, which means the tree has been closed for repairs. We were both a bit disappointed that we couldn't have a go at testing our limits to see how high we could reach. Although, I think we were both secretly relieved we couldn't climb it, especially when we discovered that the climb is literally just steel pegs with a bit of netting to stop you from falling to your death! 

We then made our way towards Albany where we were lucky enough to have a few good days of weather which we capitalised on by camping at the beach. The south coast of WA definitely has some stunning beaches, with this area having a lot of large granite boulders off-shore which help to create a few pockets of sheltered swimming areas to enjoy. Will certainly enjoyed breaking up his work days with lunch time swims! The big draw card in Albany was the Whaling Museum which provided a lot of insight into the whaling history of Australia. It was actually one of the best museums we have been to with a highlight being exploring a whaling ship and also seeing the skeletons of many different types of whales. We also got to explore the processing centre to learn about how they processed the whales once they got to shore, where we quickly learnt that you definitely would have needed a strong stomach to work in this industry!

We have now headed slightly north to spend the next couple of days hiking in the Stirling Range National Park before we make our way across to Cape Le Grand National Park just outside of Esperance.

Kodak Moments

We decided to go for a hike to burn off some calories but we weren't quite dressed to scale up and down all the sand dunes. Fortunately the end result was worth it! - Quinninup Falls

Gotta love an ice-cream that is made straight from the cow to the cone! - Cowaramup

This place is definitely heaven on earth! It was so hard to leave without buying one of everything in the shop! - Margaret River

How beautiful are the stalactites that hang inside the largest chamber - Jewel Cave

I got accosted by a parrot! He tried to fly off with my sandwich and then circled back and landed on my head! I don't think it was his first time trying to get a free lunch. - Gloucester NP

We did enjoy hiking through the karri forest and seeing all the huge trees up close. - Gloucester NP

The tree is certainly pretty big! There aren't too many things in this world which make Will appear small! - Gloucester Tree

How beautiful is Green Pool! All the granite rocks create a barrier to the rough surf so you end up with a massive, tranquil rock pool!(That is also completely freezing!) - William Bay NP

If you use a bit of your imagination these rocks look a bit like a herd of elephants swimming in the water. - William Bay NP

We got to go on board and explore the whaling ship in the background which was retired in 1978. - Albany