Finally we arrived in Western Australia. 1400km and two timezones between us and our starting point. We spent the first night in Esperance, where a bad surprise awaited us the next morning.
It was so warm yesterday, that we left our chairs outside the car and than it poured down the whole night. Everything was terribly wet, not only the chairs, but also our car. We fixed some curtains in the windows and they are totally soaked now and provided the interior of the car with lots of water.
At half past eight we were sick of waiting any longer for the rain to stop, besides we can’t lie anymore. We put all our stuff onto our beds and I crawled to the driver seat, all without leaving the car, because it was still pouring. I parked the car under the camp kitchens porch roof, so we could get out of the car on one side at least a bit dryer even though that’s not ideal, because you even sunk into the mud to your ankles when you stepped out the car. So, shoes off and go on barefoot. The whole campground was flooded and the attempt to dry our stuff failed badly. We fleed to McDonalds, there it is dry and warm, they have toilets, something to eat and additionally wifi for free. We spent the next hours there and waited for better weather. As it stopped raining we make our way to a workshop, because during the Nullarbor crossing we realised that our tyres worn out uneven. They did a wheel alignment and fortunately we did not need new tyres. In fact that it was already late afternoon, we go back to the flooded campground but he biggest puddles are gone. We grabbed the photo equipment and headed to west beach, where we were outweighed for the bad day with a stunning sunset. The clouds were at least good for a fantastic scene on the sky.
The weather forecast for the next day was much better, so we made our way to cape le grand national park. There should be the whitest beach in Austalia, Lucky Bay. We discovered a really white beach but due to the heavy rainfalls the texture of the sand was very strange, like wallpaper paste.
We took the chance and built a sandman. As we heard that it was snowing at home we decided that a sandman is all we could do to contribute. It’s a very nice beach but for our opinion there was way to much smelly seaweed for being the best beach ever. We liked Hellfire Bay, which is just round the corner, way more. Furthermore we spotted a shark in the shallow water near the beach, while we were sitting on the rocks. Now we were not disappointed that it was to cold for a swim anymore…
Moreover we used the solid sand for a short beach drive with the car. Normally you have to deflate the tyres and reinflating would take us hours with the small compressor we own. But today we needed not to bother about that.
In the bushes right next to the beach we saw some kangaroos, which overlooked the bay while grazing.
On the next morning we escaped Esperance, just before the crowds of people arrived for the long easter weekend, on which everything was fully booked out. We got a tip from some locals, where to stay during easter. There is a campground near Albany, located directly at the beach and not as heavily frequented as other ones. To get there we had to work our way through 18km of dirt road. But the road conditions were quite good despite all the rain. As we arrived there we recognized that this campground is also full. Just because we need not much space with our car, we could catch a small spot, where we could stay for the next three days. It’s such an idyll, no phone reception, no internet, no TV, no nothing. We could spend all our time on reading, sleeping, sun baking or just chilling out. But three days are enough, we were bored and they only had rainwater showers, very cold rainwater showers. Time to leave, and we needed to leave, because we ate up all our food supplies.
On our way to Pemberton we came pass the „Valley of the Giants“. Here we could do a tree top walk through huge old trees. This board walk is only 600 metres but costs a lot of money and you don’t see much more, than while walking through the forest around this attraction. We skipped this walk and head on to Pemberton where we climbed a 53 metre high tree. This was for free and pretty cool, but it would not be possible in Germany without any safety precautions.
The next stop was Hamelin Bay. Rays are regular visitors on the beach next to the campground. If you pay for the campsite the ray watching is for free. What a nice day apart from the rain. The rays were huge and really close to the beach. As a fisherman put his fishing waste into the water, the number of rays increased immediately. They came so close that they almost beach. They needed to work hard with their flappers (or whatever this is) to make their way from the sand back to the ocean. As a wave washed a ray directly to Simons feet, he could touch it.
This is what I love…watching animals, or interact with them, I could do this for hours. After 1,5 hours filming, photographing and chasing them it was time for dinner, or tea how some of you call it.
North of Hamelin Bay lays Margaret River. Unfortunately the bad weather continued. Just to do anything except sitting in the car, we did a „Tasting Day“. Many little factories ar located around here, and they attract people by offering free tastings. We haven’t eaten anything today, so off we went. We started with a chocolate factory. Both of us eat at least 200g of little white, fullcream and dark chocolate drops. But we did not buy anything, tooooo expensive, for sure!
Nougat was next. That factory produces nougat, liqueur and wine. The nougat was pretty expensive too, but I think about buying an amazing nougat liqueur. As I imagined me sitting in my camping chair, drinking the liqueur from my pink plastic mug, I thought this is not professional conduct, so I did not buy it.
After all these sweets we tried some nuts. They offered sweet ones as well, like honey coated ones, but also wasabi, sweet chili or salted. Guess if we bought someting……
Last but not least the cheese factory. I looooove cheese, but surprisingly I preferred the homemade yoghurt today. We did not want to feel like cadgers, so we bought two 500g yoghurts, mixed berries and passionfruit flavour. They were really cheap compared to the prices in a supermarket, so this was a good bargain at the end of the freebie day.
Before leaving Margaret River we visited a Lama Farm, and of course this was my idea. Here you could find not only Lamas, but also other little animals and a petting zoo. My inner child won and I found myself sitting in the petting zoo, cuddling a guinea pig between three year old kids. I miss our two guinea pigs so much, despite the fact that they are in good hands at our friends house. And their two male pigs do really appreciate the temporary visitors! After cuddling every single guinea pig we left Margaret River behind. This meant missing the Margaret River Pro Surf Contest, but it started 10 days later and we did not want to spend so much time here in the rain. On the road north we saw some nice hay bale art and think that this could be a good inspiration for the farmers at home.
On the way up north were many things which were worth a stop, but nothing is great in pouring rain. The 1,8km long jetty in Busselton, with an underwater observatory at its end looked pretty boring with a grey sky and you will be soaked if you walk it. The dolphin encounter with dolphin interaction zone in Bunbury would be such a great experience. But due to the fact that these are wild dolphins, they won’t be around in such weather conditions. So I have to be content with petting the guinea pigs.
After we spent another wet night in Mandurah, like the one in Esperance, we wanted to leave this rainy part of Australia behind us. Probably it would have been totally amazing here, but in steady rain nothing is fun.
We arrived at a nice campground near Fremantle. From here it was only 20km to Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
What we experienced here and why we stay longer will be published here soon. Stay tuned.
Carina
