27/3/20 Gracetown to Borden

  From Bunbury , we headed down to Gracetown in the Margaret River Region , and stopped there for 3 nights . You just have to go out to the coast and check out some of their surfing spots .

  Some of the locals were out & about catching some waves , oh and some air .

  This is Gracetown from above , the houses seem to be cut into the shrubbery on the hillside .



 And again .



  This is looking south , there are numerous surfing spots down there , just need to know where to go .



  A front was coming in , and the clouds put on a show for us .

 AT Gracetown we found a walking track that headed out to the southern headland of the bay . It wound through a grove of Tea Trees .

  A bit further down we discovered this dry stone wall and stainless steel monument , as well as the surfboard shaped seat . There are 9 names in the stainless steel - these are the adults & children who died here when the cliff collapsed under them . They were on the cliff watching a school surfing competition between Margaret River and Gracetown Primary Schools - 5 parents and 4 children died.
 Very moving !!



 We headed to Prevelly , home of the Margaret River Pro Surfing Competition , this is where Margaret River flows out to sea - when there's not a beach in the way that is .

 And again .

  The madness of Corona Virus has reached here as well - supermarkets cleaned out of most of it's stock . We tried to do some shopping , but couldn't get everything we wanted - not a potato , sweet potato , onion to be seen . Moving over to the meat section , there was 2 small pieces of scotch fillet , some prepacked turkey meat , but nothing else - no chicken , no mince , no lamb , no pork . Then no pasta , rice & flour & definitely no toilet paper - what is it about toilet paper , you can only use so much !!
  From there we started towards Esperance to meet my sister & brother in law . We drove through Nannup to Manjimup & through to Cranbrook before stopping for the night at the small town of Borden .
  This was some of the magnificent forest we drove through .

  This 45m specimen of Jarrah is the " King Jarrah " just outside Manjimup , there's also a nice forest walk .

  Fuelled up at Cranbrook and headed off again , the road took us along the northern edge go the Stirling Range National Park , resulting in some nice views .

 Further down we were looking directly at Bluff Knoll , the great walk I did last year to the top . This year it's completely different , fires over December and January have decimated the park . As we drove further the scale of the fire took hold - no wonder the park has been closed to camping and walking .

 Grass trees seem to be the first thing to start the regrowth phase after the fires - these 2 looked good .

 This is Mt Trio , the fires burnt the lot from top to bottom .

  With the fire devastation behind us , we drove up there road a bit further to the little town of Borden where we camped the night after a long day driving .
 Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TsPVCH2tDqgz_oH-1W0nTClaKPgsSnLA&usp=sharing

18/3/20 Recap , jet boats & off again

  Bit of a gap in proceedings , we left Bremer Bay and went back to Albany for a few days to catch up with some friends - Terry & Robyn , before heading back to the big smoke again .

  we drove straight back to Baldivis from Albany in 34 degree heat and about 60 % humidity - it nearly killed us . We haven't had to put up with humidity for years and it is really strange that it's here now - it's usually a dry heat here !! 

  Our time has been taken up helping Emma to get things sorted out ready for sale .

In our spare time however , the jet boats were on at The Cauldron - which was just beside us - so we had to go . Here's a selection of some of the boats in full race mode .

  We also ventured up to Freemantle , coinciding with the Rottnest Island Swim , so there were boats & people everywhere . To top that off , there was also a cruise ship in port as well - you can see it to the left of the photo , on the opposite side of the cruise ship is the container port with the cranes .

Along the Swan River a bit further we found a waterfall - strange place for a waterfall , overlooking the river . It is the Bicentennial Park and has been man made , with some lovely parklands and pools that flow down the falls to the pool at the bottom .

 And here are the views of the river from the top of the park .

  Another week goes past and the jet boats were on again - great entertainment for 6 hours and $20 admission - West Coast Jetsprint Club does a great job , running a great event . Here's some more boats .

 I needed a break , so golf was in order . I hadn't played at Mandurah Country Club before , so this was going to be interesting . And interesting it was , it's a very nice course , great fairways and greens   and I had some good company , the golf was average to say the least , but a good afternoon out . The clubhouse sits above the course and the views from the verandah are outstanding - ocean only about 500m away , and from left to right in the photo - 1st tee & fairway , 18th green , 10th tee , 9th green and finally the practice fairway .

  Being happy with where Emma is , we left and headed south , only making it to Herron Point Campground for the night . It was 34 degrees and we were beside the estuary , so we went for a walk down to , and into the water to cool down . The estuary isn't very deep so we went down to the boat ramp where it's a bit deeper - only about a metre at the deepest - but it worked , we cooled down .

 Back to the van , and then the fun began . We turned on our inverter - needed to power our instantaneous gas water heater - it turned on then off and it also short circuited the van battery , meaning we no longer had power to do anything !! A call to NRMA / RAC to get some assistance and we finally got someone out to have a look , then tell us he can't do anything !!! It was too late to call the people who we bought the battery from in Queensland , so we had no power , no lights , no nothing till the morning - hopefully then we'll be able to do something ???? An early night was had .

  No surprise we were awake early , so we had breakfast before calling for some assistance . The call was made to Enerdrive , they were most helpful telling us someone would get back to us soon , 1and a half hours later I rang back and got someone else , he told me what I had to do , so I did that and we were back in action - a 2min fix !! - wish we'd known that last night !!

  We headed down to Bunbury and set up at Pelican Point again . We went for a drive out to the cut - the entrance to the estuary from the ocean - the bird needed a fly .

   This is the entrance looking north 

  And this is looking south to Bunbury city , the port is on the left .

  After a few days relaxing , we headed out to Wright's Bridge - about 100klm's away . It is on the Blackwood River , and has the old remains of foundations / pilings of an old bridge , and the newer bridge . There were workers at work on and under the bridge , reinforcing it .

  We went for a walk through the bush around the camping area , there are many gum trees here that have massive gum nuts - Honky Nuts - is what they're called .

 The walk isn't more than 600m and wound it's way around to another section of the river .



  Back around to the day use area again for a different view of the bridge . There is a campground with 15 sites for vans & tents - you do have to pay though .

  Back around Bunbury , we went back to Koombana Bay , this sculpture is an amazing design - yes you've probably seen it before in one of my earlier posts , but i'm happier with this photo of it .

  About 200m away is a lookout , designed on the remains of an old boat skeleton found in some sand discovered when they were removing the mineral rich sands .



  This is the view from the top , the yellow & silver building near the Norfolk Island Pines is the Dolphin Discovery Centre , and Koombana Bay behind it .



  Another day we rode around Pelican Point on the bikes . There is a great network of bike tracks here to get you all around the place , the track took us along the estuary and past some of the canal homes of Pelican Point .

 And that's it for a quick catch up of where we've been of late , hopefully things will get a bit more on track , till the bloody coronavirus catches up and stuffs things up completely . 

  Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qSVe0mt0gnU2STO4Si0jeuIdFRWcqk0Y&usp=sharing