Cape Le Grande National Park

 Hello once again, we are currently in Streaky Bay enjoying the sun and the surf as I type this. We have fallen behind on our blog as we have been having much fun and have made it across the Nullarbor.

All these photo's as the title states is of Cape Le Grande National Park. Matthew Flinders features prominately so I guess he discovered this area. We stayed four nights at Lucky Bay camp site. Lucky bay was named by Flinders after he needed to head inland away from strong winds and seas. We certainly could understand the strong winds bit as we expierenced some nasty winds but mostly in the late evenings. We had no power at the camp site and well and truly used ever bit of saved power we could muster between our waeco fridge battery and the cars battery.

We were all blown away by the NP's  beauty the beaches and rocky outlooks were magnificant and rate as one of the top 5 highlights of our trip. There were many little bays that we visited and they all consisted of the whitest sand you have ever seen and light blue clear water.

The picture above was taken from our campsite, what a view. The below pictures are of Lucky bay and we think the most picturesque of them all.

 On low tied you were able to drive along the 3 km return trip beach on Lucky bay. It was for 4 wheel drives only but after walking it the day before we noticed how hard the sand was so we thought we would give it a go. The boys enjoyed climbing and jumping down the sand dunes and adding to a huge sand castle built the day before by another camper.

 There were many friendly kangaroos especially around anytime they smelt food. They were extremely patient around young children who sometimes over stepped the mark, not our boys. Mind you if you left any food around or rubbish bins within their reach they would help themselves. We are too wise for that as seasoned campers but it was nice to see the roos around and many were mums and joeys which the boys loved to see.

 The castle was so tall that the boys had to stand up on a bank to be shown in this shot. Unfortunately the sand castle only lasted a couple of days when the tide washed it away

 Amongst all the walking along lovely beaches we also walked up Frenchmans Peak. This was a very steep walk(said to take 2 hours return) mainly on rock which after all our other walks posed no probs for us. It took us 30 minutes to climb with Jake our usual leader and Sue and Benjamin at the tale. It was very windy at the top but the views were fantastic. We spent 30 minutes on top enjoying the 360 degree views. The photo of Sue and I, a rare one was taken by one of the boys who have all become very keen to take photos with the camera.

 Seeing the boys are used to getting their picture taken a couple of times a day it is rare to get one with one of them not pulling a funny face. So as a result this one is blog worthy, although I see that Liam may have been warming up for a silly face.

 I think this photo may have been from Esperance Twilight Beach, a great sheltered beach which was voted Australia's best beach in 2006. It's still a great beach.

 Sue and the boys setting off for a walk, ride along Lucky bay after we set up the camper trailer

 The boys and I sitting on the rocks which in the next couple of days we spent a few hours fishing from.

 Another view of Lucky bay from the rocks.

 Benjamin with his walking stick about to climb Frenchmans Peak

 Any lizard got the boys into action they loved them but not enough to touch them. They could watch them for hours. This one was far to big for any handling.

Fishing cape Le Grande, well Liam was the only one to catch fish, I think he caught 3 herring (tommy rufes for us eastern  staters) and a garfish which were all filleted and cooked up. As it got light at about 4 a.m each morning I started going fishing at about five. I fished off the beach at Lucky Bay, it did not live up to its name. The first morning I was fishing for sammon when I hooked a fish, watched it jump out of the water a couple of times and excitedly reeled it in. As it came through the shellows it made one last ditch effort to get of the hook and darted left and right quickly, probably saw me,  wide eye, when I saw the fish coming closer and closer. It was a pretty big fish somewhere between 50 and 80 cm, yeah I know no one was with me and the water does make them look bigger but it's fair to say I have done a bit of fishing this trip and I know the difference between and big and small fish just by the feel of it on your line.

Anyway you probably know were this story is going with no pictures to accompany it. The fish broke of the line probably from my always trusty reef knot. needless to say I have learn't to tie a new and improved fishing knot and haven't suffered the same humiliation again, Im glad to say.

Enough about me, the next blog will cover our trip to Kalgoorlie- Boulder and crossing the Nullarbor.

We have also been excited to find out that we are able to return to Melbourne into our house on the 20th December. We are then able to celebrate christmas at home and the boys,Liam and Jake are keen to spend the last 2 days of the school term at school. I would never have believed it, but in all seriousness they are missing their mates at school. All the boys have grown up heaps and the only time they or we fight/argue is when one of us is tied. The boys are still doing their daily journals and both Liam and Jake have completed their maths book which is what the school users as well. Benjamin knows his ABC, the sounds of each letter and words that start with each letter, can count up to 20 and backwards from 10. A little bit of school work everyday can achieve a lot, that's not to say that the boys want to do it everyday

Bye for now

Wave Rock and Esperance

 We weren't going to visit Wave Rock in our plan but we wanted to see it and decided to travel the 195kms out of our way (each way) to see it. We were suitably impressed and took many pictures of us surfing the rocky wave (very original I know).

 The above photo was of "Hippos Yawn" which you can tell by the name what this looks like. The boys enjoyed pretending to tickle the hippos tonsils. Our campsite was next to Wave Rock and the flies were so bad that we would have become insane if we had stayed longer than 1 night. Many people we saw had either the corks dangling from their hats or a mesh screen hanging from their hats. Bring out food and the flies decide to party on your food.

 We went on a coastal drive around Esperance and saw many beautiful beaches and admired the crystal blue water.

                   Liam, Ben and I on the beach. Liam writing his name in the sand.

           Benjamin wanted to pretend surf on all the rocks he found after our wave rock visit.

 Ben took the above photo which I thought was a very good job for a 5 yr old. It was the 2nd photo he'd ever taken.

                                                    More rock surfing!

 This is the resident Sea Lion which hangs around the Tanker Jetty in Esperance near our caravan park. We call him Samy the seal as there is a bronze statue on the jetty of a seal by this name. He was on the sand under the jetty but a tourist scared him into the water and he put on a great show for us in the water. He waits for people to cut up their fish on the jetty and throw him the off cuts. The boys want to watch him for hours!

 Today we visited a bird and animal park and the boys enjoyed feeding some lambs a bottle of milk and feeding kangeroos, alpacas, ponies, and sheep. They also had the chance to hold guinea pigs and rabbits. The GP's were too fast to catch and tended to bite but the 2 small brown rabbits were much more friendly and the boys wanted to take them with us. They have put them on their Christmas wish list.

                                          Jake and I holding a baby wallaby.

Well we are finally up to date for our travel blog. On Monday we are heading to Cape Le Grand National Park and will camp there for 4 nights. We will have no power and I assume no internet and phone reception. We are looking forward to some even more pristine white sandy beaches and the boys are all hoping for some good fishing. The weather forecast is for some warm to hot weather next week so we are hoping this comes true.
Bye for now.
Sue.

Part 2 of Pemberton to Bremer Bay

 When I was doing the last edition of the blog not all the photos I wanted loaded so I've added them now. The photos above and below are at the tree top walk near Walpole as we could walk around the ground amongst the trees and see the huge holes in their trunks. The tree below was called Grandma Tree as it does look like an old woman's face.(You need some imagination)

 This is a King Skink and there were plenty of them living in the bushes next to our campsite in Albany. The boys loved watching them and made up some names for them.

                           The views of Albany from this lookout were great.          

The boys doing some maintenance work to their bikes in Bremer Bay. These bikes have been invaluable during our trip as it gives the boys some independence to ride around campsites together. It keeps them entertained for hours. There was hardly anyone camping near us at this caravan  park and at night many kangeroos would come and eat the grass. Jake went to the toilets during the early hours of the morning and found two big roos outside the mens toilet. He decided to visit the ladies toilets instead.

Pemberton to Bremer Bay WA

 This is the tree top walk near Walpole on our drive from Pemberton to Albany.

 One of the squids the boys caught. We enjoyed eating them for dinnner but Steve found it a chore to prepare them as the ink bag would put ink everywhere. Very messy work but we all enjoyed eating them.

 We had a good look over the Brig Amity in Albany. It was a replica of the boat that brought the first British settlers to Albany.

                         The boys look very proud of their catch of squid!

 Our visit to Whale World in Albany was very interesting to find out about the whaling industry. It was a relief to me that they don't kill the whales anymore and hack them to pieces. (So PC Sue). It's interesting that the Japanese kill about 990 minkie whales for research, oh by the way they just happen to eat them as well. Anyway, Japan have their hands full re their natural disaster.

 These whale skeletons were from beached whales. The huge jaw bones were from a blue whale. Seems ridiculous that they only ate krill and plankton with those huge jaws. It makes me look like a dwarf standing near it (in aqua jacket).

 Wind farm in Albany. We walked right up to one and marvelled at the immense size of one. The stand was 64 metres high and each arm of the windmill is 34 metres long.

                                   We found Bremer Bay a very pretty little coastal town.

This was a squeaky beach at Bremer Bay and the boys enjoyed making the sand squeak under their feet. We have rejigged our itinerary to include Wave Rock and Kalgoolie. Some extra driving but I'm sure it will be worth it. Over the last few days we have all come down with a cold. Hopefully the first and last one for the year. Looking forward to some sun in Esperance.
Stay tuned for the next installment of our adventures.
Sue.