South West Friends

The last part of our journey in the South West of Western Australia was spent reacquainting ourselves with friends from Marty’s Army days.  I guess it proves that you can take the bloke out of the Army but the Army out of the bloke.

The first stop was at Albany where we stayed with Charles Reynolds and his lovely wife Lee and equally lovely daughter Julia.  We had last seen the Reynolds family in Canberra around 2001 and so it was great to catch up.  We pitched the camper in Charles’ lilium farm at Cuthbert just west of Albany.  Charles’ company ‘Floresence’ has just been judged to be the best regional business in WA which is a great fillip for Albany as well as the company.  It was not hard to see why the company won the award as Charles applies his military training and lots of hard work and dedication to make the business the success it is.  We (hopefully) helped Charles by working on the farm on one day.  We picked and bunched liliiums for 5-6 hours.  Marty was the buncher and I was the fat controller putting the bunches into cellophane.  It was good fun but we would not like to do it for a living. 

We also got to experience the surround sound theatre that is part of the Reynolds home and an amateur stage production (“A Family Christmas Concert”) in the Albany Entertainment Centre where Charles was the stage manager.

Albany was probably the most surprising town we visited in regards to how different it was from our expectations.  We had expected a working port but we got much more.  The town has lovely beaches and views and is surrounded by national parks with scenery equal to anything we have seen on the trip.  We were especially fascinated by the wind farms which supplies a large amount of Albany’s power.

Albany Wind farm 12 giant turbines 100m high

Princess Royal Harbour on The Edge Of King George Sound

We spent a nice day in Frenchman’s National Park where we visited the Gap and Natural Bridge, both natural rock features on the Albany coastline.  We had a picnic at Natural Bridge and Marty dangled his legs over the edge.  Boy that was tempting.

Torndirrup National Park – more rugged coastal scenery

Torndirrup National Park – arch.

Torndirrup National Park – Natural Bridge.

Torndirrup National Park – more rugged coastal scenery, - the Gap, a chasm witha 24 meter drop to the sea

We also visited Stony Hill in the park which also had great views.  We persuaded Charles to have his first day off for some time and the three of us went to the Porongurup National Park and walked the 3kms to Castle Rock.  What a sensational view, right back to Albany.  We also found geocaches at both places.

Porongurup National Park Castle Rock

Porongurup National Park Balancing Rock

The weather had improved significantly so we walked along the beaches at Emu Point, Mutton Bird Beach and Middleton Beach and walked the boardwalk along the cliff face between Middleton and Albany.  In the town of Albany we went to the ANZAC Day memorial with its great views and attended an antique auction.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any offers for Marty.

Mounted Corps Memorial, a recast of the original statue erected at Suez in 1932

Torndirrup National Park – more rugged coastal scenery, - the Gap, a chasm with arch.

After saying goodbye and thanks to Charles and family, we left Albany for Esperance via a stop at Munglinup Beach, another lovely beach in this part of the world.

Fortunately we were not beached out as Esperance is well known for its beautiful beaches and white sand.  We did the Great Ocean Drive which highlights Esperance’s beaches and as the weather was pretty hot we stopped for a swim at Twilight Beach.  It looked lovely but was a little treacherous as Marty found out.  Fortunately (Perhaps) I came to the rescue with my pink noodle and dragged him back to shore.

Great Ocean Drive 38 km drive explores the coast of Esperance . 

 Esperance .

In Esperance we caught up with another Army colleague of Marty’s, the quiet and retiring Annie Smith (Timmsy) and met her husband Al and daughter Darby.  We had a ripper meal with them and then went to Cape le Grand some 50 odd kms from Esperance.  Whilst at the Cape we parked on the sand at Lucky Beach, scrambled around the rocks (including seeing a plaque that commemorates the visit of Mathew Flinders) and had a barbie.  But then the highlight.  Marty caught his very first fish and what a ripper it was.  It was a salmon that fed four people that night (after Al filleted it).  After a 50 odd kms drive there I drove 23 back along the beach.  I had received instructions in beach driving from our friend Terry earlier in the trip and put it to good use.

We were sorry to leave Esperance and said sad farewells to Timmsy, Al and Darby.  We also farewelled our new best friends Grant and Donna (Chippie and Kebab).  We have now shared eight caravan parks with them.