South W.A Tour - Perth to Albany

Yallingup Reef
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We spent 10 days doing a tour of south-east W.A during which we stayed at a few different small towns, our favourite being Denmark with the wonderful Greens Pool. We left Perth on 12th & our first proper stop was at Koombana Bay, 3hrs south of the city. The bay is renowned for dolphin spotting but we didnt see any as we walked along the beach. We stopped at the beautiful Yallingup Reef a bit later to eat lunch. The beach there has beautiful sands fringed with grasses & wonderful turquoise water through which we could see thereef. We had apaddle & made friends with a female schmooey (extremely similar to Megs on legs!). Afterwards we had a look at canal rocks - a large granite outcrop which is pounded by the Indian Ocean. We then did some wine tasting at the Driftwood Estate & after 10 wines & a port we both felt a bit light headed! LAst stop of the day was the famous surfing area of Prevelly Point - yet another beautiful bay of turquoise water, coral reef & golden sands - where we watched the surfers. After we got dropped off at our hostel for the next 3 nights on Margaret River. On 13th we took it nice & easy. After a venture into the small town we spent the entire afternoon sunbathing around the outdoor pool at the hostel. NExt day started off a bit cloudy but after walking into town and back the sun had burnt through so we thumbed a lift to Prevelly Point - didnt fancy the 24km round walk! The beach looked wonderful on the sun and we walked along to sit at one end where we relaxed on the empty beach in t he hot sun for 3hrs before it clouded over. The following day we got back on the tour bus and headed south. On the way we stopped at a Cape Leeuwin and its lighthouse which is the most westernly part of Oz and where the Indian and Southern OCeans meet. NExt stop was the large Karri forested areas nr. PEmberton where we watched others clamber to the top of the 61m Gloucester Tree which is the tallest natutal fire lookout in the world. Further east along the coast we visted Valley of the Giants nr. Walpole where we did a tree top walk in a 400yr old Tingle Tree forest. Our final stop was at the stunning Greens Pool just outside Denmark, which is a natural pool formed by large rocks & coral sheltering the brilliant clear water from the powerful ocean. Wewalked on the soft sands and sat on some rocks admiring the wonderful scenery. That evening we checked into our hosetl in Denmark for a 3 night stay. On 16th we did an unintentional 20km walk. We started off walking along the banks of Denmark River and looked out over Wilson's Inlet & at the large Pelicans. Wecorssed the bridge and joined the Heritage Trail and walked the 15km loop to Crusoe Beach where we had lucnh and lazed i the sun, spotting a couple of snakes on the way back! Next day was Meg's birthday which started with a cup of tea and biscuits in bed and the giving of a handmade card and badge courtesy of Andy. Breakfast was a 17 pancake feast! Had a great day as we ended up doing a tour of the lovely local beaches with some others from the hostel. First was Greens Pool where we walked to Elephant Rocks & cove before walking back around the point to spen 3hrs lounging on the beach which looked even better in the wonderful weather. Next was a brief visit to the nearby Waterfall Beach before going to Ocean Beach which bridges Wilson's Inlet from the mainland to Nulaki Peninsula. We had a wlak on the nice beach and then lazed in the sun. Finished the day scoffing the birthday biscuits! The following day was pretty boring as we spent most of it planning & booking the next few parts of our Oz trip. Our minibus picked us up at 6.15pm by which time a storm had started and it was lashing it down so we got soaked getting on / off the bus. Our next stay was in Albany, a 40 min drive away and we arrived to a hostel in darkness due to a powercut resulting from the storm. The hostel wasnt nice so next morning we moved to another one for our remaining 2 nights. After we caught a bus over to Emu Point from where we walked around teh point and along the near white sands of Surfer's and Middleton Beaches. At Ellen Cove at teh far end we followed thye Albany Coastal Walk from where we could see over King George Sound and teh lovely coast. We encountered lots of lizards on the path as wel as some Bandicoots. From there we walked the steep rd past the impressive Anzac Memorial Statue up to the 186m summit of Mt Clarence. From the top we had great views of Albany, Princess Royal Harbour, Vancouver Peninsula, King George Sound and over to Oyster Harbour. We walked back down and to the hostel - a good 5.5hr walk of approximately 14km. We spent the 20th around the town. We looked around the shops and used teh internet and in the afternoon looked around the v.samll but interesting Residency Museum and also the Brig Amity - a replica of the first ship that brought Europeans to W.A in 1826. Afterwards, we lazed in the sun in a local park. We left Albany on the 21st and went to Torndirrup Nat Park and first experienced "The Blowholes" where we got a fearsome blast from the air forced up by the powerful Southern Ocean waves. NExt we went to "The Gap" and "The Natural Bridge" - 2 large granite formations, once connected to Antartica that are well over a billion years old!!! We headed back into Albany and the guide drove to teh summit of Mt Clarence and then down to Middleton Beach - shame we did it the hard way ourselves previously! On leaving we passed the most celebrated sight of Albany "Dog Rock", yep a rock that resembles a dog! We headed north-west back to Perth and stopped at Fox River Winery for some wine tasting, always fun on an empty stomach. Reached Pertha t 6.30 and got ready for our next tour - 7.00am the next morning!!!!