Wednesday 22-Jan
A driving day, we covered over 400 KM which takes us, with the caravan, rest and fuelling stops most of the day. We drove from Esperance to Bremer Bay where we set camp at the Bremer Bay caravan park.
Thursday 23-Jan
We decided to explore the area around Bremer Bay. First drive was over 50 Km corrugated roads to see Point Ann. The corrugations were very bad in some stretches and the car got a thorough shake out and so did its passengers. On the way back we dropped the tyre pressure to dampen the effect of the bad road surface. It helped, but not an experience we both enjoyed. However, the scenery was beautiful and we stopped a few times on the way to take some pictures of the vegetation. We saw these very colourful plants called Hakea Victoria, commonly known as royal hakea or lantern hakea, it is a shrub endemic to Western Australia and noted for its ornamental foliage. They look nice and soft but they are really hard and prickly.
When we got back in Bremer Bay we had a very nice lunch at the Bremer Bay resort, before doing the peninsula and visited Little Boat Harbour beach. We stopped at a lovely small tucked away beach and Jen even had a swim.
When we arrived back at the caravan park more people had moved in. So after some shopping done Arno moved the car to make some more space and hit a pole that was right in front of the car. Not happy but shit happens, we’ll see if we can fix it temporarily and get it fixed properly when we are back home.
After this excitement we had a long catch up with Gery and Michael and settled in for the night.
Friday 24-Jan
We were on the road before 9 AM on our way to Albany to do some shopping and making our way to the next caravan park in Denmark. We decided that we will have to come back to Albany, it is a lovely city with quite a few interesting things we would like to see.
Saturday 25-Jan
The weather forecast was not looking promising with rain expected most of the day. Perfect weather to do some laundry and maybe visit a winery or two.
We followed the wine tour as suggested by the tourist information. We tried a few very nice wines and picked up a few bottles.
Sunday 26-Jan
It is Australia day and we decided to put the bikes on the car and spent some time in Albany. We did a steep climb up Mount Clarence to the Apex lookout which gave us a great view of Albany.
We followed the bike trail to Middleton Beach. There were lots of Australia day activities and plenty of people about. We stopped for lunch at the Three Anchors before taken the bikes path back to the car. We had a good workout doing that stretch
Monday 27-Jan
Today we visited a few more wineries and some awesome lookouts all within a 50 minutes drive from Denmark.
We visited a few famous lookouts, with interesting names such as Elephant rock, or Sinkers Bay.
We also tried something different, wine made from honey. We had wine made from mangos before but this was new. This is called a meadery which is a winery or brewery that produces honey wines or meads, and which sells them commercially. The history of mead goes back thousands of years and was a key part of Viking celebrations, such as harvest festivals and successful pillages. We now have a few bottles to enjoy this at home.
We stopped for lunch at a very quaint little restaurant that not only served some good food but had the most interesting interior.
When we got back to the caravan park Arno went for a walk and Jen jumped on her bike. This is a lovely park with great facilities and a good place for breakfast. As this is right on the water there are quite a few fishermen out and about. Arno talked to one of them who was cleaning his catch of the day while eager pelicans were waiting for the scrap. The pelicans were fighting for the scrap and the winner had the full snapper carcass stuck in his throat for a while before gobbling it down.
Another great day exploring this vast country.