Western Australia, Part 2
Monday–Friday November 7 to 11, 2011
Pemberton is a short drive from the Karri forest. But on the way, wildlife was spotted. The kangaroo on the right has a baby in her pouch. The Emu was being followed by 3 chicks.
OK, those are not the best photographs ever taken. We’ll do better down the road.
Here’s the map again. We pick up here near Pemberton, marked with the yellow pin.
We drove to Augusta, which is where Australia divides the Southern Ocean from the Indian Ocean. The wind was really blowing and the waves were pounding the coast. The camera lens salted up in just 3 seconds.
The lonely Cape Leeuwin lighthouse is just around the corner.
From Augusta, we drove north and had lunch in Margaret River, which looks something like St Helena, Napa County, California. After, we drove up to the motel near the delightfully–named village of Yallingup.
Here’s a photo taken by the side of the highway. Doesn’t it look like parts of California?
Next day, we drove up to Cape Naturaliste to see if we could see whales. Before reaching the Cape, we turned and went to see what Sugarloaf Rock looked like. The sea was really chopping and it was so windy standing straight took an effort.
If there were whales out there, they couldn’t be distinguished from the waves.
Next, we drove a few miles north to the Cape and its relatively short lighthouse. There are several trails and we set out on one, but ended up running for the car about a half mile from the end as a strong wind and rain storm came up.
The next morning we went back to the Cape, and it was a fine day. The ocean had calmed down, and whales could be spotted not far off shore. Lunch was at a restaurant at a winery. Here’s the view from our table.
The next day, Wednesday, we drove up to Busselton to go out on its famous jetty, which is a bit over one mile long. At the end is an observatory allowing visitors to watch marine life 25 feet under the surface.
The water here was still a bit murky from the storm, but there was a lot of color.
After the jetty, we drove a bit further north to Bunbury and stayed the night near the Dolphin Discovery Centre. The next morning, we spent time waiting on the beach until the dolphins showed up, coming right up to the beach and swimming slowly past the tourists.
After the dolphins left, we walked across the street and walked through a protected mangrove swamp.
Then we motored up to Mandurah, a fairly large city with a lot of new residential developments near the water. We picked it because the hotel had a washing machine in each room.
Next morning, we drove up to Perth and went back to the Botanic Garden again—it was a sunny day—and then drove out to the airport for the flight to Adelaide.
After leaving the Karri forest, we continued our drive to quiet Pemberton, where we spent the night. We’ll spend a few more days driving back up the Indian Ocean coast to Perth.
Next—Adelaide and Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
