21st May 2011
As we travelled from Norseman to Esperance the landscape changed dramatically, from the striking polished orange trunks of the coral gum, through mallee scrub and the wide open plains of the farming region to the pine lined coast. With Colin Buchanan playing on the stereo and joy abounding in my heart we sang of life in the real Australia as we passed through outback and rural towns.
The rain was falling on the newly planted crops and rainbows materialised out of nowhere. You know you're back in civilisation when you spot the golden arches. Having skipped lunch we couldn't resist treating ourselves to an early dinner at Maccas. We then settled into the foreshore caravan park for the night.
22nd May 2011
My googling took us to an AoG church this morning. It was quite a bizarre service which defies description here but suffice to say that God can speak to you through his servants even in the most surprising ways and places. Gladly accepting a lunch invitation we enjoyed an afternoon at Kay's with about a dozen other members of the church. It was very interesting hearing first hand of life on the land. I was surprised to hear that many of the farmers work amazingly long days, out on the tractor long after the sun has set with 4 hours sleep being deemed fairly normal. After lunch we enjoyed the Great Ocean Drive which winds it's way along the coastline.
Magnificent granite outcrops and islands set amid azure blue waters and the whitest sandy beaches I've ever seen were complimented by brilliant rainbows so clear and close you'd think you could touch them. After a perfect Sunday it was back to the caravan park for pumpkin soup and a load of washing.
23rd May 2011
With schoolwork out of the way we wandered down to the pier. Keeping a lookout for Sammy the sea-lion who lives around the pier I caught a brief glimpse of him shooting through the clear waters under the walkway. Another top-up of groceries and then it was down to the port area and an adventure park for lunch. As I was keen to be settled before dark we moved on towards Lucky Bay. Our first stop was La Grande beach. The area was named in honour of a young ensign on L'Esperance, one of two vessels on a French expedition commanded by Admiral D'Entrecasteaux in 1792. La Grande is purported to have climbed the masthead during a severe storm and guided the ships to a safe anchorage west of Esperance. An encounter with St. Elmo's fire during the storm named our next destination, Hellfire Bay.
Clambering around the granite headland we had a lovely view back to the pristine white sandy beach. Every bay we enter provides another contestant for my favourite Australian beach. The only downer to the day was a rock that has left a large chip in my windscreen right at eye level. With so much windscreen to hit why did it have to crack directly in my line of sight? Grizzle, grumble! Excitement abounded as we pulled into Lucky Bay campsite to see the Bakers van. Parking next to them the kids quickly reignited their friendship. As Vivi said, friends made on the road are extra special as they fill the gap of missed friends back at home.
24th May 2011
God spoke to me last night. It sounds strange to put that in words but I believe to my core that it's true. In the still, quiet hours of early morning as I lay looking at the expanse of the Milky Way he whispered gently to me through the words of a song. I hope Colin Buchanan and Troy Cassar-Daly will forgive my tweaking of their words but this is what I heard as the song which I didn't even know I had, and had inadvertently added to a playlist just before retiring, repeated itself seven times over.
"I have been your long companion,
You have never been alone,
I was there for every footstep,
For I Am the Lord.
It was I who made you restless,
For horizons, open skies,
Beckoned over hill and mountain,
For the Lord Am I.
I have made you friends forever,
Comrades who can share the load,
I see every weary drifter,
For I am The Lord.
I Am hard and I Am tender,
I Am lonely I Am free,
Every mile you'll ever travel,
You will share with me.
And I'm calling, calling,
And I'm calling, calling to you.
I will be your long companion,
You will never be alone,
I'll be there for every footstep,
For I Am The Lord."
I then awoke this morning to this prayer in my daily devotions.
"I praise you Lord for totally understanding me and being the God of compassion." What an immense comfort this has been. God knew the road I would take long before I took the first step, he has been with me all the way and will continue to travel the road with me. He knows me more completely than I know myself. As I struggle to discover who I am, where I'm going and my purpose in life he will gently and compassionately guide my every footstep, my every decision and my every plan. He will walk with me until the journeys end and then lead me home. What a great and glorious God we have.
The Bakers decided to stay an extra night while we were in camp so I was able to leave Jayden playing this morning whilst I went for a hike from Lucky Bay towards Thistle Cove. This was without a doubt the most spectacular scenery on a hike I have ever encountered.
Every few steps brought another breathtaking picture perfect scene. I finally figured out how to use the panorama function on my new camera although it really drains the battery quickly.
After lunch Tim offered to watch the kids so that Kirsten and I could make the longer walk to Rossiters Bay. Whilst not as breathtaking as my morning walk it was still very enjoyable with a vast variety of unusual vegetation and wildflowers.
We joined forces tonight for dinner, with Tim and Kirsten cooking up fish, calamari and veggies whilst I contributed the much coveted by Vivi and Alex, golden syrup dumplings.
25th May 2011
As dawn broke the day looked promising but soon the rain that had been sitting out at sea moved onto the coast and Lucky Bay turned damp and dreary. So we hit the road back to Esperance where we had the chip in the windscreen repaired and attended to a few other errands in town. It was then another few hours of driving before stopping for the night at Fitzgerald River (Jacup) rest area. We met some new travellers and reacquainted ourselves with others we'd met crossing the Nullarbor. Some of the fauna we have seen on the journey today include some Australian ring-neck or twenty-eight parrots, red capped parrots, two huge wedge-tailed eagles dining at the roadside butchery, kangaroos, and emus running through the cattle paddocks.
26th May 2011
My Camps 5 book misled me into thinking there'd be toilets at our overnight stop. Discovering there wasn't, we made an early start to Jerramungup Lions Club Park for breakfast and schoolwork. With that out of the way we continued to Ongerup and the Mallee Fowl Centre. "Up" is the local Aborigine word for "place of" and "gnow" is the word for the Malleefowl hence Gnowangerup is "place of the Malleefowl".
The information in the centre was very interesting, as was seeing four of these unusual birds in the aviary. One of the unique behaviours of the Malleefowl is their nest. They spend between 9 and 11 months of the year building and maintaining a large mound of soil twigs and leaves. Each egg is carefully buried in the mound and incubated by heat from composting leaf litter. Over generations of use mounds may grow to an incredible one and a half metres high and 22 metres in circumference. As we moved south, the Stirling Ranges gradually grew out of the flat plains to dominate the landscape. Seemingly out of place we stopped into an authentic Dutch Windmill at the base of the ranges. Wanting to do some hiking but without enough daylight left to tackle the more ambitious walks we settled ourselves into the Stirling Ranges Retreat.
Wildflowers abound here in the spring and during a walk around the edges of the National Park it was easy to see the wide variety of plants which provide the spectacle. We spotted a few small flowers and were excited to spot a Regent Parrot. After dinner we tried our hand at spotlighting again but without success. However the stars were amazing again so the iPad came out for another tour of the night time sky.
27th May 2011
Jay was let off schoolwork this morning so we could make an early assault on the climb up Bluff Knoll. This 6.8km hike rises 656m to the 1094.97m peak, the tallest in South West Western Australia.
A strenuous but very rewarding and satisfying climb offered spectacular 360 degree views back across the plains to the north, and south to the ocean near Albany. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day, warm and sunny and brilliantly clear for as far as the eye could see. We were rewarded at the summit by two wedge-tailed eagles circling the cliff tops intent of finding prey far below.
The return walk was decidedly easier and we enjoyed lunch in the carpark with a beef farmer and his wife from Victoria. Everyone we meet have such interesting stories and unusual lives from the perspective of a city girl. Increasingly I'm feeling like a frustrated country girl stuck in a city lifestyle. Our last stop for the day was Porangorup National Park. Still feeling the strain of the morning's climb we only walked as far as the "Tree in the Rock" 100m down the path before continuing onto Normans Beach for our overnight stop. Arriving at sunset the still waters of the lagoon made some beautiful reflections in the golden light.
28th May 2011
Into Albany we headed making a brief detour to the Sandalwood factory. Sandalwood is a native Australian desert tree with an aromatic heartwood and seeds from which sandalwood oils are extracted. With a maturation age of 50 to 75 years the native tree isn't very commercially viable but the Indian Sandalwood tree which is under threat from over harvesting in India and takes only 20 years to mature thrives in the warm humid conditions in the Pilbara region of North-West Western Australia. Arriving at the caravan park around 10:30am I had ample opportunity to get lots of washing and cleaning done.
29th May 2011
We joined in worship with Albany Baptist church this morning. Fortuitously we arrived at the same time as the assistant ministers wife Jenny who offered to sit with us and invited us back for lunch. Her husband David who had trained for four years at Moore College before returning to Albany to take up a ministry posting gave the sermon. Back at their house for lunch we were surprised at the number of coincidences in our lives. Both of us have four boys with a big gap between 3 and 4. They also have a 15 year old Cameron. As we chatted many more similarities kept surfacing. After a very filling lunch we headed out to Whale World where we ran into two families who had been in camp at Lucky Bay with us. Whale World was the last active whaling station in Australia. It closed in 1978 as financial increases, a drop in the use of whale based products in favour of petroleum and the weight of political and public opinion moved against commercial whaling.
We joined another travelling family for the guided tour which was very interesting, especially the four video presentations set up in the whale oil tanks. The highlight of the tour though had to be the spotting of a juvenile humpback whale who breached at least three times not far from shore as we watched. It was the first sighting of the season in this location so we again were very fortunate. The drive to our campsite was a bit further than I'd anticipated and darkness made finding a spot in the overcrowded site difficult. A chance spotting of an owl on a signpost in the camp area with either a mouse or small marsupial in it's claws made the long drive worthwhile.
30th May 2011
With a storm lurking I decided to escape Cosy Corner early, just in case, as the spot we were crammed into was very tight and tricky. So back to Albany we headed for a big shop. Once the cupboards were restocked we toured the Amity Brig, the boat which brought the first European settlers to these shores from Sydney in 1826.
Although Swan Hill colony, later to become Perth, was looking promising, the British were keen to establish other settlements to prevent the French from colonising the area. The local Minang people were at first wary of the new settlers after some very negative experiences with the rough sealers who occasionally frequented the coast. We spent a pleasant couple of hours doing some craft activities at the WA Museum before heading back to Cosy Corner after the storms didn't eventuate.
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