A couple of years ago a group of people I had known in Sydney, who were now spread all over Australia, decided it would be good to visit someone we all knew in Adelaide. That time, we changed our mind, and all went to Fiji instead. I have never travelled with a largish group of friends before, apart from hiking trips, it was a lot of fun. This year, we decided to do it again but picked visiting WA instead, as two really wanted to see Quako’s. While WA is part of Australia but as it is a 5 hour flight, you don’t often go. Stuff happens in the planning, and it ended up with four of us going for a massive road trip. It was still a lot of fun!
Views from the road
The extreme dry out near Wave Rock west of Perth, this is what most of the state looks like. Even in the dry there are plenty of birds ; small colourfull ones flitting about to the beady eyes of emus.
The Stunning Far South Coast
The photos say it all; Esperance, Albany, Denmark, the coastal location are all just beautiful, I particularly like Denmark which is a mix of beaches, wine country, and a bit of a arty feeling. A lot of these towns were originally whaling locations and there are plenty of reminders of the past. On the road accross to Denmark we came accross a pretty cool collection of massive boulders you can climb up onto, they have ladders and rails but all the people I was travelling with are not climbers or even rock scrambers – this was challenging for them. The views on top were great, although seeing an oncoming storm when you have quite a lot of meters of ladders to go down isn’t the best!
Most of the trip was driving but we did stop for a short hike at Fitzgerald River National Park, lots of different flowers. The best part tough was when a mother and calf humpback whale surfaced right next to where we were standing, close enough to easily here them breathing.
Wine Country
Apart from many, many stunning beaches WA is also known for it’s wine.The vinyards start down at the South Coast but are centered around Margaret River, a few hundred km’s South of Perth. Wineries here tend to be large and come with stunning buildings and grounds. WA is a very showy place.
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is a small island about 20km off the mainland. Most people cycle around it, it’s not huge and that’s a great way to explore the many little coves, there no cars so it’s great cycling. The island is pretty flat, it’s easy to ride around go up to the lightest in the middle. Wadjemup Lighthouse at 38m is easy to see from the whole island, probably useful for a lighthouse! It’s been operational since 1896 and is still helping boats into Fremantle.
The island is known for gorgeous water, reefs, great beaches and it is home to possiby the custest animal in the world… Quokas!
Gorgeous Wildflowers, So Much Colour
WA is a very dry state so it is suprising the big variety of flowers we saw through the trip, some really unusual I’ve never seen before.
Back on the Road to Perth
The long trip on the road was coming to end; all that was left was a walk out on the super long jetty at Brusselten for the underwater aquarium and the many cute birds. Of course, for us East Coasters, a photo of sunset over a beach is a very rare treat.
We covered a lot of miles, made easier by travelling with freinds. It was a great trip and I’d happily go back.