South Western Australia

Route:- Perth, Yalgorup National Park, Bunbury, Busselton, Cape Naturaliste, Dunsborough, Margaret River, Augusta, Jewel Cave, Cape Leeuwin, Pemberton, Walpole, Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie Boulder, Hyden -Wave Rock, Perth

Distance covered:- 3000 Km approx

Our Campervan adventure began with picking up the van from Trailmasters in Perth. After a quick 'How to Operate' the van we were heading south. Well not quite, we had to navigate our way out of the city onto the freeway, stop to do a food shop and then we were on the open road.

It was an amazing road trip and South Western Australia is a beautiful scenic area, sparsely populated with heaps of things to see and do. Some of the scenic drives we undertook are the best we have seen, especially Margaret River and the Esperance coastal drive.

It would take forever to write (and for you to read) everything we did, so to sum up, in Bunbury we swam dolphins up close and attempted to swim with the, but they were not playing. We walked along the longest Jetty (2km) in the Southern Hemisphere; Jay swam half of it whilst Dawn looked out for sharks. We partook in a wine tour in the Margaret River region, which consisted of lots of tasters plus educating us on wine etiquette. Yes Jay sampled the plonk and was a little tipsy by the end of day, the tour was great as there was a gang of us and we also got to sample oodles of local produce including chocolate, meat, cheese, yoghurt, beer and fudge. Not to mention the bbq we had before the tour started. We ventured down the amazing Jewel Cave, the cave was 1.5km in length, 100m down. It consisted of pendulum stalagmites which glistened hence the name Jewel Cave. We also took a walk to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, this was the point where the southern ocean meets the Indian Ocean, very windy. Pemberton say Jay climbing a 61m tingle tree unaided in Gloucester National Park and Dawn chickened out after a 5m attempt. It was bloody high.

After this adventure we spent Australia day taking a relaxing Valley of the Giants tree top walk in Nornalup National Park where we got up to 40m into the canopy. Our time in Albany was mainly spent in Torndirrup National Park visiting the rock formations, Natural Bridge and the Gap. A 6 hour drive to Esperance. The coastal drive included some amazing beaches. We saw sea lions and chilled here before the drive inland to the Goldfields. Where 'in land' doesn't just mean that there is no coast it also means the temperature rises from a nice 25-30 degree to a stinking 42-46 degrees. It was too hot to do anything, but we did manage to visit the Super pit, WA's largest open cast working gold mine. 3.8km length, 2.1km wide and over 500m deep. It was huge!!! We also visited the mining museum which included a trip down an old mine. It was very informative, not to mention a lot cooler underground. (130ft, 21 degrees). Another first we visited Langtrees brothel and this wasn't for anything untoward although as the only working brothel in Kalgoorlie we could have engaged in their services. Such places flourished during the gold rush and the tour was very informative and very entertaining albeit a bit weird as you can probably imagine. We also took a tour to the Flying Doctors Service which was very interesting.

The last leg of our tour saw us visiting Wave Rock at Hyden, which is a huge granite rock in the shape of a wave. 15m high, 110m in length, it has been water eroded over 2700 million years, an awesome sight, well worth the detour.

In all a great trip with so many great experiences and memories, hopefully our photos will make you all smile and help put our trip highlights together a bit more.