Sat 21 Sept

To the elevated walkway in the Valley of the Giants. Eucalyptus Jacksonii, called Tingles, presumed to be after mis-hearing the noongar word for "red." They've been around since the dinosaurs and are now confined to this 600 hectare area, which has over a metre of rainfall, sandy soil, and moderate seasons. They have shallow roots, so need a buttress, and end up very wide. When fires come through the outside bark and the centre of the Tingles burns but they survive with the middle layers. The last big fire that came through the tops of the trees was in 1951. CALM do controlled burns to get rid of the leaf-litter in a patchwork quilt fashion so that future fires won't be as hot.

So it's called Coalmine Beach- right, there are low grade brown coal deposits at each end of the beach - that have never been mined. Ahhh, the rich tapestry of history, eh?

— I go over to use the barbie, and there's this guy standing in the dark, over a concrete fire-pit. He apologises that he's got to leave but just got mesmerised by the fire.

I says "You're Australian, it's a religion."

He says "It just makes the world a better place."

And there we see a hint of what makes this country great…..

Sun 22 Sept

A boat tour around the estuary. We looked for plastics on a protected beach for a university count. Gary the skipper blew all 40 of us away with his amazing knowledge of history and biology. He could really vamp it up with his French accent too. Also a real comedian and raconteur.

Lunch at the local pub and then to Peaceful Bay.

Mon 23 Sept

To Denmark. Population 6,500 incl. surroundings. The caravan park is overlooking the estuary, with scaupe-like ducks, pelicans soaring high and gliding so close to the water surface. The other ducks are taking their ducklings around like a primary school, with one parent at the front and one at the rear, and the chicks really well behaved.

Tues 24 Sept

Early wander: Up one side of the river to the town bridge and back the other. Some of the trees over flat water views looked very West Coast S.I.

Around the Bays. Surfies had gone for a long walk to get their dose. Good offshore breeze. Ocean beach had nothing usable. We went to some lookouts and another couple of beaches, but the bodyboard didn't get a run. We swam at Madfish and Green's beaches. Lovely clear water. Green's is noted for it's snorkelling. I had my new body-boarding fins but my swim-goggles had died. Lynn had decided that it was time for a tan, hopefully she soaked up some rays before the clouds came over. Coming back up the track, Lynn recognised Anne and family from the caravan park at Pemberton.

Recycling

Back when we were at Mel's local supermarket in French's Forest Sydney we couldn't believe a machine outside. You put your recycling in and it gave you 10 cents per item, credited to a supermarket card. Apparently it's a NSW thing, where everything in a recyclable container gets that amount added to the purchase price so that it can be paid as a refund. Other states will follow. We're still finding many caravan parks that don't have recycling, so the sooner the better. At 1st view it seems to be such a good way of getting things separated at source - you're feeding them in 1 at a time. As it's being paid to your account there would presumably be controls on attempts to put dirty items through.

Wed 25 Sept

I'd spoken too highly of my early morning circuit, so had to re-do it with MzL~.

Denmark has a surprising percentage of alternative businesses. A lot of dreads and bare feet, even long skirts and tie-dies. We could have got our auras photographed, our chakras balanced, and still time for a meditation sesh.

Even a couple of council workers were in the early morning yoga session at the river bank.

We were too early for Silverstream Wines. Did one winery, a gallery, a cheese place and a chocolate and liqueurs place. At the cheese place for lunch we again ran into Anne, Shane and Archer from Echuca. They've been on the road for 15wks. Archer has finished his maths and reading homework, now only has to do a daily journal.

Thurs 26 Sept to Albany.

I was reminded of the FMG advert as the rain started on schedule as we were packing up. We'd deliberately done some early prep last evening, but didn't really want to leave Denmark before 10a.m as Albany is so close - we'll be in there embarrassingly early.

She's the Big Smoke 'round these parts. A Dan Murphy (Glory Be -civilization), a Bunnings, and a Supercheap Auto, with a Repco on the side.

Channel 9 News has a segment called Fish Watch, where they show who is catching what around W.A. They do take it seriously.