Jan&Feb16 - events and travel

Hi,
The purpose of this blog is to keep our friends, family and work colleagues up to date with our travels whilst we take some well-earned time off in 2016. PS Photos down the bottom of this blog.

Sandy Cape, Jurien Bay.

Camped on the beach at Sandy Cape for a week, which has plenty of wide open spaces for camping, walking, fishing and shell collecting. However my favourite activity is to paddle my kayak to a sealion colony on a small island not far from shore. It had been a year since we had visited this spot (due to the house build and move in 2015) so it was great to see that the sealions were still living there (and hadn't been eaten by sharks).

South West of WA.

Toured the south west for 2 weeks in our camper, visiting Walpole, Denmark, Albany and Bremer Bay, and the sights in between. Decided to use Parry Beach near Denmark as our base, which is a shire run park 100m from the beach, that has solar showers (hot - as long as its a sunny day), but you need to be self sufficient as there is no electricty or drinking water.

. Tree top walk, valley of the Giants, Walpole. Bernie and I experienced the excitement of walking through the canopy of the magnificent tingle Forrest on the 40m high tree top walk.

. Perongurups. The porongurup range rises from the landscape like an island surrounded by a sea of giant Kari trees. A 1.5km walk trail leads you through spectacular forests on your way to the granite skywalk. It is 15 minutes drive from mount barker.

. National Anzac Centre. Visited the national Anzac centre in Albany, which is a museum honouring the Anzacs of the First World War. In late 1914 over 40,000 Australians and New Zealanders left Albany for the Great War. This is their story, as you follow the personal accounts of 30 Anzacs through multi-media displays and commentary. Zappa waited in the car whilst we visited the centre but was able to do all the tours outside. You can get a pass out from the centre to go check on the dog or grab a bite of lunch, which we did under a shady tree. A visit to the national Anzac centre, desert mounted corps memorial and lookouts at Albany heritage park is not to be missed when passing this way.

Events.

. Drove to Perth to see The Lion King.Well worth it as we enjoyed the show. I didn't want to leave the car, camper, dog at the Casino, as we'd been camping for a week, so showers and dog sitting services were provided by Carolyn and Jack Cotter.

.John Butler Trio and The Waifs. Saw them play at Leeuwin Estate winery in the Margaret River region. So we packed a picnic, rug and warm clothes, and listened to music surrounded by the tall trees.

. As we haven't been able to do the Cape to Cape Walk as yet (from Cape Naturaliste lighthouse near Dunsborough to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse near Albany) which takes 5-7 days, we've just done some short walks on the track so far.

My next update is due in April, after our Bremer Bay Killer Whale trip and our trip back home to Townsville and Magnetic Island. Bye for now.