Oct 29 - Nov 4

29TH October Sunday
Week 28

This morning the weather was fine enough for us to walk to the beach and get out of the van. The waves were massive and crashing onto the beach with tremendous force. In the distance the rocky island outcrops were getting smashed with huge waves and we were able to capture this on video and camera.
The wind remained all day, but the rain looks like it has finally ended over here in Cosy Corner. The forecast is on the improve and we should soon have hot sunny days for our travels.
Our favorite final of The Block is on tonight so finding some TV reception tonight means we will take the short drive into Albany, and return to Cosy Corner for tonight.
30th October Monday
The sun is out, and we take a walk down to the beach with Billy, and what a glorious ocean. Only a few other people walking about and enjoying the sunny day.
We decide to take a drive to Denmark for morning tea, also have to pick up a few groceries from the Supa IGA. On the way back we take a few detours to other beaches which were very nice too before we continued back to camp.
For lunch we enjoyed homemade hamburgers which were amazing on soft buns, and we were hungry.
Another walk to the beach and this time we went for a long walk right to the end of the beach, noticing that there was tannin stained water flowing into the sea and a lot of it. There was a bridge further up the dunes that went somewhere behind the campsite we think.
Billy was having the best time running and swimming in and out of the waves before sitting in the tannin water just up from the ocean.

31st October Tuesday
Another glorious sunny day and we are on the beach walking with Billy again. The ocean waves are very rough and listening to them from our beach side camp only a few hundred kms sounds a lot closer.

1st November Wednesday
All day the weather was extremely windy and very overcast, so we stayed indoors all day and watched a movie and relaxed. Billy of course was more than content to sleep his whole day away as well.

2nd November Thursday
Today after a week on this idyllic beachside lifestyle we have decided to move on, and venture fourth to more destinations. Unfortunately, the weather has again remained overcast and looks fairly set in as we pack up and move out.
Our first stop is Denmark for some lovely coffee at one of the many cafes. We were told by the locals there are over ten very nice cafes along the sidewalks, and I think we found most of them.
Sue did a quick shop for the grocery top up then onto some op shop hunting for some odd towels for Billy’s washing etc. Russell then located the water and dump point for the van which would have been the slowest water re filling station ever known to mankind.
From Denmark we continued out towards Ocean Beach lookout then Lights Beach, where we took a walk down the staircase to the beach. The waves were enormous and crashing loudly too much for Billy to have a swim today, so we decided a lunch beside the beach was in order.

Onwards we continued through the twisting ranges of Southern Forests admiring the tall trees as we go. Our destination for tonight is going to be somewhere we went in 2002 when the kids were young, called Centre Road Crossing campsite. There is a timber hut that was originally built for the timber cutters, so they had a place to stay. Today it still stands amongst the tall gumtrees and is a welcome sight with a beautiful wood stove and other travelers have added a few things like mirror, books and also a signing book. Last time we were here we had the camper trailer and the kids were so excited to stay in a log cabin, we pulled out the bunks and mattress from the camper and we all slept in the hut with the wood fire burning late into the night.
Fifteen years on we have returned to this amazing cabin in the forest.
We have had to chop more timber for the fireplace as what we carried in the van was not going to be quite enough for the whole night here.

Tonight, we had a couple camping down at the lower end near the river in roof top camper. We welcomed them to share the warm fire in the cabin with us which they did, and the night drifted into conversations of travel. The couple are from Germany on a six-month holiday, purchased a 4wd in Darwin for $5,000 and spent over $7,000 in repairs over the first few months which was unexpected. They love Australia and have seen a few wild animals since being on the road, including kangaroos and snakes, emus.
Around 9pm our visitors headed off back down towards their 4wd to sleep, and we wished them safe travels for the rest of their trip here.



3rd November Friday.
Leaving the cabin in the woods we make our way towards Pemberton and reflect on how much we don’t remember of the place, in particular Pemberton railway area. The trains were still there although there were some very old trains in disrepair, but for what was left they still ran their tourist service. We spoke to the train maintenance guy who spends all his days checking and running repairs to ensure the train is safe. He said the tourist numbers have dropped a lot but will still run the train even with one passenger aboard.

From Pemberton we drove a few short kilometres to Big Brook Arboretum and planned to make lunch in the day picnic section of the forest, and as we entered the camp host welcomed us through.
After our lunch we made our way out to one of the big trees we could climb called the Diamond Tree, which is a giant Karri tree located 10km South of Manjimup.





This tree stands 52 metres up, and has the oldest wooden platform fire look-out that is still in use today.

Sue had plans to attempt the climb but decided she would take the footage and Russ would climb. It was a very tall climb with the twisting steel rods used for steps, Russell slowly inched his way up towards the first platform. The wind was making the tree gently sway and that was enough to start the descent back down for safety.
Back in the car and we continued on into the afternoon looking for our camp for the night, which was at Muirs Bridge rest area Rocky Gully, which is located between Manjimup and Rocky Gully, via Muirs Hway.

4th November Saturday
This morning just before leaving, we chatted to similar BT owners Mark and Julie sharing hilarious and often comical travelling stories of where and what we have done. Sue got to see what the inside of their BT was like and got ideas that might work for ours, while Russell shared mechanical know how with her husband Mark.
We parted ways this morning and headed back on the same road loop back to Mt. Barker rest area for a possible few days, as Russell has to replace wheel bearings on the BT today.
Our travelling companions caught back up with us and camped in the same rest area for the night, so Sue spent some of the afternoon taking a walk-in town with Julie and Theresa, while Russell continued with the wheel bearings.
The afternoon saw us sharing a few beers over at their BT, and we all had a laugh at many shared events that has happened to us all in our travels.
It was almost 7pm and the weather had turned very cold, so we headed back to our van to start our showers and dinner plans.

Wot u lookin at?