We opted to drive from Margaret River down to Augusta for a night. We checked in at the Flinders Bay van park around 11am. Setup, settled ourselves in and had some lunch before setting off for some afternoon adventures.
The following day, the weather was predicted to rain, so we wanted to make the most of the sunshine. We took off south and visited the old water wheel along with the beach spots around Leeuwin national park. We then doubled backed and headed north, checking out Cosy Corner, Hamelin Bay, Boranup Lookout and finished up with a relaxing drive through the Boranup Forest.
Happy with our afternoon expedition, the following day we drove to Northcliffe and set up at Sids Campground. We nabbed the last available powered site, which was great. At only $20 a night for power, this is one of the cheapest (powered) campgrounds we have stayed at.
From Sids, we ventured up to Manjimup to visit the King Jarrah tree. We also passed some amazing chainsaw sculptures which were just sitting in someones front yard. After leaving Manjimup, heading to Pemberton we stopped into the Diamond Tree! Amz had decided she wanted to climb all 3 in the area. She made it to the top no problems at all. Kurts not really a fan of heights so he waited with Rusty on the ground.
Just as we got to Pemberton, it started raining, so we grabbed a snack from the bakery and headed back to camp. It then rained all day the following day, which was a good excuse to have a chill day in the van. When the rain eventually cleared we ventured out for a more adventures.
We headed to the Dave Bicentennial Tree, the tallest of the 3 tree climbs. After Amz had conquered that tree, we headed up to Beedelup Falls. We walked the little circuit around the falls and visited the walk through tree. We had heard Yeagarup Dunes was a good spot to see, so we headed into Warren National Park. Kurt let the tires down and we had some fun driving on the dunes. #funfact Yeagarup sand dunes are one of largest mobile sand dunes in the southern hemisphere - making their way inland 4m each year.
After some fun on the dunes, we headed back into Pemberton, as Amz wanted to climb the Gloucester tree to finish off the trio of tree climbs. What an eventful morning making it back to camp just after lunch time.
Hearing good things about Windy Harbour, we decided to go check it out the following day. On the drive in we decided to stretch our legs and climb Mt Chudalup, a small 1.2km hike to the summit. The views up top were an amazing 360degree views of the surrounds. Well worth the hike if you’re in the area.
We continued onto Windy Harbour where we checked out all the lookouts and beaches. The ‘cliff window’ lookout was cool and only a short 200m walk from the carpark. When we headed down to see Cathedral rock, we noticed recent fire damage to the area. A local happened to be driving past and started telling us about the ‘incident’.
The local volunteer sea rescue group were doing a public flare demo, when the wind took a spark, which resulted in the start of a bushfire. The locals residents were quite lucky the service road stopped it from crossing and that the firefighters could get it under control #oops
Next stop Walpole to Boat Harbour.