Along the Southern coast to Esperance

Everyday we are faced with the decision: do we stop and chill out for a while, or do we carry on exploring? Hopefully we have achieved a good balance, but there are still big distances planned. So far the wildflowers have been scattered throughout the National Parks. We are looking forward to seeing them en masse when we hit the open country.

Through spectacular Karri Forest, lush green pastures, and rolling vineyards, we arrived in Pemberton, the heart of timber country. And there in the National Park stood the Gloucester tree, sixty metres high or pure grandeur. They call it the 'climbing tree' so here goes.....

Geez, that's a long way up, but the view from the top would be sure to give me a forest fire spotters job. Speaking of big trees, around Walpole we came across the giant Tingles. These 'big mammas' know how to survive. Even after being ravaged by fire they just carry on growing. On our walk through the Valley of the Giants, the trail continued right through the tree!!

After exploring the forest floor we took the Tree Tops Walk suspended forty metres throughout the crowns of the tingle trees.

On to Albany and our opportunity to become grounded for a few days. The CBD offers a mixed-bag of modern waterfront development and old colonial restoration. Albany recently scored an award for the second best tourism destination in WA, behind Exmouth. We were impressed with the artwork in a chainsaw sculpture garden,...... in fact the artist's own garden.

The coastline around Albany and in particular Torndirrup National Park is wildly dramatic. The Gap and the Natural Bridge were two highlights. How is this for a engineering feat? The platform is suspended above a sheer drop into the sea!

In between the rocky cliff faces are beautiful bays of turquoise water and squeaky white sand, including this beautiful  little gem 'Little Bay'.

The lushness of the southwest corner of WA ends at Albany. As we tripped eastward, towns became further apart, the open country more sparse with harsher vegetation. And of course everything is tinged with red dirt, including our van right now! We made a diversion to Porongurup National Park to go on the Granite Skywalk hike. It is 4.5 km long and quite a challenge towards the end......

And so on to Bremer Bay, warmer temperatures and FLIES!! These little suckers spoil the outdoors.

The locals recommended we take their version of "a road with beautiful scenery" through Fitzgerald National Park. In reality it was corrugated red dirt and peppered with dead roos and scrub. The only highlight was the royal supreme of wildflowers,...... Hakea Victoria (I think!!)

We are now in Esperance. More turquoise water and beautiful beaches. Tomorrow we are heading for Lucky Bay where friendly kangaroos are likely to share our beach towels. Kalgoorlie is only a few days away.

Exploring Australia's SW corner

It has been a bit of a battle accessing WIFI while on the road. Where possible we choose campsites in the styx! Waking up to birdcalls, wildflowers and wildlife has been our trade off to the availability of cyberspace. Sid's camping spot was one of our faves!! Really casual but spotlessly clean and even our own en suite!!

After leaving Freo we headed down the coast to Bunbury and Busselton, both pretty uncomplicated yet marking their own existences with artistic or cultural attractions. We weren't at all impressed with the drop in temperature around this area. We layered up with every item from our nomadic wardrobe to walk the outlandishly long jetty (1.8km) at Busselton.

We are never known to travel in straight lines. A diversion to Wellington National Park was made, but we were ambushed while on one of the hiking trails!!!

And so on to Cape Naturaliste where we did a stint of whale-spotting and braved the elements to walk a couple of the trails.

A few diversions on the way to the cape gave us a taste of WA's beautiful white Sandy beaches. Such a paradise for surfers, in fact there were fleets of 'tradie' vans in various car parks, which must account for many delays on the job!!!

On to the big magnet of the SW.......Margaret River. Let the wine tasting begin!! Before any of that happened we had to drop into a cheese factory, chocolate company, nougat manufacturer, cookie kitchen, olive oil plantation, venison deli, coffee roaster,......... a foodies dream. Although highly commercialised, Margaret River held huge attractions for us,.....including their very friendly farmer's market.

Margaret River's signature wines are Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Mmmm.....just to confirm NZ makes more stunning white wines, but the jury is still on reds. This Chocoletti fortified wine was a winner for us,...... possibly because we needed warming up from the inside!!

Around the bottom corner of WA and heading East we are now amongst all places ending in -up (Nannup, Balingup, Boyup, Manjimup, Quinnup). Now we are in the true fruit-growing area which makes our avocado and apple orchards look tiny. Avocados we know. Truffle-harvesting we don't!! We stopped off to learn all about it, but could only see the ground where the truffles are grown. The truffle dogs finished their job in August and are now on a nine-month holiday!!! But, the same land also produced a wonderful rose.

Next time we write we will tell you about the tingle trees and show the more idiotic one of us climbing a 60m jarra.

Perth and beyond

It was not too difficult to leave the cooler damp climate of home to the dry warmth of Perth. It was even less difficult to fall in love with this city that sits under a near-perfect canopy of blue sky.  It's people seemed to be unrushed which became the ideal setting for us. Best of all we were introduced to our first splash of West Australian wildflowers.

For a city of 2 million people we were wondering where they all were? The CBD was free from congestion and we found it refreshingly uncomplicated. It was a treat to see the major sighted without being jostled by thousands of other tourists.

As usual we did most of our exploring on foot and were forever drawn to the Swan Riverbank.

Rottnest Island was top of our must-do list. We chose yet another stunning day and decided to explore this car-free off-the-grid paradise by bike.

We circumnavigated the island and around each winding corner was yet another beautiful bay....

After 20+km of undulated country on a hire bike that was not well sprung or geared we ended the day a little sun-tanned and weary, just like this little quokka who was doing his best to hide from anyone trying to catch a selfie with him.

We could have spent much longer in Perth, but it was time to hit the road and collect the vehicle we are calling home for the next six weeks.

And so on to Freemantle, or 'Freo' to use the local term. What a delightful town based on Edwardian and Victorian architecture.

Best of all it it is alive with buskers, craft beer bars, seafood restaurants and colourful markets. Spent long hours in this gallery that produced fabulous bronze sculptures.

No trip to Freo is complete without exploring the prison and reliving footage of the 1988 riots that wedged the old establishment into the town's history books.

Tomorrow,.....more hours wandering around Freemantle. This laid back lifestyle is becoming addictive!!!

Alsace - Lorraine canal boat trip

We are now back with reliable WIFI after exploring the canals in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France/Luxembourg/Germany. The route took us along the Moselle and Saar Rivers, therefore we had to share the waters with the big boys! We learnt pretty smartly to give them plenty of space!!

Our journey began and ended in a little corner of France called Lutzelbourg. Although cute we arrived on "everything is closed on  Monday", so started out with a shortage of the essentials - wine, cheese and baguettes. From there on our 18 days on the water were planned around gathering supplies at the boulangerie, and various local markets where we bought everything from cheeses we couldn't pronounce, to wines we knew very little about, to foods we don't normally eat like smoked goose and roast rabbit. Must add we went on our water adventure with friends from Tauranga, Neil and Carol. This would be a typical dinner setting!

For the majority of our trip we basked in Europe's heatwave. Most days were 35+ degrees and it was a battle to beat the heat. The scenery varied from the absolutely beautiful......

to the darn right ugly.........

But each day gave us a different vista, a new challenge, and generally a bundle of laughs (especially when we were in competition getting the ropes over the bollards). Our deepest lock was 18 metres which made our boat look pretty insignificant. We also had to go in a boat lift (128m) which was like being transported to a different level in a giant bath-tub.

At one stage the canal took us through a three kilometre tunnel requiring really careful steering!

Special moments included an illumination show at Nancy, Bastille fireworks on the Moselle River, and the World Cup football final at Metz. The latter was jubilant and scary at the same time,....best described as one big party,......the car horns, music, chanting and fireworks carried on to the small hours. National productivity must have surely been at an all time low the next day!!

Sadly we had to leave the many delights,......old French cottages, delightful historic villages, colourful geraniums spilling out of window boxes, the quirkiness of the local, the wine of Alsace, and the beautiful Lorraine fare to spend our last couple of days in Munich before returning home. Will sign off with our love and a token of our best memories...