Albany, Cosy Corner and Denmark

We had heard from many other fellow travellers about Cosy Corner between Albany and Denmark.  Seeing as it was central to both we decided to stay a week and explore the area.  We were lucky to get the only spare spot right near the beach.  Was magic to go to sleep every night listening to the waves. This area reminds me so much of Tassie, been a bit homesick again.  It is so lush, green and beautiful around here.  So many healthy looking live stock.  Kids had fun trying to encourage the calves to come over to the fence.  Even with Mark calling "sook sook sook" (apparently that's how you call a calf) they wouldn't come near.  I told Mark it was because he called them a sook and insulted them!

I went for a walk around the camp ground, basically for a sticky beak! I couldn't believe it when I saw the Yens camper trailer there.  We first met the Yens at Perlubie Beach.  Was great to see them again.  The kids had a fabulous time running around playing.  Especially on the beach making forts and rivers.  We spent mothers day with them in Albany.  Mark cooked both families pancakes for breakie.  I layed in bed eating mine, feeling very spoilt. Went out for lunch and the men popped in to the Brewery next door. Then Keiren and I went and did the laundry.  I know, on Mother Day??  But it actually was very relaxing sitting chatting while the boys took the kids to the park.  Then on the way home Kieren and I walk 4kms due to the excess of treats for lunch!! So good to meet fabulous people like these guys.  To be strangers one day and good friends the next, just what this trip is all about!!

Jake, Orlando, Charlotte and Horatio

Orlando, Charlotte, Horatio, Jake and Solvy

This trip is unfortunately not just about having fun, we also have to do school work.  Which is sometimes fun but more often a chore!  As there was no decent Internet reception at our camp we headed to Albany most mornings and did school at the library.  The kids school has changed the way they run their program this year, much to my annoyance. The expectations are now huge, we were expected to do 5-6  45min on line lessons a week each child.  Wonderful for stay at home kids but not travellers.  I ended up spitting it and putting a complaint in with the school.  I won and we now only do on line work when we are in range and it suits us.  We have plenty of books and paper based work to educate the kids with, plus they are learning so much doing this trip anyway.

We of course did the usual tourist attractions around town.  We went to Mt Adelaide to the Princess Royal Fortress.  We were too tight and not really in the mood to go to the museum, so we played on the cannons instead.  It was a great place to educate the children on war and protection.

We went to Mt Clarence to the ANZAC memorial and light horse statue.  You climb up a lot of stairs to this imposing view of the statue.  As you climb higher the view over King George Sound is fantastic.  Albany played a very significant part in World War1.  Some 30,000 troops sailed from here for Gallipoli, most never returning.  Took a lot of explaining for the kids to grasp this concept. Mt Clarence is the first place a dawn service was ever held in Australia.

In 1923, Reverend Arthur Ernest White led a party of friends to a humble ceremony at dawn, where, as the sun rose he uttered the words “As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them”.

Seeing as it wasn't exactly beach weather we figured we'd take the kids to Middleton Beach.  I know, but we were hopeful!  We ended up having a play at the playground then walking the board walk around the point towards town.  The kids spat it after 20mins so Mark took them back to the car and I went by myself and he picked me up at the end.

We really enjoyed the Brigg Amity on the foreshore at Albany.  It was so well tailored to children, often historical sites tend to bore then and go straight over their heads.  They had really easy to understand historical information programed into personal speakers and it was lots of fun climbing all over and inside the ship.  You had to be careful of the low head height and steep stairs.  Mark spent ages instructing the kids to walk down backwards so they didn't fall.  Only to then go down forwards himself (apparently to protect my camera he was carrying) and fall at the bottom.  The look on his face was priceless, I may have sniggered a little (actually a lot!!) and luckily he didn't hurt himself!

For some reason we decided to go to Whale World without really researching it. We had been told it was interesting and thought it would be good.  I knew it was an old whaling station but thought it was more about whales and less about the whaling.  We did have a great time but it was pretty grim in parts, especially for the kids.  There is a lot of information and displays on how the whales were killed etc. But they also had lots of good things for the kids to do too.  Mark lasted all of about 5 mins before he stated in a dodgey Kiwi accent "I don't eat chips, I only eat plankton".  Its of a internet clip, Beach Az, that Mark for years has found highly amusing.  It ended up being very educational for the kids, they certainly learnt a lot.

The kids 'saving' the whale

a pretty cool slide

I asked the kids to poke their heads through the port hole for a nice photo.  Charlotte's is lovely.....

this is Jake's interpretation!!

Charlotte explaining to Jake about explosives

The decks where they cut the whale up.  With a pre recorded sound effects and all!!

Very cool whale skeleton, awesome!

Beside Whale World is a small nature park.  We had free admission with our tickets so figured we'd give it a go.  Very small and appears half closed but kids enjoyed it.  We even got to pat the resident koala.  Man your hands smell after touching them!

G'day Skip (Mark's signature greeting to a Kangaroo)

We went to Torndirrup National Park to see the Gap and the Natural Arch.  Pretty nice rock formations.  We were there on a calm day at low tide unfortunately.  Apparently its pretty spectacular at high tide on a rough day.

A definite high of the area for us was Porongurup National Park.  We did a long walk to the top of Castle Hill, probably about 1-1 1/2 straight up hill.  Then you had to climb over boulders and climb a ladder to reach the summit.  When you got there, the view was fabulous.  Even with my fear of heights I enjoyed myself.

We went to the Valley of the Giants tree top walk.  With a name like that we were expecting a lot.  It It was pretty good, but I'd say the tree top walk in Tassie was better.  I probably am biased though!!  It was raining as we walked around but it was actually pretty gorgeous seeing the rain through the forest.

We'd been to Denmark earlier in the week for lunch at the Tavern.  A fabulous meal in front of a lovely hot wood fire  and to also to washing at the laundry.  We had one fine and sunny day so we headed to Greens Pools.  It was so so nice there.  We had a ball walking on the beach and checking out Elephant Rocks.  I can so see why this place is popular in the summer.  The kids decided it was warm enough for a swim and stripped off to their undies and in they went.  They had such a great time, was so lovely to see their excitement and enjoyment of the water.  Ended up being hard to get them to leave! I should also mention we managed to find time to go to two Breweries in the area too!!

We also met up with our friend Anthony's friend Chris in Albany to see about Mark working with him.  Went to his and his wife Sues for dinner one night.  Unfortunately we don't think we will stay in Albany to work at this stage.
We ended up having a great week at Cosy Corner.  Well worth a look if your in the area.  Albany is full of interesting and historical places and Denmark is just incredibly picturesque!
I took this photo of the kids messing around on our bed one morning.  I think its a gorgeous shot of our gorgeous kiddies :)

Cape Le Grande and Esperance

We had heard so many wonderful things about this place, we had high expectations.  We were a little disappointed, not with Lucky Bay itself but with the weather.  It is such a beautiful part of WA, but would be so much better in the warmer months.  We stayed three nights and it was overcast and windy most of the time.  We had a few pockets of sunshine which we made the most of.  We venture up to our shins in the water and it was surprisingly warm, either that or we were cold to start off with.  There's a pretty good National Park camp here, $22 a night, which is pretty standard.  They have showers here and I was so keen to have one.  I waited until the afternoon hoping they would be warm, jumped in and it was freezing.  Who'd have thought that the solar showers needed sun!!

 

 

We spent a lot of time doing school work and looking around the national park. We took the kids over the coast to Thistle Cove.  It was a great hour walk, even with the wind, so pretty.  Mark climbed a big rock, was working out how to get the kids up too when a big gust of wind made him loose his footing. Needless to say the kids didn't get to go up! So nice to be out and about in nature again.  That was until the clouds rolled in and the thunder started.  We only got a little wet, it was still warm at least.

Our little walkers

Marks big rock

Whistle rock

Pretty nice spot for a picnic table

Lucky Bay is such a picturesque place.  The white white beach and the blue turquoise water.  Looked so inviting.  We had many walks on the beach and some beach cricket. Its about two kms to the end of the beach and there's a small look out at the end.  The wind on the way back made walking tough.  Good leg workout. But look the sun did shine....

There were a few resident kangaroos on the beach.  Everyone was of course taking photos of them.  The kids just wandered up and patted one.  Think they are little tame!

We were going to climb French mans but due to the weather it was very wet and slippery so we gave it a miss.  We instead went and walked up the hill at Rossiter Bay.  Fabulous view from there.

One evening we went to Le Grande campground and beach to watch the sunset.  Was pretty but not spectacular.  Still lovely to be able to be on the beach having nibblies and drinks at sunset.

 

 

I think that's about it for Lucky Bay.  We enjoyed ourselves, even if I whinged about the weather!!  from here we went to Esperance.  Due to the weather (yes me whinging again)  we decided we wouldn't stay here as we couldn't really enjoy the beaches etc anyway.  We had a look around town and went out for lunch then drove to a rest area on the way to Ravensthorpe for the night.