Magical days in a coastal national park

Our time in lovely Denmark ended on a high, literally.  It was the high note of the reversing alarm on the Isuzu truck on which the motorhome is built. It was stuck in reverse alarm mode, so for the 55km to Albany, we had the constant beeping, no matter what gear was selected. Thank goodness it was not a 550km journey.

As soon as we arrived in Albany we found the local Isuzu dealer, and the girl in charge of the service department couldn’t have been more helpful, taking us inside and serving coffee while a mechanic fitted a new switch.

Then we started exploring, although we had each been to Albany before. That city has the reputation of being cold and wet, and that day it certainly was, so our sightseeing was done mostly in pouring rain from the comfort of the truck cab.

But the next day dawned fine and clear so we left our caravan park early to find bits and pieces at the farmers’ market, then spent all morning at the wonderful National Anzac Centre, opened in

The centre sits high above Albany harbour, the last

sight of Australia for many of those WWI soldiers.

2014. We were each allocated a card with the picture of a soldier on it, one of 32 created, but not all were Aussie or NZ soldiers. Some were port officials in Albany, from where the great convoys for WWI sailed, and I think there’s Turkish and German soldiers as well.

As we went around the displays we could place our card on electronic readers, and up would come that man’s war history. John’s chap died on a hospital ship, but mine, Iven (correct) Mackay, who was born in Grafton, had quite a distinguished career in the two world wars, was knighted and died aged 84.

Albany is built on and around rocks. Dog Rock,

complete with painted collar, is close to the CBD.

By the time we left Albany we had driven around most of it and were still enjoying perfect weather. Just outside the city, on the road to Esperance, we stopped at Montgomery Hill wines. John first visited it 10 years ago and has been ordering wine from there ever since. It looked a bit quiet, and we discovered it really wasn’t open for business, as the new owners were doing massive renovations . . . but we managed to buy some wine.

Then on we went to Bremer Bay, very quiet at this time of year, but a lovely little beach town; and from there we entered the western side of Fitzgerald River National Park. Just inside the park, while we were still gawping at the huge new array of wildflowers either side of the road, this time on trees and shrubs, we detoured to the still privately-owned Quallup Homestead. The German couple who now own it and offer accommodation and camping on their 40ha, also do a coffee and cake deal which we enjoyed sitting on the verandah of the old stone homestead, built in

The heritage-listed 1858 homestead at Quallup.

the 1800s. It was tempting to stay there but we had only just started our day of exploring so on we went to Point Ann.

From a lookout we spotted about 5 whales in the bay, including a mother and calf, and spent a long time watching them cavort around. Then we found the tiny campground just behind the beach, only 13 sites, where we nestled in among trees for a wonderfully quiet night, with only two other sets of campers. Some of the roads into this huge national park are still closed after recent rain, so we had to retrace our steps west to get out and onto the highway, to continue on to the eastern end of the park, reached from the coastal town of Hopetoun.

The sea may have looked wonderful, but it was

FREEEZING!

No dirt roads at that end, all bitumen roads, and wonderfully new camping grounds, with excellent facilities. Once again, only three campsites occupied at Hamersley Inlet campground. The inlet is huge and would be wonderful to boat or kayak around. Whiter than white beaches, turquoise water, and at night, without street or house lights, just a sky full of stars . . . it’s a lovely part of Australia.

We saw no whales from the beaches and cliffs at this eastern end of the park, but the Royal Hakea is much in evidence. It’s the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen and in some places there are small forests of them, even though they only stand between 1.5m to 3m high. We’ve put them in the category with the burrowing bees and wreath flowers as something unique to Western Australia.

Royal Hakea

A forecast windy change came through in the early morning at Hamersley Inlet, but any squally rain disappeared, just leaving cold wind. We’d had two days in shorts, t-shirts and thongs, but the temperature meant it was time to rug up again. We had to return through Hopetoun on our way to Esperance, so we had the joy of finally cleaning the Flinders Ranges-Pilbara-Mt Augustus dirt off the truck in huge truck-washing bays. I just kept feeding $2 coins in while John did the hard yakka with low-pressure pre-soak, foaming brush, and high-pressure rinses. 

The Isuzu now is sparkling clean and will probably mostly stay that way as we don’t plan too much dirt-roading on our way home east.

Next post: Esperance and surroundings.