The Three Tree Challenge

Harvey Dickson's Country Music Centre

We packed up and left the caravan in situ while we drove 5kms out of town to the bizarre and unique Harvey Dickson's Country Music Centre. He has developed part of his farm into a rodeo ground and music arena. He runs his Country Music Show in September and then has a rodeo in October. The whole area is full of amazing home-made buildings and sculptures. He uses trees and turns them upside down to create his incredible figurines. Ella loved his horse!

If I can just reach the bridle ...

After we hitched up we drove to Bridgetown and then on to Manjimup where we had a very chilly morning tea before finding the Giant Jarrah Tree. This magnificent tree, which we could just reach around by joining fingertips, whetted the boys' appetites for the 3 karri climbing trees in the area.

A series of fire lookouts were constructed in the top of karri trees, mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. There are still 3 trees in the Pemberton area that you can climb and the boys were desperate to climb the Blue Diamond Lookout Tree - all 52 metres of it.  I think one of the many challenges of parenting is not passing on your own anxieties to your children. I am not great with heights. Dave is terrible. So it was not easy watching the boys as they started to climb up the sparse metal rods towards the platform in the canopy far, far away.

Note the reassuring safety gear!

Almost back to terra firma, Els!

Ella of course wanted to climb too, so started merrily on her way following the boys. I couldn't let her go alone, so I climbed behind her. She got scared at about 10 metres and I was more than pleased to help her come back down!

The Gloucester Tree, at 61 metres, was the next karri tree stop and the boys were up the tree like monkeys. Ella was happy feeding the parrots, but I was determined to get further up this one, so I climbed about 15m before my courage failed. Dave climbed 4 rungs before deciding that climbing trees was just not his idea of holiday fun. He went to join Ella feeding the parrots!

"The Ringneck Parrot eyeing me down"
-Ella

After lunch, we drove out to the last, and biggest, climbing tree for the boys to complete their Three Tree Challenge. The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree is a staggering 75m straight up. The boys charged off again and were at the top in no time. Ella wanted another go and climbed up quite a lot further before freezing. Dave was lying down feeling sick at the thought of the tree, so I climbed up again to help her down. I decided that I would make a final attempt to get up a reasonable distance and managed to get to the first platform, about half way up. I knew I could get up the rest of the way, but I also knew that I would not be able to get down from way up there, so after admiring the view (impressive, even from half-way!) I tackled the downwards journey. It was VERY scary! Marcus took these photos from the top of the Bicentennial Tree, just before he started his descent face-forwards. My rather strangled instructions to come down facing the rungs reached him, and he made it down safely. Would have been a shame to lose such great photos!

On a fine day, you can see more than 40kms from the lookout tower!

How anyone could be smiling up there
is beyond me!

And here is another crazy smile
at about 73 metres!

Tree Climbing Comments:

Lachlan: It was hard work getting up there but it was worth it. You could feel the tree swaying.
Marcus: Now I know what it feels like to be a bird - maybe an eagle. We could have seen the ocean if it wasn't such a cloudy day.
Jackson: It was so much fun climbing those trees. The view was amazing. It was a fantastic experience, one of my highlights.
Ella: Scary!
Dave: I was nearly vomiting standing on the ground!
Kerrie: I nearly had heart failure when Marcus started coming down from the 75m platform face forwards!

Having finished the adrenaline taxing tree climbing, we enjoyed the sedate and lovely drive to Walpole via Northcliff, with rolling farmland and a mixture of plantation forest and National Park forests of huge trees. I took the wheel as Dave was exhausted from his vertigo and in the space of about 5 minutes saw a fox, 6 emus (they tripped over some wire running away from the road and had us all laughing at the tangle of feet and feathers!) and a whopping kangaroo, which meant the trip into Walpole was slower than expected. We finally arrived, found a site in the National Park and set up just before dark and more torrential rain.

Stay tuned ...

BONUS! Blues Festival in Bridgetown!

We packed and left Augusta in a squall of rain, which seemed fitting, and drove out to investigate the gorgeous farmland and stands of old-growth timber around Nannup and all the other "up" towns. The "up" suffix is from the Noongar language meaning "place of", so we reasoned that Nannup was obviously the place of Nannas! In our usual organised fashion, we bumbled into Bridgetown and noticed that it was quite busy for a small town on a Friday. It turned out that Bridgetown Blues Festival was on that weekend. We were thrilled - we have missed rodeos, festivals, openings and celebrations all over the country until now! There was no accommodation available in Bridgetown, not surprisingly, so we drove on to Boyup Brook, which is co-incidentally WA's Country Music Capital. There are some wonderful musical sculptures in the main street.

The Haystack Mountian Hermits and Friends

Howdy Pardner!

Jackson Street and some more tall musicians led us to a wonderfully relaxed and almost empty shire caravan park on the river, where the sign said "If office is unattended, make yourselves at home". We took them at their word and Marcus soon had a fire lit ready for a BBQ and some music playing. We were plagued by the most flies we've come across anywhere, and he had to take drastic measures to stay sane!

Marcus and his fly net

It was a lovely evening of music making by fire and moonlight once the flies disappeared at sundown. The caretaker dropped by to say G'day and stayed to listen awhile.

Beautiful Bridgetown Blues Festival

Clouds were threatening as we drove back into Bridgetown for the Blues Festival on Saturday morning, but the rain held off and we had a brilliant day. The main street of the very attractive, historical town is closed to traffic and there are two free stages offering entertainment all day. Market stalls add to the festival atmosphere and we couldn't believe what a fabulous, family-friendly event it was. The big names were in the ticketed marquees and venues around town but we were more than happy wandering the street between the free stages and buskers.

The Bad Piper - played his bagpipes
with panache, not to mention his
suggestive sporran wiggling!

Juzzie Smith (a Byron local and Bluesfest performer) was busking in the street between gigs and we had a great chat to him. Chris, the harp player from Homebrew was another lovely guy who chatted to us and then presented Marcus with an A harp when he learnt that he was a harp player. Marcus was chuffed. Dave learnt heaps from a local bluesman Martin Lee Cropper, who stopped busking to show us his resonator guitars and equipment. We treated ourselves to Margaret River Wagyu Burgers, Margaret River coffee and the kids (well all of us, to be truthful!) were very excited to try Simmo's Ice Cream - all gourmet treats we had not had time to find during our stay in the Margaret River area.


A fantastic day was had by all. Byron Bluesfest could learn a thing or two from Bridgetown!


Stay tuned ...

No august weather in Augusta!

Send 'er down, Hughie!

It hosed down. It hailed. It poured and pelted. It blustered and buffeted. The thunder rumbled and boomed. The lightning lit up vivid vignettes of nocturnal life.

I didn't notice much of this. I was having my own elemental battle in my innards, lying prostrate on the amenity-block floor. One of those traveller's tales that is funny in the retelling many years later. For others. At the time, I was thinking that being seasick at Franklin Island was not really that bad. I was also thinking of all the germs on the toilet floor which were no doubt rubbing their germy little hands together in glee and swarming all over me and I couldn't do a thing about it.

The storm and I made it to dawn and I spent the first day at Augusta in the tent. I didn't miss much, as the weather was so awful (rain and gale force winds) everyone else spent the day in the caravan or reading in the back of the bus. Games, music, reading and drawing were the order of the day. Ella had a marvellous time with Marcus and her wombat playing Yahtzee. Wombat won "about three times" and Ella recommends "not to verse a wombat in anything - you'll get beaten". Don't say you weren't warned.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse - slightly
higher than the last one! Must have
been the only patch of blue sky all day!

Monday night was just as bad as the previous one. Ella, Marcus and I slept in the caravan and were amazed - and quietly terrified - at how much it rocked during the vicious wind gusts. Next morning, after another hailstorm, we reasoned that being underground would be the best bet, so we rugged up and headed out to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse to buy our multi-caves pass. The Lighthouse tours were still running despite the awful weather, so we climbed the 176 steps of Mainland Australia's tallest lighthouse. You could feel the stone wall moving slightly in the 80km winds which greeted us in full force as we struggled out onto the viewing platform. Our faces nearly blew off, but man, we really knew we were alive!

On the viewing deck of the Lighthouse

Marcus leaning into the wind

The cape is the most South-Westerly point and has incredibly rough waters as the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet there - which is of course why the lighthouse was needed in the first place.

This flowstone replicates the Karri
forests some 80m above

We drove to Jewel Cave to escape the wind and rain, where we marvelled at the astounding underground world. There are some fascinating formations there - Helictites, Flowstones, Moonmilk, Straws and Shawls were added to our speleological vocabulary, along with the more mundane, but equally beautiful, stalactites and stalagmites. Tree roots from the Karri forest above grow 50-60m down to reach the water in the caves. A complete skeleton of a thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) was found in this cave. The last one we "saw" was in Kakadu! Maybe there are still some out there somewhere, like the Wollemi pine!

A little further on Mammoth Cave (aptly named!) and the audio guides provided held our undivided attention for the rest of the afternoon. The kids were very excited to see some more skeletons partially uncovered in the cave walls and a 400 year old possum skeleton! On our way back to Augusta we stopped to see the magnificent Karri forest in the late afternoon light.

Karri forest - they are the third tallest trees in the world

Is this a portkey? Where is Credic
Buggery? Have we won the Tri-Wizard Cup?

Wednesday morning was Dave's turn to feel below par. He slept in the back of the Blunderbuss while we attempted and claimed victory over the hedge maze at Margaret River. Ella, after all her Harry Potter reading, was fairly concerned that the centre of the maze would contain a port key. She took a lot of convincing to touch the centre pole! The colour sequence maze and the Turn Left Maze entertained the kids thoroughly and we had such a great time that Dave ended up joining us for another run through the hedge maze.

Margaret River Chocolate Factory

Margaret River Chocolate Factory was of course included in the day's agenda. We have never seen Lachie get out of the car so fast as he did in the carpark there! Tasting chocolate buds as we perused all the wares was no fun, nor were the Margaret River Cheese Factory tastings!! We took our spoils for lunch at a park in Margaret River. Dave then lay in the van while we went for an hour's walk in the forest admiring the Karri and finding "honky nuts" from the Marri trees. The kids started talking about survival camping and spent the rest of the evening designing shelters and equipment lists (Ella: pocket nife, baked beans, matchs, toylet paper) ready for our return to the farm! Their excitement levels are astounding -  we haven't done much camping lately!

Honky kids with Honky Nuts

The gravity defying suspended table
in Lake Cave

Thursday, our last day in the Margaret River area, started with a tour of Lake Cave, the most active and spectacular of all the caves we saw. It was smaller than the others but jam packed with beautiful features. 

The Berry Farm was our next port of call where the kids had a ball tasting jams (but all agreed that Gran's strawberry jam would beat them at the show!) and Dave and I tried some wine and port. We found the other end of our walking track from yesterday for a secluded lunch in the forest. The kids collected sticks and were disappointed that we didn't load them all up, as they were "perfect" for survival shelters!

We relented and let Ella have her
walking stick!

We completed our tastings in Margaret River with a lolly tasting at a sweet shop. Ella's delight was complete when we stopped to see the Miniature Horse Stud on the way home.

Little Sweeties at the Sweet Shop

Heading nor'east towards the 'up' towns - Nannup, Boyup Brook, Manjimup etc - next.

Stay tuned ...

Fremantle to Augusta

The threatening skies encouraged us to get up early and we managed to pack up before the rain started. Drove out of Fremantle and into some really heavy rain which obscured our vision and made driving on the motorway lots of fun! We stopped for a wet morning tea at Preston Beach, where we caught our first glimpse of the bright blue Splendid Fairywren. We ticked over 20 000 kms just north of Bunbury. This is one bloody huge country! Ella washed the windscreen as we filled up in Bunbury and soon had a queue of people asking if she would clean theirs as well! Perhaps we are being too narrow-minded thinking of busking as our only source of revenue!

We continued on to Busselton and found the newly renovated jetty and eventually, the caravan park. A quick setup while it wasn't raining was achieved with a minimum of fuss and we headed back out for a late lunch at the jetty foreshore. Busselton Jetty is 1.8kms long and we were pleased we had invested in new rain and wind proof coats. The Underwater Observatory was booked out, but we were just as happy wandering along the jetty, enjoying the exhilarating weather and the scenery.

Ella wanted to take the ducks with us the next morning. They had a lovely time waddling around and eating our bread - there was no toast for the humans! On the road by 9, we headed towards Cape Naturaliste and the lighthouse there. Our guide took us up the 57 steps and explained the lighthouse workings to us. It was automated in the 1970s but prior to that the Lighthouse keepers used to have to run the light with kerosene (hand pumped up to the top level) and then do a further workout by winding the pulley and weight system to turn the 3 tonnes of light mechanism. The Keepers must have been very fit! He took us out onto the viewing deck where it was breezy, a lovely day by local standards! Leon said he'd done tours for 8 years and had only ever seen the anemometer still twice! From the viewing deck we managed to see a couple of whales and some kangaroos - not all in the ocean!

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

                                             

Sugarloaf rock was nearby. In bad weather, apparently the waves crash into it with such violence that the spray flies over the top - one and a half times the height of the lighthouse! We took our guide's recommendation and drove the coastal road to Eagle Bay and Meelup Beach on the way back to Dunsborough. Meelup Beach was so fantastic we got our lunch supplies and doubled back to have a picnic there. It was a glorious day (still windy, but warm!) and the water was far too inviting to pass up, so Ella and Lachlan spent the whole afternoon swimming while Jackson and Marcus swam in between building a huge siege castle, complete with armaments. There was unanimous agreement that Meelup is the loveliest beach we have seen so far.

Meelup Beach - a fantastic spot!

We stayed until quite late before starting the drive south to Augusta. The picturesque countryside was complete with fat cattle and Ella was very impressed. "Oooh! We haven't seen cows for a long time!" We also hadn't seen trees for a long time and the Karri and Marri forests were utterly captivating in the fading evening light. Storm clouds gathered as we drove along and it wasn't long before it was pelting down, heavy rain mixing with hail as the temperature dropped alarmingly. We arrived at the campground in Augusta and it was dark, raining heavily and freezing cold. We sat in the caravan for a while until the rain was more a drizzle than a deluge and then quickly put the tent up. The Oz-tent is worth its weight in gold - up and completely dry in a couple of minutes! Those left inside the caravan were busy with pots and bowls under all the dripping leaks! After a hastily put together hot meal the world seemed a better place, although Marcus was not impressed that his bedding and pillow were soaked. He slept curled around a bowl, catching more drips!

Stay tuned ...

Fun in Fremantle comes to an end

Leeuwin II leaving Fremantle

Thursday morning was rainy and cool and spent rehearsing some new songs for busking before the clamouring to go to Scitech became too loud! We headed towards Perth, but stopped to have lunch at the harbour in Fremantle. We ended up exploring Challenger Harbour and were thrilled to see Leeuwin II heading out to sea. Tall Ships are incredibly romantic as they skim the waves. We could almost imagine ourselves in Fremantle in the 1800s.

The Roundhouse 1831

Wandering around the foreshore we also came across the Round House which is WA's oldest public building. It was opened in 1831 and used as a prison. Unfortunately we were just too late for the 1 o'clock cannon firing! And just too early to bump into Tim Winton on his daily walk with his dog.

Amazing view down High Street

After dallying at the Roundhouse we had to postpone our visit to Scitech as Vasko had finished Jackson's accordion. Heavy rain started as we entered the Freeway and it took us nearly 2 hours to get there and back. Vasko had completely overhauled the accordion and Jackson was thrilled with the result. The boys were talking about the coin given to the Queen and how she didn't really need the money. Ella, in her usual wise fashion, said "I just don't get the Queen. It's just one family and no other families get a turn. Is that why you're a Pelican Mummy?" HUH? Oh, a Republican!! There has been a lot of Republican debate on the radio and I think her ears must be full of sand. (Note to self: book hearing test for Ella upon our return home!)

Sparks in his element - feeling very positive as the
presenter is stealing his electrons!

On Friday morning we made the alarming discovery that we hadn't booked an extra night. I raced off to the office at 8 a.m. to extend our stay, only to find that we had to move to another site. That put paid to our busking plans but we managed to get set up in between showers. The promised Scitech visit had the kids highly excited. We arrived at 12 and spent a fabulous 4 hours investigating all the hands on science and technology exhibits.

Jackson on the phone! He won't
need a mobile now!

Plasma Ball Power

Marcus was chosen to be part of the High Voltage Electricity Show and we all really enjoyed Cosmic Collisions in the Planetarium, where Jackson answered lots of the questions and I realised that he has retained far more of Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything than I. We thought Scitech was open until 5 and the kids were absolutely gutted when it closed at 4. Marcus said he would like to spend at least 2 years there! Fish n chips in Fremantle called us as we drove back. Cicerello's (est. 1903) was right on the water and reminded us very much of our evening with you in Mangonui, Bob and Yvonne. The Restaurant has recently been featured on an Australian Post stamp issue celebrating iconic Australian tourist destinations.

Cicerello's at Fisherman's Wharf

Our third tour of Fremantle Prison was the Torchlight Tour. They had a few actors hidden away at appropriate junctures and the guy who jumped out of Solitary Confinement gave us a start. He asked Ella if she'd knocked off a sweet shop on her tricycle! In the Commissariat an Irish troublemaker jumped out at us and demanded to know who had the keys. Dead silence. "Who has 'em?" ... and Lachie couldn't take it anymore and pointed to our guide. He then got berated for being a snitch. Ella was hiding under my black jumper with a hood and looked like a mini Grim Reaper as we wandered around the gallows and morgue.

Torchlight Tour

Front Entrance of the Prison

Stay tuned ...

Fun in Freo

Cell Blocks at Fremantle Prison

Fun in Freo was our motto after our hard work busking, so we headed off to the World Heritage listed Fremantle Prison on Monday morning. (After I had done 3 loads of washing, including all our costumes!) The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s to house WA's influx of convicts and Ticket of Leave men as they arrived in the colony to be put to work building the city's infrastructure. The first inhabitants were incarcerated in the building in 1855 and the last in 1991!

And which of you would like to demonstrate
the use of the toilet bucket?

Our guide had fun with the kids, treating them like convicts: getting them to line up, enter cells and walk in silence from number to number in the exercise yard. He played a trick on them there, asking them to walk to number 6. As 6 and 16 both have superstitious connotations with the hangman's noose, neither numbers were used. Jackson strolled over to stand between 5 and 7 and Marcus used his fingers to convert 9 into 6. In one of the exercise yards, one crim had helpfully painted instructions on how to remove ATMs from a wall. Once the prison opened to the public there was a rash of ATM robberies, so they had to paint over his artwork! Damn! With busking and ATMs, we could have continued travelling indefinitely!

And on the Menu tonight ... kids in the kitchen

The tour was captivating and we unanimously decided to come back on another day to do The Great Escapes tour. We also unanimously decided that we were hungry and exhausted, so we had a late picnic lunch at The Esplanade, a wonderful old park on the waterfront. Ella and Lachlan had a great time playing on the spiderweb while the rest of us investigated our inner eyelids under a shady tree. It was not hard to convince the kids to go to bed early that night.

You could see Rottnest Island from
up there!

Since CHOGM was over, Tuesday was Perth sightseeing day. Our first task was to drive to Osborne Park to buy the front part for the tent, which we need now we are striking some weather. It was not far to King's Park where there is a wonderful panoramic view from the top of the aptly named DNA Tower. The kids were very keen to spend some time in the Synergy Playground there, which is full of dinosaur models and information about the earth's prehistory.

Despite his appearance, this guy is not related to
that croc we found in Normanton!

GOLD! - The Perth Mint

The Perth Mint was next on the agenda. While we were waiting for our guided tour, we played "The Most Expensive Item" game in the showroom. I won, finding a tiny Pink Argyle Diamond worth $285 000. Jackson was quizzing the security guard and found that a coin worth $5 million was given to the Queen during CHOGM. We discovered that the 26 largest gold nuggets ever found have all been found in Australia. We also discovered that a gold bar couldn't be lifted with one hand by any of us except Dave and that as a family, we would be worth $9 250 000 if our combined weight was a lump of gold! The tour included the pouring of a gold bar which was amazing to watch. They have melted and poured the same gold bar close to 33 000 times in the 17 years of tours in the Mint.

Jackson's photo of the Bell Tower

We finished our sightseeing at The Bell Tower along the river in the city. The tower is a result of an architectural competition and the building was a gift to WA during the Bicentennial year.

A quick stop in Fremantle to replace our aged rainjackets gave the kids much excitement - now we can have 6 Ninjas in photos! Be warned. After all that, we were pleased to return to camp.

The Main Entrance to the Prison

We returned to Fremantle Prison for the Great Escapes Tour on Wednesday morning. Brendan Abbott, The Postcard Bandit, escaped from here before continuing his bank robberies across several states. The funniest escape story was an unintended escape from an inmate who was due to be paroled the next day. The authorities were trying to find work to keep him occupied and put some scaffolding up against the prison wall and gave him a bucket of cement to repair the top of the wall. He overbalanced and fell 5 metres onto Hampton Road, jumped up and ran around to knock on the front gate. The guard slammed the door in his face, saying "Mate, this is a prison". His frantic knocking was eventually rewarded with access back into the prison, as the guard eventually noticed that he was wearing the prison greens!

Razor wire

In one escape, the prisoners made a phone, rang the guard in
the tower and told him there was trouble left while they
escaped right!

East Fremantle was our lunch spot and we walked along the Swan River, where we saw 2 dolphins. Drove back to camp to get our togs then had a drive south. We stopped at Coogee Beach for a swim and had a very relaxing evening on the beach, despite the threatening storm. Ella sculpted our family in sand, including the cats! The storm hit just as we left the beach, but the fly and the new front panel kept our tent nice and dry.

Bonnie, Clyde, boys, Ella, Mum looking glam and Dad

Coogee Beach before the storm

We are staying on for another couple of days in Freo. We hope to do another busk at the markets and the kids are very excited to be booked on the scary torchlight tour of the Prison on Friday night!

Stay tuned ...