The Five Lucky Ducks Mid-Winter Festival in Shannon NP

We headed inland a bit to Shannon National Park, home to some huge Karri trees. The campground had a water boiler, so we stoked the boiler and all had hot showers - was so lovely and hot.



Preparing the fire for our hot showers - yehhhhh

  We decided to get a fire going for the mid winter festival, so the boys collected the wood


Everyone helping out around camp



hanging out around camp



Getting the fire going

Rossco cooked home-made pizzas in the camp oven...

Chorizo, mushroom and three cheese pizza

We had such a lovely mid winter festival, we had made paper lanterns and walked through the forest singing up a storm. As a special treat Ross lit a firework, only the firework was a bit better - longer and much louder than both of us had expected, lucky there was no one else around for miles - v exciting for the boys!!

getting excited about the Mid-Winter Festival - 2011

fires burning, fires burning, come nearer, come nearer, lets sing, lets sing, altogether, altogether ...

loving his lantern

getting the lanterns swinging...

mucking around

singing up a storn through the forest

check out this super-grubby boy, he's getting so cheeky xxx

Here are some of Rossco's shots from the National Park

mini toadstools

crazy fallen tree

eye in a tree

Denmark - WA

We passed through Denmark which was a colourful and pretty cool town.... it is also home to the Golden Hill Steiner School.. Apparently the town was named after an explorer who had the surname of  'Denmark', so the river was called Denmark River and later the town was called Denmark (for Rikke).

We stayed at Parry's Beach campground, which was 20kms west of Denmark. Unfortunately it was pretty shocking wet weather whilst we were there, but we got out and had a look around in between the rain.

Parrys Beach

On the beach

Greens Pool - William Bay National Park

Greens Pool - William Bay NP

Elephant Rocks - William Bay NP

We all got very wet just after this photo was taken (below), trying to run through here when the waves weren't rolling in!

On the Beach past Elephant Rocks - William Bay NP

We also visited the local honey and beeswax candle store and toffee shop, delicious smells and tastes.

Esperance to Albany - South WA

After doing a bit of shopping in Esperance (new bike pedals, new tubs with lids, etc) we headed for Albany and stopped in at Masons Bay for a night. We so nearly got bogged, but Bilbo's low ratio gears certainly came in handy that day and dragged us clear of the soft sand...

our tire marks in the soft sand

The boys loved a moonlit ride along the beach.


having a late night ride

We hung out in Albany for a few days and did a bit of sightseeing - Dog Rock, Chasm, Natural Bridge, Blowhole, Salmon Pools, etc...

Dog Rock - Albany

Salmon Pools, Albany

Leo saw the sign (below) and he told us this sign means... "You could get:

1. Pushed off the cliff by a spear
2. Swept off the rocks by a wave, or
3. Tickled by a octopus".

Leo's interpretation of this sign....

25m drop and chasm

loving it

chasm

Five Lucky Ducks are in Cape Le Grand National Park, WA

Eventually.... we made it to WA, the wild wild west. We trucked along  further west and south towards Esperance and anchored down in the Cape Le Grand National Park - Lucky Bay, where we planned on a few car free days here.

our car reflection in the bushes


It is stunningly beautiful here, the finest white sand and crystal clear water, just what us lucky ducks were hoping for.

Stunning.... Lucky Bay, WA

Lucky Bay

Frog at Lucky Bay

A very happy boy xxx

Met the lovely Helen at the beach and she shared her home-made shortbread - and it was DELICIOUS xx

Boys playing on beach at Hellfire Bay

Playing in the sand

Playing on the rocks

Whilst in the Cape Le Grand National Park we climbed Frenchmans Peak, the boys did so well on this hike, practically hop, skipped and jumped up this peak and it was rated Hard..

Looking up at Frenchmans Peak

 

Boys playing on some rocks

View from Frenchmans Peak - cave

View from the top, back town to Lucky Bay

We caught up some fellow travelers, the Hughes' for a tea party or two... Eventually we ran out of food supplies, so had to get back in the car and move on....

Crossing the Nullabor....

The Nullabor (nullus "no" and abor, "tree") was pretty exciting, first to cross the Nullabor means we will be in WA and secondly, just west of the Head of the Great Australian Bite we spotted our first whales of the season.

1400kms in two days... It was massive!!

This part of the country has the longest straightest road in Australia, measuring in at 146.6kms of straight road with not a bend in it.

The Lucky Ducks approaching the start of the Nullabor

Lunch stop on the Nullabor

At the SA / WA border

We stumbled across part of the Nullabor Links Golf Course. This 18-hole golf course spans 1,365kms from Kalgoolie, WA to Ceduna,SA and you play a hole in each participating town along the way. Each town has a tee, a green and a fairway in rugged outback terrain.... this is for the golf lover followers xxx



Nullabor Links Golf Course

 The Eyre Highway also doubles in places as a landing strip (presumably for flying doctors, etc). It was all good and all us five lucky ducks were in the Nullabor-groove.

Cactus Beach, Point Sinclair, SA

Cactus Beach Campground, wow what a spot.  Ron (the owner) is on a little goldmine there, he has owned the land  along the coast since mid 80's and he has done a great job at building a laid-back campground whilst preserving the desert/coastal environment.

Rossco hit the surf and caught some great waves, the boys and I watched from above and loved it (.... OK... I didn't love it... I was preoccupied with nerves due to the well known fact that Great Whites also like to frequent the area!)

boys at cactus

checking out sunset at cactus - v cold

Rossco surfing at Cactus

boys are loving watching Dad catch waves

The Nullabor was calling, so we hit the road out of Cactus.... Bring on WA!!

Road out of Cactus