Albany to Margaret River

Hello all
Still heading West from Albany, I headed to Shelley Beach Campground, in Cape Howe West National Park. This place would be lovely on a nice day, but in the rain and a howling trade wind coming straight off the ocean it wasn't pleasant. A slight backtrack to find a better place for the night was required. Cosy Corner it was tucked away in amongst the scrub for the night.
Labour Day long weekend was upon me so I decided to prop in Denmark for the weekend. A A cold wet weekend was spent doing laundry and watching movies. I had hoped to stay at Shannon Campground for a few nights, as I stayed there about 1990, but alas the fires have been right through that area and it was closed.
Plan B was to nick up to Manjimup for a night and hit Woolworths to restock.

Diamond Tree

 The Diamond tree fire lookout tower at Majimup, sits perched 51 metres above the ground. The thing that amazes me, that in this day and age of Occupational Health and Safety, they still allow people insane enough to climb it.........

Diamond Tree

Diamond Tree

Heading South to Pemberton and the Glouster Tree, another lookout tower up a tree.

The road led further South to Windy Harbour, a sleepy little fishing village.

Unfortunately the very recent fires had come right up to Windy Harbour, so the surrounding lookouts were still closed.

On to Warren River National Park and Hellfire Loop Scenic drive through the big timber. WA Parks have got some things right with a few of these narrow scenic drives being one way traffic, thus no worries with oncoming traffic at warp speed. Although they seem to have forgotten about vans and campers,with quite a few sites catering only for tents.
This is probably an appropriate time to mention, for those that don't know.........in Western Australia it is illegal to free camp and a $100 fine applies. National Parks and Caravan Parks are the only option. The exception to this is designated overnight stopping areas up North, where you have to a certain distance from a Caravan Park or Camping Ground. From memory it is 50 kilometres. I will check this out another time and clarify the distance.

Warren River National Park

warren River National Park

There are times when travelling, when you see a name on a map, and you simply must go and have a look......this National Park Campground  had me intrigued.

After Snottygobble Loop I headed to Augusta to see the calcium encrusted waterwheel

Waterwheel at Augusta

Waterwheel at Augusta

Tomorrow I need to head into Margaret River to refill my gas bottle, before a slow meander, over the next week or so, to Donnybrook to hopefully catch up with my Cousin.
Bye for now.