Day 15 Albany to Busselton

Set off this morning and stopped first up at a little place called Denmark (didn't know we were going overseas this trip, did you!).  It has a population of 4,600.  There are lots of walks around here with the biggest being the Bibbulmun Track which goes from Albany to Perth.  Denmark is a major wine producing area and has Karri forests as well.  We called in to the Toffee Factory which was a little farm just out of Denmark where they made toffees, brittles, ciders, ice creams and lots of savoury things in jars as well.  I had a Strawberry Cider spider.  The ice cream was lovely but the cider was a bit dry for my liking.  Peter had a  mandarin ice cream and it was delicious.  All the ice creams are made with fresh fruit.  Peter bought some coffee toffee and I brought some popcorn and peanut brittle and some macadamia brittle - yum!

This was at the Toffee Factory.  It looked like someone had ridden into the round bale.

We continued on to Walpole where we refuelled at 150.6 cents a litre for diesel.  Walpole is a farming area which grew out of the depression era.  In 1930, unemployed men with families were selected and sent to the settlement to carve farms out of the virgin bush.  Timber milling developed soon after.   Passed lots of tree farms and some are called tree plantations and then the country would open up to grazing country with cattle and sheep.  14kms from town is the Valley of the Giants which is a forest of unique red tingle trees.  These trees can reash a height of 70 metres and can attain a circumference of 20 metres and there is a tree top walk.

One of the tree farms

We stopped for a lunch in a little pull off area.  I was pretty tired so just laid on the bed and rested my eyes while Peter finished his lunch.  I didn't realise I had fallen asleep until I felt the van moving and thought Peter was driving off with me still in the back.  Almost had a heart attack until I realised that Peter was playing a joke on me - how mean!

Next was Pemberton with a population of 920.  In 1913, timber mills were established  to supply and cut half a million sleepers for the Trans Australian Railway Line.  There are more wine grapes grown here than in Margaret River and it produces the most avocados in Australia.

We drove on through Nannup, population 1,200 and with lots of walking trails.  Next stop was our destination for the day, Busselton.  We booked into the Mandalay Holiday Resort and Tourist Park.  Although a bit expensive at $42 a night for a powered site, it is the best park we have been in.  There are two heated swimming pools, one of which is indoors, 3 adventure playgrounds for toddlers to teenagers, a playing field, games room, giant jumping pillow and much more.  The amenities are excellent and it is a lovely park with lots of green grass.  We booked in for two nights.

Our resort in Busselton

The pools

Peter then decided to show me a photo he had taken on his phone while we were driving along - me asleep!  I had to make sure I didn't go to sleep again after that.

Tomorrow - out and about.

cheers
Pete and Roz