Kayaking around Walpole

 We've been doing a lot of kayaking since the last blog update, and walking through the huge forests of the south west.

  After leaving leaving cape lleuwin naturaliste national park we headed down and into de'entrecasteux national park and the surrounds, where we saw a lot more giant trees.
 I'm not sure whether I'll be able to appreciate a big eucalypt on the east coast ever again after seeing the size of the trees down here.
 We also headed into Hamelin  Bay to snorkel the old pier there. There are meant to be some massive eagle rays in the area and we wanted to see some of these, but we got too eager and headed over in the morning. We found out later that the rays all come in the afternoon to eat all the scraps thrown out by the boats.
 It was a pretty nice snorkel though.

Hamelin Bay Pier - This pier was the site for numerous shipwrecks back when it was in use. The bay is pretty open to swell from the north west and there are boats sunk all around the bay apparently. The pier was eventually closed down due to the constant sinking boats, then someone vindictively burned it. There are still pylons under the water though which are worth a snorkel

 Old Wife fish at Hamelin Pier

 

Fish - not sure what type, but pretty cool looking

 

Conto Beach Cliffs

While we stayed in the forest national parks of the south west we kayaked a few rivers. Its getting to be a good area to go kayaking with heaps of rivers around with a lot of water in them (due to the constant bloody rain).
 We generally just paddle upstream or downstream for a bit and then turn around and come back, but a while back we thought we'd do a full downstream paddle and dump the kayaks upstream then park the bus downstream and then bike back up and paddle down.
 We chose a 24Km stretch of river where we could get into a campsite and relax back at the bus after a long paddle. When we got in though we saw some time estimates on how long it will take to get down stream. They were pretty liberal with the times, saying it will take 7 hours with the first 17 K's to some waterfalls then to camp there (where there is no road access) and then to take another 7 hours with the next 7 K's.
 We figured this was the same as when you go out on walking tracks, where, for the sake of the grey nomads they say a 20min 1Km walk will take you 5 hours.
 It wasn't at all like that though... We got into the water around 8:00am, then cruised down the river at pretty good speed, it was a good kayak for some parts, but with a lot of giant fallen trees across the river and a few bits of rapids which were too shallow to kayak down and so we would have to walk. We were going pretty quick though and we thought we were doing pretty well, but as the sun started going down after midday we started to get worried. After paddling pretty hard for ages we reached the falls, and when we checked the watch it was 3:20, it took us over 7 hours to do the first leg...  We didn't pack a tent so we were pretty worried we'd have to either kayak down through the rapids and fallen trees (and huge spider webs) in the dark or sleep in our wetsuits and brave the mozzies...
 We couldn't stop for lunch, or to admire the view and kept paddling the rest of the day and into the evening to get to our campsite.
 We were so tired by the end, the last leg was a horrible stretch, every 10 meters there was another fallen tree across the river, which you had to climb onto, drag your kayak over then get back on your kayak and paddle to the next tree blocking the way. We thought we were goners.
 We got back at 6:20pm and it was just starting to get dark in the Karri forest when we could smell some people camping near us cooking undersized marron from up the river (which were delicious, they gave us a few to try).
 We were so happy to get back. NEVER AGAIN!!

 It was beautiful though, and I think after that we might be ready for Franklin river in Tasmania.

 Here are some photos;

Squeezing under one of about 500 trees on the Deep River

 Picturesque Deep River

 Weird Foam build up on the deep river. It comes from the Karri trees I think, it was pretty cool to cruise through, it made a really weird snow wake effect which would fly right up in the air, the photo doesn't really do it justice

 

Some Rapids at Deep River

 

Going under yet another giant tree (at least you could get under it, it took a long time to get over them when they were a few feet lower to the water... not so good when the suns going down fast)

 We've also gone and seen the regular tourist things, we went and saw the giant Tingle tree (the biggest eucalypt in the world) it was a pretty impressive tree. We also went and saw the tree top walk at Walpole. We've since headed to albany, and out to a cool place called Point Riche.

 I was quite surprised when we got there that there is coral found around there next to a fairy penguin colony. I went diving whilst out there, but my camera died, so no photo's unfortunately. It was a monster walk so I didn't bother going out again, you'll just have to take it from me the coral was actually quite impressive. It was the photosynthesizing variety, and was a bright green colour. There was some great fish life around there too, I'm pretty surprised, it had fish that looked like you'd only find up north. It seems like there's more to the south coast than you'd think. I didn't even know you could get coral down south.

 

 Big Karri Tree

 

Flies - This is a photo I took of my arm after walking out to Point Riche. We've stayed in some places with a lot of flies, but I've never had so many going for me before, there must have been thousands on my back. Suckers couldn't follow me under the water though.

 Rachael next to yet another large tree - What do you know eh

 

Another tree... There really are a lot of trees in south WA

 Albany - a lovely city

The Biggest Eucalypt in the world - The giant Tingle has been hollowed out by bushfires but is still alive, its got a girth of 24 meters. It really was an impressive tree

So, as far as the lemon is concerned, she's going better than ever. Since getting the engine tuned up and the crappy tyres replaced we are using way less fuel than before and we are sitting comfortably at 90kph even up hills!!!

 I couldn't be happier with the bus' performance at the moment. (Famous last words).