On to the very pretty coastal town of Walpole for an overnight stop with a chance to visit the famous Tingle tree forests and tree top walk. Tingle trees are long lived and have very wide bases, often hollowed out by fires, but are relatively shallow rooted. The most famous of these you could drive a car through but these days they can only be viewed on boardwalks to protect their roots from compaction – they were being loved to death.
We had previously visited Albany in horrendous weather back in 2014 in the midst of so much construction of the now completed waterfront precinct and ANZAC museum which opened late 2014 to commemorate the embarkation of the Australian and New Zealand convoy sailing to Europe in WWI to support the Allies. What a different impression we got of this nice town when the sun shines.
There is now an amazing boardwalk which goes for many kilometres along the shoreline, a waterfront and Main Street filled with cafes and shops and the interactive ANZAC museum perched high on the hill. The Whaling station is about 20km out of town and back in 2014 was a highlight of our visit to Albany. Having spent a whole day there previously we decided not to re-visit but would recommend this fascinating experience to all.
On the way out of town we called in to see the chainsaw sculptures by local resident Darrel Radcliffe, one of very few chainsaw artists in Western Australia, who has opened up his front gate to the public to view his chainsaw sculpture drive. Welcoming you into the private property is a six-metre-long giant chainsaw, carved out of local timber. You then drive around a circuit where an amazing assortment of chainsaw sculptures are hidden in the bush, trees and surrounds – they range from owls to kangaroos, snakes, big Indian chiefs, cockatoos, and a bear climbing a tree looking for the honey pot. You are requested to stay in your car and all he asks for is a donation if you have enjoyed the viewing. What a generous gesture.
We stopped overnight at a free camp just out of Ravensthorpe in a pleasant bush setting which we had to ourselves. In the morning John took a walk to check out the farmer’s grain crop while the truck was warming up and as he approached the truck he disturbed a 2m long king brown snake which was not happy and moved towards him. Most snakes run away and you never see them but this guy was aggressive. After his mock charge he moved on under the warm vehicle and was last seen slithering up among the exhaust mid vehicle. We waited and watched but didn’t see him depart. We needed to get on the road so very gingerly ‘jumped’ in to the truck hoping that he would be dislodged as we travelled along at speed.
Esperance was to be our next major stop but as often happens, you are filling up with fuel at a small one horse town (Munglinup) and get talking to the guy on the next pump who says ‘Maaate, if you want a great place for a bit of fishing ya gotta go to …… ‘. Detour to Stokes Inlet NP for a couple of days fishing.
Next morning at 7.30 we were at the designated fishing spot (information from the camp hosts) and hauling in small bream caught on sliced rump steak. Half a dozen or so were thrown back to live and fight another day but we did get 2 nice pan sized bream for dinner before they went ‘off the bite’ at 9 am (an old fishing expert at camp told us this often happens). We packed up and John was getting ready to fillet the fish when it flipped in his grip, he jerked the filleting knife and managed to put the blade through his hand between thumb and first finger. The wound was 1cm deep and 3cm long but quick action pressing it together meant it didn’t bleed too much and we were able to dress it with Band-Aids to keep it together. Crisis averted but he was in shock and although it probably needed stitches we decided to wait until the following day before leaving for the 100km drive to Esperance.
The snake saga continues … We got the selfie stick and taped it to the broom handle, then with the phone on video recording we ran it under the truck and recorded the underside. No snake could be seen but of course it could have been up on top of the spare tyre or hiding somewhere we couldn’t see.
At Esperance John was planning to rotate the tyres on the truck (keeps the wear even) so with his bandaged hand and the possibility of the snake onboard we went to Beaurepairs and asked them to do the rotation, John told them about the snake but the young guy said ‘no worries maaate – we see all sorts here,’ The snake did not appear so we assume he must have dropped out along the way, and the tyres were rotated and balanced – all for $45 – bargain. We spent another few hours at the hospital ED getting the hand checked and some antibiotics.