On the recommendation of someone in a caravan park somewhere, we had booked the Ocean Beach Caravan Park in Denmark. This turned out to be about 8km outside of Denmark, on the coast (although you couldn't actually see the sea from the park). It also turned out to be the most fantastic caravan park we'd stayed in all trip. The amenities block would not have been out of place in a five-star hotel, the whole park was covered in grass and trees, there was a massive playground and jumpy pillow and the surf beach was just up the road. Best of all, there were families of ducks with lots of ducklings wandering around all day, and at night kangaroos feeding on the lawns. I walked up to the amenities block late at night, literally within a few metres of about 10 kangaroos, who eyed me cautiously but did not move away. It was a beautiful and quite surreal experience!
Andrew discovered the surf beach on the first morning, and after he'd had a surf, we all went back down there for boogie-boarding - which turned into a surfing lesson for Kirralee. It was actually drizzling and not exactly warm, but that didn't deter anyone except me (well - someone had to take the pictures!). Kirralee managed to catch a little wave, which was a great thrill. In the afternoon we went out to an animal "petting farm" where the girls could cuddle and pet baby guinea pigs and rabbits to their hearts' content, as well as feeding goats, sheep, ferrets, emus, alpacas, kangaroos........ you name it! This was what Kirralee in particular would consider to be heaven, and we couldn't even get them out of there in time to go to the toffee factory! This had to be saved for the next day - along with the cheese factory, where we bought lots of glorious cheeses as the basis for a gourmet platter supper. We did call in at a place called William Bay, where there is a cove called "Elephant Rocks" and a snorkelling bay called "Green Pool". Both were beautiful, but it was far too cold for swimming or snorkelling.
Before the factories tour on the Saturday, we fitted in another surfing lesson, and this time even yours truly managed to sort of stand up on the board. My first surf in 10 years! Kendall had a shot, and you could hear the squeal from the other side of the beach when Andrew stood her up and pushed the board in front of a wave.
Of course Saturday was also the AFL Grand Final. We had fitted our schedule around it to some extent, making sure we wouldn't be driving or somewhere without TV reception on the day - but in the end we only saw the last quarter, by the time we got back from our gourmet tour and shopping (to buy everything else we needed for the platters). Still - what an exciting quarter! And, just like the election, another draw. It must be us!
On Sunday we went to Albany for the day. It might have made sense to stay there for a couple of nights, but we preferred to commute rather than pack up and move again. Four nights in one spot is just great. The day was cool and rainy again, and we headed first to Whale World, which we'd heard was pretty interesting. It's an old whaling station - the last to close in Australia - that has been converted into a museum and educational facility. I thought it was well done; presenting the gory realities of working on the station without any justification or condemnation. We certainly learned a great deal. However, despite spending three hours, it still didn't seem enough, and we had to rush off at the end, because we had a lunch booking on the other side of Albany. (If we'd realised quite how far out of town it was, we would have sacrificed it, seeing we only had the one day - but hindsight is a wonderful thing!) We visited the "Natural Bridge" on the way, and found it absolutely crawling with tourists, which was a bit of a shock to us. Most of the places we've been to have never had more than one or two others there at the same time as us. Still - it was the Sunday of a long weekend in WA and only about 400km from Perth.
The Albany Marron and Bird Park was a lovely place for lunch (a rare treat to have a sit-down lunch, but I had a craving for marron) and also had another animal petting and bird-feeding park. This was great, because the girls disappeared for an hour or so, and Andrew and I had a lingering, romantic coffee by ourselves for once! By the time we got back to town it was already after 4pm so we just drove around looking at the beach, the port etc and then headed for home. It would have been nice to have had a bit more time to explore, but given that it was still raining and foggy, we probably wouldn't have seen much more anyway. One thing we were sorry to miss was a tour around the replica of the Brig Amity - the first ship to bring settlers to Albany (which was the first place settled in WA and was originally intended to be the state capital) - but this was closed when we arrived. As a unique method of "closing" the ship, they flood the deck with water from the adjacent beach, so people don't climb on-board!
Monday was packing up day. We were all VERY sorry to leave Denmark; Andrew because of the surf beach, the girls because of the playground and the ducks, and me because of the midnight kangaroos. Not to mention the fact (which none of us did) that this was our last "long" stop and we had only two more places to go before we would be going across the Nullarbor and back to SA. I don't know if Denmark was the "best" place of the whole trip, but it was certainly the best caravan park, and it would be up there in the top five overall, despite the weather.
Captions for pictures
- Kirralee and a new love at the Animal Farm
- Tahlia with an emu "necklace"
- Kirralee's first wave!
- The guard at the entrance to William Bay
- Can you see the elephant?
- Green Pool near sunset
- A duck family hanging around the caravan. They have 10 children and both parents look after them full-time. Also note the lovely green park.
- Skeletons of a pygmy blue whale (20m) and a humpback whale (about 5m) at Whale World
- Natural Bridge (and not so natural human decorations)
- Another picture of Kendall with a bird sitting on her - this time at the Albany Marron and Bird Park
- Local scenery near the caravan park. I think the water must be really salty and the trees are all dying but it looks fantastic.
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