We left the campsite well later today and we drive all the late afternoon, Northcliffe way to the coast and stop at Windy Harbor, one of the places that one of the guys from Chester Forest recommended to us. We arrive on the beach of the Southern Ocean – finished the Indian Ocean – where we discover, for a few seconds, what really is four wheel drive – four-wheel drive ! We settle in at the campsite in a setting as friendly as the owners. We spend the evening around the fire, joined by two of the Australian neighbors with a good local accent !
Windy Harbour
Mr Big à Windy Harbour
The next day we visit the surroundings of Windy Harbor, especially the cliffs of Salmon Beach and those of Point d'Entrecasteaux, eponymous name of the national park spread all around. Then we go up on Northcliffe to take the road that goes to the South Western Highway, towards the east.
Skink lizard ?
Salmon Beach
A dirt road leaves the highway to go to Fernhook Falls ... Welcome to the bush where red earth seeps everywhere, even with the windows closed !
Cliffs of Entrecasteaux
Track to Fernhook Falls
The end of the day finds us near Walpole, town near which the Valley of the Giants is located, in which the Tree Top Walk was built, a suspension bridge among trees forty meters high – at the highest point. We will go tomorrow morning and stop at a campsite seventeen kilometers from the giants.
Tree Top Walk
40 meters high
The Saturday, it's under a sky full of clouds – not, it is not always sunny in Australia, especially in the very green south – that we mingle with other tourists to travel the few hundred meters in the middle of trees of fifty meters and sometimes more.
It's when we get down to their feet that the rain surprises us ! We leave the giant eucalyptus behind us to take refuge in Mr. Big.
Eucalyptus Jacksonii
Red Tingle de 400 year old
We take the highway back east, stopping briefly in Denmark, a city of hippies – retired for the most part that we meet ! – to fill it up with fuel for Mr. Big and huge sandwiches for us.
Camping in Albany
Sunset in Albany
We arrive at the end of the afternoon in Albany and go up the main street : York Street, who discovers a port city with colorful facades. A short trip to the cybercafé and we bypass the Princess Royal Harbor to settle in a campsite with a view of the city on the left, and a breathtaking landscape on the right. Only flaw, the wind blows as if a storm is brewing, we therefore inaugurate the floor in Mr. Big to set up the bed so that my cousin can sleep in the shelter.
Happy new year !