The Southwest Corner – Part Four (Augusta to Albany)

This is part four (the final part) of our Southwest Corner posts! Make sure to check out parts one, two, and three for our previous adventures in this area, along with maps of the region.

All four parts of the Southwest Corner series are represented in the green line on the map below:

You last left us, dear reader, on a balcony overlooking the ocean in Augusta, with a couple of our Canadian friends. We barbecued an awesome dinner of kangaroo (yes really) and fresh corn, and a spicy broccoli dish + curry that Emma concocted, and then the next day our friends needed to go back to work, and we needed to get on with our travels, having lingered a little longer than we had planned in the Margaret River region.

But of course, you know us, and on our way out of the region we still put our explorer hats on and checked out a few of the attractions. First we headed over to Hamelin Bay, to meet the friendly stingrays that live there.

And friendly they were – especially since one man in the group of people who’d gathered to watch had a bucket of bait fish that he was feeding them. Amazing experience – these guys would bump right into your ankles (just keep clear of the tails – even if they don’t sting you, the skin on their tail is very rough and will scrape as it brushes against you).

Augusta is the “end” of the Margaret River region, but there’s still an unbelievable amount of cool stuff to see and do, and even more wineries and breweries to check out (we are so weak).

Nick and I spent most of the day driving around from Hamelin Bay, we went to grab a quick lunch at the Augusta Bakery and then drove to see Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. We didn’t pay the entry fee to get up close to this one, but there were a few great viewpoints with sweeping views of the coast.

From Cape Leeuwin we had a look at our map, and realised we could drive a network of dirt tracks through state forests and national parks to our next major destination, Albany. The Jeep can’t keep up with the traffic on the bitumen highways, where the speed limit is 110 (we do 90 to stay comfortable, and to help our mileage – we’ll pull aside to let others pass if there’s much of a line of traffic behind us), but she’s completely at home on dirt roads and tracks.

We followed the dirt roads roughly east until it was getting on to late afternoon, when we like to set up camp. I spied a free campground in our WikiCamps app nearby, so we followed the way out, and found ourselves at the top of a sand hill overlooking a beautiful beach – which was completely empty and which we had all to ourselves.

We nestled ourselves into the trees behind the beach and set up camp. We had no phone service and no neighbours – perfect!!

Until….the March flies rolled in.

This campsite was infested with the highest number of March flies (horse flies to our North American friends) that we’ve ever seen. They were unstoppable. They mobbed us within 15 minutes of setting up camp and didn’t leave us alone until we packed up. We had to wear long pants, socks, shoes, long shirt sleeves, and hats to avoid being bitten. Evil little buggers. I wish I’d taken a photo of the pile we killed – it was an impressive pyramid of March flies.

Since this spot we’ve developed the Unicorn rule for campsites….no campsite is perfect. You can find somewhere that’s 3 or 4 out of 6, max: isolated, beautiful, affordable, with mobile reception, with toilets, and not overrun by bugs. A campsite that fit all 6 of these criteria would be a unicorn for sure, and we’d stay there for a week!!

Needless to say, we packed up camp as early as possible the next day and got out of March fly heaven before we got chewed to pieces.

Somewhere along our travels, we’d learned of a place called Truffle Hill – a combination winery and truffle farm – in a town called Manjimup, which was now only about 70km northeast of us – so of course we had to pay it a visit. And what a find…we tasted a few wines, had lunch in their restaurant, and Nick discovered a truffle stout which was absolutely amazing. This place is definitely worth a visit! I would love to go back during the winter, to participate in a truffle hunt.

From the host at Truffle Hill, we learned that we were in a region called the Southern Forests (or sometimes, the Pemberton wine region), and that the best way to experience all the region had to offer, was at a pub called Tall Timbers, just a short drive away. Tall Timbers keeps an Enomatic machine stocked with 50(!) local wines, for $1 per tasting.

If you haven’t heard of an Enomatic, they’re pretty cool – usually, an open bottle of wine will only last a couple of days at most, due to oxidisation of the wine. An Enomatic dispenser ensures that the wine stays fresh, supposedly for up to three weeks after opening! The dispenser also controls the amount of wine dispensed, minimising over-pours and under-pours (or sneaky nips by the house staff). However, I have to wonder how well they work, because I didn’t love any of the wines from the Enomatic at Tall Timbers, and since I’ve read up on Enomatic machines for this blog post, it seems as though others have had the same complaint…hmm!

Once again, we spent a little more time than we’d planned in this area, so we had to find a campsite nearby for the night – luckily, we stumbled upon an absolutely amazing spot, hidden down a rutted-out 4wd track down a hill, beside a calm stream, in the forest.

Finding a spot like this unexpectedly, is so awesome – it’s what this trip is all about. It’s a little annoying that we keep finding awesome places on days we need to keep moving, though!! From here we needed to keep moving towards the coast, it was now the 23rd of December and we really needed to make some distance before we found somewhere we could stay for a few days over Christmas. There’s no point in trying to see things around Christmas in Australia – the whole country shuts down and takes time to be with family and friends (most likely at the beach!), so where ever we ended up on Christmas Eve, we’d be staying for a few days.

We crammed in some sightseeing before figuring out where to settle in (that’s right – on the 23rd we still had no idea where we’d be!).

First stop was the Tingle Trees near Walpole – these trees are Australia’s tallest, and frequently have hollowed-out bases where forest fires have consumed the heart of the tree at the base (but the tree still thrives with its buttressed roots!).

After a hike through the tingle trees, and an unremarkable stay at a caravan park (ugh), we were driving towards Greens Pool (an AMAZING ocean pool), when we spotted a sign for a meadery! We had never seen a meadery before, so we pulled into the parking lot to check it out. I don’t know why we thought this, but both of us had the impression that we would be rolling into a brewery that brewed really old-fashioned beer… Instead, we found out that “mead” is any type of alcohol from honey. Bartholomews Meadery also had honey and honey products for purchase, and a selection of honey-inspired ice creams and coffees – yummm.

Content from our honey-wine and ice cream tasting, it was on to Greens Pool. For those keeping track, it’s now Christmas Eve, and the beach was JUICED. We barely found a parking spot! But everyone was in very good cheer, and the beach was plenty big for everyone. Stunningly beautiful clear water, too.

We didn’t swim at Greens Pool…it was a little chilly for it, and I guess we weren’t really in the mood, although looking back now I wish we had!! Another place for the “must return to” list.

It was now lunchtime on Christmas Eve, and we still didn’t know where we’d be camping for the night! But, no dramas…(so I said while trying not to get anxious about where we’d be sleeping)…next stop on the list was Boston Brewing, near Denmark WA.

Boston Brewing had to be my favourite brewery of this trip. It’s a small brewery, run by a couple of American guys, and they have a great selection of beers to please everyone – my favourites were the Tingle Top (ginger beer – named after the trees highlighted earlier in this blog post!) and the strawberry sour (created this year after Australia had a needles-in-strawberries-scare – so farmers were having to throw away countless pallets of strawberries – these guys stepped in and used what they could!).

Another great outcome of visiting this brewery, in addition to supporting Australian strawberry farmers through our alcoholism, was that one of the staff members got to chatting with us and pointed us to an amazing local campsite nearby! It was exactly what we were hoping for – secluded and quiet, just us, next to a river, and best of all – free!

Make no mistake, it is NOT a part of my personality to just rely on serendipity for such critical things as where we’d spend Christmas. I was fighting back anxiety the closer we got to absolutely needing to find a spot. This trip has been good in that way – teaching me that usually things will work out for us, even if we don’t have a rigorous plan in place. The Christmas campsite was awesome, and we spent three days there FaceTiming with family and friends, and eating and drinking our little Christmas hearts out. A lovely conclusion to our Southwest Corner adventures, and a nice pause before starting our next trek, towards one of W.A.’s most epic 4wd routes, the Holland Track!

Oh yeah, and we discovered face filters ?