Bremer Bay, Fitzgerald N.P and Albany

Bremer Bay 23rd -25th February

We left Wave Rock heading back to the coast with all intentions to go and camp in the Fitzgerald N.P. We were listening to the ABC news and heard that East of Albany was on extreme fire watch and a storm was on the way and that was where we were heading......We decided to play it safe again and go camp at Bremer Bay in a C.P and do a day visit into the N.P.

This ended up to be a good decision for we were woken up in the middle night by quite a bit of lightning and thunder all happening directly above us. The rain fall wasn't as bad as back at Cape Arid just enough to get everything wet but not leave to many puddles.

Bremer Bay is a very little coastal town with one very expensive small general store! It is mainly made up of holiday homes from the people of Albany. It has some lovely little bays and a very nice Estuary, where the river meets the ocean.



looking out to sea from the Estuary




looking back towards the river
at the mouth of Estuary












Bremer Bay has a good lookout from their one wind turbine that helps the little town run. The below turbine is 44 meters tall and the blades are 22 meters long. This turbine provides the town with about 40% of its power.



view from lookout over the Estuary and bay




the wind turbine at the lookout



view back at the town on the inlet

FITZGERALD NATIONAL PARK  26TH FEB

We did a day drive from Bremer Bay to Gordon Inlet  which is in the Fitzgerald N.P which we really liked so we then decided we would go and stay a night in the park.
We went to Point Anne and camped in the little camping bays along Mary Inlet, only one other camper there, so peaceful. 
After we had set up we went exploring and were surprised when we went to a small BBQ area to find quite a few people there having a picnic or fish. We went on further to look at Trigelow Bay to try and find a fishing spot but instead found a very soft beach! Just when the track started to show signs that it may be fun we came across a sign saying "ROAD CLOSED" , all we could see from the top of the hill leading down to the beach was the black conveyor mats that some places use to protect the track. We could see that a few cars had driven around the sign but we thought we would park at the top and walk down to see..... Look what we found......



just in case you didn't read the first sign !!!




just goes to show how easily the sand can wash away

We went for a walk along the beach a bit and discovered the softest "wet" sand we have stood in. The boys all had quite a bit of fun trying to bury their legs the deepest. They were jumping off the ledge to get the most impact.



That's Pete standing after a jump off the ledge!




Tom's and Charlie's effort. You had to be quick to get out
before the wave came it washed right over the holes and
you could only just see where you had been standing.

It just proved to us how careful you need to be on each beach, the sand can change from bay to bay!

The view from half way up the closed road back along Trigelow beach.


The view from the beach just out side the camp was lovely with the huge mountains in the background, it was just way to windy to fish. Tom tried but he could hardly get the line into the water with the on shore wind.




Pt. Charles Bay, looks beautiful but it was so windy!

The morning we packed up was lovely , not to windy and just starting to heat up. We went and did a small circuit walk out onto Point Anne itself which passed one of the Rabbit Proof Fence's built to try and stop the rabbits getting into W.A., but of course they didn't work. When we got out onto the point we happened to look down over the edge to be greeted by a small pod of dolphins and one seal, just slowly swimming along in search of food. The views to the East were of a very rugged coast line. The walk back to the car along the coast showed again how lovely and stunning this clear water is. 




Remains of the Rabbit Proof Fence



speaks for itself!



Views back at Pt. Charles Bay the beach we camped near.

ALBANY 27^TH – 29^TH FEB

We had not long been on the highway making our way towards Albany when a Ute passed us and threw up a stone that gave us a 50c star just to the left of Pete’s vision, BOTHER!!!

Nothing we could do about it till we got into Albany. We diverted off the highway to look at a lovely little cove called Cheynne Beach. A lovely little fishing spot with two rows of houses, a caravan park and a boat ramp! We sat on a patch of grass right near the beach and had some lunch while watching the fishermen bringing in their boats.

In Albany we stayed at Emu Point, simply because that was where the Top Tourist C.P. was and since we are now members we just stay in these C.P. It was a big park and being a camper trailer you don’t always get stuck with the caravans, which suits us, we had a lovely shady spot. Middleton Beach was just over a small dune, lovely, although  we had no desire to go swimming, to cold for us, but it was a lovely setting. Again the bay was made picturesque by the islands and mountains around.

The main street of Albany is lovely with the outlook being right down to the bay. It is a busy place with everything you need here. We booked the car in to a Novus place to have it repaired thinking we will surely get more chips on this trip .When Pete took the car in to have the "star" fixed he went to have a quiet cuppa at Mc Donald's but unfortunately that didn’t last for long…the star cracked all the way along the window when the man put the glue into it ,so we were up for a new windscreen….$400 later…at least they had one to put in…..

While we were waiting for the new screen to be put in we went for one of our big bike rides again; from our C.P right around the point into Albany. It had great scenery, hills and a head wind!! We ended up at the tourist info. Centre which also happens to be the train station from the huge port here. Not long after getting off our bikes  a train left the station with 52 carriages on it, Tom counted them from a pedestrian bridge that was right above the train.




Looking out across Middleton Beach on our bike ride


The War plays a big part in Albany because it was the last piece of Australian land that allot of our soldiers saw before they went off to war. There is a fort and gun turrets around the point and a huge memorial up on Anzac Hill with spectacular views around Albany.




Hard to see but this looks up to a huge
war memorial







Looking out across Middleton Beach towards Emu Point, you
can also see the war memorial on the right.





From the same lookout looking to the right down at the port.





Unfortunately the weather here was  cloudy, windy and drizzly, with cool nights apparently quite normal for Albany! We took some advice from a man in Bremer Bay and have booked into a C.P inland at Porongurup N.P for the long weekend in W.A which is one week before VIC.