Abalone, crayfish and whiting - eating like kings at Peaceful Bay

Peaceful Bay

Thursday 12^th – Monday 16^th January

We could originally only get 2 nights at the very popular beachside campground at Peaceful Bay, but luckily for us someone cancelled so we could extend. We had a thoroughly enjoyable 4 days at this small beach town, there were so many beaches to explore and the actual bay just across from the caravan park was sheltered, calm and provided us with lots of yummy seafood. Our 4 days went like this:

Day 1: Arrived about lunchtime – the sun was shining. Spent the afternoon on the beach, swimming and exploring the rocks. Jackson and Daniel went snorkelling and Daniel got a crayfish not too far from shore. After dinner the boys went fishing whilst I watched the sunset with Emilia.

Day 2: We spent the morning at the surf beach - skim boarding, surfing and jumping the waves then the afternoon at the sheltered bay beach (as the wind had picked up). Jackson did well with his hand spear- he got 4 whiting and Daniel got another cray. Emilia and I enjoyed the water – snorkelling and swimming. A storm came in later that afternoon and Emilia and I had a great time swimming in the ocean in the rain. After our delicious dinner (crayfish and whiting) we listened to some live music at the local café.

Day 3: It was a cool day so we went to marvel at the huge Tingle Trees that make up the Valley of The Giants in the Walpole area. We did the Tree Top Walk and the Ancient Empire walk before visiting one of the biggest trees in the area – the Giant Tingle Tree. The afternoon was spent at Green’s Pool & Elephant Rocks, before ice-cream at the Denmark Good Food Factory. By the time we got back to camp we’d been gone for 9 hours- it was a big day, but a great one.

Day 4: After a relaxing morning we explored some of the nearby 4wd tracks that took us to a few remote beaches. At one beach, The Gap, Daniel went diving and got heaps of Roe abalone. While he was diving the kids and I explored the rocks and found a huge whalebone. By the time we got back it was lunchtime and, just after Daniel had inflated the tyres back up after the beach driving, I realised Emilia and I had left our thongs at one of the beaches we’d stopped at. It was a long walk back to retrieve them!! We had another swim and snorkel in the afternoon, then, while Jackson played with some boys he’d made friends with at the caravan park, Daniel took Emilia to fly her new kite – the wind was perfect on the beach and she managed to get the hang of it.

Daniel got this crayfish just after we arrived at Peaceful Bay - it was just in the rocks you can see behind him. An awesome find!

We all enjoyed swimming out to the rocks that protect the bay. The water was lovely. 

It was fun exploring the rocks just out from shore- both on top of the rocks, and snorkelling around them.

The boys tried their luck fishing on the first night - but they had no luck. They did much better when they were in the water.

While the boys fished Emilia and I did a walk around the rocks to Sandy Beach to watch the sun set.

Getting a ride back to camp after spending the morning practising on the surfboard.

Jackson with one of the 4 whiting he managed to get using only the hand spear - pretty impressive!

Crayfish number 2- we had an incredible dinner that night. Crayfish and whiting- freshly caught and on our plates only a few hours later.

The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk was just as great as we remembered. Here are some photos of videos of us enjoying the walk. We ended up walking through twice, but the first time was the best as we were there early so there weren't too many other people.

One of the 6 interconnected walkways- there are only 6 pylons holding the whole walkway up, it's a pretty impressive structure.

Even at the highest point- 40 metres up- many of the trees were still significantly taller

The next few pictures are from the Ancient Empire walk where you get to meander through the forest and get up close to (sometimes actually inside) some of the incredibly large and impressive Red Tingle trees (some are over 400 years old). The scientific name for Red Tingle tree is Eucalyptus Jacksonii- Jackson liked this!

This is Grandma Tingle- she is over 400 years old, 12 metres in circumference and 34 meters high

You could walk inside, and through, some of the trees that have been hollowed out by fire and/or insects. They have made boardwalks to protect the shallow root systems of the trees. 

I loved the patterns in the base of one of the fallen Tingle trees.

Emilia is easy to see, but can you spot Jackson??

This is a model of one of the biggest Red Tingle trees that people used to drive their cars in to take photos..unfortunately after so much attention and so many visitors it's shallow roots were compacted too much and it died. This is what prompted the Tree Top Walk - a way for everyone to enjoy these amazing trees without damaging them.

The Giant Tingle Tree near Walpole. It is 75 metres tall and has a girth of 24 metres! Over time it has been hollowed out by fire so you can walk right through it. 

The kids and I couldn't quite stretch wide enough....

...until Daniel joined us, then we could touch both sides.

There were so many large, interesting trees. This one, with its gnarled bump, took my fancy!

Elephant Rocks - so named as they look like a herd of elephants walking out to sea. I took two photos from different perspectives to see which one looked more like elephant behinds...I think maybe the second one does.

Instead of swimming (there was an icy wind blowing) we walked along the beach at Green's Pool and Jackson managed to make it to the top of this rock (after Daniel challenged him).

They tried to get Emilia up but skinny jeans are not the best climbing attire!

The stunning rocks and turquoise water at Green's Pool. 

The sea breeze was blowing hard- I had no hope of controlling my hair!

Ice creams on the way back to camp really topped off a wonderful day.

The whalebone we discovered at one of the remote beaches we explored on our last day at Peaceful Bay.

Mastering her stunt kite - she was so pleased.

After a walk along the beach on our last morning at Peaceful Bay. We loved it here and could definitely have stayed longer, it was such a great place.

Cruising over the Yeagarup dunes

Northcliffe, Yeagarup Dunes and Shannon National Park

Monday 9^th – Thursday 12^th December

We arrived at the quirky Northcliffe Bush Camp in the late afternoon. The camp is set on a lovely bush block and the owner has done lots of interesting and unique things around the camp, such as the toilets and showers which were quite a novelty. The next day the weather was beautiful, a perfect day to explore the Yeagarup Dunes and beach. The dunes were fun to drive over but then we were stuck on a rough beach track for another half and hour before we got down to Yeagarup Beach and the end of the Warren River. It was so nice once we got there though. The ocean looked too treacherous to swim in (I tried but the undertow was extreme and nearly pulled me off my feet even when I was only knee deep), so we swam in the Warren River. Jackson practiced on his skim board and was able to skim for ages. We spent a lovely few hours relaxing on the beach and enjoying the river before driving east along the beach to another track that took you out over different dunes. The first part of the track, over the dunes, was so steep that we ended up sinking both times we tried. Luckily there was an alternate track even further east, so we cruised along the beach before taking the very picturesque and far less bumpy track back to Northcliffe. That evening we did one of the walking tracks around the camp and discovered one of the biggest yakkas we’d ever seen. There was also lots of quirky ‘art’ along the walk to keep us entertained.

The next morning we went into Northcliffe so Emilia, Jackson and I could do the Understory Art Trail. It was great with so many interesting and unique art pieces that we had to find as we meandered along the track. We all really liked the Risen from the Ashes series that featured over 40 faces moulded from charcoal within burnt out trees. It was done to commemorate the 2015 bushfires and the faces are of those impacted by the fires. That night we stayed at Shannon National Park. The camp area is on the old Shannon Mill site, amongst towering trees. It was a beautiful location for the evening.

Some photos and a video of us driving over the Yeagarup Dunes.

When we drove along the beach these birds flew right next to us, it was like they were racing us!

Emilia found some great shells and got busy making a keyring with it (in between reading a few books).

We didn't expect to see a monitor walking along the beach! 

The beach went for miles and it was such a perfect day.

The kids, Jackson especially, had so much fun with the skim board. The shallow water at the edge of the Warren River was perfect for practising.

As we were leaving the clouds starting rolling in. On the drive home there were even a few drops of rain.

Home time - we'd had a great day.

Doing the first part of a track over the dunes on the way home- we made it over this one, but the dune after this was so steep we only made it halfway up!

Jackson found this cute frog near the toilets at the camp in Northcliffe.

The camp was situated on a big bush block, with several walks that meandered through. We spotted this unique tree on our evening walk and went back to photograph it the next morning.

The big yakka, affectionately named 'Old Black Man'. After admiring it we looked to the other side of the track where we spotted this.....

....watching us! The owner definitely has a sense of humour!

One of the toilet blocks made with old Land Rover parts......

where you could do your business....

...while looking at nature!

My two favourites from the 'Risen from the Ashes' art pieces on the Understory Art Trail in Northcliffe.

There were 13 of these little people hidden in the bush along the art trail.

I loved the concept of this art piece. The artist used old government reports (some never read) to create 'fingers' which he impregnated with mould spores. The fingers will eventually be eaten away by the mould and the paper will return to the earth. Many of the pieces on the art trail where ephemeral (new word I learnt which means only lasting for a short time) as they designed to deteriorate and change over time.

This piece was a halo mounted high up in a tree, we were unsure how they got it up there as it was in dense bush. It looked impressive though.

The kids liked these bird and bee homes, made and decorated by local school children using wood offcuts.

At the Shannon Mill campground Jackson discovered this pile of sand and spent a few hours making different runs and jumps for a golf ball he'd found.