Day 112 – 28th Feb – Dunsborough to Walpole
Today we had planned to set off early in our campervan as we were starting a little mini road trip. Unfortunately after the night before the plans changed! We got a lift to Goanna from Duncan and Ali met us a little while later with their youngest after she had dropped the other children at school. It was Ali’s birthday and our last time to spend some time together so we all had breakfast. Duncan ordered us half portions of some of the breakfasts so we could try all the ones we hadn’t had! The food in the cafe is incredible and we had been so lucky to have been fed so well. I think Dan was worried at having to cook in the campervan after such high quality food we’d had over the past few days!! After saying goodbye to Ali, we went back to the shed to pack and get ready to leave. We accidentally had a nap before this and so set off a lot later than originally planned! We went to say goodbye to Duncan and thank him for a lovely stay. We had been completely spoilt and looked after while we were In Dunsborough and really appreciated their hospitality.
We then set off on a three hour drive to Walpole to camp up for the night. On the drive over we were warned about kangaroos and to drive carefully. It is illegal in Australia to swerve if a kangaroo jumps out on the road so we were watching out all the way! Luckily we didn’t encounter any and arrived at the campsite about 6:30pm. The manager of the site asked if we’d booked any forward accommodation as it was a long weekend and places were all quite full. We didn’t realise it was a bank holiday weekend so we spent some time trying to get some campsites booked as we hadn’t even thought of booking ahead! After slightly changing our plans we managed to get a couple of nights booked but still needed to sort something out in the morning for the next day! We then went to cook tea before setting the bed up for the 1st night in the campervan!

Day 113 – 1st March – Walpole to Denmark
We woke up to no mobile signal or WiFi and as we hadn’t managed to book any campsites for that night the next plan was to find some! We went up to reception who informed us the phone network had gone down but were very helpful and managed to phone up on one of their mobiles and get us booked into a campsite in Denmark. They also planned out a day of things to do for us on route to Denmark! We left the campsite about 10am and went to the 1st stop which was The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. In this part of Western Australia between Walpole and Demark are the world famous red tingle trees which can have a base circumference of up to 20m which makes it the largest buttressing eucalyptus in the world. We did the tree top walk which was really good. The trees were huge and at the highest point we were 40m off the ground and the trees were still towering above us! After this we did a short walk at ground level and tried to spot some quokkas but didn’t see any! We then followed the campsite’s plan and drove to Williams Bay to see Greens Pool and Elephant Rocks. As we drove a kangaroo jumped out at us across the road and Dan braked hard to avoid it! As mentioned before it is illegal to swerve to avoid the kangaroos and you are just supposed to brake if you can or just hit them if they come into your path! Obviously this isn’t your immediate thought when one jumps out as it goes against human nature really! We parked up and started at Greens Pool which is supposed to be a great snorkelling spot. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly day so we didn’t go into the water as it was really cold! We then walked over the rocks to Elephant Rocks, so called as the rocks looks like elephants! The water around this area was so beautiful and we spent some time watching the waves crash over the rocks. We then set off on our final drive to Denmark via the tourist drive that took us past many vineyards and wineries and businesses selling local produce such as cheese, chocolate and cider! We resisted stopping as we were on our way to lunch at the Boston Brewing company which again had been recommended by the campsite owners. We had a lovely lunch sat outside in the beer garden and then went to pick up some food for tea from Denmark village. We arrived at our campsite about 3pm and set up camp for the night. We set up the camping chairs and table and had a drink in the sun. Later on we cooked tea and chatted to a family who we had seen at the gin distillery in Margaret River who were from Skipton and a couple from Australia as well.

Day 114 – 2nd March – Denmark to Hopetoun
We were up early and set off about 8:15 for our next destination of Hopetoun. It was quite a long drive today and after a refuel and supermarket stop it took us about 4 hours to get to our campsite.
We arrived at the campsite about 2pm and got the table and chairs out and sat in the sun eating our lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the sun and relaxing. The campsite was very small and quiet compared to the previous one in Denmark and after tea we went to bed ready for an early start in the morning to Esperance.

Day 115 – Hopetoun to Lucky Bay to Esperance to Hopetoun
Due to the bank holiday all the campsites in Esperance were fully booked so we were up at 7am for a long drive from Hopetoun. Our 1st stop was going to be Lucky Bay which is about 85km past Esperance in the Cape Le Grand National Park. We approached the National Park in the campervan and took our first glimpse of Lucky Bay. Wow!! It was stunning with water so blue. We headed down to the beach and hoped we could see some of the kangaroos that live near to the beach. We didn’t have to wait long before we saw a mother and her joey! We then saw another two kangaroos. We spent some time walking up the beach and taking in the amazing views before heading back to the campervan to have lunch. We thought it was a more sensible option than eating on the beach as the kangaroos had become quite good at trying to steal food!
We left the National Park and drove back towards Esperance to see some of the beaches. The beaches in this area are regularly voted best in Australia so we were looking forward to our journey along the Great Ocean Drive. It didn’t disappoint, the coastline here is the best we have ever seen. The sea is an unbelievable blue colour and the sand so white. When you walk on the beaches the sand squeaks under your feet! We stopped off at a couple of the viewing points and then went to Twilight Beach which again was stunning. There were quite a lot of huge rocks in the sea and people were jumping off them. We took the more sensible option and had an ice cream on the beach! After this we finished the Great Ocean Drive and began the two hour journey back to our campsite in Hopetoun. We both wished we had a couple more days in Esperance as the coast line is unbelievable and you would never tire of the views.
After avoiding a kangaroo we arrived back at the campsite about 6pm and sat out in our camp chairs enjoying the last bit of the day’s sun.

Day 116 – Hopetoun to Perth
We were up early today as we had to drop the campervan off and the journey was approximately 600km! We set off at 7:30am and after avoiding another kangaroo jumping out we had a pretty non eventful journey back to Perth. We stopped off for lunch at a parking stop at the side of the road and enjoyed our final packed lunch in the van.  We arrived back in Perth about 2pm and then had to go and find a car wash to get the campervan cleaned and refuel.  After we had dropped the campervan off we got a taxi to our hotel .  We really enjoyed our road trip and it was a great way to see more of the south of Western Australia.  Our journey from Perth to Margaret River to Esperance and back covered a total of 2388km (1492 miles) but was totally worth it!  After checking into the hotel we had an early ish night as we were starting our tour the next morning from Perth to Exmouth.