Australian Institute of Sport, Australian War Memorial and the Royal Australian Mint (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Tuesday 31 December 2019 – 281 106

First stop today was the A.I.S. – Australian Institute of Sport. 

https://ais.gov.au/visit 

There was some memorabilia on display and a shop, to see anything else you must go on a tour with one of the athletes.  Our tour guide was a young female track runner who had just finished year 12.  She took us around the various training facilities.  She explained that some sports people are fully funded by their national sporting body e.g. Basketball Australia; whereas some other sports the athlete pays to be at the A.I.S. e.g. volleyball.

Lunch was a picnic in Remembrance Park – a beautiful shady park of memorials.  We then spent another hour in the Australian War Memorial, looking at the sections on Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as peacekeeping missions. https://www.awm.gov.au/

Last stop for the day was the Royal Australian Mint. https://www.ramint.gov.au/ We took a tour, which was very informative and saw video footage of the factory in operation. We also looked at displays and saw versions of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Medals.  I learnt that the bronze medals were made from melted down 1c and 2c coins, so they had literally been touched by millions of Australians.

Then back to the van to relax.  After dinner the smell of the smoke suddenly changed and parents all simultaneously appeared to gather their children.  We had three bushfires break out with 5km of us, good to know out instincts still work.

8 December - Greens Pool, Elephant Rock, Madfish Bay and Waterfall Beach; William Bay National Park, and a Quick Departure

8 December 2016 – 198 137

Greens Pool, Elephant Rock, Madfish Bay and Waterfall Beach; William Bay National Park, and a Quick Departure

This morning

This afternoon

This morning we had a lazy start with the plan of an easy relaxing day.  Today’s destination was William Bay National Park.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/william-bay

First up was Greens Pool – another spot where the local kids have swimming lessons, a beautiful sheltered area protected by rocks, while outside this the power of the Southern Ocean is on full display.  We sat high up on the rocks and watched the ocean smash and boil around the rocks below – definitely not a spot to be shipwrecked.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/greens-pool

https://www.denmarkwesternaustralia.com/denmark-wa-travel-destinations/greenspool.htm

We then visited Elephant Rocks – this was a lovely little bay that you get to by walking between large rocks (several times the height of a person).  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/elephant-rocks

https://www.denmarkwesternaustralia.com/denmark-wa-travel-destinations/elephantrocks.htm

We then drove to Madfish Bay, this is again protected by rocks, but a small island in the centre gives twin beaches and a very protected swimming area.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/madfish-bay

https://www.denmarkwesternaustralia.com/denmark-wa-travel-destinations/madfishbay.htm

Waterfall Beach was a little further east, and although not as pretty as the other beaches, it was special in its own way as it had a waterfall of fresh water coming out of the dunes and running down to the beach.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/waterfall-beach

https://www.denmarkwesternaustralia.com/denmark-wa-travel-destinations/waterfallbeach.htm

We then drove back to Madfish Bay for a picnic and a swim.  Although the waves look very small, the volumes of water that the Southern Ocean moves means that they pull and push very strongly.  Drew and I waded out to the island while Hayden played in the sand.  We had the entire bay to ourselves, quite special.  We then returned to the caravan with the plan of a chill out afternoon.  

However nature had other plans.  Seeing the massive amount of smoke in the sky and how much closer the fire had come in the few hours we had been out, we decided that packing down and moving this afternoon, rather than tomorrow morning, was a good idea.  So we packed up and headed for Albany.  On the way, we stopped at Eden Gate Blueberry Farm for farm fresh blueberries – yummy!  

http://www.edengate.com.au/

We have booked in for the next few nights at Big4 Middleton Beach Holiday Park in Albany.

https://www.big4.com.au/caravan-parks/wa/south-west/middleton-beach-holiday-park

3 August - Litchfield National Park Exploring

3 August 2016 – 181 662

Litchfield National Park Exploring

https://nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves/find-a-park-to-visit/litchfield-national-park
This morning we went to Walker Creek and had a short walk to the first campsite – these sites are quite small and not exactly flat but would definitely be peaceful.

The ranger, Wendy, did a talk regarding the history of the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine (on site) which operated from the 1900’s to the 1940’s.  It would have been a very hard and isolated life.  After this, we headed to the Cascades where we climbed up the creek to look at the great variety of waterholes.  We selected a small but deep hole with a small waterfall flowing into it as our own private pool.  The waterfall gave a lovely shoulder and back massage. 

We had our main meal in the heat of the day, so that we could stay out in the cool of the late afternoon.  After lunch we headed toward Lost City, but unfortunately the road was closed due to the wildfires burning.  The ranger this morning said they have now had about sixty percent of the park burn from the wildfires – that certainly explains the sheer amount of smoke. 

Due to this change of plans, we headed to Florence Falls.  It was nice, but nothing spectacular.  Apparently people regularly jump from the walls into the waterhole – I was not surprised to hear that there are fatalities most years, as the waterhole was difficult to swim around in due to the large sharp rocks beneath the surface.  Buley Rockhole was a series of rock holes with small cascades in between.  The top rock hole was at least ten foot deep, and it was quite pretty. 

Our last stop for the day was Tolmer Falls.  Due to construction, the direct walk to the lookout was closed and we did a 2.5km walk that wound through the forest.  The falls are very tall and the water looks extremely deep.  There is no access down into the base of the gorge – the terrain would make this very difficult and it is also home to two species of rare bats.  Another very full day.  My thoughts on Litchfield National Park are that the park is extremely dry and not particularly attractive.  It does have some beautiful water holes, however I much preferred the National Parks around Alice Springs for general scenery so far.  These evening we could see a large wildfire burning on the ridge beyond Wangi Falls that lit up the sky in an orange glow with large flames shooting high into the air.  This is the closest I have been to a large fire and I am happy for that to remain the case.