Exploring Airlie Beach

Friday 28 June 2019 – 266 150

It was a wild night with winds of 60km/h and rain.  Everything that was outside was wet, regardless of where under the awning it was positioned.  This morning we all enjoyed a sleep in.  We explored the township of Airlie Beach.  In the centre of town, they have a lookout, that also looks down on a garden designed to look like a coral reef, complete with Dory and Nemo.  The roundabout is designed as a tile mosaic of a starfish.  We browsed the shops and found a great book exchange.  https://www.facebook.com/pg/beachbookboutique/about/

Hanging with his Bestie!

The lowest and flattest rainbow I have ever seen!

 

We went for an explore around sheltered Boathaven Beach and took Hayden to a terrific playground to let off some steam. 
https://www.tourismwhitsundays.com.au/accommodation/boathaven-beach It appears that the Foreshore is reopening tomorrow.

We drove to Mandalay Point, which has some extremely expensive looking homes.  There is a lovely park for picnic, with rope swings and a small outdoor chapel which looks out over the ocean.  As it was low tide, I was able to see into the mangroves by walking down the boat ramps.

This afternoon we went for a swim at Airlie Beach Lagoon – a great free facility on the Foreshore with a number of interconnected pools of varying depth with picnic tables and barbeques. https://www.queensland.com/en-au/attraction/airlie-beach-lagoon

1 December - Ludlow Tuart Forest, Karri Gully, Manjimup Timber and Heritage Park, One Tree Bridge, Four Aces and the Diamond Fire Tree

1 December 2016 – 196 946

Ludlow Tuart Forest, Karri Gully, Manjimup Timber and Heritage Park, One Tree Bridge, Four Aces and the Diamond Fire Tree

This morning after packing down we drove to Ludlow Tuart Forest – the plan was to do the Tall Tuart Walk, however there is no parking anywhere near the start of the walk – odd!  Instead we took a drive through the Tuarts and then headed south to Nannup.  

https://www.margaretriver.com/members/ludlow-tuart-forest/

From Nannup we headed East on the Brockman Highway, planning to walk a section of the Bibbulmun Track from the highway to Willow Springs – however the track was closed due to a nearby fire. So, we drove to Bridgetown and on to Manjimup.  

https://www.manjimupwa.com/

https://www.australiassouthwest.com/destination/manjimup

We had a picnic lunch at Manjimup Timber and Heritage Park; this has the tallest slide I have ever seen that is not a waterslide – Hayden had a lot of fun.  This park also had a cool playground, two flying foxes side by side so kids could race each other, and a heritage village. 

https://manjimupheritagepark.com.au/

From here we drove to the King Jarrah, which is estimated to be 500 years old, 45m high and 2.6m in diameter.  

https://visitbunburygeographe.com.au/business/king-jarrah-tree/

Next stop was One Tree Bridge – which disappointingly is no longer over the river, and WA parks being what they are, has a bridge closed sign on it.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/one-tree-bridge

The next stop was the four aces – we think we found them, gour large Karri trees standing in a row, but a sign may have been a good idea.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/four-aces

Last stop for the day was the Diamond Fire Tree, this is 52m tall and is climbed on metal pegs – we each had a go, with Hayden climbing the highest, climbing all the way to the rest point, more than half way up!!  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/diamond-tree

We have camped for the night at Sid’s Campground, outside Northcliffe – a beautiful bush setting.

https://www.facebook.com/Sids-Campground-1669409706652799/

11 November - Kings Park and the WACA

11 November 2016 – 194 987

Kings Park and the WACA

This morning we headed into the city early and went to Kings Park.  

https://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/kings-park

Hayden enjoyed the Synergy Parkland – this is an amazing large playground with lots of fort like areas and even an island with another playground on it and a dinosaur theme.  

https://buggybuddys.com.au/things-to-do/playgrounds-and-parks-in-perth/synergy-parklands-kings-park/

Hayden had a catch up with his school friends via FaceTime, which he appeared to greatly enjoy.  

We walked a short distance from Kings Park and caught one of the free inner-city buses that took us to the WACA. https://www.waca.com.au/ Perth seems to have very good public transport – there are several train lines (which run down the centre of the freeways so only one corridor) and bus interchanges at many of the train stations as well as four free inner-city bus loops that service quite a large area around the CBD.  At the WACA we took a tour of the grounds.  This took us around all the different stands, in the media room, on the grounds, in the team rooms, players dining room and change rooms; even the Dennis Lilley club room (over $3000 per season).  It was pretty good, even for the non-cricket fan.  

We returned to Kings Park for a picnic lunch, followed by a play in the Variety Club Playground.  This was another amazing playground, with forts, tunnels, rope climbs and beautiful wooden creations carved into seats, poles etc.  I also wandered around taking photos of some of the lovely flowers.  

https://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/kings-park/area/saw-avenue/variety-place

We finished the day with a trip to Sizzler’s – all filled up and ready for a sleep!