Silja: Denmark - Albany – Stirling Range - Bremer Bay

The weather stayed rather cool and windy, so Denmark, WA with its huge beaches and sand dunes felt very much like the Denmark we know. We also visited some beautiful beaches on the peninsula South of Albany, like «Salmon Hole» or «Frenchman Bay» and saw stunning rockformatins like «The Gap» and «Natural Bridge», as well as blowholes in which the rather big swell created starteling noises.

Albany was a very friendly, pleasant town but not quite the hub we expected since it is the biggest town down here. From here we went further inland to visit Porongurup National Park and the Stirling Range. Unfortunately it started to rain when we got to Porunguruo and so we decided against the Castle Rock Trail, which newly has been upgraded with a modern «skywalk», which we hope to check out on our way back.

Even though it was still raining every now and then when we got to the Stirling Range that really was something! It was impressive to see the mountains rise from afar and as we got closer the flora changed and we saw plants that we had never seen before and they were flowering, too! We later learned that the Stirling Range is a biodiversity hotspot with a large number of endemic species. We all went on the trail that leads up to the summit of Bluff Knoll (1100m above sea level) but only Axel made it all the way to the top.

We headed even further inland, hoping to show the children the outback, but that area, even though it is very little populated, is known as the wheat belt and there is nothing wild about it. It was now raining constantly and the highlight of the day was a visit to the library in Jerramungup, a very small town, where everyone we passed gave a little wave. We were the only visitors at the rather modern and nice library, where two staff members were more than willing to provide us with a weatherforecast and other information about our next destination: Bremer Bay.

It was still drizzeling when we found a place to spend the night next to one of the incredibly white beaches. A sign claims that you can see sea dragons when snorkeling. Even though the weather improved slightly the next day, we did not feel for a swim. Nevertheless we checked out all the beautiful beaches and an enormous sand dune.