Step 53 Denmark to Pemberton, no, I mean Augusta. 396Km's

Monday 7th March

Stopped off in town to top up with diesel and pick up a few things in the supermarket. Surprisingly the petrol station had full driveway service. So if I want to take my career full circle maybe I could move here and get a job pumping petrol again! Oh wait a minute, I just remembered, even as a teenager the pay didn't cover my lifestyle requirements so maybe it's back to IT after all.

Started the trip, travelling via Northcliffe and Point D'entre Casteaux.

Northcliffe was settled in the 1800's and the “lucky winners” of the land allocation were given an area of forest to settle in and encouraged to clear the land – by hand. Consequently there is not a lot of open paddocks or grazing in the area. If only Peter King had been able to setup a Husqvarna chainsaw dealership in the area back then, life would have been a lot  easier for the settlers (and probably Pete). On the other hand we wouldn't have the expression “Steve is in more trouble than the early settlers”.

Further along the way we drove through the “settlement” (not town, village or shire – settlement) of Windy Harbour. Interesting little spot with real beach shacks with no land between them, all clustered around a boat ramp and beach.

Unfortunately there wasn't a real good spot to stop for lunch with MM so we drove onwards to the Point D'entreCasteaux itself. Another kodak moment.

So, the twofold reason for heading to Pemberton was to ride on the tourist tram through the forest and to have a berry pancake at the Lavender and Berry farm (both of which we discovered in the tourist brochures for the area). After visiting the Northcliffe Info Centre and discovering that the tram ride is $24 per head and “its a tram” and “it goes through the forest” we decided against that. The berry pancakes on the other hand are berry pancakes and they come with ice cream and hot berry sauce. We have a winner ladies and gentlemen. All power to the Lavender and Berry Farm people, they did not disappoint – superb.

The farm is pretty - the pancakes are pretty spectacular

Given we had “done Pemberton” we decided to head on and stay overnight at Augusta. That will make it nearly 400 km's for the day but that's just one of the crosses we have to bear, don't pity us, we do what we have to do.

The drive today, all day, has been beautiful A bit of variety in that there has been a lot of forests, coming right up to the side of the road and still some very very very big trees. The WA roads department seems to have a very minimalist approach to cutting down trees to put in a road. That is, if there is room to lay the bitumen stop cutting back the trees, no need for a shoulder. It will encourage drivers to stay on the black stuff.

Arriving in Augusta we checked into the Turners caravan Park, right on the banks of the mighty Blackwood River. The guy (hippy) at reception was a little stressed because they had a big crowd in for the long weekend and he had over a 120 people check out this morning. Not quite sure what the problem was with people checking out as most people just hook up and drive away but anyway he was a bit flustered the poor dear. He did say that he would put us on a site near the river and the amenities block though.

View from the front - quite nice

Would have preferred to be not quite so close to the amenities block though as people had to walk through MM to get into the showers. OK, another exaggeration, but we were very close.

to the back - not so

Went for a bit of a walk along the river and we are now rating Augusta, officially, as a “hidden gem”

On the other hand internet reception is still bad and we weren't able to connect with El on Skype as we had planned.

Sign out the front says "last cafe before Antarctica"

For those of us worried about our diet we settled for a half serve of chicken and vege stir fry tonight in a token effort to compensate for the berry pancakes and cappuccino.