sunday 29th may

today we decided to head to mt. barker for lunch at the country bakery, i was happy with my lunch but robbie thought his left a bit to be desired. after we had finished with lunch we started driving toward the next town but turned off to porongurup national park thinking we would head back towards albany that way. we turned off again on the road to castle rock arriving at the carpark to realise we had been there before but still had not actually seen castle rock. after reading the sign in the picnic area we thought we would give it a go:

the path began right next to this sign so off we set. after walking uphill for a good 10 minutes we came to what looked like a carpark with this sign next to a path:

well how rude, they fibbed down below and now we had to start again. onward and upward thinking with each step that 3 km is not really that far but it's the up hill thats the killer. here is the view from about half way:

more onward and upward, it's hot work i can tell you, knees and hips are doing some swearing but we keep on going, with many small stops to recover ourselves until finally we come to this:

it seriously looks like it's going to topple on you, a bit further on:

and just around the corner:

now anyone who knows me would totally expect me to turn left, apart from anything else i don't do ladders but what the hey, i decided to give it a go, so i turned right and saw this:

so after scrambling over and under, around and through we came to the dreaded 7 metre ladder, i reckon nobody has ever climbed that ladder so slowly but climb it i did and came out on the walkway sooo high up it made me feel a bit sick, the views were rather speccy but i couldn't really get over how high up i was:

then of course we had to get down, once again a very slow journey on the ladder and much scrambling in reverse and we were back at the sign so we thought we would check out the easy option before we headed down, robbie checked out this cave but i declined, deciding my knees had been traumatised enough:

 then down we went, knees swearing all the way, this is a view from about half way:

by the time we reached the bottom i had practically run out of water and i was keen to visit the facilities, thumbs down for no toilet paper. back in the car and back to albany to get washing in and ironed ready for work tomorrow. knees and hips are still swearing at me, i could be hobbling more than the residents tomorrow, perhaps i can comandeer a wheelchair to get me around.

monday 23rd may

yesterday was our day off together so we decided to go to denmark for lunch. after looking around for somewhere to eat in denmark we finally found a cafe which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment really. robbie had the soup which he thought tasted like tinned soup with a few bits added. we both had fish and chips which were quite greasy and i had chocolate cake which was ok. after we ate we went for a walk along the river which was quite pretty:

then we decided to go for a drive to see what we could find, we headed off towards walpole until we found a road we had not yet explored and took that one. what we found at the end of the road was waterfall beach, i don't know where the name came from as we didn't see any sign of a waterfall but it was nice there and seemed to be quite popular for fishing:

next stop was madfish bay, we were quite taken with this name and had much discussion on whether the fish or the fishernmen were mad:

we then followed a signpost to elephant rocks which we thought were quite spectacular, we were very impressed with the rocks which really did look like elephants:

then we went down all these steps:

to walk between these giant rocks:

i was unwilling to get my feet wet so i went no further but waited there for robbie to return. then it was time to climb back up all those steps and head home to get ready for work today.

sunday may 15

today was the second day of a whole weekend off together, we usually only have sundays, so we set off for mount romance, one of the few spots we know of in and around albany that we haven't visited yet. now i realise you won't be able to tell by the name but it is actually a sandalwood factory and incorperates a cafe and giftshop as well. as it was right on lunch time when we arrived we decided to have a spot of lunch first. we would recommend the cafe, the meal was very nice and reasonably priced and the menu had enough variety to please most people i would think. so after a very pleasant lunch we were just in time to join the tour of the factory which was informative and enjoyable, followed by a look around the quite extensive gift shop.
we decided to go for a drive to emu point and go for a walk along the beach, and very pleasant it was, the water was beautifully calm and there were even a few hardy souls swimming:

this little dude was with us for part of our walk, i think he is a willy wagtail:

i shouted the old boy to a decadent icecream from the little cafe at emu beach:

this bigger dude sat at our feet the whole time we were eating our icecreams hoping for a taste:

i must admit i took pity on him at the end and gave him the bottom of the cone which caused a seagull riot instantly.
home to put the silverside on for dinner. when getting it out of the water later i accidently dropped it back in causing some nasty splashes of near boiling water on my person, i won't do that again in a hurrry, nothing major but definately a nuisance. washing up and ironing left to do today before work again tomorrow.