WINDMILLS AND A SHOCK

As we passed through the Stirling ranges heading north I stopped for a photo of the yellow canola - climbed through a fence ( middle strands ) - then came back through the fence again to get a polarising filter - WHAM - next minute i was lying in a ditch yelling in a fetal position with my precious Nikon D70 wrapped against my stomach - The top was electrified and came through my back and down both arms to the ground - biggest jolt I'd had from a fence since I was 12 ( when as most boys do they test ( once ) the theory of what happens when you pee on an electric fence.)

Anyway I gingerly climbed back over the fence post with polariser and got the shot. Then we meet a 16th century replica Dutch windmill in the middle of nowhere with 24 ton rotating head ( which I still had as well from the electric fence ) ... - the woman walking in water was in Kings Park Perth - with the amount of money coming out of the ground in WA it's a wonder everyone is not walking on gold....

MONKEY ROCK

Near Denmark is a rock called Monkey rock - and after a bit of a walk had a great view back to the coast - with Len & Rose as guides and the camera once again glued to my eye !

THAT BOAT AGAIN

Sorry just a couple more of the boat !and one of the landing where whales were cut up....

BOAT A WHALE AND A BIRD

Could not stop photographing the boat ... !

WHALE WORLD

Albany was one of the pargest whaling stations around and whale killing only stopped in the 1970's so now the base has been turned into a fascinating museum - lots of exhibits but I was captured by the shapes and colours of the restored whale boat.

ALBANY

Albany is the main town in the area but the surprise was the size of the harbour - where ships met in large numbers before embarking with troops to europe in WW1 & WW2 - one the way home we met a timy orchard about 1 cemntimetre across called the duck orchid -

WILLIAM'S BAY

Len & Rose live near Williams Bay ( Just outside Denmark Village ) - Much of SW Australia is made of granite rock -amongst the oldest of any rocks in the world - formed a hundreds of millions of yearas before the first life forn developed on earth - and along the coastline they form shaped lke beached whales - could have spent the whole day at this one beach -

The last photo is a little island you can wander across to at low tide - fortunately it was hig tide - why ? because a little notice nearby warned that the bush in this tiny island is full of snakes - once again I was very busy behind the telephoto lens !

DENMARK

We spent a fantastic few days with Len & Rose van der Waag - more friends from PNG days - they have a house with glass walls on 5 acres of bush - a favourite kangaroo who comes for breakfast - many more kangaroos grazing in their 5 acres against the national park - a fabulous vegetable garden ( fenced off from the kangaroos ) and frogs that croak at volume 10 all night long in the swampy bit under the house..... The first time I have lived in a Noah's ark - it was really special... and that's not mentioning the birds everywhere - the thngs that crawl everywhere and the pet magpie couple that drop in each morming for breakfast with the kangaroo. - and the overweight goldfish that live on slugs from the garden .....

TREETOP WALK

Near Walpole there is a walk which takes you through the tree tops on a metal platform wqhich climbs to 90 metres - not often you can look down on the tops of gum trees - or hug tree trunks near their top ! the platform moves a bit as you walk which adds to the drama. - even found a couple of Kiwis under one of the trees... or were they hobbits ?

CAVES

Not only are there fantastic granite coastlines - but also several caves in recent Limestone - we went into the massive Jewel Cave - wound the camera up to 1600 iso and held it very steady - another surprise in this SW corner of Australia.