On our second day in Albany we put Mr Tilley into doggy day care so as to be able to visit the National ANZAC Centre. The recommendation is that at least two hours would be needed.

Our last visit to Albany was early in 2014, and this interactive, museum experience wasn’t opened until November 2014 so this was our first opportunity to take a look. I’m pleased we did, and yes, at least two hours were needed.

Upon entry each visitor is given a card with the details of an actual service man or woman who left for Gallipoli, from Albany, with whom to identify. There are little screens throughout the centre on which to place the cards for details of that persons life to be revealed. We were taken through their lives from enlistment to their eventual death.

My soldier, Alan Duncan Stitt, was from Ashburton near Christchurch in NZ. I’m from Christchurch, I wonder if he served with any of my ancestors. Stitt enlisted for service on 14 August 1914. They departed from Lyttleton Harbour and sailed into King George Sound, Albany, to join a convoy of ships ready to sail away to the war. They expected to be heading to England and to be fighting on the Western Front.

They were informed whilst at sea that they would not in fact be going to England and the Western Front as anticipated. Instead they were to sail to Egypt and await further orders. The orders came and on the 25th April 1915 they landed at Gallipoli. Stitt was amongst the first to land.

He participated in all the major battles of the Gallipoli campaign and was wounded three times. In November 1915 the decision was made to abandon the peninsula. On the night of 17th December, almost eight months since the first ANZACS landed at Gallipoli, 10,000 New Zealand and Australian soldiers were  evacuated.  Stitt was in the last group.  He was there from the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign right up until the end.

Having survived Gallipoli Stitt then moved on the the Western Front where he was wounded for a fourth time. He finished his service as one of the youngest Lieutenant Colonels of the NZEF.

After the war he moved to England to marry his english sweetheart, and the two moved to Kenya in Africa. Stitt returned to active service during the second world war serving with the British forces in East Africa. He died in 1950 at the age of 56, from causes unknown.

We all know about the war, we all know about the Gallipoli landing, and we all know about the terrible toll it took on the Australian and New Zealand soldiers. To have a real soldier to follow through the campaign brought it all to life in way that no movie, nor any book has ever brought it to life before.

Not only can you follow your own man or woman, the museum provided a small hand held radio which links into all the photos of other soldiers and nurses and plays the relevant account of their war experiences. Some of the accounts were from letters with a voice reading the words. It was easy to imagine the accounts given were first hand.

The war to end all wars – most of us have only a vague idea what the first world war was all about. Who knows if the solders knew why they were fighting. But fight they did, and many died for their efforts. Those that survived came back with both physical and mental scars, and many lived for long enough, as did my soldier, to realise that the Great War that was supposed to end all wars, whilst won by the allied forces, didn’t end all wars. When will mankind learn!

We’ve just spent three lovely nights in Albany WA with our good friends Kaye and Brian. We had a few things ear-marked to do with the first being  a visit to the Darrell Radcliffe Sculpture Drive, located at 333 Mercer Drive, Albany. There’s a sign at the gate asking visitors to remain inside their vehicle, and there’s  a donation box at the conclusion of the trail.

I’d recommend taking at least a 30 minutes to drive the trail, and stopping from time to time to look high, low, close and far away. There’s an amazing amount of sculptures. Some are very tiny and would be easy to miss, some are long and thin and close to the ground, also very easy to miss. And others are huge, and while their size makes them unmissable, the detail takes a few minutes to obsorb.

And now I’ll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves:

These are only a few of many sculptures to see. The detail was unbelievable, and to think they’ve all been carved using a chainsaw – incredible. The eyes of the flute player captured me, and was my favourite. Can you pick a favourite?

Next time you visit Albany WA, please put this place on your list. It’s amazing! And unbelievable that it’s an unsupervised, drive through place, with only a donation box at the end of the drive. Thank you Darrell Radcliffe for allowing us access to your property, and for sharing your wonderful artwork with us.

Day three – Miaree Pool (Northside) to Lyndon River (East) 418kms (4 1/2 hours driving time)

Day three of our six day trip home coming from Broome to Busselton was an easy, uneventful day of just 4 and half hours.

After a walk and a leisurely start to the day at Miaree Pool we headed south towards Lyndon River East. First stop along the way was approximately three hours south at Yannarie (Barradale) road side rest area. We stayed at this little gem last year on our first night out from Cape Range National Park, near Exmouth. At the time we’d come from a week at the National park which is near the town of Exmouth, and had no internet. We were pleasantly surprised at that time to discover fantastic internet cover at Yannarie, which is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. This time though we weren’t there long enough for any internet use. Just a  loo stop, and a cup of coffee this time. However,  determined to make the travel days more puppy friendly means we need to spend a bit of time at our stops so instead of drinking our coffee while driving, this time we sat at one of the many picnic tables and let Tills have a good leg stretch and some fresh air.

After setting off again, approximately an hour and half later we reached Lyndon River East. We first stopped at this little stop back in 2014 at the commencement of our first Australian round trip. It was May, and there was crystal clear water in the river at that time. It’s a different place at the end of the dry season in August  than it is at the beginning of the dry in May. This time round the river bed was a bone dry, red dust bowl. We attempted a walk but there were too many prickles and bindi’s for Mr Tilley’s unruly coat. The few minutes that we did spend having a quick peruse of the area resulted in approximately half an hour removing all the prickles from him.

Although we didn’t manage a walk, it was pleasant to sit outside for a few hours relaxing and playing cards prior to dinner. It’s a roomy place with plenty of parking, and we parked far enough from the highway so as not to be troubled by the road trains throughout the night. For my overseas readers, road trains are trucks that travel the Australian roads. They tow 3 – 4 carriages behind them, hence the name ‘road train’, and can be close to half a kilometre in length. Parking near to the highway at night can result in wind turbulence and a disturbed night’s sleep every time one of these beasts thunders by.

We always look for a place with a decent buffer between us and the highway.

We will no doubt stay at Lyndon River East again, but not this late in the season. When the river bed’s dry it’s still nice and rustic visually, but not being able to take Till’s for a decent walk reduces it’s appeal. At the beginning of the winter (dry season) when there’s still water in the river, I’m sure he’ll love to have a paddle or swim, and the prickles don’t seed until around August.

So that was our third day.  Stay tuned for the next eventful night’s stopover at Gladstone camp ground.

Day two – Cape Keraudren to Miaree Pool (northside) 405 KMS  (5 hours driving time).

We’re early risers (around 5am).  Paul had taken Mr Tilley for a walk around the rock pools, we’d had our breakfast, our thermos was filled ready for a second cup of coffee later in the morning, and our travel mugs had our first coffee in them for the start of our journey. We set off around 8am, Miaree Pool our destination.

We must have passed by this little gem at least a dozen times in the past without stopping, or even being aware of it’s existence.  It’s located on the Maitland River, approximately 28 kms south of the Karratha turn off. Perhaps the close proximity to a big town is the reason we’ve previously overlooked this site. We stopped in Port Headland on the way for fuel.  Then one more stop at a roadside place for a coffee refill had us arriving at our destination not much after 1pm.

It’s gorgeous!

The main parking area is quite large but with only a few level sites. Then there’s tracks that run off in all directions, so we parked up while we did a quick peruse of the area to find a suitable place to park for the night. Clearly the tracks were to rugged for our van and level of four wheel drive experience,  but for those with the right rig and level of expertise there’s some magic places to park up. We did manage to find the one and only spot reasonably accessible, reasonably level, and just down from the main car park with a beautiful river view. There was no room to turn around, so it meant backing out, up the short, but steep and bumpy dirt track, but Paul was confident he’d manage that ok.

Parked up, we had a quick lunch before getting into our bathers (cozzie, togs,  or whatever bathing suits happen to be called in your neck of the woods – in WA it’s bathers), and headed down to the river. The first access point we came to had a rope which some children were using to swing out over the water and drop in – mmmm!! no thanks. We wondered down a bit further.

A little further on and we found another area with a couple of people in swimming. The bank looked a bit muddy, and the river bottom looked a little squelchy, but the people already in assured us access wasn’t slippery, and the river bottom was a lot more sandy than it looked. They were correct. What a gorgeous place for a swim, not cold, and not squelchy at all.

Mr Tilley loves to paddle in the waves, and will swim in the ocean but only if we carry him out of his depth.  Prior to Miaree Pool he’s never ventured out of his depth voluntarily for a swim, but with Paul and I in the water there was no way he was staying on the river banks on his lonesome. Wherever we swam to, Mr Tilley followed. He loved it.

After our swim and walk along the river banks we took a drink up to the main area and passed an hour with a gentleman who was travelling on his own, then dinner while the sun set, a few games of cards, and bed for the night.

A walk the next morning with the sun at a different angle over the water showed some lovely reflections.

Then it was time to begin our third day of driving. I watched (holding my breath) as Paul backed, back up the bumpy hill – no trouble! He did it with such ease that I began to wonder about those other tracks for next time….. but no – I think we’ll still leave them for the dare devils. We prefer to be safe, rather than risk being sorry. There will be a next time at Miaree Pool though that’s for sure. It’s only a 24 hour free stop over place, with basic long drop toilets. But you know what – next time we may cheat and stretch our stay to a second night. Yes – it’s that good!

Coming up next – Miaree Pool to Lyndon River East. Watch this space…..

All good things must come to an end, as did this years sojourn to sunny Broome. Having travelled to Broome a little too quickly via the inland/Mount Newman Road, we decided to take a slightly more leisurely trip home via the coastal road.

Day one – Broome to Cape Keraudren, 466kms (5 1/2 hours driving time)

We filled our thermos ready to make coffee at our first stop, had the caravan hitched up and the inside secured ready for an 8am departure. As Mr Tilley had shown signs of travel fatigue on our rushed trip to Broome, we determined the return trip would comprise shorter driving days, with more rest stops. Goldwire, a pleasant little roadside stop 1 1/2 hours from Broome seemed like a good distance to travel before stopping for breakfast.

Suitably replenished and our travel mugs filled with hot coffee we journeyed on, this time with me at the wheel. This was the first time I’d towed this rig. Paul’s happy to do long days of driving, and I’m a happy passenger, but good sense tells me that, ‘just in case’, I should feel confident driving with the caravan behind. No problems – it towed beautifully, but I was still happy to hand back the wheel at our next stop, which was less than an hour down the road at another comfortable roadside stop, Stanley. That left a comfortable three hours to our destination for the the first nights stopover.

We arrived at Cape Keraudren around 2 PM. We’ve stopped there before, and it’s just gorgeous. There’s four camp grounds at the cape, which are located via 6 kms of dirt road turning off the main highway just south of the Pardoo Roadhouse. Same as on previous visits,  we again chose the section named Sandy Beach, which overlooks the ocean on the Eastern side of the Cape. Living on the west coast of Australia, opportunities to see the sun rise over the ocean are rare. We couldn’t let this opportunity go by.

The tides are much the same as in Broome – huge, or should that be HUGE. We were parked up close to the water at high tide, yet seemingly miles away for the water line when the tide is at it’s lowest. It was around 2pm when we arrived, and the tide was on the way out, fantastic! Time for a relaxing lunch before we took Tills to explore the rock formations and pools left behind by the receding tide.

To the rear of our van were some shrubs which the Zebra Finches seemed to love.

Lunch finished and the tide had sufficiently receded to allow for a great walk with plenty to see. Rock formations that were completely underwater at high tide were now fully  exposed. Compacted sand sufficiently drained of seawater allowed for comfortable walking between the rocks, and rock pools made great places for Mr Tilley to splash through as we wandered around.

The tide rose through the night, and then receded again before morning. We awoke to a glorious sunrise over the tidal flats.

We left with the sure feeling that, ‘We’ll be back!!’ And what a pleasure that’ll be.

Next day, Cape Keraudren to Miaree Pool – watch this space.