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Image of Ange and Courtney from our WA trip late last year

Wharton Beach
Well it certainly didn’t disappoint, what an amazing beaches, the white sand the amazing clear aqua water and given the time of year not too busy. Only place to camp at is the Duke of Orleans caravan park for caravans. So no real need to air down to access the beach as it’s good and the beach sand is firm. So was perfect to get Courtney onto the beach and the caravan park is a small quiet park with some locals, but really nothing else here.

Esperance
Well we left Four mile early as it was forecast to rain 25mm when we would be packing up. So instead of heading to Breamer bay we continued east to Esperance. Well the weather came with us and for the next 6 days we had rain wind wind & a touch of sunshine.
We did do the Great Ocean drive and visit the beaches, visited Wylie beach and did a bit of beach driving. Bought seafood at the local harbour, did a few walks along the foreshore in between the rain and celebrated our 35 th wedding anniversary at the Lucky Bay Brewery, even Courtney tried some of the produce ( joking)

Good read for those interested, unfortunately where we live on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, the organisation that looks after the coastline would have to be one of the worst in understanding accessibility for all.

There are a multitude of physical and mental benefits that come with hiking and connecting with nature — but for people with disability across Australia, accessing the outdoors is often difficult.

Read more: https://ab.co/4obRoEA

Get the news that matters to you straight from the source. Download the ABC NEWS app: https://ab.co/abcnewsapp

Middleton Beach was where we based ourselves for our time in Albany.
It has amazing beach access for people with disabilities, beach wheelchair & walking frame from the local surf club.
A pathway that runs all the way to the port of Albany, some sections don’t really comply with gradient specs, but well maintained pathway surface, with plenty of stopping points and would guess great viewing location for whales when there here. Could have stayed abit longer, but unfortunately we already had a booking in an other area which we couldn’t change.

The Gap and Natural Bridge
Was awesome to experience these two amazing locations with Courtney, pretty much 100% wheelchair friendly, which makes our lives so much easier. We do get some strange looks when we pull the Ranger into the disabled car park, one of the perks when traveling with someone with a disability.
Best to arrive very early or late in the day and watch the wind.

WOW pretty much sums up this beach, nice and protected from SW winds, not to busy, mainly people who come take a photo and leave. The water colour is amazing and it’s so clear and just a bit on the refreshing side of water temps.
Getting Courtney onto the beach was not to much of a drama, a few steps and ramp sections and lucky for us a local Albany family offered to help Dale get Courtney back up the track. Certainly pushing the hippocamp beach wheelchair to it’s limits and seems to be coping fine, but it is our second hippocamp, beach wheelchair the last one we took to some amazing places it was just a tad worn out and need replacing.

The Giant Tingle Tree.
Now we had done the the walking with the Giants tree top walk and thought, wow these are big , but would you believe if drive back towards Walpole there is a dirt loop road. On this road is a free walk called the Giant Tingle tree trail walk. The first few images are what we thought was the tree, but after reading and talking to a couple of other people we found at that it wasn’t and there was a pathway down to it that we could possibly get Courtney and her wheelchair down.
All I can say if you travel through this area you need to visit this Giant Tingle tree, it certainly is amazing, and it’s still growing.
Will post separate videos

Valley of the tree top gaints near Walpole.
Interesting walk through the tree tops on the large walkway structure, not sure we would like to do it on a very windy day as it was swaying abit with just people walking on it. Best advice get there early as it was busy, we also did the walk around the trees section, only a certain section is wheelchair friendly, as the full walk has stairs in a couple of sections.
Will post separate video of the walking on the structure with Courtney