Parry Beach

Campground: Parry Beach
Facilities: Toilet, Solar Showers, Fire-pits, Bins, Non-potable water.
Good stuff: Close to the beach and surrounding national parks, cheap firewood ($5 for a wheelbarrow full), good price and friendly caretakers.
Not so good stuff: Sites are a bit on top of one another, the tap water is brown and the showers were always cold!
Price: $10 per site

We were ready to move on after our long Easter stay at Torbay Inlet and its surrounds. The drive towards Parry Beach was lovely with understated scenery reminiscent of the English countryside, complete with the English tradition of an overcast sky! 

This could be Parry Beach... but it is not. We were a little slack on the photos. (Green Pools at William Bay NP)

We headed into Denmark for a few hours and had a wander around. There are heaps of on trend raw food cafes, coffee shops and bakeries dotted around the place, giving you that mouth watering experience when you walk by and look at people’s food, inhaling the smell (It’s not weird, we haven’t had bacon in ages). Our choice was to head to the Boston Brewery instead, resisting the temptation of the award winning pies from the local bakery.

More at Green Pools, William Bay NP. Don't let the photo fool you... It was bloody freezing!

Denmark is very much a hub for people to visit the local chocolate shops, vineyards and meaderies in the area. We decided to check out Bartholomew’s Meadery down the road from Denmark, heading towards Walpole. This place for us is a must! Their ice cream is absolutely delicious. Kyle tried the hazelnut and honey whilst Liz had the date, honey and spiced mead- just YUM! With us sitting outside on a brisk day, ice cream in hand - it felt like being at the seaside. Well worth it. With the excuse of the weather being cold and needing a warm up after the ice cream we also had a Viking Coffee each. And what is a Viking coffee you ask? A shot of coffee with mead added and yes it was bloody lovely! 

Elephant Rocks at William Bay NP... Kyle for scale!

We had another decadent day of tasting chocolate truffles at the Chocolate Lounge, trying cheeses and toffees (got to love freebees!). The truffles were nice but Bright Chocolate truffles were better in our opinion. The cheese wasn’t anything to write home about but the toffee at the Toffee Factory was some goooood toffee. On the flip side they don’t make so great cider. Kyle waited for ages to get his chilli cider only to find out that it was flat (someone had messed around with the gas taps). Not so good. We also finally gave into the temptation of trying the pies at the Denmark Bakery. Liz’s Chicken and Leek Pie was a lot better than Kyle’s Vinda Roo pie (curried kangaroo that was neither curried or meaty) but as bad as this sounds, the chips were the star of the show. The pies were ok but not the best we have had, and a bit of a disappointment for multi award winners.

Dolerite intruded along a joint within the Granite at Elephant Rocks, William Bay NP

All filled up we went to William Bay NP and this place is home to some stunning coastline. We took the short drive to the lookout point at Elephant Rock and then down to Madfish Bay. This bay is amazing. The tide comes in three ways: in from the sea and then from both sides of the headland parallel to the coastline. The sea was a little cold for heading in for a swim so we just wandered around looking at the geology including the dolerite, which has been intruded into the granite at Elephant Rocks. Pretty cool!