About Denmark
Denmark is a small, pleasant town in timber country to the north of the Great Southern Ocean. The town’s appeal and major attractions lie to the south where Greens Pool natural rock swimming pool in William Bay National Park is arguably the most beautiful beach in Australia. In recent years Denmark has become an increasingly popular holiday destination as its excellent fishing, tasteful and low-key development, and the rich diversity of its landscape (rugged coastline and beautiful beaches to the south, tall timber country in the hinterland) have made it an attractive alternative to Western Australia’s highly developed south-west coast holiday towns (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
Denmark Caravan Park
We traveled 326km from Margaret River to Denmark on the WA south coast (maplink). We had many recommendations for Denmark from other travelers, so we booked into the Rivermouth Caravan Park just outside town, is right on the water with Pelican’s cruising past and just a naturally chilled out feeling you get from staying there. We used this as a central base for exploring the area
Around Denmark
Some of the places we visited were…
- Ocean Beach – lovely place where the mouth of the Harding River reaches the ocean. Love to come back here when the water is warmer!
- William Bay National Park where we visited…
- Greens Pool – a striking beach which forms a natural swimming hole protected from the wild seas of the Southern Ocean. The colours are amazing.
- Elephant Rocks – next door to Greens Pool and looks exactly like a herd of elephants, paddling in the shallow waters.
- Waterfall Beach – not exactly what we expected with a tiny waterfall running straight onto the beach, but was still worth a look.
It was as we walked down the path to Greens Pool that Merrisa just missed stepping on a Dugite (venomous) Snake. The scream she emitted certainly gave both myself and the snake a terrible fright. Fortunately the snake slithered off between her feet (yep – it was that close). Check out my “photo-shopped” reenactment of the event below.
Ocean Beach
Day trip to Valley of the Giants
First stop was to check out the tree top walk in the Valley of the Giants in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park (maplink). Put this on your bucket list folks as it’s pretty amazing. There are two walks – one along the tree tops walk bridge and then another “the Ancient Empire” through the Tingle trees.
We stopped into Peaceful Bay for lunch on the way back to Denmark then took a stroll through a very pretty parkland in the Denmark township.
Day trip to Albany
We visited Albany to have a look at the Gap and Natural Bridge in Torndirrup National Park.
The Gap is a natural wonder enhanced by some very clever engineering with the building of a stainless steel viewing platform 40 metres directly above the surging seas. We were told by a couple of locals that several people have died there trying to sit on the railing above the surging seas and take selfies but have slipped and fell, with no means of getting back they have drowned. We were also told that when the ocean is really big the waves will actually come up through the floor of the platform.
The Natural Bridge is pretty amazing it shows the strength of nature as a group of rocks are suspended over a chasm creating a natural bridge with the ocean surging in below.
Later we went into Albany to find Dog Rock which we photographed when we were here in 1980. It’s now so special that many local business contain “Dog Rock” in their name.
We rounded out the day at the new Field of Light installation in the ANZAC Avenue of Honour – (see below) and then dinner at a top little Italian Restaurant by the name of Venice.
Albany Coastline
Some links…
YouTube video of the Gap installation…
Field of Light ANZAC Avenue of Honour
An immersive art installation by Bruce Munro, Field of Light: Avenue of Honour pays homage to the ANZAC’s with 16,000 shining spheres at the ANZAC Memorial on Mt Clarence in Albany. These globes come to light at dusk and symbolise the last sight of home for 41,000 troops who departed from Albany for World War 1. The colours are Yellow, White, Green and Red; symbolising the national flower flowers of Australia & New Zealand – wattle and the kowhai. This installation is in place until 25 June 2019.
Bruce Munro also designed the installation at Uluru where we had dinner in the dessert back in June; called the Field of Light (link to that post).
Some links…
