Following our short adventure in Albany it was time to head back home to Perth. We decided to make a day of it rather than just heading back the way we came, so we took a somewhat scenic tour through some other towns in the South-West. The map below shows our general route, which as you can see is almost 7 hours of driving compared to around 4 hours if you took the direct Albany Highway.

To fuel ourselves for the long journey we went back to Three Anchors as it was the only place open before 7am on a Sunday. My husband ordered the most delicious looking waffles which gave me breakfast envy!

We checked out of our beach house and were on our way to Denmark. We accidentally took Lower Denmark Road instead of the South West Highway, making it an even longer detour right off the bat but it wasn’t too bad. We saw more rainbows while we were driving which were really cool, definitely a bonus of visiting the area in winter.

In Denmark we got coffees from Mrs Jones Cafe and had a little look around and were on our way. The town centre of Denmark looks very quaint and we will have to go back there another time.

Our next stop was Walpole where we used the public restrooms. The building is constructed more like an out-house with exposed beams and I made the mistake of looking up and seeing so many spiders! I was in and out of there light lightning speed. We did walk over to the bakery, but the row of shops looked almost deserted and not very inviting.

From Walpole we drove to Northcliffe, and we started passing through beautiful forests with huge big trees which was lovely to see. Even though it was the last day of school holidays there were barely any cars on the road too.

After a brief stop in Northcliffe to look around and capture this street art we were headed into Pemberton.

We stopped for lunch at the Source Kitchen, which is a cafe that sources all of its produce from nearby farms and butchers. I had an Aussie Burger and it was beyond delicious, and came with the worlds best ever chips. If you find yourself anywhere near Pemberton I highly recommend a stop at Source Kitchen.

I don’t remember having been to Pemberton before, maybe as a little kid, and so I was really impressed with how beautiful the main street was and how clean and tidy the town seemed to be. It will definitely be on my list of places to return. On the way out we stopped at the bakery for a snack for the rest of the drive.

20 minutes outside of Pemberton is the Beedelup Falls which were an awesome sight especially with all the rain we had recently. We were really lucky with timing and seemed to have the whole falls to ourselves with nobody else around, until we were leaving when at least 5 cars full of noisy people showed up! For more details on Beedelup Falls see my dedicated post.

From the falls there was more driving through forests, national parks and beautiful windy roads until we got to Nannup. At Nannup we just stopped for fuel, water and to stretch our legs and then the plan was to head to the Bunbury Farmers Market.

Unfortunately when we got to the Market it was super busy, we couldn’t even find parking. After driving around in circles we decided to just leave it for another time. The Market sells all sorts of fresh produce from around the area and is a great place to stock up on your way back to Perth (if you can get a parking bay!).

From Bunbury really it is just the freeway home so the last 2 hour stretch is not all that exciting. There are two big roadside petrol stations on the way up which have fuel, toilets and food if you need.

By the time we got home it was almost a 10 hour day which was a little exhausting but we saw some beautiful sights and I got to see a lot of south-west towns I had either never been to or don’t remember seeing for ages. The South-West also has so much delicious food on offer, if you ever visit this region you won’t be disappointed.