Cant sit too long

The colorful poster in the bakery window caught our eye with this announcement: Annual Country Fair - Condingup Fairgrounds We love small town events and this fair promised to deliver a great show... prize Merino sheep and even a sheep-dog jumping competition. At 10:30am Saturday morning we sauntered into the fairgrounds just as the band was starting to play. We wandered around the displays of fluffy prize wool from Merino ewes. Having stayed at a sheep farm for a couple of days we felt slightly less-ignorant about wooly topics like wool fibers, such as quality and length, and the labor-intensive task of shearing thousands of sheep. In the fairgrounds, we chatted with some young sheep ranchers, perhaps in their late-20's. They are the up-coming generation of ranchers now facing a challenging world market and shared their ... read more

At home in Canada, I am not a happy camper... the hassle of cooking on a 2-burner propane stove with invading wasps as the family sits to eat. Or cooking under a tarp as the rain starts. Or, washing greasy dishes in cold water or waiting to heat it on the propane stove. The nocturnal visits to camp bathrooms shared with nasty insects, or having to shower with a wasp threatening to sting your you-know-what. Yes, serious campers will say I am a wimpy camper and I agree. I was slightly reluctant about camping on this trip but my pre-conceived ideas were blown away by the state-of-the art kitchens in the "caravan parks" (campgrounds) of Western Australia. The kitchen facilities have HOT running water, with stainless steel countertops and large stainless sinks. The campground kitchens are ... read more

we realized our footprints would be the only ones all day ... perhaps, even for many days. Hiking the Cape-to-Cape Trek - we started at Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse at the north end of the capes. (French explorers mapped this coast, so place names still carry their original French spelling... the "silent e" in names like Naturaliste and Geographe Bay) We carry only water and snacks so we can run/ walk freely. The serious hikers carry tents, sleeping bags and food for 5 days. We are easy hikers and sleep in a bed at our host's home in the tiny coastal community of Prevelly. The hike is about 135km which can divided into 5 sections from end-to-end. The idea is similar to the West Coast Trail of Vancouver Island, you need someone to pick you up at ... read more

We drove our first 200 kms yesterday afternoon to Busselton in our 2002 Toyota Campervan. For the men who want to know, it is standard and diesel. Diesel at the time of this blog, sells for Australian $1.57 per liter, with a one cent variation. Our first stretch of driving in the opposite lane was relaxed, I did not gasp going clock-wise at the round-abouts. Our previous 6 days of cycling helped orientate our road-sense. Busselton (population 15,000) has an idyllic location on Geographe Bay. My first glimpse of Geographe Bay was on google maps, shivering at my desk on a dark, cold January night with rain drumming on my windows in Port Coquitlam. Yes, it was like peeking into the gift box. When we actually arrived and started unwrapping the real gift, it was beyond ... read more

Our new friends, Ray and Lennie, in Rockingham have a double kayak and kindly let us take it across Safety Bay to Penguin Island Marine Sanctuary. Penguin Island is less than one kilometer from the mainland and easily accessed by kayak or walking. Did I say walking? Yes, you can walk on water! Technically, the walking is on a wide sandbar and since the island is only 900 meters from the mainland it is a similar exercise like walking chest-deep in the pool. A slight temperature difference and exceptional scenary. We chose to kayak directly from our friend's home, about 4 kms. up the shoreline. Approaching Penguin Island we talked to a couple from Holland who were walking back along the sandbar. Visitors are cautioned not to take children and to be capable swimmers because as ... read more