Quick trip around the southwest

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South west Australia is beautiful. Rolling hills, lakes and at this time of year a patchwork of bright yellow flowers and endless rows of vines among forests and fields of wheat, as farms seem to be in transition from sheep and cows to canola oil and wine. Rode in solid rain from Perth to Margaret River, so didn’t see much of the coastline, but we were dressed for it so stayed warm and dry. Then spent the next day on a fun wine, chocolate and cheese tasting tour. Thursday we rode to Jewel Cave, an intricate space of fine straw stalactites and helectites. I’ve never seen so many, so long. The cave has only recently been opened up to tourism and they have done a great job ensuring it stays pristine. Then on to the “Valley of the Giants” (Karri trees unique to this area) and the treetop walk through them. This is not a rope structure hanging off them like some we’ve been on, but an amazing steel structure of long, long steel trusses hanging between braced poles, some 40m (or 125 ft) tall. They say they close the walk in strong winds. Not hard to imagine why. Friday we visited the fascinating Whale World Museum outside Albany on the site of Australia’s last operational whaling station closed only in 1978. Gory, depressing, but I had no idea how unique and useful whale oil actually was. Spent Saturday dodging rain on the long, beautiful ride (via York) back to Perth.

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