A quickie from the south-west side.

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So we're officially on the road now, away from the love and care of relatives. And so far so good.

We were interested in Margaret river region, as I said, but decided to head further south when we read about the "tree top walk" - a fourty foot structure that you climb to gain a new perspective on Auz's famous tingle trees.

The closest bus went to a town called Albany. When we arrived in the late afternoon, we discovered that the only way to get out to cette walk was by car - a problem for us minors. So, we spent the evening and early night fishing with three dollar handlines we'd bought at a store down the road from our hostel. This was our dinner - three tasty fish, fresh as can be.. chopping them up was a bit of an adventure.

We woke up at seven to catch the bus out at eight. As we went to reception to check out, we realized the reception desk only opened at eiht o'clock. so I called the "emergency number and got the hostess out of bed and off we went.

We arrived in the town of Denmark, population 2000. A charming little town, but we only went there in hope of finding another way to the treetop walk. We checked in to the hostel but couldn't find anyone heading out that way. We considered hitchhiking, which is quite common in this area, but decided instead to take bikes out for the day.

We left at about one. We biked some great trails until three, when we saw a sign indicating Mt. Hallowell - a large, tree covered thing in the middle of nowhere. The signs at the bottom explicitly said no bikes - but we figured what are mountain bikes for if not mountains?

It got very steep very fast - too steep to ride. Before long we were carrying our bikes over our backs, hiking up unreasonable slopes in inadequate shoes. But we kept on and when we reached what we thought was the summit, the view was tremendous - coastline, farms, the works.

But the mountain had another surprise in for us - taht was not the end. And beleiving that we must have crossed the halfway mark, we kept on, sweating furiously.

We kept on, and we were out of water and had nothing to eat. The sun was setting, and we were late for an appointment with a German guy named Fabian, who we were hoping to drive the North Coast with (and still are). Situation got worse when we started having serious problems with our bikes, including tires jamming, so we couldn't move the bikes very easily at all. I had a splitting headache from dehydration. It was bad, but also undeniably funny.

Long story short, we got out of the trail right as the sun set, at about eight thirty - five hours or so after we'd entered. Holy crap, we were hot, cut up, dirty, I was covered in grease from trying to correct Adams chain... It was pretty wonderful. We found the only place open in town aside from the pub - chooky's - and drank gatorade until the 13 year old behind the counter kicked us out.

So now I'm ready for bed. Great day!

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