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Published: February 28th 2007
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Johnny "Ned Kelly" Stonebridge
Wanted for speeding - $8000 reward After 1 too many downpours in Queensland, I decided to head t'other side of Oz. We'd orginally planned to head upto Cairns but warthogs on the roads meant we were stuck in Townsville for a few days with no promise that they'd shift. Got to watch Soccer AM for that one to make sense! It was a bit of job getting here as well. I missed my connecting flight from Sydney because the flight down there was 3 hours late. To add to this my bags hadn't been sent down either so I was there with no clothes. To make up for it, Virginblue put me up at the Crown Plaza (5 star hotel) in Coogee which is near to Bondi in Sydney. Free brekkie in the morning and I was laughing, bacon and eggs never tasted so good. I've been in and around Perth for about 3 weeks now and the weather has been cracking, there's a steady beach at Scarborough down the road and the city itself is really picturesque. The nightlife aint too bad either, especially round Northbridge where evenyone goes to dabble with the sherbets. I joined the gym last week for a few sessions just to
Principality of Hutt River
Sitting on Prince Leonards head see how the old body was holding up. Fair to say I'm not in the peak of physical fitness.
Trip up noo-ath Last week myself and 6 of the mates from the hostel decided to go on a camping trip up north to the Principality of Hutt River which is an independent country started around 40 yrs ago by some dude after a despute about his land. Check out Wikipedia for a proper description cos I can't be arsed going into detail. Anyway, as we arrived we were greeted by the man himself who calls himself Prince Leonard. He's a mad old bastard but he's a great man and it's funny to listen to some of the stuff he comes out with. The principality basically consists of a church, souvenir shop, government office and about 30 permanent residents. It also has it's own currency, stamps and all sorts of other stuff. We even managed to get our passports stamped and the old lad has stuck it slap bang at the side of the Australia one. That night we started up a fire by rubbing twigs together, sorry flicking the lighter, and we were on our way to a
Perth Gang
Me and the lads/lasses from the hostel night of getting wasted on cheap wine.....result! The next morning; feeling a bit tender; we hit the road and headed for a small beach side town called Kilbarri where all we did was cook up some burgers on the barbie and chill out on the beach, steady away as I always say. At the end of the day we called in a local tavern in Northampton for a swift pint and some snap. We met 2 lads there who reckoned they had the perfect place for us to camp. We ended up off-roading through some sand dunes and into a small secluded bay in Horrocks some 30km away where pretty much we did the same as the night before. The fire was a bit bigger this time though, mainly cos someone managed to get a full palm tree from somewhere and that kept it going for ages. The trip was class, just getting out and seeing the real Australia, going into local pubs outside the city and mixing with the locals etc...
Trip darn south 2 of the lads from back home, Tucker and Dave, flew into Perth the other day so we decided to rent out a
Swan Bell Tower
I'm getting good at this camera malarky motor and travel down south for a few days with Shano from the hostel. First stop was Margaret River and onto the river mouth to catch some waves. The actual mouth didn't reach the sea cos there was a sand bank stopping it some 15 feet back, looks a bit wierd to be honest. I half thought about renting a surf board but the waves were beasts and not for amateurs like me.
The next day we continued to travel south and on the way called in at Lake Cave. After descending through the sink hole you eventually reach the opening which is a narrow slit next to one of the rocks. When you get down there, it's like another world. Running the length of the chamber is a stream which relfects off the roof of the cave and gives an impressive sight. They reckon when it was first discovered some English chap tried to introduce goldfish down there cos of the lack of life. After a short while, they went blind then were washed away when the cave flooded afterwards. Somehow don't think he thought that one through! After spending a good hour there we drove down to
Perth Skyline
From the top of Jacobs Ladder - Kings Garden Jewel Cave which was about 10km south. This one was even better and had 3 chambers instead of just the one. The formations down there were unbelievable and I'd recommend it to anyone. After that, we headed off for Cape Leuuwin which is Australia's South-Western tip. This is where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet so the swells and waves there are great to watch. Afterwards we headed off for Pemberton to start the tree climbing phase of the trip. Around the area are a few fire lookout trees which are open to the public to climb up. First up was the Gloucester tree which was around the 60m mark. As we approached I was having second thoughts, all you have basically is metal rods stuck into the bark that twist all the way to the top. It looked a bit of a cowboy job to be fair. Once some old boy approaching 70 starting sliding up like a pro, there was no way I was going to get shown up so I shimmed up. The view from the top was fantastic, well worth the climb. We managed to snaffle up a 4 star appartment as well that night complete
Roo's in the City
Who let these bleeders out? with BBQ which was sweet, nowt like a good old fashioned barbie after a hard day's graft tree climbing.
The next day we got up nice and early to tackle the biggest tree in the area, the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. This one was a beast, I reckon the top was nearing 75m and there wasn't any other tree's blocking the view of the floor which made it worse. I managed to get to the first viewing platform then thought, "f@ck that!" to moving up to the next level. I was already shaking like a shitting dog so I didn't fancy my chances going higher. Only Dave and Shano made it to the top and it took them a good while to get back down, mainly cos the old pegs had turned to jelly! I'm not sure why but a tour bus parked up when we were there and out came a group of old dears. Not sure why you'd visit if you're not at least going to attempt to climb. Would have made a great photo if one of them raced up though. Next day, we set off for Walpole which is where the Valley of the Giants
War Memorial
In Kings Garden is located. They've set up a tree top walk there which cuts through the canopy and gives you some excellent views of the forest and surroundings. About half way up we started shaking the platform and some poor bloke behind started bricking it, it took him a further half hour to get round, poor sod. The Tingle trees there are absolutely massive, some are about 6m circumference at the base, not your average sickamore back home. Afterwards we headed off for Albany and on the way passed through Denmark, didn't spot any vikings though though which was a shame.
For the last day in Albany we visited the Natural Bridge and Gap which were well worth the visit. There was a bit of a gust as well so had to careful with the old footing. After that we drove the 5 hours back to Perth and had a good lay down! Takes it out of you that driving malarky I tell thi.
I'm flying over to New Zealand this Saturday and from what I've heard it's meant to be the dogs jangles. I'm there 6 weeks so keep your eyes peeled for future blogs, should be some belters.
Keep smiling.......
PS. I've added a new pic to the "Fake Tales of Barnsley Disco" blog, it's a cracker!
JP
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Pierre Le Pont
non-member comment
What's the fascination wi cliffs?
Now then son, what's the fascination with standing on the edge of rocks, cliffs and climbing high trees? Pratting around on a plastic dog looks a lot safer to me. Anyway are you sure you're not touring Europe again - Perth, Scarborough, Northampton and Denmark don't sound too exotic. Some cracking photo's their son - especially the one with the totty outnumbering the lads. You're probably back in Brisbane now - hope the flight went well and let us know when the eagle has landed in Christchurch. Si Thi. Favva