The South West of Australia


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February 18th 2008
Published: February 18th 2008
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Hi everyone, just one more blog before we leave Australia and fly onto New Zealand. Since our last blog, my sister Charlotte has come over for a 3 week holiday and wanted to travel around the country a little. So we decided to hire out a campervan for 9 days and explore what south west Australia has to offer. The first day we headed east for around 350km's, into the outback, to a little town called Hyden. Hyden is home to a large rock formation known as Wave Rock. Wave Rock is a granite cliff and is 15 metres high and 110 metres long. Over a long period of time the rock has been eroded which gives it the shape of a wave. Water from the springs running down the rock during the wetter months dissolves minerals adding to the colouring of the wave. As we were tourists, we couldn't resist having a few pics of us catching a wave or two. We stayed the night here at a quiet campsite just by wave rock so went for a nice walk around it at sunset and early dusk which made it look very pretty.

The next day we had another long drive, about the same distance, down to the south coast, to a city called Albany. Albany was the first established European settlement in Western Australia and is now one of the largest cities outside of Perth. With this city being right down on the south coast, we experienced rain and cold weather for the first time in four months. Me and Kate were happy of the cooler weather but Charlotte was not impressed with this but a glass or two of wine later and she didn't seem as bothered!!! We drove along the coast and passed beaches such as Emu Point and Middleton Beach and also admired the nearby natural rock formations; the blowholes, the natural arch and the gap. We were wondering around, looking for the blowholes and then they blew. Needless to say we all jumped back a fair distance but unfortunately the tide was out so we only had the air blowing, not any water. We also took a trip to Whale World; Australia's last operating whaling station. Whale World has now closed down but the site has been restored and you can now learn all about the gruesome history of whaling.

Probably the highlight for Charlotte and Kate on this trip was when we went to Pentland Alpaca Stud & Animal Farm. This was a very hands on animal farm and we knew there would be guinea pigs and rabbits, we just didn't know how many!!! There must have been close to 50 guinea pigs and rabbits in this one pen and you were allowed to go inside, sit with them and feed them. Once inside, the rabbits were all jumping up to us and helping themselves to food inside Kate and Charlotte's pockets. Anyone who couldn't see the pen must have thought two six year olds were inside the way they were going off!!! Around five hours and ten bags of food later, I managed to prise them out of there so we could look around the rest of the farm and to also let the long queue of real children into the pen. I thought i'd get my own back so when Charlotte entered the pen full of goats (with a bag of food in her hand and one in her pocket), I wouldn't let her out and the goats were all around her, jumping up her and trying to eat as much food as they could (what a nice brother I am!!!). Although this was an Alpaca farm, we didn't take one photo of one but if you imagine a cross between a camel and a sheep then you've got it! After a busy morning, we took it easy in the afternoon and took a dip in Green's Pool (well only me and kate, for some it was "too cold"!). On all the pictures in magazines, the sky was blue and the sea looked warm but not when we were there as you'll see from the pics. That night we stayed at Peaceful Bay just outside Walpole (the destination for our next laugh at Charlotte's expense).

Walpole is home to the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. The Tree Top Walk, is a walkway that rises up to 40m above the forest floor and is amongst some of the tallest and widest tree's in the world with diameters of 16m. It was a perfectly safe attraction but you try telling that to Charlotte. From start to finish she always had one hand on the rail which was particularly interesting when she wanted to take some pictures! It was even funnier when me and kate decided to jump up and down to make the bridge wobble; Charlotte was not happy! You got some amazing views of both the close up scenery and that of the distance and especially of the giant red tingle tree's that the forest is famous for. We also walked on the forest floor (more down Charlotte's street) where you could see what happens to the tree's when fire hits them. The tree's have all hollowed out at the bottom but have still managed to survive and continue growing. The rest of that day we spent travelling to Augusta; the most south westerly point of Australia. We would have been there a lot earlier but we should have known not to trust Charlotte with the map. Instead we ended up at Windy Bay (but this was also a nice place). At Augusta we visited Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, which has been there for over a hundred years; saving many sailors lives. It also stands on the point where both the Southern and Indian Ocean meet (but I couldn't see this).

The next place we visited is one you will probably all of heard of; Margaret River. Margaret River is in the SW of WA and has been recognised as being a world class winery with the "perfect" climate for growing grapes. As a mark of respect for this we decided to go on a wine tour. with a company called Bushtucker Tours. Now we don't know if this is a bad thing but me and kate now have a bit of experience when it comes to wine tasting and so we told Charlotte the right way to taste wine instead of Charlotte's "necking it method"! Throughout the day we visited four wineries and a brewery and also a cheese and chocolate factory, mmm!!! and for dinner we had some local bushtucker. This consisted of kangaroo and wild turkey which were very nice but also some small limes that have 25% more vitamin C than an orange, an hibiscus flower and some other local delicacies. Some were nice but in true English fashion; some were 'mingin'! Unforunately we missed out on the witchety grub! Again, we made sure to get our money's worth and tried as many wines as we could. Whilst also in Margaret River, me and Charlotte went up in a helicopter. This flew around the Margaret River region and to Gracetown (on the coast) and back, giving us gerat views of the area. Also that day we went trekking through the Margaret River forests, ON A HORSE! Yes I went on a horse! I don't know why or how but I did! We started off meeting our horses and doing a little horse whispering with them, before heading off into the forest for a 60 minute trek. Both me and Kate enjoyed it, however I don't think we can say that for Charlotte. Charlotte's horse was a little lazy and always hungry and at one stage decided to walk off the track and head into the thick of the forest for something to eat. Kate did some galloping and I got up to trotting (and managed to stay on) but Charlotte stuck to walking. Quite fitting as well but my horse had bad wind and I had to stop around 4 times for it to "lighten itself". Everyone else can read the remainder of the paragraph apart from Aunty Sheila who may now skip to the next paragraph!!! Horse riding is good fun, im glad got on a horse and I might even get on a horse when I get back home! Back at the campsite, we all went in the spa to help soothe our muscles from the horse riding but I don't know what all the fuss is about!

Busselton was our next destination and is home to the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. It is 141 years old and is just under 2kms in length. At the end of the jetty, an underwater observatory has been built; allowing you to descend eight metres below the sea level to view an amazing marine world of schooling fish and tropical coral that has made its home here due to the sheltered waters of the jetty. the jetty has no barriers and some of the timber structures are a little wobbly; so once again cue Charlotte's moaning! We saw loads of fish, an octopus and corals. On the way back home to Perth, we stopped off at Koombana Bay in Bunbury for lunch and saw 2 dolphins swimming around 50m from the shore. This inspired us to book a trip and go swimming with them ourselves; this we did at Rockingham. The trip we went on is the only charter who don't feed the dophins and so they are totally wild. After around 20 mins boat ride, a mum and her calf were spotted and it was time to get in. They were very sociable which is very unusual for a mum and her young. We got in the water with our snorkel masks, whilst the dolphins were swimming around us. One moment it was deadly quiet and then all of a sudden you would hear the dolphins clicking, talking and chirping and then they would appear. Halfway through, they were joined by another dolphin; this time a male and these spent their time following around a huge stingray, hoovering up all the food that the stingray missed. We also saw a seal and I was warned to keep my fingers and toes together. Also there were quite a few jellyfish around but we managed not to get stung. An unbelievable experience and at times the dolphins were only a matter of metres away.

Since our last blog, we have also visited other local tourist ventures such as Scitech (a world of hands on science fun), Horizon (a planetarium giving you 360 degree views of the night sky inside a huge dome), AQWA (a huge aquarium showcasing the marine life that lies off the 12,000kms around this huge state and Kate's favourite; Perth Zoo. Just before Christmas, a baby giraffe was born so this meant an automatic trip so we could go and view it. Still unnamed, the baby giraffe was "so cute and tiny" and its mum is the giraffe from the famous giraffe kissing picture that is plastered around kate's office at work and in her bedroom. Other quotes from the day were "can we have one Luke?", "can we take it home?" and "but I just want to cuddle it". We did walk around the rest of the zoo but most of the time was spent staring at the Giraffes.

A big celebration that has occurred whilst we were here was Australia Day. On Australia Day, Australians come together as a nation to celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian (I don't know why it takes a whole day, an hour would probably suffice but anyway). Basically, its just a day to get drunk and since we were here, we thought we'd join in. We went down to Perth's foreshore to soak up the atmosphere and watch the spectacular firework display before finishing the night with the rest of the locals; in the pub. We all put temporary tattoo's on and spoke in our best aussie accents to try and fit in! Bonza!

As a christmas present we received a gift to go on another wine tour around the Swan Valley on a horse drawn wagon. So we booked to do this last week on a lovely cool morning. We turned up to meet Rocky our Clydesdales guide/wagon puller. We first went for a drive around a vineyard of the Edgecombe Bros estate where they grow grapes, olives, oranges, melons, asparagus and a selection of other fruits and vegetables for use in the restaurant and for making pickles and olive oils to sell in their shop. When we actually got to the winery we tired oils, jams, honey, pickles, cheeses, fruits, vegetables and ice cream, oh and of course some more wine!! We then went for another wagon drive up to the oldest church in WA where the first landing of the WA settlement occurred. Our final journey was to oggies Icecream factory where we just had to have a try of every flavour before we ended up with chocolate sundaes!!!

On our last weekend here, we decided to go over to visit Rottnest Island just 20 km off the coast of perth. It is a nature reserve and has lots of unique animals living there including snakes, lizards, birds but the cutest of all is an animal called a quokka. The quokka a relative of the kanagroo but as small as a cat and a little more rat looking. This is how Rottnest got its name from a dutch explorer who first observed them on the island calling the island Rottenest meaning rats nest. So we hired bikes (no cars allowed on the island) and went out to explore for the day. Rottnest has many beautiful beaches and coves and we tried a few out whilst also taking to the water to do a bit of snorkelling.

So this is our last blog and we leave on tuesday for New Zealand. So Keep in touch and we hope to have another blog on in about a month.
Hope everyone is well
Love Luke and Kate xxxx


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24th February 2008

turning into me
Hiya leek and cake just sat with chis looking at your blog i have never seen so many drunk people with mental problems and that is just cake your sister says she enjoyed her time with you both but it seems you had a problem with wind and it was nothing to do with kite flying see you soon love dad and chisxxxxx

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