First off, I have to say hi and thanks to Martin and Kylie for making this entry possible. So the three of us hired a car and drove up the west coast during a 1 week roadtrip. Yay roadtrip!!! After getting over the initial shock of the vehicle we were provided with (a Hyundai Tucson, which is one of those fake SUV's...damn SUV city drivers!), we gathered the camping gear we were borrowing (for such a large vehicle, you would think there'd be more trunk space!) and set out on our trip. We discovered a few things about our "car" as we made our way up north...firstly that it was gutless, which made passing trailers and boats quite a nerve-racking experience (and road trains? Nah, not enough power to pass them!). Two of us also had ... read more

April 9-13, 2007. Sarah had her week off from studies, and I took a week off work. So where to? Back down south, to an even more beautiful region, one that is still sheltered from the tourism of Margaret River region. We visited Pemberton, Walpole and Denmark. We left Perth Monday morning. It hadn't hit me that we'd be going on a trip, and I had gone to bed without packing. It wasn't that I forgot...I was actually not in much of a traveling mood! But off we went! Our first stop was Serpentine Dam. I hadn't seen this much water inland in Oz, and the area was really pretty. We also visited Serpentine Falls...which must be much more impressive in winter when there's more water to make the falls...but it was relaxing to sit ... read more

So after a couple months of crazy road trips and traveling from city to city, I have finally settled down for a bit. When I got back from my trips (Adelaide to Melbourne, Canberra/Sydney), I had a good look at my bank account and decided it was time to start finding a source of income. So I did the typical backpacker job of picking grapes for a few weeks. Or at least I thought it was typical backpacker...I met only one other backpacker (from France, so of course everyone was excited that I could speak French), as all the other pickers were local! I had been warned by many that picking fruit is back-breaking work...I suppose it's not everyone's idea of fun. Who wants to sweat and lift heavy boxes and do nothing but cut vines ... read more

And onto the second part of our insane road trip. So we had made it into Victoria, staying the night in Portland in a caravan in a backyard. We decided to head up to the Grampians, as by now we were used to driving all day. On the way to the Grampians, we decided to stop at Mt Eccles, which had a little blurb written about it in the Lonely Planet. It was an extinct volcano, rich with the trees koalas love so much. On our drive, we saw what we thought must be Mt Eccles, as the mountain in the distance had a distinct volcanic shape to it. Like a Mt Fuji without snow. But the signs led away from our volcano, and it turned out that the hill we had seen was Mt Napier. ... read more

So between visiting wineries, breweries, swimming off beautiful beaches and digging up kangaroo skeletons in sand dunes, our long weekend down south in the Margaret River region was fantastic. We decided to go south while everyone still had holidays. We also managed to pick the same weekend as the massive concert in Busselton, Southbound, which made getting accommodation in the area rather tricky, but we had a great time. We left on Saturday, driving south on our way to Margaret River. We stopped off in Pinjarra for a late morning break and coffee, wandering around the little town and finding lots of outdoor art. We then continued on, until we saw a sign for an art exhibition in Vasse. We found some absolutely beautiful art by local artists, all on display in what lo... read more