Heading South West

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I awoke to find a girl in my all-boy dorm.

“Excuse me... where am I?”

“Old Swan Barracks” (unfortunately for all of us).

“Thanks. Any idea how I got here?”

Why yes! I had an idea. She came in with Luke and passed out on his bed. He didn't remember either and woke up saying “who the hell are you and what are you doing in my bed?”

I explained and left, wishing them the best of luck.

I was picked up outside my hostel and my journey south west began. The first stop was the beautiful Stirling Ranges. Another beautiful mountain range that rivals the blue mountains but is much less well-known and quieter.

Hiking in the middle of the day wasn't exactly the best idea in the Australian heat but that is exactly what we did.

Brendo, our guide lead the way at ridiculous speed, leaving poor Sandra behind. She eventually gave in to her asthma and went back down the mountain. We all know that I like to do things at my own pace (a slow pace that is) so I just trundled up the mountain at the the back. Until the amazing, wonderful person that is Lizzie dropped back and kept me company, going unnecessarily slow. Just like Britt did with me on the Lares Trek – makes believe that there really, truly lovely, unselfish people out there.

We only sort of made it to the top which gave us an interesting yet spectacular view over the range. We were surrounded by green and yellow fields, mountains and even a salt lake. After sitting up there for a while we, at a faster pace made our way down – and I didn't even fall over!

Soon, we were dropping our stuff at our hostel and off to visit Middleton Beach and drive upwards to watch the Sun set over Albany.

The night brought with it a barbecue, a serious talk about religion followed by a Swiss-German lesson from Johanna resulting in finding myself laughing so hard that I cried! Moral of the story here – don't say Brätsla to a German speaking Swiss person!

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