Thelma And The 2 (Joanna) Louises - 5th - 12th Jul 06

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We collected our bright red Hyundai accent around 9.00 am the morning after our hangover supper. Fresh and bright from an early night we set off down highway 30, headed for Albany on the south coast. We had a bit of a giggle at our first picnic lunch - we'd saved the left over spag bol - just like responsible adults, or big time skanks - whichever you prefer! After lunch we talked about going whale watching and in her excitement Whits slipped up to 125 km's per hour and promptly got pulled over by a sharking patrol car. We got done - $100 fine and stern word of warning! On we travelled after our scolding and eventually reached the beautiful coastal town of Albany and checked into the backpackers there, run by a great couple called Pat and John. There was a lively set up down at the backpackers with a mix of holiday workers and travellers - making for some fun evenings - only to be helped along by Pat and John of course! We quickly learnt the ropes of the backpackers and that night Pat offered us a free nights accommodation if we'd help her clean up the place for a couple of hours in the morning. We jumped at that, saving a grand total of $63, it would almost make up for the speeding ticket!
So, after cleaning, we walked down to the jetty and hopped on John's (a different John) whale watching tour in the hope of seeing a spectacle. That we did, but whether the spectacle was John or the 40 tonne Southern Right Whale and her 2 week old calf is debatable. John was fantastic - a real character, about mid 50's with a contagious, belting laugh and an inspiring enthusiasm for his work and the wildlife that inhabit the coastal waters. We all wish he could have been our teacher, the way he described the meanings of the creatures movements with easy metaphors! We got quite close to the whales, but restrictions of approach apply, so it was up to the whales to make the last move. Due to the calf being only 2 weeks old, there was no breaching or tail slapping, just logging (floating about near the surface) which made it quite difficult to appreciate their size and see the details of their bodies, but we were satisfied with our spot, especially as John had drummed it into our heads how privileged we were to have the experience of seeing a great Southern Right Whale with her baby in the wild. Yes, it was pretty special! After a while we left the whales alone and made a cruise around King George Sound along the way spotting seals, jellyfish, bird life, and we even had dolphins riding the bow wave for a while.
That evening we had a lovely $5 roast dinner dutifully prepared by John and decided to do another mornings cleaning for Pat in order to stay a third night - we liked the place so much! After the feed we drove out to the local cinema with a couple of English girls from the backpackers to see the much awaited Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - fantastic! The cinema was great - really old school and the building was like a kitsch geometric, 50's structure - a bit like a rubic's cube.
We filled up our 2nd day with beautiful scenery taking a drive out to 2 national parks, Torndirrup, in the morning and Two People's national park in the afternoon. Torndirrup had the gap and the natural bridge, 2 incredible rock formations caused by coastal erosion. Along the way we learnt that that very coastline used to be connected to Antarctica and there are split rocks on both continents that still match up today! We also checked out some blow holes, although apart from a fearsome roar nothing much was happening there as the swell of the sea wasn't big enough. Walking back along the coastal path we spotted a pod of whales right out in the ocean, we could only see the spouts of water, but for some reason it was even more special watching them out there, than seeing the mother and baby up close. From the gap we drove up to Stony Head Point and caught a glimpse of some of the most fabulous views of the trip to date - we could see right across the King George Sound to Two People's Park, down towards Albany, turning 180 degrees to the spouting whales and the Southern Ocean. Following another road we reached the bay where the Southern Right Whale and her calf had been hanging out, but unfortunately we could not spot them, so we had another picnic lunch before heading east across the coast to Two People's national park, stopping for a short time at the beautiful Middleton Beach. Over at the national park we spotted our first wild Kangaroos, living and breathing, not squished on the side of the road! Little Beach was spectacular, so beautiful, like a dream. We walked along it until the sun moved behind the headland before making our way on a made up route back to Albany. Along the way we found another amazing beach, drowned by pink skies - the colours were creating a very eerie atmosphere. We watched a couple of surfers out in the break as the sun went down and made it back to Albany just after dark - but not before Becs jumped out of her skin, hitting the breaks to avoid a gigantic Kangaroo leaping into the road from the bushes!
We had another amazing feed that night for 5 bucks and cracked open the vino before heading into the garden. Before long the lads had all made a huge inferno in an empty oil drum and everyone was heavily glugging the wine, including our hosts Pat and John. John was totalled and kept us entertained with renditions of Sinatra and cockney classics, we especially loved the sing along to Oliver! We all sat in a circle around the fire and after a while Whits got chatting to an aussie guy - he sloped off and Whits quickly turned to Greeny in a panic saying "Becs seriously you have to help me! I've just convinced him to let me cut his hair and he's gone to fetch some scissors!" Greeny decided to chip in and help with the hacking - beginning at chin length. It wasn't long before the barnet had a suspicious 90's step look about it, but Whits came through and although intoxicated and having never cut anyones hair before in her life, managed to avoid injuring him as well as having a satisfied customer!
After bidding sad farewells we left Pat and John's while we still could - that place was far too comfy and could easily have become our home for the week! We drove 16 km's out of Walpole to the tree top walk, firstly going through the infamous Valley of the Giants, which is a 6 km strecth of road lined with giant Tingle trees. The walk takes you at highest to 40 metres above ground - it can be a bit scary as it is designed to move to give the visitor a true feeling of being in the tree canopy - not for the faint hearted - but stunning views. We also did the ancient empire walk which is at ground level and saw some immense trees, some up to 20 metres in diameter at the base. After another geriatric picnic lunch in the forest, we headed over to Pemberton, or 'Hicksville' as it should be known. We arrived at the only hostel in town, ran by possibly the most annoying man on the planet. On the upside, he was putting on a free bbq that night, so after debating it, we decided that we would endure his bad jokes for the free food! We knew the barbie had begun when we heard some tragic 90's dance blaring out from across the road. We reluctantly joined them and were handed out nice cold tinnies. After we'd tucked into a couple of sausage sarnies we grabbed another cold beer and legged it stealthily whilst the 12 year olds and host got hammered! We opted for a night back in our 'villa' in front of the fire!
The next day we got to Bussleton at 12 and were too late to check out the underwater observatory, plus the visibility was poor, so we decided to check out Yallingup instead. En route, we stopped at Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, just in time for a guided tour. It was really interesting learning the history of the lighthouses, and this particular one had it's staircase made and shipped over from Birmingham by the Chance brothers, which was quite bizarre! We checked out the museum and were told a few ghost stories before leaving for Yallingup which was even more hicksville than the last one, consisting of a caravan park and a grocery store! We were hoping to do a tour of the local brewery but thought we'd see what the chances of this were, before commiting ourselves to staying. We got to the 'Wicked' Ale Brewery and discovered they don't do tours and the pub shuts at 5 pm - rubbish, so we tried a pony (half of a half) of flavoured beer (Chilli, Strawberry and Cream Soda) and got the hell out of there. We backtracked to Margaret River to see whether there was any more action there, but discovered that it was extortionately expensive and we really couldn't afford to do anything. Getting a bit disheartened, we decided to chill, watch a film with Johnny Depp in it, and leave the next day.
We made it back to Bussleton and luckily the sea was still and the skies clear, so there was great visibility for the underwater observatory this time. We had a guided tour of the observatory which is 13 metres deep and 9 metres in diameter. It was amazing - they have wooden pylons which over the course of about 12 years have collected amazing plantlife and corals of all manner of colour and forms. The fish swimming around were stunning. On the walk back down the 1.8 km jetty, we were lucky enough to spot a Bottlenose Dolphin which we followed until we were back on dry land.
With little else to do, we opted to go into Fremantle for our last night and see the other sights we'd missed out previously. Whits and Greeny headed to the History Museum and Art Gallery which was really interesting, whilst Smithers was going to go to the Maritime Museum. They got back to the hostel and found Smithers immersed in conversation with a table of people she'd met that day, absolutely leathered, having decided to dodge the museum - quite amusing! Greeny decided it would be wise to swap to driving duty for the trip back to Perth the following day!
Tally Ho

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Photos

Geriatrics!
Our first OAP picnic before being busted by the cops!

Whaleman John
What a great guy!

Can you see it?!
Smithy and the whale

King George Sound
A dolphin comes to visit

Little Beach
The most beautiful beach in the world!

At Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse
Getting battered by the rain

Pretending we're in Salcombe
Me and Smithers find at boat at the Wicked Ale Brewery

Busselton
The underwater observatory

In Rosies
Al from Team Ireland serenades me and Becs

Lets get locked!
A Sunday night at Rosies

The three of us
Me, Jo and Becs at Rosies