Advertisement
Published: February 25th 2009
Edit Blog Post
So we arrived in Perth a while ago now, really must try harder on the old blog thing!!
Perth is a very isolated city, infact it is the worlds most isolated city.....Perth to Adelaide (closest large city in Oz) is akin to London to Moscow!!!....Australia is a very large place!!
We had two very intersting nights in a B & B in the city...not our finest choice of accomodation, however we were walking distance to the waterfront and sights....The Swan River, Kings Park (Parrots!!!!) and much much more!!!! (Just a while ago to remember now!!)
After the B & B we had booked an apartment in the suburb of Freemantle, 1/2 hour train trip from Perth. Freemantle is a great place to hang out by the beach, which is what we both needed after 2 months of continuous travelling and 34 hotels since leaving Dartmouth!!
We arrived at the apartment and both thought it was Christmas again...Sharron saw the washing machine and I saw the BBQ!!!.....How nice it is to be able to wash your own clothes and cook your own meals....when you want!!
We had a great time in Freemantle, stunning weather, excellent beaches, clean
clothes, Fab BBQ's...and NO shark attacks!!!!
After our 10 days of beach life, we hired a car and drove 3 1/2 hours down to Margaret River, the stunning South West coast of Australia. Margaret River is a small town on the Margaret River...which is actually a large stream and only breaks out into the sea 3 times a year due to a huge sand bank. The area of Margaret River actually covers a 100km of the coast and is home of the Marget River wine region.....Which is why we were there!!Over 160 wineries, producing just 5% of Australias wine....and recieving over 20% of the wine awards....
We booked a super apartment overlooking Prevelly beach, again the washing machine and BBQ were much appreciated, however....the hot tub on the decking got more use than either of the affore mentioned items!!
The day after we arrived we had an overcast day and decided to go for a drive down to the southern end of the coast, an excellent drive through forests of the largest trees we had ever seen. The destination turned out to be a bit of a non entity and we drove back after a light lunch.
When we arrived back at the apartment and got out of the car I noticed quite a large ugly hairy spider in the car door sill. I obviously had to call Sharron over to let her see this fantastic sample of Australian wildlife!!!
Once she had calmed down, we agreed to find a large stick and flick it out of the car and then I would jump on it.....it ran too fast!!....Ohh well end of spider story......not that simple.....The next day Sharron made me check the car and after checking three doors and thinking it was all quite safe, the spider decided we had not had enough of his company and there he was under the rear drivers door sill!!!
So I got the stick again and flicked him out, again he ran to fast.....we decided to park the car up the road in future!!
We checked out the big spider book in the book shop and found out he was a Huntsman....thats right a "Hunts Man" spider....thankfully not poisionous...but "can give a nasty bite, looks for cool spaces in which to make their home".....No more air con on in the car!!
Parking the car up
the road did the trick and we didnt see him again...
We spent our days taking it in turn to drive to the wineries for tastings and lunch, sitting in the sun on the wild beaches, and relaxing in the hot tub.....sorry I am rubbing it in a bit there!!
The wine tastings were great but one of us always had to drive so we decided to do the "Bushtucker Tour"....6 wineries, cheese factory, chocolate tasting, lunch etc etc...a small group of 11 with Silvarno at the wheel made our way around some great wineries taking advantage of not having to drive!!!....Lunch was as you may have guessed fromt the title of the tour a "Bushtucker" experience which included Kangaroo and various other strange things...including the highlight...a Widgetygrub!!!.....After Silvano had made the introductions to each and every member of the group he asked for two lucky people to sample the gourmet delight, I couldn't resist !!
The grub had been steamed and was presented in two halves, I took the head for obvious reasons....it was soft, textured like cous cous with a taste like cashew nuts....yum yum!!
Australia day, the 26th Jan...we decided to go out
for brunch at the seaview cafe....they had had a very busy morning and had run out of everything on the menu!!! All those early surfers got there way before us and ate the lot!!....so we went to the local general store...just as we walked in a chap walked out saw me and said "Mark?"....I said "Tom?".....and indeed Mark was re-aquainted with Tom....who worked at Sharpham (River Dart Vineyard) some 2 years ago!!! He moved out to Marget River with his lovely fiance Tina and now works for Howard Park / Mad Fish (Tesco's are one of their UK distributors!) Its good stuff!!!....Anyway SMALL WORLD!!!
After extending our stay in Margaret River for another week we drove back to Perth and were invited to the open air cinema by Colin & Daisy a good friend of a friend (Mike Cast) whom we had never met before....We had a great picnic in the university grounds and then the film started....."A Waltz with Bashir".....Colin hadn't done a great deal of reseach on the film.......an animated film depicting the war in the Lebanon, with a harrowing end!!!......One we may not rent on DVD in the future!!
We flew to Melbourne the next
day!!
Mark & Sharron
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0444s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sarah
non-member comment
Its a Chandelier!
Its a chandelier from wine glasses!!! Sounds like an amazing time down under.... i can smell the heat, wine and sea!