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Published: March 5th 2007
Wednesday 19th April to Sunday 23rd April 2006
DAY ONE: Wednesday 19th April. Fremantle - Perth to Esperance. After being in Australia for just over 2 weeks my first tour to the South West of Western Australia didn't quite pan out as the Australian experience I was expecting - it was all very English...
The day began at 5.30am so I could get the train from Freo up to Perth for the 7.30am departure... First stop was York - an old town that looked v colonial English and v dead. Next was a Dog Cemetery (goodness knows why?!!!) then it was on to Wave Rock - a rock formation which looks like a wave! Great I hear you say in those very fake enthusiastic tones! - or was that just me in my head asking what the hell I was doing!! Surprisingly though, Wave Rock was bloody impressive! My first introduction to the colourful rocks of Australia and the first of my many close ups! Next it was off to Hippos Yawn... yup I think it's time for bed!!
DAY TWO: Thursday 20th April. Esperance. 7.30am start and my first Kangaroo! - Sadly it was
flattened on the side of the road... Note to self: must do better...
Onto and up 'Frenchman's Peak' in Cape Le Grande National Park. Now the Kangaroo was dead but this nearly killed us all!! It was soooo steep! You know when you have sheer rock in front of you and you feel like you have to go up on your belly or at least on all fours because if you stand up you might fall backwards??! It was one of those 'climbs' aka 'walk'!! Great view mind (and I would've shown you but I forgot my camera! - Lesson learnt: take your camera everywhere!).
Next would have been a refreshing (! it was pretty chilly out!) dip in the sea at Thistle Bay. Unfortunately we missed out on this because we spotted a whale! - and smelt its carcass as the wandered up the otherwise pristine and beautiful beach. White sand, turquoise water. Wow. On to Lucky Bay. And yes it was lucky! - I got to see my first LIVE Kangaroo!! Yippee! Now I really was in Australia!
A drive around Esperance took a maximum of 5 minutes as it's pretty minute and was followed
by the Great Ocean Drive. We followed a coastal road and were flanked by some huge waves crashing into the rugged coastline. It was brill. A wind farm and sunset over the pink lake later and it was time to crash...
DAY THREE: Friday 21st April. Esperance to Albany. Yup its Al-ban-ee not all-ban-ee!
Anyway, day three, rain, rain, rain. The walk up Castle Rock was rained off and the wine tasting was the quickest sip due to the unfortunate circumstances of a funeral. It was a bit of a wipe out... off to the pub then! And yup I got asked for ID!!! HELLO!??!!
DAY FOUR: Saturday 22nd April. Albany to Pemberton. Off to the beach at 8am! Super! So lets jump in front of rocks to wake ourselves up!! Nope, still sleepy?? Lets go to the 'Valley of the Giants' and do a tree top walk on a platform 40m above ground level! Pretty good views. For me that was enough but for others on our tour the 60m climb up and around one of those massive trees was calling! (I have no idea why and I managed about 6 steps up!!).
The long road ahead...
... and there's a lot of it in Australia...!Last day and it was back to Perth up the coast. First to Cape Leewin where the seas meet. Next was the Caleardup Caves. Then it was to Margaret River to see the surfers and visit the chocolate factory! Finally it was off to Bussleton with the long pier and back to Perth.
All in all a random trip full of oddities. Can say it was the best but it was the first of its kind I'd been on with plenty more to come... viva l'australia!
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