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Published: October 4th 2008
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Well, its been a bloody long time since we last updated our blog, but we’ve been on the road for a few weeks now, and haven’t spent more than three nights in one place. We’re writing this from the coastal town of Albany, where we’re planning to spend the weekend before hopefully heading back up to Frankland to do some more work on the vineyard.
It would be nice if we could say that we have been lazing about on the beach for the past few weeks, but unfortunately most plans have been marred by the rain and stormy weather. We had planned to go whale watching and dolphin spotting, but alas, they were cancelled due to adverse weather.
After picking up Daisy the Campervan on our return to Perth in early September, we spent a few days in the beautiful Coogee beach resort, relaxing, touching up the paintwork and even managed one day down at the beach!
After that, we headed north in search of warmer weather, to Lancelin, only to discover that the beach was littered with blue bottle jellyfish. and for an enormous storm to hit the coast and freeze us half to death. Lisa
did get a lovely visit from a 2 foot gheko though which was the highlight of the trip, if not a little frightening as it was blocking the exit from the van.
Then we headed as far up as Cervantes and the Pinnacles; which are a whole bunch of strange rock formations rising from the desert as far as the eye can see! Beautiful to see for 10 minutes but not worth the trek!
We did all the usual sights in Perth, including the Zoo and went to pay homage to the Australia II, which rid the Yanks of their precious trophy!
Again we hit the road, travelling south and staying a couple of nights in each place we came across. We found the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, which we walked all 2 kilometres of in an extremely high wind! With no handrail and a long swim back to shore, it was quite an experience! Yeh, Mat was constantly whining like a baby!
After the jetty in Busselton, we hit Mandurah, Bunbury and then...
finally, we made it down to the mother load...Margaret River! The wine region of Western Australia. If there's a
field that doesnt have grapes growing in it, they're in the process of planting some! We passed countless wineries and breweries on the way in, and went on the obligatory wine tour of the whole region. Basically, you get on a coach, have a big lunch and then hit as many of the free boutique and commercial wine tasting sessions as you can during the day. This is topped off with a quick pint at a brewery, a visit to the cheese factory and the local venison farm! The venison was crazy cheap! Literally half the price of the UK. Needless to say, we were eating prime venison steak and cheese and crackers for the next few days!
Besides the wine, venison and cheese Margie River is stunning and our campsite was on the top of a hill so we had an amazing view of the spectacularly ferocious sea. A truly beautiful area which we're hoping to go back to for Lisa's birthday to do a bush tucker trip (oh yes!) and stock up on some more venison pate!
So with heads still sore from the delicious free plonk, we headed into the national parks and forests in
search of the so called 'climbing trees' in Pemberton. The three trees (Diamond, Gloucester and Bicentenial) are used to triangulate the positions of fire outbreaks within the southern forests, but the rest of the time, they are used for mad tourists to climb at their own peril. A spiral of steel pins ascends to the top of each tree, and then a further set of 4 ladders takes you through a series of viewing platforms. The highest platform is on the Bicentenial tree, and stands at a whopping 73 metres above the ground. The view from the top is truely breathtaking, and the sway of the tree is truely vomit inducing! It was a great experience, but Mat's legs are still sore from the vertical climb! And no Lisa didn't climb it - do I look stupid, it was crazy windy and the rungs were taller than me!
The guide book let us down with regards to Pemberton - there was much more to do than it disclosed and we almost gave it a miss. Our camp site was enclosed by the enourmous Southern forest and was one of the best we stayed at not least beacuse everthing was
on our doorstep - a tram ride through the forest, the cascades, trout fishing and an amazing fine art and craft shop.
Next we stopped off at a little place called Northcliffe where visiting artists had contributed to create an epic sculpture walk though the woods. Some of the sculptures were hidden away in the bush and others were larger than life, 5 metres tall and bright red! Some of the pieces were amazing and it was well worth the entrance fee for the experience.
We took a walk through the valley of the giants in Walpole, keeping a look out for stray ewoks. It's a pretty amazing view from up there, and the wobble on the platforms rivals the rides at Alton Towers!
Well thats all for now. Hope you are all well and safe. Keep those messages coming, it's great to hear from everyone.
Much love, Mat & Lisa
xxx
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fiona
non-member comment
green with envy
I'm sooo jealous!!! looks like you guys are having lots of fun. fi. xx