Australia - The South West - Margaret River, Albany and Esperance

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Hey all!

I apologise if my spelling is worse that usual in this one, the computer I'm writing it on doesn't have spell check and it never seems to work properly in hotmail....

(Dad - sorry you didn't get this before going to Guernsey, hope you've had a lovely time, I am jealous and expect photos).


THE SOUTH WEST

Monday 17 May - Perth to Albany (today I'm exactly half way through my trip)
The trains helpfully woke me up at 5.15, even though I didn't need to be up until quarter to 6 to be ready to go on my next tour. We all met up and got talking straight away, everyone was really really nice. I sat next to Nicole from Germany and we had a good chat with Kate from Brighton, who was sat behind. Our guide was called Simon and we also had Steffi (Germany), Graham (New Zealand), Charlie & Debbie (UK), Kat (UK), Rob (Holland) & Kat (UK), Colin & Katie (UK), Ben, Ivy and Leem (Team Phillippines - who are brilliant a> because they take great photos of everything and b> because Ben kept Nicole and I supplied with these coffee sweets that seemed to have the same effect as coffee), Leila (Denmark) and Carmen (Australia). There were basically a lot of Kat's and Kate's. We headed out of Perth (the most isolated, sunniest 3rd windiest city in the world, didn't you know) to our first stop in the Taurt Tree forest. They are BIG trees, not as big as the Kauri's in New Zealand but still very big. Our 2nd stop was in Busselton which has the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, didn't seem that long though. It was more interesting to see all the painted cows randomly scattered around; they are designed, displayed and then sold off for charity (I don't think Caryl is impressed I took a photo of one and tagged her in it, sorry Caz, I wasn't suggested you were a cow, just know you love them!). We then headed onto Ngigli caves which are probably the most impressive caves I've been into - better even than Wookey Hole 😉 The Aboriginal story goes that there was a fight between good and evil spirits, the evil spirit lost and burst out of the earth to escape, creating the cave entrance. I was slightly concerned about going in, as there was a big warning that it wasn't great for anyone with breathing difficulties as it's so enclosed and there is an "excess of Carbon Dioxide". But I did and it was so worth it. There were two main chambers, one was a big ampitheatre with amazing stone structures all over the place, the photos didn't come out too well (I found the right setting as we were leaving, typical) so don't really show it properly. The walk to the main chamber took us deeper and deeper into the caves along narrow passages and down steep stairs. It was all cool though, could breathe! The rock formations were fascinating, apparently it's not the "done thing" in the cave world to compare the shapes to animals etc but I don't mind saying you can see loads of shapes like butterfly wings and a big evil screaming mouth. There was one area called Cupid's Corner; that was interesting! Apparently they used to hire it our to couples for some romantic 'private' time! There were a lot of spiders webs in the cave (Caz, you would have HATED that, even I didn't like it) which was a worry as didn't want to walk through them. Anyway we made it out and went to the Bushshack Brewery for lunch. They brew some interesting flavours of beer. We all chipped in for a few flavours and had strawberry, sweet chilli, chocolate (didn't taste like chocolate though), soda cherry, passionfruit and ginger. They were ok, can't have been that bad as got some for later. After lunch we stopped off at the 'Canal Rocks' which are near Yallingup. Simon had promised me BIG waves and I wasn't disappointed! It was awesome to stand on the little bridge with the waves rushing in; they stopped at the last minute which was a good job, else we'd be knocked off the bridge. We went for a little walk round the corner to watch more waves, from where I saw one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen in my whole life........Kate spotted about 10 dolphins out in the water, swimming along in the swell. I managed to shout ''DOLPHINS" to the others as they'd started walking away and was then just speechless. It was so amazing and I guess 'wild' is the way I'd describe it, they weren't playing or jumping around or anything, just swimming to get to wherever they needed to go.
As soon as we couldn't see them anymore we moved on into Margaret River, famous for its wine. We stopped at the Ferney Estate for wine tasting which was fun but not nice enough to pay what they were asking for a bottle. Then we went onto the Margaret River Chocolate Factory which, even though I'm not a huge chocolate fan, was quite exciting. The chocolate was really lovely, not like the normal Australian stuff!, unfortunately it doesn't get exported anywhere. Colin 'liberated' a lot of chocolate buttons for us to eat on the bus. We spent half an hour in Margaret River town which literally isn't much to write home about and then went onto Pemberton, where we watched the surfers surfing as the sun was setting. That was nice; awesome waves, hot surfers (stripping, right in front of us!), beautiful sunset. The drive to our hostel in Augusta was great, during twilight; Rob was DJ and he put on some awesome tunes. We had a nice dinner with a lovely group atmosphere, drank our flavoured beer and went to bed early as had to be up early. It was 9am, too early for me though and I really struggled to sleep.

Tuesday 18 May - Albany to Augusta
We woke up at 6 and I actually felt really awake, so going to bed early must work! I had to get up in the night though, was a bit confusing as couldn't get in the door to the toilets so had to walk right round the building in the dark which was a bit scary. And then I came across the random lady who was staying at the hostel (the only other person there) who was still fully clothed in purple at 3.30am and just seemed to be wandering around (Katie came across her too and said she scared her) - it was freaky! The sunrise as we were leaving was beautiful (again!), the way the sun was catching the clouds (I really need to get up earlier back home to see if sunrise is the same). The morning was made even better when I heard the news that Swindon was in the play off finals! 😊 We drove out of Augusta through the Kauri Forest to the Bi-centennial tree which is 76m high and the tallest fire lookout in the southern hemisphere. We could climb it, I wanted to go to the top but at 25m I decided I really didn't like it. There were just small bars sticking out of the tree to climb on, some of which didn't seem very secure (they wobbled), and I remembered I was a bit scared of heights! At 25m things started spinning a bit and that together with my clumsiness and general lack of balance, and the big sign saying "If in doubt, don't climb" made me decided I'd better risk it! There were no nets or anything but in 20 odd years of the public climbing it only 1 person has died and that's because he had a heart attack at the top. Simon offered to climb up with me for a bit of motivation but just couldn't do it. I regretted that in the end as coming down wasn't as bad as I'd thought and I could have ticked something else off my 'do 4 things that scare you' challenge Maff gave me. We drove on to have lunch by a very pretty lake, can't remember what that was called but it was lovely, then onto the famous tree top walk. We started with a walk through the 'Ancient Empire' which was a walk through trees with huge trunks, some of which you could stand inside (when a fire comes through, it burns out the core). The Tree Top Walk was really nice, we went about 50m up into the trees. The walkway moved which was a bit freaky (until we realised that Simon and Rob were doing a lot of shaking on purpose) as it was a long way down. We got a good view of the trees, and as I love trees I really liked that place. A bush fire came through the top of the trees so they are white and 'petrified' at the top. Simon then took us for a surprise treat of fresh fruit ice cream at the fudge/toffee/cider factory which was really good! I had banana flavour - lush!
After that we went out to the Elephant Rocks which do look a bit like elephants and Green Pool which would have been nice for a swim if it wasn't so cold; the boys went in. It's sheltered by loads of rocks which is a good job as the waves crashing on them are huge! Our final stop of the day was Nature's Bridge (rocks forming a bridge over the water) and the Gap (a sheer cliff face down to a narrow gorge) for sunset. The sun had already gone down but the sky was an amazing colour and we got some good photos. We had a nice (and bit emotional for me, not sure why, something to do with James Blunt Goodbye My Lover being played by Rob, the most depressing song on the planet I think, doesn't even mean anything to me!) journey to our hostel in Albany. I helped with dinner, chopping and making garlic bread and then had a few Bacardis whilst watching TV. Simon, Nicole and I stayed up to the watch the 'Man Show' which was REALLY inappropriate but very funny! It was about 10 this time before we went to bed, another early start in the morning.

Wednesday 19 May - Albany to Esperance
We were up at 5.45am, too early. I broke the shower which was annoying as I was halfway through a shower when the shower head fell off. Luckily, nobody was in the next one so had to manouvere myself behind the shower curtains into the next cubicale, could have been embarassing had someone come in. They were really horrible showers, really cold then really hot and I actually burnt my feet! We left the hostel and went up Mount Clarence which gave us amazing views from the Anzac Memorial. The tree lined avenue approaching it has plaques against each tree with soldiers names on it. Albany is the port at which soldiers gathered and then departed to go to Gallipoli and it's where the first Anzac day dawn service was held. The view was so nice, with sea mist covering things and making them look really spooky. I got a photo in front of the view and ended up with a ghostly anchor in the picture, we were a bit spooked! As we were heading out of Albany we saw a fence covered in socks, which was.....interesting. Apparently it's a protest by the locals who are not happy the site has not been developed. We travelled out to the Stirling Ranges, I had a sleep on the way there and when I woke up the view had changed, it was really pretty. We were due to climb up The Bluff bit it looked so hard and I was really not feeling it so took it slowly with Leila who was struggling with her knees. I was a bit annoyed as don't like not doing things when they are a bit of a challenge but I've done lots of climbing already so didn't feel too bad! The walk was nice and the views were pretty spectacular, we got about 1/2 way up. When we were walking back we came across an 86 year old man coming in the opposite direction (i.e. going up) who didn't have a stick or any water. He looked like he was struggling so Graham offered him his stick and I offered him my water; he took the stick. We were a bit worried about it so were relieved when we saw him coming back, closely followed by his daughter who had been running up there!!! OMG! It would have taken me all day just to walk! I got chatting with him and he said he lives at the farm behind The Bluff and has climbed it about 15 times, last time when he was 70. He's going to do it again next year when he's 87, was awesome! We stopped there for lunch and said bye to Leila, Steffi, Charlie & Debbie and Carmen who were doing a 3 day trip so heading back to Perth then drove onto Esperance which took the rest of the afternoon. It was luxury that night as the hostel made lasagne for us (I had a baby vegi one) then played card drinking games. We had a couple of shocks - first when Colin found a really unpleasant looking spider (luckily it was dead) and second when we had another spooky incident where something ghostly appeared in one of my photos......Simon, Nicole, Graham and I spent 10 minutes trying to come up with a sensible explanation for it by attempting to recreate the picture but none had the same effect. So we were spokked until Cat came in and immediately said "it's the top of the drinks bottle". Not very exciting but at least less spooky! We went to bed reasonably early again, and I spent the night coughing as I've developed a really annoying cough, apparently I didn't keep anyone awake though.

Thursday 20 May - Esperance
We were allowed a lie in today (thank you Simon!) and only had to get up at 7am (still too early!). We had breakfast and headed out to the Cape Le Grande National Park. First stop was Frenchman's Peak which looked daunting as it involved a very steep climb. I did it though, was full of beans that day, actually ran up some of it! The views from the top were so worth it, could see all round the different bays and the beaches looked AMAZING so we were very excited to get there. Before leaving the top though we had to do the obligatory jumping photos, which was nervewracking to watch as Rob, Simon and Colin could have gone over the edge if they'd lost their balance. I therefore didn't have a go at a jumping photo as I have rubbish balance so probably would have gone over the edge. We then went down to Hellfire Bay which was stunning - white sand, clear blue sea - once I eventually got down there as had a bit of an incident with my belly ring. The cotton from my tights got caught as I was taking them off (that HURT!!) so I had a painful couple of minutes whilst Simon tried to find something to cut it with. First off he bought out a huge knife which I wasn't keen on using (anyone looking in the minibus could have come to all sorts of conclusions!) and then luckily found some scissors. It was hot and sunny and it was just us there so so nice. Then Kat saw dolphins and it just got even better! There was a pod of about 20, just swimming round the bay. Rob took off down the beach at 100 miles an hour to get out to swim with them (didn't make it though, that time). Then when they came a bit closer Colin tried (didn't make it either, mainly because Colin was swimming in the wrong direction and not listening to us when we were trying to tell him!) and then it was 3rd time lucky. Kat and I were down the other end of the beach and noticed a lot of splashing so decided to walk closer. It turned out Rob, Colin and Simon were swimming out as the dolphins were really close to the surf. At first the dolphins seemed to be swimming away but when the boys got closer they swam back and actually started swimming with them. It was so amazing, they were so lucky. We were all tempted to get in but mainly put off by the FREEZING cold water. I would have braved that to swim in that environment with dolphins (it's not often you'd get the chance like that, without it being all set up) but I only had a bikini top on (I did consider going in in my knickers) but they were too far out. It was so cool to watch - the dolphins were surfing the waves, jumping at 90 degrees out of the water, turning in the waves, have never seen anything like it, even on a wildlife program. They were swimming next to, under, round and jumping over the boys (I am still not over the whole experience nearly a week later as I'm writing this). After 15 minutes they slowly swam off and the boys came back escstatic, don't blame them, I was jealous!
We eventually calmed down and drove round to Lucky Bay, which was voted the best beach in Australia in 2004 (most recently it's been Whitehaven in the Whitsunday's, where Caryl and I have also been). We had lunch there and then visited the beach. It was in a lovely setting, with white sand and clear blue sea but there were some dodgy looking weeds washed up which spoiled it. I can see how it would have been one of the best in the height of summer, with no weeds. We only stopped there for photos then went onto Thistle Bay which was just WOW! It had got really hot so we had a lovely afternoon there, just chilling out and walking along the beach. We journeyed back to Esperance during sunset and saw LOADS of kangaroos, hopping across the road. I'm not sure how Simon could see them to spot them, as the sun was so low and in his eyes. Sunset was fast and quick and before going back to the hostel we stopped off to see Sammy the Seal. We were very suspicious and not convinced there was actually a seal (I thought it might be another dolphins in Lake Wanaka type story, didn't want to get caught out like that again!) and I was almost convinced it was a hoax when we drove past the jetty and saw a bronze statue of a seal. But, Simon didn't let us down as there he was, Sammy the Seal with his mate, waiting to be fed fish by the fisherman. He was huge, and really sweet. At one point he jumped out of the water to catch a fish. I liked Sammy a lot.
That night I cooked myself a vege stir fry for dinner, which I was impressed with and then we went out to Karaoke at the local pub. It's the Esperance BIG NIGHT OUT! We had a great night, singing (Caz, you'll be relieved to know I didn't get Cameron out), chatting, dancing. We seemed a bit of a novelty to the locals. Simon, Rob and Colin got up to do a lovely (?!?!?!) rendition of Brown Eyed Girl. Rob nearly got into a few fights, trying to be friendly to the locals (think one took offence at Rob's interest in his 'man bag'). When we got back Kate and I had a hilarious half hour watching Simon and Rob play fighting in the kitchen with oven gloves as boxing gloves and a huge saucepan! At 2am we decided we'd better get to bed!

Friday 21 May - Esperance to Perth
We were up at 6, with everyone being quite bright and breezy which was amazing considering the night we'd had! It was funny sharing the photos and video from the night before. We had a long journey back to Perth and Simon tried to keep us occupied with some thinking games. The first of which was how many countries could we come up with that ended in the letter A (there are over 70). My team (me with Nicole, Cat & Team Phillipines) won! We got over 70 although none of us were really sure whether some of the places we all had were actually countries. We got to Wave Rock at around lunchtime, it was so hot there and the flies, OMG, I hate them but unfortunately they love me. I had to get my fly hat out which gave everyone a few laughs and caused Graham to take to calling me 'The Surfing Widow'. We walked out to Wave Rock and got the 'surfing' photos that as tourists I guess you just have to. The rock is impressive, really liked it. After lunch of wraps with flies we went to Hippo's Yawn, which sort of looks like a Hippo's Yawn but if I'm honest I think they are stretching that a bit. Team Phillippines didn't even bother taking a photo. We then had a long 2 hour + drive back to Perth, with a couple of stops on the way. One at Corrigin where they have a Dog Cemetary (Corrigin is a town of dog lovers, it holds the record for the biggest number of dogs on the back of utes driving through a town, it also holds the record for the longest road train with 80 trailers!). Simon then gave us another brain teaser; which 5 countries in the world are spelt only with open letters (e.g. o is closed, e is open). We lost that one, can't remember which we missed. The journey back was really really nice, lovely scenery. There were so many different trees, mostly petrified and very individual. We arrived back into Perth at about 6.30.

I really Really REALLY loved this trip. This area of Australia (closely followed by the Great Ocean Road) is my favourite so far and definately stands out from the rest of Australia for me. It's the only area I've been to where I've felt almost how I did about New Zealand (still didn't feel so much for it though). I think the trees make the difference for me; the Gum trees in Australia are a bit scrappy and therefore have that effect on the landscape whereas the trees in New Zealand are just so beatiful and really compliment the landscape. The trip was also made really special because of the people I met, all lovely. I hope the rest of my West Coast trip is just as good.

Lots of love to you all, miss you! Xx

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