Day 116 - And the travel family becomes 2

Hi everyone, I hope all is well. So my holiday has changed slightly today. My brother, Gareth, has come up for a week's entertainment. And it was great to see him, at least for the first hour. Only kidding, it's good to see him, and it'll be good to see the rest of the family in a week's time.

So the first half of the day involved me moving out of one hotel, into another, and then driving around the town. Now Exmouth isn't that large, so it didn't take me long. I feel I checked all the local things out, and now have some ideas of what to do for the next few days.

When Gareth turned up, I first brought him back to the hotel, so he could change out of his jeans and jumper. I then took him to a beach, albeit a poor one. From there we headed to play mini-golf, where I beat him convincingly.

And for dinner we went out. It was really nice to have dinner, without bringing a book along to keep me company.

Anyway, must run, need to get lots of sleep before going for a swim with Whale Sharks tomorrow.

Have fun!!

Day 115 - From Coral Bay to Exmouth

Hi All, firstly, sorry about the lack of photos, I kept forgetting to bring the camera out.

As for what I did today.... Well, after packing up in Coral Bay, I drove down the road about 10km, to go to the beach where I could actually do some fishing (bloody fish preservation areas). When I got to Mauds Landing, I bumped into a couple going the other way, and had a good chat. Whilst we were doing that, a guy comes up to us on a motorbike, asking for some help. Apparently his family had bogged their car on the beach, about 10km to the north. They didn't have any towing gear. With one look at the beach, my mate said "I'm not going down there" but here's my gear. 2 hours later, he still hadn't got his towing gear back, and it appeared that the bogged car was now in the water.

So I'm not the only person to get bogged in sand. he he

Anyway, I was there at the beach to fish, and fishing is what I did. In 3 hours fishing, I only managed 1 fish, about a 2 foot long trevally. It was amazing, to see this fish jumping out of the water as it struggled to get away. And unfortunately, it did. After about a 2 minute fight, it got through the line, and swam away. But it was fun none-the-less.

After that, I left the fish, and the people in towing trouble, and drove up to Exmouth. Exmouth, a lovely little town, where every second building has a Whaleshark poster/statue on it.

I spent the late afternoon just relaxing at the hotel, whilst doing some important things, such as washing clothes, which I hadn't done in 2 weeks.

Anyway, tomorrow gets exciting, as my brother flies in to spend a week with me. And on Thursday, weather permitting, we're going Whaleshark Hunting. Hope the weather's good!!!!

Day 114 - Travelling around Coral Bay

Hi everyone, I hope you are all warm and happy. Me, I'm pretty happy...why you ask. Firstly, I've been snorkelling all day on the Ningaloo reef, and secondly, I'm on my 3rd Fosters Lager.

So my day seriously just consisted of the beach and snorkelling. I went on a 2 hour snorkelling trip, that got me to the best areas in Coral Bay. Heaps and heaps of fish, and great visibility. Absolutely loved it.

As part of the trip, we got to see a baby hump-back whale carcass. Now, not that interesting in that comment, but in the fact that it was alive 8 days ago, and now it's totally gone (see below), very amazing.

So, I think my suntan is starting to kick in again, which I'm happy about.

Now Head, yes, you know who I'm talking about. I bumped into a couple who'd just been on the Whale-shark tour that we're doing. They loved it. Not only did they see Whale Sharks, 4 times, they also saw live Humpback whales, and Manta Rays. I'm so excited.

Anyway, it's time to go. Feeling much happier than I was this time yesterday. But still, if friends were here......

Humpback Whale Carcass

Day 113 - And now I'm in Coral Bay

Hi Everyone, I hope your weekend was enjoyable, and not too cold, for those in Melbourne. For me, it remained a nice 24 degrees.

So I'm in Coral Bay, after leaving Carnarvon. There wasn't too much to describe about the drive, except for the pictures below. As you can see, I've now crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn, on my way north. If you see the second picture, I've put my name there, for prosperity.

So Coral Bay. Apart from the lack of population, and the extremely expensive accommodation, it's a lovely place. Just metres from the sand, you can go snorkelling in coral reefs, which I plan to do tomorrow.

I got to the beach, just in time to see the regular 3:30 fish feeding. Lots of fish in the water, eating out of your hands.

It looks like my backpackers unit is going to be a party place tonite, I wish I had a friend here to party with me.

Day 112 - Am I half-way yet.... No!!

Hi All, I hope you are well. I just have to say.... " Go Pies!!!". Good to see we're back on the winning board. Still can't believe we drew with the demons.

So I'm in Carnarvon, and have spent a nice relaxing day. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great, and the wind has been blowing all day.

My first point of call was the OTC Dish, similar to the Dish in Parkes, where the movie was set. This "Dish" was used in the original moon landing, but unfortunately, I wasn't allowed in, I could only walk around it.

So what is Carnarvon? To me, it's a town that focuses on two things, 1. bananas, and 2. snapper. I drove through the plantation area, which was nice, and ended up in the harbour area. All through this area, the boats were filled with fish, mainly snapper. I have to ask, is there an area where this fish doesn't swim.

From there I went to the 1 mile jetty, a jetty that is 1 mile long, and attempted to fish. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad, blowing a gale from the south, and didn't really get to fish much.

To cut a story short, I got my hotel to turn the footy on early, and have got the Pies to win as we see it.

I leave Carnarvon tomorrow, heading to Coral Bay. Hopefully the weather is warm, as I'll be spending the time in the water.

Day 111 - And now I'm in Carnarvon

So, last night wasn't great. I think I mentioned that I cut my leg on the huge snapper that I caught yesterday. Well, it caused me to feel severe pain (8 out of 10) in my knee, to the point that I didn't really sleep all night. I found it hard to walk on it, and also to move it at all. Strange, but I don't think that snapper are poisonous.

Anyway, I'm almost back to normal now. I guess lying down all night, even though I didn't sleep, helps it a little, I'd rate it at about 4 from 10 now.

So, up early in the morning to go see the Monkey Mia dolphins again, and they didn't dissappoint. The weather did, as it was freezing this morning. But we got to see a number of dolphins, once again, up and personal. I wonder whether they're actually trained to do this, like what you'd get at Seaworld.

Anyway, I limped out of Monkey Mia, and have driven to Carnarvon. In between I stopped in at Eagle Bluff, a lovely cliff face into Shark Bay, and then to Shell Beach. Now shell beach is interesting. The beach is full of cockle shells, apparently 10 metres deep. There's all very small shells, and there's no sand at all, so I wonder how many cockles over how many years died here. Billions!!

The rest of my drive to Carnarvon was pretty uninteresting, except for all the animals beside the road. I guess in this neck of the woods, fences arent necessary, I saw so many sheep, cows and goats standing beside the road. No emus though.

So I'm now in Carnarvon, and am once again, staying in a ship crate, like I did in William Creek. At least this one is all decked out. I've already organised which pub I'll stay at tomorrow night, so that I can watch the Pies in comfort.

Anyway, I'll do a bit of a town run-around tomorrow, and let you know what I find.

Day 110 - Fishing in Shark Bay

Hi everybody, I hope you're all well. I'm not, as I think I may have poisoned my knee, but I'll get to that later.

So today, I managed to get myself on a fishing charter, to go out into Shark Bay. Although the water wasn't totally flat, like the day before we did manage to go out. So we were using pretty big rods, with 2 hooks in each, and I didn't realise why, until we starting putting whiting heads on the hooks. It only took about 30 seconds for me to get my first snapper in, a small 56 cm one, and then 2 minutes later I'd double hooked 2 more. Things then went a little quiet for a while, as we started to catch smaller ones, around 45cm. After our 4th location change, we hit the big time. Seriously, I could drop my bait in, and let it go down about 2 foot, and then you'd see about 100 snapper swimming around the bait. Absolutely crazy. I managed to beat my first fish, and get in a 68cm one, but in the process I got stabbed twice by his spines. Funny, in WA, you're only allowed to keep 1 snapper. I don't know why with that many in the water.

It didn't take long for everyone to catch their "big one", and once complete, we moved to a location to about 20 kms from shore, but only 4 metres deep to fish for mackeral. Now I don't think I've ever caught one of these before, but with smaller rods, no sinkers and a full Muley (pilchard) on the hook, it became lots of fun. God they can take the bait and run.

Oh, and to top it all off, and this is for Drew, Babba and Lance, I managed to all get in trouble with Toadfish. Now, these are the king toadfish of all toadfish. They're about 2 foot long, and 2kg in weight. See below for a picture. Still bloody horrible fish, and still get treated the same way, killed and then thrown back in.

So I finished the fishing, and after changes clothes are smells, I headed off to Monkey Mia Resort. Although where I'm staying it's not a resort, but a hostel. And this is where my troubles started. When catching that big snapper I got stabbed in the knee, and it looks like my knee is really sore now. I have trouble walking, especially up and down stairs which I need to do. Hopefully it'll fade away overnight, otherwise I might not be able to walk to the dolphins. Damn those fish spikes!!

Snapper

Mackeral

King Toadfish

Day 109 - Monkey Mia, the good the bad and the ugly

Hi folks, I've finally done it. Number 3 task list is now complete, I've been to Monkey Mia, and seen dolphins. And seriously, these dolphins were close and friendly, you could have touched them if the guides there didn't advise you against it.

So I had to get up early to do this, as they dolphins get their feeds at 7:30, but it gave me a chance to see a lovely sunrise. When I got there, 15 minutes early as usual, there was only about 20 people waiting around, but by the time the process started, there was about 200 people. Note: if you're going to do this, stand at the end of the steps, so when they open it up, you're the first to the water, otherwise you might be a little bit away from it, and I only mean 10 metres or so.

They have 3 feeding sessions there, and they're all within about an hour of the first one, so if you get a bad position in the first one, hang around and go to the next session. In the first session we only had 2 adult dolphins and a 3 year old, and in the second we had 6 all up. The young one was the best, it was swimming around doing all sorts of natural "tricks" whilst the parents just sat patiently, 1 metre away from us.

Oh, and who did I meet there, Kat, the girl I hiked with in Kalbarri. And what's more, she got chosen to feed a dolphin (see pic 3). The dolphins only get a little food each time, so only about 10 people get to feed them.

Anyway, I ramble on. After I'd finished at Monkey Mia, I headed up into the Francois Peron NP, as I'd been advised by a workmate, who we'll call Nick, that he'd had an even better experience there. Unfortunately, it was a 50km drive, all in seriously soft sand. I got to the 35km mark, before I got bogged for the first time. I managed to reverse my way out of that. 100 metres later, the same thing. At that time, I decided both my car and I weren't set up for this, so reversed about 500 metres until I could get to a spot to turn around. Unfortunately, with 100 metres to go, I got bogged seriously. There was no space between car and sand. I spent about 30 minutes digging the sand out, and just before I went to try getting out, another car came past and gave me a hand. It was quite fun being towed out, in reverse, when you're only about 3 metres apart, but we did it. At that time, he advised that I'd do better if my tyres were flat, but I'd had enough, do I drove out. I did flatten my tyres first.

So Nick, I didn't get to go to that spot of yours. Very dissappointing.

Anyway, I came back to Denham at that time, and decided to spend the arvo by the beach. I went for a swim, something I hadn't done in a while, oooh warm water, and that's when the bad weather came in.

So an up and down day.

But I'm on a fishing charter tomorrow, hoping to catch some snapper and mackeral.

Day 108 - And now I'm almost to the Dolphins

So today I headed towards the dolphins of Monkey Mia, but didn't quite get there, as planned. I'm now in the main town of the area, Denham, and will hopefully see lots of dolphins tomorrow morning.

Anyway, I left Kalbarri, after seeing the Pelican Feeding session there. Sadly, it was nothing like the one on Kangaroo Island, only 3 pelicans turned up today.

For the first 2/3's of the 375kms today, there wasn't much to see, but as soon as I turned into Shark Bay, the tourist locations started turning up. The first one I went to was Hamelin Pool. Now this for me was the first site of shark bay, and after seeing surf and swell for the last few weeks, it was nice to see absolutely flat water, for miles and miles around. Now Hamelin Pool is famous for 2 reasons. Firstly, the depth of the sea-shells around, they've dug caves in this stuff. Secondly, and more importantly are the Stromatolites, rocks in the ocean that apparently are the oldest rocks on record. It was lovely to see, and you could almost play with the fish in the water.

From there, I headed to Ocean Park, an aquarium in the area with a difference. There's no tunnels under the water, and there's no conveyor belts to walk on, but what they do have is a guided tour, where they tell you about all the different fish, and in the process feed them. My first fish was a water snake, which the instructor just picked up, venomous as it was. It ended with him pointing out Stonefish, and then feeding sharks by hand. It was lots of fun, and very instructive, right up my alley.

So now I'm in Denham, about 25 km south of Monkey Mia. It'll be an early rise tomorrow, to see the dolphin feeding at 7:30, and from there, I hope to see some Manta Rays, Dugongs, Sharks, all in the process of going snorkelling.

Wish me luck (and Nick, thanks for the location advise, hopefully I find it!!)

Day 107 - Everywhere to walk in Kalbarri

Hi everyone, I hope work today for you wasnt too bad, my day wasnt too bad either.

So what's the big thing about Kilbarri? It's the natural aspects. And I got to see all those aspects today. All in all, I did 9 walks today, which added up to about 14km. And all of the walks were lovely.

The first 5 walks were up the in the Kilbarri National Park, and they all followed, to some extent, the Murchison River. So it was all about red/orange rock gorges, and were all lovely. The main walk, consisted of a real photo spot, Nature's Window, followed by an 8km walk following the river. It was a lovely peaceful walk, and I soon made a friend to make it a little easier. Katarina, from Austria, was also doing the walk, and we soon got yakking. She ended up being amazing, she's 21, and has been travelling around Oz for 11 months by herself. Most nights she sleeps in her Commodore.

Anyway, after those walks, I headed back to the coastline to do a few walks, all of which showed lovely cliff-faces into the ocean. Seriously, this is the place to come, if you want a mixture of water fun and bush hikes. If only the ocean wasn't bringing in 6-8ft waves, I'd have been out on the reef doing some serious snorkelling.

So tomorrow I do a nice drive of 395km, heading up to Denham/Monkey Mia, so it wont be long before I go feed some dolphins (number 3 on my travels bucket list). Very excited.

Catch you soon.

Day 106 - Kalbarri

Firstly, there you go Drew. At the bottom of this entry, you'll see a photo of the fingermark bream I caught. But enough about that now, I'll go in to more detail later.

So, I left Geraldton today. And I was sort of happy about it. After spending 2 nights in a cheap hotel, where my room was positioned right next to the air-conditioning unit for the whole hotel that ran 24 hours a day, it was nice to get some pace and quiet.

It was only about a 150km drive today, but on the way I stopped at a few places. Firstly, Pink Lake. A lake that was called by this name because of all the bacteria and fungus and all that stuff that turns the water pink. Ok, so it was a 30 second interest, but you find what you can.

After that I stopped at the small town of Port Gregory. Now I didn't know anything about this town before getting there, and the town itself wasn't much, but the waterfront was fantastic. With a reef about 20 metres out stopping all the waves coming in, it was stunningly beautiful, and you could see lots and lots of fishies. Stupid me, in hindsight, should have 1. taken photos and 2. jumped in the water.

From there I headed to Kilbarri, and small town of 2,000 people, but a wonderful town none-the-less. It looks like there's more room for tourists than there is locals. I booked into a resort, to make up for the last 2 nights, and found it fantastic. At $80 a night, and there's 2 pools and a spa, tennis courts etc etc, it's a lovely place. I'll take photos tomorrow to hold the memory.

Now I'd been given advise on both snorkelling and fishing locations, but with the swell up, I had to reside to the latter. Now in Kalbarri, there's a river that opens out to the ocean, and the river mouth was the go. In two hours fishing, I caught 3 bream, and 2 fingermark bream, and have been given some advise on where/what to do tomorrow, so if my national park walks get done early, I'll be there fishing tomorrow. Apparently it's a good place for Mullaway and Tailor.

Day 105 - Geraldton part 2

Yello y'all,

Another day in paradise here for me. With the weather a terrible 21, I almost thought of putting on jeans today. :-)

So, to get the full appreciation of Geraldton, the first thing I did was drive out of it. About 20km south of G, is a field of trees, called the Leaning trees. They're called that, because of all the wind and salt/sand make the grow crocked. As you can see in the picture below, Mio Cow loves these trees.

From there I headed back to G, and headed up to the highest point to take in HMAS Sydney memorial area. Now this boat was destroyed in WWII, and we lost 645 men, the most amount of soldiers lost in that war by boat. apparently that was 1/3 of the people on boats at the time. Kevin Rudd opened this memorial, as the boat was only just found 2 years ago.

From there, I headed to the local Museum, where I got to see a movie for about an hour. This movie depicted some of the first (Dutch) people who came to Australia, in the 1600's. Interesting movie, but not much to the museum itself.

With all my tourist things done for the day, I decided to head out into the water to do a bit of snorkelling. Unfortunately, with a cloudy day, and mirky water, visibility was pretty low, so I only stayed in there for about 15 minutes. On coming out, I bumped into a couple who were out in the playground with their kids, and I spent the next hour yakking away with them. To be honest, they were very scary people.

So now I'm settling in for the night, going to put my feet up, and maybe go and see the A-Team, if the pub I'm in gets too loud. Catch ya

Day 104 - And on to Geraldton

Hi all, thanks for listening/reading in on my daily writings. I hope you're day went well, and the weather is nice and warm for you.

So I left Cervantes, with the intention of going fishing before I left, but I decided to fish along the way to Geraldton. Unfortunately I kept thinking I'd see someplace better, so I kept putting my fishing off.

I didn't really see anything along the way, so I got in to Geraldton in the early afternoon. Now finding cheap accomodation was really hard, so I'm staying at a dodgy hotel, something I'd decided I wouldn't do, especially on the weekends. Oh well, I have a room with a bed, and that's it.

After walking around town for about 2 hours, trying to find a good fishing spot, hey there's no jetty's in a town of 30,000, I ended up fishing in a strange rock area. For 2 hours I continued to get bites, and guess what, all I caught was the WA version of a toadfish.

But I've now spoken to some people, and I hope I have a better idea of where to fish tomorrow, if I get the time.

Have a lovely weekend guys, and if they're playing I hope your footy team wins.

Day 103 - The Pinnacles Desert

Hi everyone, I hope you're having a great day (and sleep for all those Melbourne people). Today I left Perth, but before I did, I had a few stop-overs. Firstly I went to both Cottesloe and Scarborough beaches, two of the more well known beaches in Perth. Both lovely, and both set up for thousands of people, but at this time of year there was only surfers in the water.

From the beaches, I headed to the Aquarium of WA, to see a few fishes underwater. It was a lovely aquarium, with most of the wild-life focused on those of WA itself. One thing that really pleased me was the 3 foot flathead that swam around the main tank. Oh, and there was this tiny girl in the water, about 4 1/2 ft I reckon, that was feeding the fish by hand, and that included huge grey nurse sharks.

From there I headed to the town of Cervantes. Now this town is the closest town to Nambung National Park, which houses the Pinnacles Desert. This desert is filled with thousands of little rock formations, which make a lovely view. I did a slow drive around the desert, before walking through it was well. Note: there were hundreds of people doing the same.

So, now I'm in a caravan, after having eating a parma, and typing away my life.
Catch you tomorrow.

Day 102 - Heading back to Perth

Good morning everyone,

I hope you've all had a good day. Mine started very well, when I looked out the window, and found the weather to have cleared. No rain, no clouds, lovely.

After leaving the hostel, I had a quick run around Fremantle. It's such a lovely suburb, somewhere where you could spend lots of time.

Keeping with my theme of yesterday, I headed to the local cemetery, to check someone out. Bon Scott is buried in the cemetery here, and like the singer from the doors, his tombstone has become a tourist icon. Apparently his tombstone is usually covered with empty beer cans, but it must have been cleared today, as it was nice and clean.

From there I headed to the Fremantle Prison, to just on a tour around the old building. Now this prison was open until 1991, and was the main prison in WA until then. I learnt some interesting facts, 1. They didn't have toilets, just buckets in their rooms, even up to 1991, oh, and there was a riot there in 1988, with the main "blocks" being set on fire and people sitting on the roof (does it sound familiar??).

From there I headed back up to Perth, and hunted down a Nissan caryard. Hey, apparently if you need Nissan parts, you have to get them from Melbourne, weird.

I then headed to the Burswood Casino to try my luck. Unfortunately I lost all of $4 on the pokies, I was very upset that they didn't have crabs table.

So now I'm back in the Perth, and will head up to Cervantes tomorrow. Hope you're day goes well.

Day 101 - From Fremantle to Rottnest Island

Hi everyone. For the second day in a row, Perth's weather was bad. But it didn't stop me from driving down to Fremantle to take a boat to Rottnest Island, or should I say Rotto. The trip to Rotto was pretty bad, we had 4.5 metre swell, which made the trip exciting to the extreme. Almost everyone was holding on to a vomit bag.

Once I got there, I headed straight in-land, as I'd be told that Quokkas were nocternal animals, so I hoped to see one. Well, not only did I see one, I saw about 100 others. They're pretty tame animals, but I guess they need to be, as so many people go looking for them.

After I'd satisfied myself with Quokka exposure, I headed back in to town to hire a bike. And the rest of the day, I spent riding around the island, getting very wet from the rain, and getting blown around.

When I brought the bike back, I had a nice chat with one of the workers there, and we ended up going out for a drink and dinner, at the Little Creatures bar/restaurant. It was really nice to spend a few hours with a local, having lovely chats. After dinner, we then hunted down Bon Scott, since he still resides here.

So, now I'm back in a hostel, typing away on my PC, which is sitting on my bed, hence I'm not writing too much.

catch you tomorrow

Day 100 - Perth in the Rain

Hi All, well, I've hit 100 days. For some reason, it feels like its 1. gone on forever, and 2. flashed by. I've seen so much, and driven so many kms, and still so much to do.

So after a lovely warm day yesterday, today was the opposite. It rained for most of the day, with little breaks every hour or so. So I put on my walking shoes and ran around between places.

My first stop was Kings Park. Now this is like our botanical garden in Melbourne, but with a view, as you're about 50 metres above the Swan River.

From there I followed the Swan River for about 5km, until I got to the WACA. For those people that don't know, that's the oval that cricket is played in. Unfortunately the tour had already started, so I quickly ran (or shall we say streaked) onto the ground to take a photo.

By then it was about 12pm, so I hunted down a pub to watch the footy. I shouldn't have bothered. Although we didn't lose, we might have well have. Apart from the first 10 minutes, the game was very frustrating.

After that, I walked around the central malls, before going in to see Robin Hood in the movies. That's not a very good film, I almost fell asleep.

So, the next 4 days is meant to be shocking weather, but I'm still hoping to get to Rottnest Island tomorrow. I'll probably get a cold from it, as I plan to ride around the island.

Day 099 - Catching up with my relatives in Perth

Hi all, well I've made it to Perth, and it's only taken me 20,000 kms to get here. I guess you could say I haven't taken the direct root.

But before I left Bunbury, I went to the Dolphin Centre, to see the dolphins. Unfortunately they weren't there, well they didn't come into the bay today, so I had to suffice with seeing a few fish in fish tanks. It wasn't overly exciting, except for the picture below. I've never seen baby toadfish in a tank before. Really cool.

So after going there, I headed to Perth. I found my hotel that I booked, and just like what happened in Adelaide, I've got a nice 3 room apartment for under $100.

So in Perth, I caught up with my cousin Nigel. Now for those that don't know, Nigel and his family came over from the UK to live back when I was about 10, and after a few months of being in Melbourne moved to WA, and that's the last I've seen of him. So it was a great excitement to see him again, and it's nice to know that I got along well with him. We went to the football in Subiaco to see the Saints beat the Dockers (sorry Nigel). So I have another football stadium done now.

So now I'm back in my hotel, after going out for dinner. it's so nice to have choices in food. And Jenny, guesss what I had... No not Salsa's, but the next best thing, Fajitas!!! Mmmmm.

anyway, I'll do a bit of a tour around town tomorrow, before heading to a pub to watch the Queens Birthday game (Go Pies!!).

Until tomorrow.....

Day 098 - From Margaret River to Bunbury

So today saw me leaving Margaret River. To be honest, it's an area I could have stayed a week at. There's so much to do, along with the 100 odd wineries to go visit. But alas, too many other places to go to.

So my first port of call today was to go to Stella Bella winery. I spent all of 2 minutes in there, I actually bought a bottle of Pink Muscat, before tasting it and leaving. I new what I was getting anyway.

I then headed to the Ngilgi caves, in the northern part of the area. What I found was the most amazing caves I think I've ever been in. So many stags, and such a huge cave, and we got to walk through most of it by ourselves. I just think it's a pity, that my camera doesn't take great photos underground. In one part of the walk, I had to get on my hands and knees to go through the area.

From there I headed to the Bush Shack Brewery, formally known as the Wicked Ale brewery. Now this is a brewery I've been wondering about for about 10 years. Someone told me about it all those years ago (was it you KB?), and the fact that they have chocolate and strawberry flavoured beer, along with lots of others (passionfruit, creaming soda, sars etc). I've gotta say, the strawberry was great, the chocolate not so much.

After drinking a pint of their beer, I headed to Simmo's Ice Creamery, where they have 48 different flavoured ice-creams, just what you need to cleanse the palate a bit. From there I headed to Busselton, where I was planning to stay the night, but I found that the 1 tourist attraction, a 2 km long jetty with an aquarium at the end wasn't open, so I continued on to Bunbury.

Now I wasn't going to stay here, as a few people I'd met said there wasn't much there, but I think it's a lovely town. I did a quick walk around town, before finding a cinema. On inspection, I found that they were playing Shrek4 in 3D, so I went in. Now for avid Shrek watchers, this movie is really good, probably as good as the 1st one. I had lots of laughs.

Anyway, so I'm off to Perth tomorrow, heading to the big smoke, and will be getting to see 2 things, my cousin Nigel, and the footy. Both should be really good.

Catch you soon.

Day 097 - Enjoying the coastline

Hi All, good to see it's the end of the week for everyone (I hope). For me, it was just another day in the life of a non-worker.

So, I'm here at Margaret River, so the first thing I did today was to go down to the beach. For those who don't know, I used to surf many years ago, and it was because of a guy who lived in Margaret River. He not only taught me to surf, he sold me my first wetsuit.

I was hoping for 20 foot waves, but unfortunately there were only small waves, there were actaully only 2 people in the water. And on that note, the water here looks so beautiful, if it wasnt so cold (got down to 1 last night), I might have gone in.

After the beach, I went to a few wineries, being the thing to do here. I went to Evans and Tate, Leeuwin Estate and Cape Mentelle. Oh, and Kathleen, I drove past the Stella Bella winery too. Ah, the memories, or lack of them in my case.

One of the other big things here is caves, which I love, there are absolutely hundreds of them. I went to one called Mammoth Caves, and it didn't dissappoint. Absolutely huge, it would have fit the MCG in it.

After that I went down to the Leeuwin Lighthouse, which is the bottom-most south-west point of Australia, where 2 oceans meet. It didn't actually seem to be very interesting, I was expecting monster waves or something.

Anyway, that's my day. I'm now sitting down, waiting for the footy to start

Day 096 - Climbing trees to Margaret River

Hi All, I just want to say, I've had a big and enjoyable day. Firstly, it was a 370km + trip today, from Albany to Margaret River, and for starters, the weather was good, I actually had sunshine for most of the day.

So I've left Albany. It was going to be a big day, as I'd found a few things to do along the way. My first port of call was a town called Denmark, and after popping in to the tourist centre, I had a few more things on my list to do. Lets just say I left Albany at 9, and didn't make MR before sunset.

On my way through, I stopped off at Green Pools and Elephant Rocks, a lovely beach side area, which included a small way. It was so lovely there, I immediately regretted not staying around for a night. I'm sure I would have seen lots of fish if I had've gone snorkelling, if though a guy did get bitten by a WP shark in the same area a few days ago.

Anyway, I then headed to the Tree Top Walk, a setup very like what I did in the Otways at the start of this trip. Apparently this was the first TTW in Australia, and you can tell. Although beautiful, the walk was very moving, I couldn't walk on without holding onto the side.

From there I went to the Gloucester Tree, and huge 61 metre tree that you can climb. Probably scarier than climbing Ayers Rock for me, there's not safety measures climbing up and down the tree, just a metal pole every 40 cms to grab/step on. I made it to the top, but I have to admit, I was close to turning back. The climb down was harder, my nerves were shaking like crazy.

When I got down from there, I met a couple who'd just been to the bicentennial tree, just the same as the one I'd climbed by 13 metres higher. I went there, but didn't climb that, I just spent time talking/laughing with a guy who was waiting for his wife to finish climbing it.

So I then drove the rest of the way, in darkness, to get to Margaret River. I'm in a hostel, and for some reason, everyone went to their bedrooms at about 7:30. So here I am, sitting in the living area, by myself, organising tomorrow's events.

Day 095 - A day in and around Albany

Hi all,

Sorry this entry will be short, I'm tired and a little dissappointed. In my fishing manual (thanks Steve and Nancy), it recommended Albany, as being one of the best places to fish for Salmon, with 5 to 6 kgs being the norm.

Well, I went down to the recommended beach, called Salmon Holes, and fished there for about 3 hours. In that time, I caught no fish at all. OK, the weather wasn't great, and the tide was going out, and yes, I'm no good at fishing.

Anyway, after I fished, I did a bit of a run around the local National Park. I visited a number of beaches, and items of interest. Included in these are blowholes (where if you stand over it, you'll get hit by wind), the Gap, a big crack in a rock wall, and a Natural Bridge (see below), another rock wall, which also includes a bridge.

anyway, it's time to go and relax. Catch you later.

Days 93 + 94 - Hyden to Albany

Day 093 - Wave Rock
Hi Everyone, hope you are all doing well, and are nice and relaxed. I have a slight complaint to make. I'm on holidays, but so many other holidayers get up early to leave, and in the process, wake everyone up. I was up at 6am this morning, thanks to my neighbours. Do you call that holiday hours???

So today I headed to the town of Hyden, to see the Wave Rock. If you don't know that that is, it's a rock face, about 7 metres high, and 110 metres long, that's in the shape of a big wave. I'd seen it in my researching, and had to come here. Apart from the fact there's really nothing else here, the rock is quite nice. And everyone who comes here has a photo of themselves doing a bit of surfing.

I also did a few other walks around here, including Hippo's Yawn, Gnamma Hole, Mulka's Cave and The Humps. Lots of little walks that made the day worthwhile.

I'm now staying in the caravan park here, in a room attached to the general bathroom building. Luckily there's not too many people here, otherwise I'd be hearing people go to the toilet all night.

Oh, and I went to the local hotel for dinner, and I had to cook my own meat, what the??
off to Albany tomorrow to try catching a huge salmon.

Day 094 - And now I'm in Albany

So another day that starts with a little drive, this time I only had to drive 350km. And for something different, I had lots of curves and ups and downs to keep me interested, as I went through a number of hills.

So when I got to Albany, I felt the same feeling as when I was in Esperance, a lovely town to be in. And I don't think I've been dissappointed. I did a run around today, trying to see a number of sites. I started with Amity, an old ship that has been done up for tourism. It was great to walk in and around, see how the old and shorter people used to live (I kept banging my head).

From there I went to Mt Clarence, a small hill in the middle of town, where I could see the views. Like Esperance, Albany is surrounded by lots of islands, but is in itself a bayside town.

After that I went to the Princess Royal Fortress, where Albany was set up for WW 2. lots of old armaments and tunnels still there. very nice.

I also went to see the Dog Rock, funnily enough, a rock that looks like a dog. Strange, all the shops around this rock are named with "dog dock" as there prefix, as well as the motel, the cars that drive around there etc. Very weird.

I also went to see a couple of beaches, the most impressive was Emu Point. Here the ocean flows into a small bay, where the opening to the bay is only about 50 metres across, whilst the bay itself it quite large. I'm sure there'd be fish there.

Speaking of fish, I'm hoping to go fishing tomorrow, for the big aussie salmon. I've done the research, just hope the weather clears up.

Catch you tomorrow.

Day 092 - In and abouts Esperance

So a question for everyone. What's so good about Esperance?

Well, I didn't know before getting here, but I can tell you know. It's a lovely town, with about 15,000 people here. I'm sure during summer and holidays, the population would be a whole lot larger.

Anyway, I didn't have any ideas of this place, but my motel manager suggested that I go to the local National Park, Cape Le Grand, as it's has the 1st and 3rd best beaches in Australia. So I drove the 50km to get there, and wasn't dissappointed. Both beaches were lovely, and would have loved for it to be warmer, I wouldn't fished or snorkelled, and been sure it would have been successful.

After the 2 beaches, I went to the base of Frenchmans Peak, a lovely 3km walk to the top of a mountain. It reminded me of the walk up Ayers Rock, although a little bit shorter and easier.

After the walks and climbs, I headed back to the town, and did a walking tour, before heading to the pub to watch the football. It's good to see Collingwood back in the winners list, even if we went from a 48 point lead to win by only 10 points.

So I'm off to Hyden tomorrow. I'll let you work out what Hyden is.

Day 091 - From Kalgoorlie to Esperance

Hi all,

Today was a pretty un-interesting day. This was due to 1. washing my clothes, 2. having to drive 400km of uninteresting roads, and 3. the weather wasn't too good.

So I left Kalgoorlie, and drove to Esperance. There were a few towns in between, but nothing of mention. When I got to Esperance, my usual operation, going to the tourist office was upset, as they close here at 2pm on weekends. What the???

Anyway, I'm now in a motel, after dealing with the population of a hostel over the last 2 days. I did go out for a walk around town, and met the town local, Sammy the Seal, one very relaxed seal.

And a good thing about WA, the night games of AFL start at 5:30. How good is that??

Anyway, I'm sure I'll write more tomorrow night. It's time to relax and get ready for the tennis, and of course Collingwood tomorrow. Mmm, what's more important.....