Happy Australia Day!

Sugarloaf Sunset


Bunker Bay Dawn


Bussleton Pier


Margaret River Vineyard Ghosts


Karri Forest



I have to say, one thing about Western Australia is that the distances are vast. What looks like a three or four hour tip on the map is in reality six to eight. We have to keep remembering that this state is half of the Australian continent. So, getting from the SA/WA border to the west coast of WA is like driving from the east border of Texas to California, on a two lane road with only roadhouses and Norseman, Esperance, Albany then Denmark, Walpole, and…..before you hit the Indian Ocean. But I digress.

After leaving Albany, we head northwest, to Denmark, and Walpole. Just before Walpole, we get to the Giant Tingle trees. These are huge, ancient Karri Trees, a species of Euculaptys that is native to this particular area of WA. These trees are amazing in size, huge butts, and then straight up into the sky. This is also the site of the first tree top walk in Australia, and our third walk in Australia. Tree top walks have improved dramatically since this one, but it was still really good to do.

Onwards we drive, checking out Mandalay Bay, where the famous shipwreck of the Mandalay happened. Apparently, about every ten years when the beach is right the ribs of the shipwreck are exposed. We arrive for two nights at a rammed earth cottage in Pemberton. Very cool, not only did we have the sound of chooks in the morning, but ducks that came up to the verandah and a local dog that liked to hang out and get cuddles from us. From there we did a day trip to Cape Leeuwen, where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean.

From here we drove north to Margaret River. Now, this wouldn’t have been a first choice, but since we are now in the habit of stopping at wine regions, and our friends Scott and Frank had said that if they were ever to get to Australia, that this is where they would go, we had to check it out. Well, on first look, we were a little let down, but after two days, we really enjoyed it. It didn’t quite have the intimacy of the Clare, but was better than the Barossa in that it was more boutique than industrial. We picked out a few places that we thought would be good, following our usual criteria, the name and the wine labels. Why not? Our first one, Deck Chairs opened two hours later than when we got there, so we moved on to Mootown, very nice, the on to Margaret River Chocolates, well, that knocked our socks off. No Boutique there, more like the Lindt in Stratham. Then to a distillery which we were underwhelmed by, and finally Island Brook Wines, which was our favorite because we sat with the grower, vintner and tasted his wines and had a great time . We were going to have lunch at a micro-brewery, but it turned out that was like having lunch at the Budweiser Brewery in Merrimack, so we gave that a swerve and had a pie on the beach in Yallinup.

Our next two nights was in Dunsborough, in a restored railway carriage turned into a cottage. Very different, not bad, very unique, at least they had chooks, alpacas, ponies and a sheep, and it was quiet!

Now we are in Fremantle for a few days. Steve had a photo printing workshop in Perth, I wandered around town, today we are on the True North, a big boat that does a lot of first class travels in remote places like the Kimberlys. Today we are anchored off Rottnest Island off of Perth for a day’s worth of photo lectures and a photo shoot on the island. Hopefully we will see the fireworks celebrating Australia Day over Fremantle or Perth before we dock tonight.

The rest of the week will be spent here in Fremantle and Perth, then back down to Dunsborough, hopefully to intercept our car registration, then we start the drive east, taking our time seeing the Eyre Peninsula, revisiting places like the Flinders Ranges, Adelaide, Daylesford, saying farewell to our friends in Melbourne and onwards.