G'day, can you guess what day it is today ???? I'm just back from a walk with Digger. We went for a walk down to Burswood Park, it's so hot ! Poor Digs is now trying to cool down under the a/c and on the tile floor ..... ooops ! Thought I would just take a few mins and give you an update of whats been happening.
Fisrtly we came 4th out of 10 teams in the quiz on thursday. It was just me and emma for the first 20 questions and then Ben came. We didn't join up with the other team as they didn't turn up but we did ask the help of some people who were just out for a few drinks. I think at one point we had about 9 people on our team !! Ha ha ... all good though ! Did you know Avis (the car hire place) means Bird in latin ???? Well you do now !
Friday Ben picked up our hire car and came and picked me up from work at the council. A Toyota Corrolla .... it was massive ! Loads of room for us and so comfortable. We drove home and got packed up and set off on the Albany Highway. We were planning on getting to Albany but it was getting late. We decided to stay at a place called Mount Barker about 50 kms from Albany. We got there at about 9.30ish so it was dark. We said we'd just sleep in the car but the seats were rubbish and didn't lie flat so we decided to pitch the tent. We'd borrowed Emma's tent and luckily we'd put it up for a trial run on the wednesday night. We pitched it in no time and had a few beers and a few games of cards before bedtime. It was so nice waking up in the tent. It was a bit chilly but not so we woke up through night freezing. We had breakfast and got the tent down ready to set off again.
We set off for Albany just after 9ish. We parked the car and had a walk up and down the main street. There was a little craft fair on so we had a look around that too. Ben had seen some carrot cake so we decided to treat ourselves to a brew and a bit of cake. We walked back to where he had seen it and ordered our drinks .... unfortunately the carrot cake had jut sold out !! NOooooooooooooooo ! Ben was devastated ! We had to have a caramel slice each instead, which was nice but not as good ! We walked back to the car and decided to head off again.
We drove the Tourist Roads and the views were lovely. Tree lined roads, really nice. We passed some Angus Cows ..... couldn't believe it !! I thought, stop the car I've gotta get a pic for Lisa !
We pulled over and noticed they were loose in the field, so in we got to see how close we could get to them. They were huge, especially their horns ! We got some great photos. We spent a while there and then back on the road again.
We decided to stop at a place called Denmark and parked up the car. Again it was a quiet little town. We walked down towards a little brook that run through the town. There was loads of people just chilling by the side of it, a few people with canoes and a few people paddling. It didn't take us long to walk through the town so we decided to press on again.
We decided to stay at a place called Pemberton. It's part of the National Forest. First port of call was the Tourist Information to find the nearest campsite and luckily it was just round the corner. We got there and managed to get a tent pitch for the night.
It was a lovely campsite, loads of families were there because of the school holidays. We pitched the tent and decided to have a few beers and chill for the night. We had a lovely tea of Fajitas and had a few Tooheys. I opened my birthday cards and my presents that Ben had got me. I was so spoiled ! I got 2 books: Underbelly and Roberta Williams Biography (awesome!), a new pair of Havaianas (I was just looking a pair earlier that day !) and a voucher for a tattoo. Some gorgeous cards ... thank you everyone !
We decided to go for a walk around the town and try and walk off the beers and the tea we had. Such a small town, very hilly too .... not good on a full stomach ! We found a pub ..... what a surprise ! We decided to have a pint. We got there and it was packed, we thought it was maybe the only pub in Pemberton. There was about 6 men from the "Coffin Cheaters", the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Club from Australia. Unfortunately we'd left our camera at the tent, thinking we were only going for a walk. We heard them set off the next morning ..... I think everyone in Australia did ! We finished our pints and headed back to the tent.
The next morning we were wanting to go into National Park and climb the famous Gloucester Tree. We packed up the tent and soon stopped when Ben came across "Slim", the stick insect. He was awesome ! Got a few pics !
We had a brew and headed off into the forest. It was only round the corner really and after paying our entrance fee we drove further into the forest. We parked the car and followed the
signs. Then Oh My God, we found the tree ..... all 60m's of it. So people had told us and it even says in the Lonely Planet Guide that there is a spiral stairway all the way to the top ????!!!! Now I think this is sooooooo incorrect, it was more like a wire ladder ... quite vertical in places ! There was people already at the top and a few people sitting at the bottom. I climbed on and I'm not joking the gap in between the rungs were massive ... so big that you could easily fit through them. There was no bars on the sides or anything ...... not a chance was I going any further than the first rung sorry ! I decided to sit it out and watch Ben. Off he went following a girl of about 10 years old and her dad going up ...... nope didn't feel bad ! Me and another girl sat at the bottom talking about how much we valued our lives and how we were expecting it to be proper stairs on it or even a lift would have been nice !! It's a 60m tree that they use to watch for Bushfires, cos apparently you can see for miles at the top (I'll take there word for it !). It took Ben maybe 10 mins to climb to the top and I couldn't see him anymore.
At the top is a 3 level platform, only 6 people are allowed up there at one time. Ben was maybe up there for 10 mins and then began his descent down. It was more the fact that if I DID get up there, I don't think I'd be able to get back down !!
My hands were sweaty and shaking just sitting next to it. Ben came down and was a bit white in the face, he looked a bit relieved too I think. We sat for a while and he said it was awesome at the top, check out the photos. Still didn't make me want to climb and sitting here now I certainly don't regret not doing it !
We set off again in the car ..... me driving cos Ben just wanted to calm down. He said all his muscles were hurting because he was tense. So proud of him for doing it ! We headed out of Pemberton along the Tourist Drive again. It was so pretty. We passed through Nannup and decided to head to Busselton on the coast for some lunch. We got there just after lunch and drove the town. It was a bit like Victoria Park with the shops along the street and the atmosphere. We found a nice Italian Restaurant and had some pasta and a pizza. We were proper stuffed after it and decided to walk down to the water.
It was packed with families in the water. It's home to a 2km long jetty, which is the longest timber jetty in the southern hemisphere apparently!
We headed back to Perth feeling well fed and watered ! We got back at about 5pm just in time for Emma coming back from work. We'd had a great time, it was so nice getting back to the camping again. We both said we could have just carried on for a few more days but we both had work on the monday. We're definitely going to hire the car again, because we'd like to do Esperance right down on the Coast, that would be a full weekend on it's own because it's far from Perth. We'd also like to do Dunsborough, Margaret River and Augusta which are all on the South West Coast. We'll have to sort out some weekends because we're running out of time !
We both had work yesterday and I found out the council want me to stay yet another week !! Awesome ! I really like it there, it's in such a nice place. Today I'm off because it's a Bank Holiday but Ben and Emma both have work. Although Emma is home at 1pm. We're going down to the Perth Skyworks later to watch the fireworks, that's where Ben will be with his searchlight.
Quiz night again on thursday ! Hopefully come better than 4th this time ! Saturday we said we'd catch the train to Mandurah and Rockingham, just to have a look round. Sunday we've got the sailing to Rottnest ... so exciting !
We've booked our flights from Perth to Sydney because we're going to work as close as can to flying out to New Zealand. We leave Perth 31st March and have a day in Sydney before catching our flight to Auckland. We're trying not to think about it because it means our time in Oz is over, we've still got a few things we'd like to do here so it's just a case of trying to fit them all in. We've got a Beer Festival in Feb and we'd like to go to the Casino round the corner and try and win some money !
Well better go cos I've written a novel ..... and it's dinnertime !
Love to everyone, hope everyones well ! Happy Birthday to you all ...... oh hang on it's my birthday isn't it ??!! ha ha, never gets boring that one !
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