Having caught sea sickness from Richard in the Whitsundays, I hoped I wouldn't catch his fear of heights while climbing trees and doing the tree top walk in the national parks between Pemberton and Denmark. This area is covered in tall karri and tingle trees and made a pleasant drive from Margaret River, passing trees with foliage that resembles florets on broccoli stalks. Near Pemberton there are three trees that you can climb - Gloucester, Bicentennial, and D...

In the last blog, I mentioned that we hadn't intended to take a wine tour while we were in the Margaret River area. For a start, we had been on one in Blenheim in New Zealand, so there was an element of 'been there, done that'. In addition, the cost of $75-80 each seemed remarkably poor value given that all we would get for our money was transport plus sips of wine totalling around a single bottle at most. Fate, however, intervened in the form of a half-heard ad...

Thomas has mentioned the fact that many of our blogs are "punctuated" (his exact word) by mention of beer or other types of alcohol. In an attempt to disabuse people of the idea that we are a pair of alkies, I had intended to keep such sordid details to ourselves in future. But what can one do when the main topic of a blog is a visit to a brewery? Before all that, however, came our departure from the nirvana of Laura's house (and proper kitchen and be...

My friend Laura and her boyfriend Jamie emigrated to Australia two years ago and are living in Fremantle. Although the place has a lot to offer our visit was mainly to have a good old gossip and catch up, and to enjoy the pleasure of living in a house for a few days after five months in a tent. Fremantle is a port on the south side of Perth with a long stretch of beach and an array of coffee shops and eateries. Before luxuriating at L&J's house we spent a co...

We had intended to write a blog from Geraldton, the second biggest city in Western Australia. Had we done so, however, it would have read something like: "Went to Geraldton; it was closed." To be fair, it was a Sunday but we hadn't expected both major supermarkets to be shut all day. Neither were we prepared for the funereal atmosphere as we drove through the centre. Perhaps Geraldton is a fantastic, lively place to visit and many people have the exp...