So, We are back in Perth after 2 weeks on the road in our little camper van.  We visited loads of places and saw lots of stuff , not sure if i'll be able to remember it all. i'm a bit excited about the cricket world cup final tonight, assuming there wil be a bit of an atmosphere int his part of the world for the game so getting set for a night out which we haven't had in weeks.

Anyway we picked up the van and set off immediately (i say immediately it was supposed to be ready for pick up at 9 and wasn't readdy til nearly twelve so jennifer kicked up a fuss and they said we could drop the van back on monday instead of saturday which saved us paying lots for accomodation for 2 nights which is good cos australia is ridiculously expensive nowadays. (like over a pound for the cheapest loaf of white bread... it hought they were about 50p in tesco)

anyway ,eventually we set off and drove down to bussleton (home of the largest pier in the southern hemisphere )  got a camp sight and a couple of beers and went to bed. in fact rather than writing a dull list of where we went i'll tell you the things that stick in my head and jennifer can come on later and say the indepth insightful stuff she usually does.  

so the Pier was cool, although quite expensive to walk to the end so we didn't .

I enjoyed visiting a place called Margaret River, the locals acll it Margs, it has to be said in a thick Aussie accent and as loud as possible without shouting apparantly, go ahead try it... Maaargs!

that was fun anyway, then we went to Nannup and hired a Kayak to explore the beautiful Maargs! river( blackwood river - ed) . we were the only people on the river and the only noise was the wildlife and Jnennifer splahing with her padddle the wrong way round, I was waiting for her to SAy mines not working but she didn't..

we also drove to the furthest point south west of Australia where the indian ocean meets another one (southern)and is in constant state of turmoil. it was very impressive to me. we also visited this place pictured it's like anatural rock bridge over the sea and next to it is a kind of raveen that looks equally impressive. ( see the photot)  we took photos so will upload when we get to sydney.

Someplace else ( yallingup, - whcih means place of love- ed) we did a guided tour with a genuine Abo( or Wardani person to be PC - ED) that was really interesting as well learning about their culture and beliefs and it was a nature trail so we learnt about their way of life , what they ate and what they used various plants for (including a certain tree which determines hairstyle!)

anyway there was plenty of driving and plenty of cold nights and nicely hot days. visiting the west coast also allowed me to start my "cricket grounds i have visited" list. First one to tick off is The Wacca. stay tuned as SCG and GAbba (my personal favourite ) will come along soon....

okay so jen here, I'll fill in some gaps. Travelling in WA is like being in small town 50s american , or what I imagine that to be. Lots of lovely little sleepy towns, with signs that say things like "drive slowly- we love our children" and have lots of mini wooden churches of so many different denominations I could not count them. we playing m ini golf, we watched lawn bowls, we visited lots of small general stores and Ella will be very pleased, bought 20cents worth of pick and mix soya snacks ( tempted to shop lift Ella but evan guided me away....) Margaret river was wine country so we sampled some great organic wine. In Pemberton we tried organic cider and looked at Karri trees which are very tall and used as fire lookouts. In Walpole we went on the tall trees walkwhcih is a cool walk way at the top of the very tall trees.  In one ofthe national parks we camped and met some kangaroos and I think in Albany I saw a quokka....

Apart from all these amazing sights, we have been mainly eating very cheap meals n our camper van,  buying very cheap clothes from Op Shops ( charity shops to you, which are much better than in the UK, plus ozzie clothes are nicer than UK clothes so am building up a new wardrobe of things costing les than 3 dollars whcih is handy as all my original stuff is falling apart.) We've also sartedt to play Spit quite a lot, which those of you from High Storrs School will remember is highly addictive card game. We've also met some really frienedly ozzies, and I'm addcited to the gulten free bread here.... it's so good, it actually tastes like bread unlike the cardboard nastiness available in the UK!

We head for Syndey on Monday so will report more then!