Wow what an interesting month, since the last blog Leon has visited Albany, a small town called Denmark and is now in Adelaide with his cousin Tracey.
Albany has city status and was a sweet place to spend his birthday, cakes were cooked and whiskey was drunk.. Visited a nightclub an a few pubs, climbed a few mounts and even made a couple friends while he was at it. The best part of Albany was visiting the oldest skatepark in the southern hemisphere and that late night mission which ended with leon and a few buddys in a random car, chilling out overlooking the city.. It was time to take a slower pace and decide his next move.. Adelaide was the next destination, he could have traveled east and traveled by train (expensive and long) or backtracked and flew (cheap and quick). Leon also wanted to see a few friends back at the hostel in Manjimup so it was decided. On the way back to Manji he stopped in a town called Denmark which was peaceful, surrounded by trees and spiritually inclined people. He met a ladie in a shop called the sacred tree and before he knew it had agreed to face his fears of the water and found himself in the dark about to jump into green pool, surrounding this pool were rocks which acted as a defence against the sea, as Leon ventured into the water the waves crashed against the barrier of rocks terrifying him as he was assured of the lack of shark sightings in the area. He still found it hard to spend any amount of time submerged under the water. A highlight of swimming in the dark would be the luminescent algae, which surrounded him as he splashed around. it was a peacefull night after two months of madness. After leaving Denmark Leon spent some more time with Debbie Watson the spiritualist of Manjimup, Leon stayed for two weeks and further helped the cleanup of the garden, water tank and shed. Debbie fed him well and he spent most of his spare time reading books about hypnotherapy and finding purpose in life, which I suppose is one of the main reasons he is out here. Leon also found the area perfect for giving up smoking, no worries. Back at the hostel little had changed, people were still being kicked out for little or no reason and a lot of the people had moved on in more ways than one. He enjoyed spending time with everyone but was lacking in drinking stamina, finding himself stumbling to the dorms by 12pm most evenings. By the time the coach was ready to take him to the airport, he had already spent too long in Manji and was pleased to fly into Adelaide that evening. His cousin Tracey made him feel welcome as he approached the arrival area of the airport, waving and smiling as he walked up steps. The only time they had met was 20 years ago and Leon would have still been tearing up wallpaper at this time. Tracey lives in Adelaide hills with her husband Mark and son Fin, living in a family with a young boy reminds me of the things i used to get up to before i grew up, it seems strange.. The hills are beautiful, cooler than the surrounding areas of Perth with just as many trees, mainly eucalyptus staggering the hillside. The beach of Gelenelg is awesome and was the first place Tracey took him to, they sat and acquainted themselves on the pier and went for lunch on the marina.. There is plenty to see and do here, we went to the the zoo on Sunday, Leon got to stroke a koala for the first time and found out what a wallaby was, then saw the view from lookout hill. The day after Tracey took him to the town of Handolf which is one of the first German settlements in Australia, as expected the cake and coffee was the best. So now it's time to get back to work, Leon has 2 job interviews to go to this week, he Is very excited and looking forward to getting up and wearing a shirt and smart shoes, funny how you miss familiarity..