For my second detour of the trip I decided to fly from one side of the country to the other and head from Cairns back to Perth...I really enjoyed the time I spent there before and was disappointed I hadn't had time to explore the south west corner. So when a good friend I'd made over there suggested I come back I jumped at the opportunity to go back and explore some more...

After what seemed like a mammoth amount of travelling, 12 hours of flying, we spent the first day just realxing. About the most active thing I did was to take the dog for a walk on the beach then I spent a lot of the rest of the day in bed!

But recovery didn't take long and by the next day we were on the road. We packed up the truck with a few belongings and headed south towards Busselton. Being a holiday weekend the roads were pretty busy with everyone flocking to the coast, but compared to the English bank holiday where you can't move for the dreaded caravan convoys, this was simply a short interruption to the day. When we got to Busselton we walked along the 1.6km jetty to the underwater observatory at the end. It's the longest jetty or pier in the southern hemisphere, and is only beaten anywhere in the world by good old Southend's pier! The observatory was well worth the walk. We saw some amazing scholls of fish down there and some really colourful spectacular algae growing on the poles. Usually you can get a little train along to the end but for the last two years it's been closed as the jetty is quite weak in places and isn't strong enough to hold the weight - glad they told us that once we'd got to the far end then!

After a quick late lunch in the park it was off to Dunsborough where we stopped for a drink in the local pub, listening to some live music and then on to Yallingup where we'd planned to camp for the night. After sussing out some potential spots we went into the national park for a short stroll along the beach, watching the late evening surfers and fishermen as the sun set over the ocean. But Yallingup itself is a pretty small place so we had to go back to Dunsborough for some food before setting up the swag. For anyone who doesn't know a swag is kind of like a tent without poles (and a lot more comfortable as it has a kind of mattress thing in it!). Having a 4wd truck meant we could just put the swag in the flat bed at the back and pretty much camp anywhere we wanted, which is exactly what we did. After several manouveres (!), we positioned the truck towards the ocean so we could wake up to the sound and sight of the beautiful beach...

In theory these things are great, but in practice sometimes not quite as you'd imagined. We did indeed wake up to a stunning view of super tubes beach, but perhaps were awake a little earlier than planned as we weren't the only people who thought this was a great little spot...as all the surfers arrived from about 5am!

So an early start meant we had plenty of time to make the most of the day. First stop was Nigili caves and after a coffee we went down into the caves where there are some amazing limestone formations and colours of rock. But then the day really took on a more theme...no trip to the south west is complete without a visit to the Margaret River wine region. So to get into the true spirit of things we tried out the red wine list at three different vineyeards - Lamonts, Driftwood and Vasse Felix. I didn't realise that the wineries over here also made port as well as wine, and it's surprisingly tasty, so much so that rather than buying any red wine we actually bought a bottle of port from Lamonts instead. And Lamonts was also worthy of mention for another reason, it was the sighting of probably the largest kangaroo I've ever seen in the wild. Just as we were pulling out of the car park he was sat on the hill opposite just watching us. I reckon he was at least as tall as me if not taller.

So after sampling the delights of the region we went into the actual town of Margaret River and had a little wander around, accompanied by a yummy ice cream. This is probably the first country where I actually like eating ice cream, a particular favourite being their honeycomb flavour...mmm...

But the consumption of alcohol was by no means complete yet. When in Dunsborough the previous day we'd seen a poster for a local brewery where they had live music all afternoon, so of course we had to check it out. Bootleg brewery is set in beautiful grounds and was the perfect setting for a relaxing afternoon, enjoying the local tipple and listening to some great music from a really talented musician called Nathan Gaunt. We got pretty settled there and come late afternoon neither of us really wanted to move far but stomachs rumbling we made it back as far as Margaret River for some dinner and energy to keep us going as we had yet to find somewhere to camp that night.

A bit more driving and we arrived in Augusta. There were quite a few people around as there had been some kind of festival there all day, so we were struggling to find somewhere to park as it started to get dark. But luck was with us and we found the most perfect little clearing to park in through some bushes and set up for the night. Just as we'd finished some fireworks started over the beach so we went out to watch them for a good twenty minutes before getting back to the swag and laying out watching the stars on a wonderfully clear night...

And unlike the previous night no-one disturbed us, no-one even knew we were there, so we were able to have a peaceful night's sleep and awake to the sound of birds and the ocean.

Awaking at a more leisurely hour we drove down to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse on the western tip to see two oceans meet - the southern ocean and the indian ocean. Then after breakfast it was another couple of hours drive to Pemberton and the Gloucester tree. This tree is 61m high and if you're brave enough you can climb it as there's a sort of ladder up to a lookout at the top. Although when I say ladder I really mean more like a series of metal rungs poking out of the tree trunk in a spiral type formation which get more and more shaky the higher you get and the whole experience is made more interesting when you have to pass someone on the way down. Needless to say my fear of heights meant I managed to get about three metres off the ground, enough for a quick picture (!) and then I was straight back down to solid ground. Matt was very heroic though and climbed all the way to the top, worth the climb I think as he got some great pictures over the tree tops.

The day was getting pretty hot by this stage so we spent the afternoon a the Karri Valley resort. It's a bit like centre parks, without all the people, set around a huge freshwater lake, but unlike centre parks you can just drive in for free and spend as long as you like there. Swimming was definitely the first thing both of us wanted to do just to cool off and we pretty much had the whole lake to ourselves for quite a while. There are plenty of other things to do for those with too much energy, you can hire kayaks, do some archery or fishing, but for us that was all too much and we simply ate, drank and swam for the first few hours! Eventually when it had cooled down a bit we decided to go for a short walk through the bush to Beedelup falls, and surprisingly there was actually quite a lot of water in there, considering it's the end of summer and this part of the country isn't exactly known for it's substantial rainfall...

But there was still more driving to be done that day and our enjoyment of the resort had to come to an end as we carried on towards the furthest point on our trip - a small town called Walpole. And when I say small town I'm not sure either of us realised how small until we got there. The local pub definitely has the monopoly on everything - food, drink, hotel rooms etc etc. We almost missed out on dinner as we thought we'd explore other options in the town only to find after we'd driven from one end to the other (which took no more than 20 seconds each way!) that there was absolutely nowhere else open, or more accurately nowhere else at all even if it had been open. So it was back to the pub for last orders at 8.30pm and then on to find camp for the night...

We thought the previous night's location would be pretty hard to beat given it's secluded and peaceful setting, but we were so mistaken. Walpole may have been small but we found the most perfect beautiful place to camp down by the water's edge on a small inlet. Once we'd set up the swag we sat out on the small jetty, watching the moonlight shimmer over the water and cracked open the port we'd bought the day before. And we almost did have to crack it open as we suddenly discovered we had no bottle opener so removing the cork was an interesting task...after removing half with a small screwdriver we gave up and pushed the rest in the bottle...neither did we have any glasses so it was straight from the bottle, but it didn't make any difference to me, the setting was perfect and I couldn't have been happier...

We awoke the next morning to a couple of walkers coming through our camp as we'd actually chosen a clearing on one of the main hiking trails through the south west, but we'd already decided an early start was necessary to fit in our packed itinerary for the last day. After a few more pictures of the early morning sun over the inlet we packed up and headed for the Giant Tingle tree. This is a type of eucalyptus tree that is worn away inside by a combination of fire, fungus and insects. Some of them are so big that you can walk through them, and this one is so big you used to be able to drive your car through the trunk, but now you can only walk to it and stand inside it. Still an incredible sight though.

Very much in a tree mood we carried on through the Valley of the Giants, which as the name suggests is a drive through many of these tall tingle trees, until we reached the Tree Top canopy walk. This is a specially designed walkway structure that has been erected within the trees so you can climb up and walk amongst the tree tops. At it's highest point it's 40m high, but unlike the Gloucester tree this time I managed to make the walk (despite someone deliberately shaking the bridge - ha ha!). It's a very bizarre feeling being up there so high, being able to see so far and being at the same height as the birds!

Enough trees now though, it was back to the coast and Peaceful bay. This couldn't have been better named -  a beautiful white sandy beach with water so clear you could see the bottom several metres out. And being in a 4wd meant we could drive along the beach to appreciate it even more. We thought about having a swim as the water looked so inviting, but after dipping in our toes and them nearly going blue we decided against that idea and made the most of having the miles of beach pretty much to ourselves! So it was on to our final stop of the day before heading back to Perth. Conspicuous cliff was not exactly what we were expecting as it wasn't really a cliff at all! Admitedly there was a short walk to a lookout up a hill, but the real attraction of this spot was yet another amazingly beautiful beach. Neither of us could quite believe what we'd found. I know I keep saying everywhere has stunning white sandy beaches and wonderfully clear water but this place came pretty close to paradise, and this time we couldn't resist the urge to get in the water. Massive scholls of fish were swimming past us, so many that you could see the huge dark patches from a great distance away. But I was brought back to reality from my mesmorised state when I was reminded that quite often fish moving in such large group are often being herded by something...that something easily identifiable by it's fin (!) but it seemed we were safe and it was not to be another day of swimming with sharks for me!

So many wonderful places and so many wonderful memories but eventually my time in western australia had to come to an end. It was a long drive back to Perth to catch my plane back over to Cairns, but plenty of time for me to reflect on the great few days I'd just had and to contemplate when I might be able to return again...who knows one day it might just happen...