Well the last time I blogged I was awaiting Danielle arrival from the UK and were heading on bit of a road trip. Danielle arrived safely but took about 5 days to get over the jet lag which after a 22 hour flight is pretty understandable. Within her first few days I had taken her to a zumba class and made her walk 11km in the heat…and she thought she was coming for a holiday! After a few days of doing city/tourist type things we then picked up our car and headed south…..First problem …automatic car…and both of us only driven one once or twice. We got over that hurdle which wasn't that difficult to do really just put your foot down! We headed south to Margarets River which I have mentioned before as the wine capital of WA. We stopped off on the way in some small places called Bumbury and Busselton. We got to Margs and were staying in a hostel in the centre of town where all the workers stay who are pruning the vineyards to earn their 2nd year visa. As soon as we got there we book a wine tour for the Sunday. Margs is quite nice little town with a good atmosphere although it is all about the wineries. The wine tour started at 10am with a bus load of fairly quiet people…this changed rapidly after the first winery. We went to three wineries before lunch…trying about 10 wines at each and a mixture of white, reds and ports. My favourite was Knotting hill where we had lunch. The wine here was so tasty and one of the reds tasted just like black forest gateaux. So yummy! After lunch we headed to the liquor farm…here we were rushed quite a bit so we ended up knocking back about 5 different types of liquor in about 15 minutes! All again quite yummy but by that point everything was starting to taste the same. We also visited a chocolate and cheese factory (to help with the sobering up!) and the final stop was a brewery which did not interest us that much. It was a really good day and it was good that we did not have to worry about the driving at all.
There are some amazing rugged beaches along this coastline which are popular with surfing although they are also popular with sharks and unfortunately the other day there was a fatal shark attack in this area. A 31 year old father of two was killed by a great white pointer who they believe mistook him for a seal. Just remind you that you have to be careful in the water here to!

After 3 nights in Margs, Danielle and I headed off to Pemberton via August, Cape Leeuwin and Bridgetown. I don't think we passed more than 5 cars on this entire 300km drive! Cape Leeuwin is where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean and also has the highest lighthouse in Australia. This was such a lovely place as the water was so blue and clear…all we needed was a bit of warmth and I am sure we would have gone for a paddle. We went through lots of towns which were completely deserted as this is winter after all. We stopped in a place called Nannup where as we got out of the car to cross the road the only visible person stopped sweeping her step to look at us, then we could hear the signs creaking in the wind then the crows started crowing…we just needed some tumbleweed to cross the road in front of us and we would have been in the middle of a western! Was so funny looking but at the time we decided to get back in the car and keep driving!

After a night in a really nice hostel in Pemberton we carried on driving towards Albany. The drive was very pretty through some really old Karri forests but once again you barely saw any other traffic. We stopped at quite a few places and attempted the Gloucester Tree, a 60m climb up an old karri tree and also did valley of the giants (a walkway through the trees at canopy level). The scenery was so pretty and sort of reminded us of home except for the constants warnings of kangaroos and bush fires! We stopped at Greens Pool for lunch which is just outside Denmark. This was one of my favourite places for the whole trip. It was just a spot on the coast where there were interesting shaped rocks including some that looked like elephants.

Our final few days of the trip were in Albany, which was probably the largest place we visited the entire time. This has a long history of whaling and they only closed the whaling station in the 80's. We went on the tour of the station and heard a lot of the history, which I found interesting yet disturbing. The water in this area used to be blood red from all the whales killed and therefore full of 8m long sharks! Not the best place for a swim! It sounded like the worst job in the world mainly because of the smell as they melted down the blubber and bones but it paid well and in those days that is all that mattered. Humpbacks and southern right whales are very popular in this area and we saw some briefly from the top of the cliffs, but decided not to brave a boat trip as the weather forecasted thunderstorms.

The drive back was just one dead straight endless road…so boring and took almost a full day! I was really pleased though that we had gone to the south west as was just such an amazing place to visit. Danielle's last few days were spent in Perth and we went to high tea in a revolving restaurant that had amazing views over the entire city. It was really nice having some company from home two weeks and it was really strange when Danielle had gone and felt quite home sick for a day or two. Everything has returned to normal now and I am currently working during the week and practically a one women call centre. The people are lovely and they know I am just covering for the receptionist who has gone on holiday therefore don't mind my endless questions.

I actually leave Perth in 3 weeks and heading to Adelaide via train, which will take two days. I will be in Adelaide for a week whilst staying with a few different family friends. I am then jumping on a bus that will take me to Alice Springs in the red centre but staying overnight in Cooper Pedy - an opal mining town where everything including the hostel is underground. I then get to Alice Springs and start a three day/ two night tour of Uluru and Kings Canyon. I initially had no interest in heading to the red centre but everyone who has been there has raved about it so thought I would give it a chance. I am then heading back to Alice Springs in order to catch a flight to Cairns where I am meeting up with a friend and have two nights in the Cairns Reef Hotel for my birthday. I am looking forward to some luxury for my birthday. After that I have no real plans other than to head to Cape Tribulation and then start making my way down south towards Sydney for Xmas and NYE. I have already booked my hostel in Sydney as everything is already pretty much booked - crazy as it is only August.

Really looking forward to getting back on the road although I am sure after a week or so of hostels I will be craving my own room again. Really looking forward to Cairns and some snorkelling on the GBR. Happy times ahead :)