Hi, this is our south WA blog part 1 of 2...

Road-trip Day 1: We picked the car up and headed south towards Albany, 400km away! There wasn't much on the way so we pretty much just drove straight there, only stopping for supermarket, lunch, petrol and a coffee. We checked into the YHA there and drove out to Two Peoples Bay, where we saw pelicans and the sunset. We also saw a nice beach called Little Beach (apparently voted the best beach in WA), but it was a little too dark so Lisa wanted to go back in the morning. We finished the day at Tangle Head Brewery, which had nice beers and even a hot chocolate for Lisa!

Road-trip Day 2: We drove back to Two Peoples Bay and saw Middleton Beach and Emu point on the way. Little Beach was still really nice and Lisa enjoyed it, despite the clouds coming out. We then drove around Torndirrup National Park, south of Albany and enjoyed it. We drove down to all the lookout points, including a narrow gap in the cliffs with huge waves and blowholes. The beaches all had white sand and really light blue water, which reminded us of the tropical islands we visited earlier in our travels. We went up Mount Clarence for views over Albany and then had an early night due to thunderstorms.

Road-trip Day 3: We headed west towards Denmark (the town), stopping off at a beach on the way. We drove around a scenic tourist route stopping off at loads of wineries and farms. Other than regular wine, we sampled honey wine, honey, ice-cream, fudge, toffee, cheese, cider, chutneys and nuts. We then walked around the valley of the giants, which is a tree-top walk 40 metres in the air. We drove through Walpole and decided to stay overnight at Pemberton.

Road-trip Day 4: We had planned to see a few things in Pemberton but a tree was blocking the main road to them so we drove to Augusta through a mix of hail, rain and sunshine, stopping off at Beedelup Falls on the way. We drove down to the lighthouse on the coast where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean and it was really windy. We had lunch and headed up towards Margaret River, stopping off at 4 wineries on the way. We cooked in the dirty YHA kitchen and then went out for a drink or two in the local pubs to keep warm near the wood fires away from the hail, rain and wind!

Road-trip Day 5: We had a nice hot drink at Urban Bean and then drove to a berry farm, seeing an amazing rainbow on the way - really low to the ground. We went to a winery. We went to another winery. We went to another winery. We drove to an olive farm. We went to a dairy farm. We drove to a brewery. We went to another dairy farm and bought some yoghurt. We went to another winery. We drove to a nut/cereal factory and bought a muesli biscuit each. We went to a chocolate factory. We drove to a winery with older wines and I bought a bottle. We went to another winery. We drove to the beach. We had a nice dinner as far away from the dirty YHA kitchen as possible. We drove back to the hostel and slept. Lisa doesn't like wine by the way, although she did whine lots!

To be continued...