Foreshore Apartments Albany

... br><br>On the way back we headed past Steve's mates Matt's house in Mandurah. This was really cool, a very nice house and another BBQ! Matt's parents were really good, and even showed me plenty of holiday snaps when I said I was headed off round Oz. This put me off Ayer's rock a bit - as his dad said "It's just a big rock", and made me want to head north - get some sun in before heading to freezing cold NZ. So I began planning for all places north, and Bali was the chosen option!

... was the Old Gaol which was built in 1852. It's most famous resident was Frederick Bailey Deeming who was captured in Albany after many years on the run for murdering 2 wives and 4 children, encasing them in cement and burying them beneath a fireplace. Pretty gruesome stuff. He is also one of the many suspects believed to be "Jack the Ripper". I purchased a 'book' (35 photocopied pages) on him as it's sounds really interesting. We then headed over ...

Well I have done some touring across this vast land and met some really interesting people on the tour, we all chip in together to make breakfast, lunch and dinner, it is a really nice way of getting to know people: I went to the famous surfing region (I think all of Australia is famous for its surfing!) of Augusta and Margaret River ...

... deeper water. We stuck around, not really expecting to see much more, when the baby decided to put on a rather spectacular show for us. We were in danger of getting wet from the splashes as the little one started throwing him (or her) self out of the water - a behaviour known as breaching. This just blew us away - there aren't words to describe how special and magical and experience that was. What a way to round off our trip! Think we're on a mission to make "wow" the most used word of the year.

... backpacker who was on her way down south. The car was very cramped as we'd forgotten how much luggage we actually had. We all squeezed in and went into The Valley of The Giants National Park. . This is full of giant tingle trees, here we walked along the Valley of the Giants Tree Top walk and had great views if the trees from up high. After the tree top walk we headed towards Denmark and stopped at the Green Pools and ...

... there, it is great to meet her Mum, they are so alike, as we all are to our mothers I suppose. Albany is nice and Janet looks well settled in, her Mum is there to supervise her thesis writing, Janet's really looking fwd to it I can tell! We have a nice breakfast and a walk and continue home, I'm getting so excited!!

... on extension of the cottage and the floors and walls were made of stone. Oh, and we had....drumroll please....one blanket on our bed to keep us warm. I ended up putting all my clothes back on on top of my pyjamas and wrapping that ******ned blanket so tightly around me to try and keep warm. Sadly though, my feet (with three pairs of socks on them) were sticking out the end and were so, so cold..so I had to put my shoes on. Luckily it wasn't just me who ...

... burden. Between the two of us we carried four liters of water and we drank every drop of it, having to ration ourselves on the downward trek. It is a rather deceiving mountain as it is very hard to know just when you've reached the top. Every time we'd say to each other "look, there's nothing above that next ridge", we'd turn a corner and there would be another miserable hill to slog up. It was more than a bit annoying ...

... driving only and a good dose of what Andy is pleased to call due roos prudence.<br><br>We'll probably spend a few days in Albany before meandering back to Perth and then on to Hong Kong on the 11th; plenty more trees to admire and walks to do before then. Here the days are hot and sunny and the nights pleasantly cool; we gather England is hip deep in snowmen at the moment so we are in for a bit of a shock!<br><br>lots of love and see you soon

... 2 pm and the café actually closed at 1 pm (winterhours), they told us we could stay as long as we liked, though, as had still to clean.) Picked up some groceries on the way out of town, and have stopped in Cranbook (pop. 320) for the night. The carefoker of the caravan park lives 200 m down the road, 3rd house on the left, and was very friendly older woman. She even gave me a ...