Yet another race to catch up!
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2008
1
85
117
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Alice Springs,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Monday, March 9, 2009
yallingup contd.
yallingup was spent snorkelling the surreal limestone wave break, inhabited by mini fish and huge fish, which swan at our level, making them doubly scary, and some of the most amazingly coloured water grasses. yallingup was home too to an amazing cave, the ngigli cave, filled with stalactites, stalacmites, twisty worm like stalactites, which clung to the faces of the cave, deep chasms and ledges filled with tiny rock and limestone formations, appearing to be the homes of fairies and elves! the whole place was quite mystical, about eleven storeys deep under the ground, and worth taking far too many photos of, which we are now having trouble deleting to make room for all the other amazing things you can see in oz, if you actually save a little money at home and get out on the road, rather than choosing to live and work in sydney for eight months before spending a small fortune on a package tour, which won't allow you to see half of what we have on our trip! anyway, that was yallingup. 24 hours of bliss...
margaret river...
home of wineries, and didn't we get to see a few of those, being that sean works in the wine industry! no, but it wasn't that bad, seeing as just the sheer mention of him working in the same industry meant us sampling several posher, pricier wines that weren't apparently open for tasting that day! anyway, margaret river, the town, showed the most promise, after having stopped off at so many, characterless and exceedingly modern towns and cities on the coast. the town was relatively small and filled with all the usual conveniences we needed, but was given that extra charm by the fact that every so often there would be a small hippy clothes shop or homewares store or fudge making factory, which made VERY good fudge, and some of which i would have bought to take back home, except for the fact that i could not decide which flavour to go for and that the small bundles of joy were actually rather expensive, especially considering the rate at which i, myself, or any number of people, would have got through them! anyway, we spent a few days in and around margaret river, visiting the wineries, speaking to numerous experts - that was more him, i just drank the wine and kept quiet, knowing nothing about wine, even after five years with a wine master - and sussing out the work situation, which appeared to show less promise than first hoped. basically, i blame it all on misinformation, as a few weeks earlier, i had been told via phone conversation, that if i turned up in the margaret river area, i could put my name on the list and within days, i would have work, when it actually turned out that after placing one's name on the list, you might have to wait for a matter of weeks before reaching the top of that list, meaning being stuck in the area not only for the time you're working, but for much, much longer, and for time that we just couldn't afford to spend in the one place, having to get back on the road asap to cross over to the east side! after ear-wigging on several people's conversations, it also seemed to appear that some people were actually having to wake up every morning, at the crack of dawn, to be ready for a phone call beckoning them to work! some mornings, their early rise and shine would deliver and they would make their way to that day's winery, while other mornings, they would be given the ungodly news that there would be no work for them that day, they would not be needed, therefore meaning they would have to simply roll over and go back to bed! not great! it also appeared that the actual working hours were only during the early hours of the day into lunchtime meaning no chances to work extra hours like a dog to earn bug money before buggering off early, rather short hours over a period of too long and meaning being stuck in the margaret river for all eternity! the point is, the working situation, added with the fact that there was talk of slave wages, was just not worth hanging around the area, just to save a little more money and get to use up that much talked about working visa, that so many of us buy into and yet cannot get to use because these employers ask the world of us! - if that makes any sense as i'm currently having difficulties concentrating as this internet kiosk is in the now very busy reception area - rubbish! the rest of our time in the margaret river, which incidentally was weirdly chilly and wet and miserable at times, was also spent moaning about the bitches of eastwick, who ran the caravan park where we stayed! just to say, they were slagged off to kingdom come for asking for a stupid $100 deposit, for wanting all our details, for being extremely short with us, possibly because we weren't grey nomads and therefore were not to be trusted, and for taking forever to check our immaculate pitch, after we checked out, in order to allow us to have our deposit back! we still don't know why they were so protective of their park as with all the gravel and concrete, it really wasn't all that! one night was also spent out on the town, during which time, we were entertained by a couple of girls from the north, who were singing their way around the country, after which we were taught more tricks of the pub tab game and spoke at length to an old guy from brixton, london, who had been living in oz for decades, after leaving 'horrid england' and a troubled past with his last love! after our short spell in the margaret river, we drove through our first real taste of the southern forests, to the magnificient jewel cave, filled with tree roots resembling umbilical cords, more stalactites, more stalacmites resembling forest clusters of karri trees and totem poles and coral reefs and cauliflower and broccoli! the list was endless! and during our tour, we were shown where the first explorers dropped down into the cave and where the last water level reached, and again, we took far too many photos! i could talk forever about this gem, but the photos, once they've been catalogued, will speak volumes!
bridgetown...
after leaving the plush margaret river region, we travelled deep into the southern forest region and into the tiny and extremely picturesque hamlet of nannup - beautiful, but god knows what the kids do for fun - where we thankfully missed the tourist info cum accommodation booking girl meaning we just had to drive on to another gem in the middle of the forest. the small town of bridgetown, complete with old fashioned shops, the post office, the inn etc, and all on the banks of the blackwood river. here, we celebrated valentine's day with lunch and tastings at the local cidery, a drive around the surrounding hills, which seemed to resemble the moors in the south of england, and finally a meal in one of the local tavern / hotels, where a band called the brow were playing their unique blend of middle class kids' quirkiness - you could just tell by their choice of polka dot skirts and waistcoats and shaggy hair - before finishing up with a few drinks in one of the nicest, less 'local' bars, which was absolutely deserted, as everyone had left the town for the weekend, convoy style, to head over to boyup brook for the annual country and western music festival! we had wanted to go, more for novel reasons than for anything else, until we discovered what a HUGE deal it actually was and that every campsite in the area had been fully booked for weeks and months in advance and that the closest one was actually in bridgetown, meaning a major detour! anyway, the campsite in bridgetown, though again splattered with concrete and gravel, was filled with towering trees and had the monopoly where the best view of the river lay! here, we watched many games of cricket on tv and talked to yet more people, who, so disgruntled with england, just had to move overseas to oz! god knows why? i still really like england, rich tea as it may be sometimes! ah well, can't please everyone!
the southern forests / walpole-nornalup region...
this region was absolutely amazing and i had so much fun here, despite still being very much a water person and now dying to get back into the sea to do some snorkelling, but climbing THE tallest trees and looking out across the canopies to far off sand dunes was just one of those most spectacular moments that you know very few people - especially if they're afraid of heights - will get to experience! i felt very privileged being 75m up! anyway, the southern forests region turned out to be filled with so many sights and things to do that we decided we would pull our finger out for the first time in weeks meaning no more lazy days and a return to tourist mode! we started the region in pemberton and manjimup, where a giant king jarrah tree, with the most incredible girth, stood deep in the forest. our journey into the region, here, also consisted of my first, slightly unsuccessful, climb up the diamond tree lookout! it goes that throughout time, men and women have walked through the forests, looking for the tallest trees to build fire lookout towers at the top of them. these are then manned 24/7 and when a fire is spotted, far into the far off distance, said man or woman watchperson contacts those in the know to warn them of the fire so that they can head out to stop impending forest fire. anyway, it now goes that several of these lookouts are no longer used for their original purpose and therefore they are now in use for tourists, like moi, to climb up to catch the best views across the region! as it happens, each climb looked, and, in reality, turned out to be, extremely precarious, but after driving out to them, you simply have to have a go, so there i was, starting to climb the rungs of the first tree; the rungs of which seemed to have been simply hammered into the side of the tree, and in between which had THE largest gaps glaring down to the ground, meaning the safest thing to do was to keep on climbing! so there i am, looking down, thinking i'm going to slip and die, and keeping on climbing!... ... ...
and i have to go... more later!
