I booked a 5 day tour to see the south west corner of Western Australia and left early Australia Day morning. We did and saw a lot, and I don’t really remember all of it. We saw a lot of rocks, mountains, and beaches-so many different rocks and mountains that after a few days it got really redundant. I’m not saying that I didn’t have a good time, but just that I’m going to sum up the trip with the things that stick out in my mind.
The first day we drove from summer to spring and went to a chocolate factory where I could eat as much FREE white chocolate as I wanted! After that we went to an organic winery to taste some wine-I had some of my first red wines, and actually gagged on one of them. I’ll continue to stick with white. After that we went to a jamery (?) where we could sample jams and different flavored olive oils. Everything was very good but I’m sure you can imagine my stomach ache after these three stops! We went to the estuary where the Margaret River meets either the Southern Ocean or the Indian Ocean (it’s on the corner?) and the waves were just AMAZING. I’ve never seen such big waves in my life! All of the currents were forcing the waves into each other and just - wow. As soon as I saw this, I ran down to the beach, flung off my shoes, rolled my pants up and stood in the water. The tide was very random as well-I was standing in one place where the water was hardly covering my feet and then as soon as I turned around to take a photo of myself and the ocean, a wave came and soaked me up to over my knees! After dinner at a hostel with amazing showers and comfy beds, one of the tour guides busted out his guitar and started playing-expecting a sing-along. I got made fun of by everyone in the group because I was the only one who knew the songs-songs from Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan.
On the second day I climbed a tree. I didn’t climb it like a kid would, pulling himself up branch by branch. There were two foot metal rods sticking out of the tree spaced about two feet apart that spiraled up the tree up to the 60 meter mark. I’m not sure exactly how high that is, but I generally figure that a meter is about three feet? You do the math. These rods, or steps were made “safe” by putting a wire mesh on the outside of them. There was nothing underneath me, nor anything below me for safety. No Dad, OSHA would not approve this, and yes, that fact did go through my mind, but I did it anyway. And I lived to tell about it. I was the first one to go up after the tour guide because when I looked up at the top, I realized that the highest point is less than 27 stories, which is the highest I’ve hung off the side of a building for work. When I got up to the top and the guide tried to scare me by shaking the platform but it didn’t work. Swing stages sway a lot more than what he could do. The way down was scary though. I think it had to do with the fact that I was walking backwards down a ladder with no safety. Maybe. At one point the guy below me stopped and that was when my legs started shaking uncontrollably. My mind wasn’t scared, but my body was naturally reacting. So I leaned up against the rods and chilled until my legs stopped shaking. I remembered that I had to ‘make friends’ with the ladder. After a few minutes, I descended with no problems. It was a great sense of accomplishment, since I don’t really consider myself much of a risk taker.
The third day we saw more scenery and climbed some rocks. Can you tell I was impressed? The weather was cool and a bit rainy.
The fourth day was probably my favorite. Despite the overcast skies, it was a beach day. The waves were not calm at all and seemed to be saying to us “Come play with me!” And play we did. I watched the guides and a few of the other people body surfing and had a blast. The waves did throw me around and I ended up with a head full of salt water but it was amazing. Even though the waves were vicious, it was so much fun. The ocean can kick my ass any day. I was one of the last ones out of the water (sound familiar?) and kept on asking when the next beach was. One of the guides asked where I learned to ride the waves the way I was. I’d never done anything like this in my life! Heh, I’m a natural. Surprise! The sand on these beaches was the strangest I’ve ever seen: it was so white and the grains of sand were so fine. It retained water like no sand I’ve seen before and squeaked when we walked on it. Crazy!
The fourth day we did a lot of driving. A ridiculous amount. We saw the wave rock that water eroded out of a larger rock and guess what-it looks like a wave. A little walk away from it was a rock called Hippos Yawn. And it looked like a big rock on top of a little rock. Aussie tourism sure has a lot of imagination. We rocked back into Perth around 530 and made plans to go out with some of the people from the group.
