South of Perth
08/12/05
Being in Perth felt strange after Broome. Too many people, too many buildings, too many cars and it felt cold! I found it quite tough and sulked for a couple of days . We had a good time though, I went out with hostel friends for a night of drunkeness and silly dancing.
Went to the Cottesloe ‘sunday session’. A big beachfront hotel with big beer gardens and Djs and a band. Lots of beautiful people all dressed up but no bad attitudes or anything like that, I really enjoyed it. We realised that spending the night as a group drastically decreases the chance of meeting new people so we tried an experiment of 5 minutes on our own then arranged to meet up afterwards to report back. It worked but all I met were a group canadian boys who, although invited me to a house party, were rather pale and ill-looking not to mention probably about 18 years old…
I spent a week in the south of WA, stayed for a couple of days in a place called Dunsborough. A small town with the hostel right on the beach. I hired a bike and did some exploring.
Then we went to Margaret River via the usual bakery-stop (I MUST stop eating all the pies…) and a cave and Boranup (‘place of trees’). As is my wont I went a bit mad with photographing all the beautiful trees but I won’t post them all here, it wouldn’t be fair.
and saw the main break where the surf championships are held. That night, due to my poor organisational skills I had to stay in a different backpackers – out of town. When we’d finished a the pub James and Lins kindly offered to walk me home. I ‘m glad they did – we got horribly lost in a very dark-out-of-town-frog-noises-spooky type of way and after what must have been an hour and twice asking for directions we made it.
This is where I said goodbye to them for the time being, maybe we will meet on the east coast. It is strange to spend so much time with people and get to know them so well and have to say goodbye.
15/12/05
We went to the Valley of the giants. HUGE trees, some are over 300 years old. I climbed the Gloucester Tree which was 61metres. For some reason there were flocks of crazy parrots too.
I’ll put some photos on when I can get to place that lets me.
16/12/05
MUst stop compulsive pie and chocolate eating. Think I have got bad habits from Lins and James. In Albany today, it is a pretty town, WA’s oldest town and built between two mountains. It was supposed to be the capital but they decided it was too cold and moved it to Perth. Good plan. It is a nice hostel here – free cake, free fresh salmon, free breakfast. My kina place. Our bus driver – Pip is an interesting girl. She is from Broome and used to drive road-trains (really big double trucks). She is also and artist and loves the trees. Pip is really short but has the longest hair ever.
On the way home we stopped for some wine-tasting which really helped me sleep most of the way back to Perth.
18/12/05
I fly to NZ tonight – how exciting. Phil has offered to pick me up from the airport which is really sweet of him.
Quite hungover, we went to the Deen last night. It was…better than I expected. Lots of different rooms. I found one I liked and just danced pretty much all night. I must have looked like i was enjoying myself because i was twice asked if I had some ‘tablets’. It was good to dance, haven’t really done that properly since leaving Brighton.
its really hot in Perth today and Phil tells me it was 29degrees in Christchurch yesterday, I hope the weather will stay good. Part of me would like to see a big dramatic thunderstorm though.
I am thinking of booking a parachute jump for christmas day…
Tags: Debbie Lambert, Travel, western australia
wanderingdeb
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