The Beautiful SouthWest

Hello everyone Adam here

We have 3 days left to go till we go to Townsville/Magnetic Island. We got back from a trip to the South Western coast and stood at the closest point to Antarctica. It’s near Augusta. On that trip we hit Yallingup, Margaret River, Augusta, Denmark and Albany. We went to the Ngilgi caves. It was awesome. Even though we didn’t get to wear a helmet and head lamps it was still pretty awesome.

Mme, if you are looking for a book for the class to read I suggest "Toad Rage". It’s about a cane toad trying to save his species from being run over by trucks and cars. It is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes things getting run over.

I think we are going fishing today. I can’t wait.

Bye

A


Hi this is Sylvie,
I am having so much fun in Perth but sadly we have 2 more days left to go in Perth.
We went on a road trip. I had so much fun. We went in some caves and thank goodness there were lights on or else… Anyway we went to a whaling museum it was gross and cool at the same time. I liked Margaret River a lot because you could buy fudge, and so much more. We went to a beach to see if we could see some whales. It was called "Conspicuous Cliffs". There was no one there but then the next day, we read in the paper that this guy, I have no clue what his name is, got attacked by a shark when he was surfing at this same spot. Scary, huh?

Ok that is all I have to say

sylvie

Maureen's bit:

The drive down south was a big contrast from the drive up north. For one, it was cooler - much (by Australian standards, anyway)- 13/16/18 degrees rather than mid-20's - hey, we even cooked our food on a campfire twice! But the scenery was something else. Beautiful rolling plains with vineyards as far as the eye can see on one side and beautiful rolling surf as far as the eye can see on the other side. Even though they are far below their rain quota this year, the vegetation still seems lush and one gets the feeling that the food and drink is in endless supply.

We spent the first few nights out of Margaret River in a town called Yallingup. It's right on the coast and we went to sleep watching the surfers out front and woke up watching the surfers. The surf was just a bit too big for us newbies but we are hankering to get something happening in that regard. We checked out a cave - Ngilgi Caves - which was quite the experience. This particular cave was discovered in the late 1800's by a fellow looking for his horse. Once discovered, it became a major tourist attraction - even back then - and had been outfitted with electricity by 1903. Quite the undertaking for that era. They even built a hotel in the area just to deal with the tourists that came from far and wide. It went down 90 meters and was absolutely enormous. The longest anyone stayed in there was 400 days. As nice as it was, 2 hours was plenty for us!

We explored the coast, stopped and checked out wineries. Checked out the spot where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet - next stop Antarctica!

A highlight for David was a 61 meter spiral climb up a tree. Sylvie was keen to go and Adam and I started but it was too high for this chick and the kids - my daredevilling days are behind me now!

We did a tree-top walk where there was a cool platform built that takes you above the treeline. You really feel as though you are walking on the top of the forest. The trees are enormous - some as old as 400+ years. They are called Tingle Trees - a funny name for something so big.

Finally we went to Whale World which was the last working Whaling Station in Australia - Albany. It was a fascinating museum. Could have been my imagination but I swore I could still smell the whale oil in some spots.

We were sad to leave - there is so much to see and do - so much more than was possible for us this time. Lots of roads to drive down and explore. Lots of lonely beaches looking for someone to make a sand castle on or just lie and read a book and of course, lots of water looking for swimmers/surfers. Just means we'll have to come back again. Twist my rubber arm!

So, now we are back in Perth. Tying up some last minute loose ends before we head off to the eastern coast of this continent - Townsville/Magnetic Island to be exact. More on that to come...