A Taste of Western Australia:

Great Ocean Drive 

Thats just what we got on our self guided tour of the Southern part of Western Australia.  This blog post should treat you to some of the sweeter parts of this leg of our journey.
The last post had us leaving the City of Perth.  It wasn't far south that we made our first stop in the Music mecca and cafe capitol of Fremantle (known to the locals as simply Freo)  It was here that we took in the local markets and took to the nearby beach of Scarborough.  Here we checked the waves for kite boarders and surfers, and made our way to the Flight Center to book our New Zealand flights.  That evening had us back in Freo feasting on a delicious gourmet Roo burger from the crew at Jus Burgers.  They make a mean Roowich if we do say so ourselves.  Under the cover of darkness we camped at the beach and made our way back into town in the morning to catch a few local busking talents.  The shows consisted of the common balancing, juggling and music varieties but held a prefessional charisma that we have only found in Freo.  From our perspective we would call Freo the "Seatle of Australia".

Murphys Hay stacks

A mornings worth of driving brought us farther south to the town of Busselton.  A very helpful Visitor Center helped us map out an itenerary for the area, and in doing so convinced us to spend more than a couple days in the area.  We started by walking the local Jetty (warf).  Busselton boasted it was the worlds largest timber Jetty at an impressive 2km.  It was lit at night which made fishing a popular friday night activity.  Through the day they opperated a rail system to the end and back for those who were not inclinded to travel its length on foot.  Looking back at the town from the end made one think they were out on an island in the harbour.  To accomodate the fisherman the town had fish cleaning stations all along the jetties length.  In the morning Sully took us out to a hidden gem we never would have found without the help of the locals.  This place was given the amply named Gnomeville.  It started as a family memorial with a few friendly statues in this gentelmans favorite park.  Soon people were bringing their own gnomes there to keep the others company.  Now you can find "clans" of gnomes all over the area, some with themes, some with their own homes, or motorgnomes.  We left a few Canadian pillars  (pencils) as flagpoles in with the other Canadian Gnomes.  From there we set off on the "taste of WA" tour set out by our friend at the Busselton Visitor center.  The crawl took us to a local cheese factory where we sampled their assorted cheese and yogurt.  We couldn't leave without a block of their smoked cheddar.  Next stop brought us into the nut and cereal shop.  There we sampeled dozens of nuts dipped in dozens of coatings which had us leaving with a bag of spicy, smoked almonds.

Giant Tingle Tree

On a roll we continued round the corner to the Margret River Chocolate factory.  There we grabed handfulls of milk, white, and dark chocolate buttons and watched them construct one of their many famous hand made treats in the kitchen.  We grabbed another mitt full of free goodies and wandered about the giftshop.  There was truly something for everyone in there, as long as it had some sort of chocolate in or on it.  With a sugar buzz we whipped down the road to a local family shop famous for their wine AND nougat.  Amanda sampled a few reds while Nick sorted through a few flavours of soft chew nougat.  It didn't take much arm twisting to get us to leave with a bottle of marlot and a brick of cranberry/pistacchio nougat.  The samples made up our lunch, and we took all our newly acquired goodies back into town and enjoyed a couple glasses of the marlot complemented by the smoked cheddar and watch the sun set over the wooden jetty.  Its truly the simple things in life like when and where, that make for the best memories.

The next day we awoke to dark clouds and rain.  Fourtunatly we had a few indoor plans for the day already.  Despite what the sky had in store for use we ignored it and took to the underground.  We made our way down a set of man made steps into the Ngilgi caves.  Once at the bottom we guided ourselves around well lit caverns, narrow passages and a maze of growing formations that hung, clung and reached out from every direction.  It was hard to imagine the whole coast was riddeled with known and unknown spaces underground just like this.  This particular cave also played host to the odd opera, or live band from time to time.  It has even been known to have been booked out for use as a recording studio as the acoustics were unmatched by most modern facilities.  The rain had ceased by the time we poked our heads back out of the earth.  That made a tour of the light house atop Cape Naturalist much easier as it is also one of the windiest places on earth having an average of 364 windy days a year.  Most people concern themselves the most with the view from the top but we found the village around it the most interesting.  It was one of the last lighthouses in Australia to be converted from man operated to automated.  That being as such, there is heaps of evidance of how it was operated when a crew of four men would keep the two tonne lead glass lense turning all day and night.  If the lense stopped during the day it would act as a giant magnifing glass and surly burn the place down as was the fate of many other lighthouses of the time.  Interestingly the heavy lense sat on a bearing made of mercury which had to be cleaned regulary by the men.  From all the exposure to it many went crazy, but their madness was associated with isolation rather than poisioning and the cycle continued.  The same fate could also come from the caroseen that the lamp burned at all times.  Due to the confined space and the lack of ventilation many men were lost to mental or physical illness.  Now the whole opperation is electronic.  The lighthose also acts as a weather station.  The keepers spend the majority of their time doing the tours and maintaing the grounds.  This is the end of an era they say.

On a bit of a lighthouse bender we continue down the coast to where the Indian Ocean meets the southern Ocean.  There sits the Augusta lighthouse.  From here, east, we would be able to catch migrating whales off the coast and even a chance to see mother and calf pairs lingering close to shore feeding.  The pictures can give clues as to the beauty found along this part of the country and we can vouch for it but you have got to see it for yourself.  Cliffs drop into the crashing sea.  Blowholes exhale long tired sighs and tingle trees tower over the winding roads.  Along the trail we stumbeled upon and cluster of attractions called "climbing trees".  These were outfitted with spiraling stairs consisting only of rods of rebar.  They wound up to a lookout some 63 meters up, and were originally used for fire lookouts.  Now they serve as a great opertunity to take photos of the forest canopy. The path took us though Warren National Park where we got up close and personal with more of the gentle giants.  In particular we took in the famous parking tree that was so large at the base that the loggers would park their car inside.

Gnomeville

Albany was the next port of call.  It was here we ran into an old friend from the road (George) and his pet dingo (Elliot).  Together we took in the local sights atop Mt. Clarence getting a 360 degree view of the town and islands just off the coast.  That night found us cooking in the dark.  It proves to be challanging but can not always be avioded.  This particular night we played host to a local fellow.  We are still not sure of his race  but are certain he belongs to the rodent family.  He was just smaller than a possum and was not the least bit shy.  He would make dashes only 2 feet away toward the kitchen.  Had we known him a little better, perhaps he would still be with us today but as it stands he is currently in a better place.  Albany also plays host to an attraction called Whale World.  This was the last opperating whaling station in Australia.  It was not long after its closing that its fate was decided, therefore all the machinery is in working order and apart from the smell (and and lack of) would not notice that its been closed for 30 years.  Guided tour, complete with 3D movie had us killing the entire afternoon.

Goodbye Albany.  Hello Esperance.  Goodbye Esperance.  Hello Norseman.  Norseman had us taking in a few factiods about the local gold mining industry and preparing us for the next leg of the journey...The Nullabor.  Its clame to fame is that it is officially the longest straight strech of road in the world.  It also plays host to the longest official golf course in the world.  18 holes stretch over many hundreds of KM.  To play you would start with a scorecard and play one hole at chosen road houses all across Australias largest province, but you won't see any golf carts on this course.  You will however see the occational motorcycle with a club or two hanging out the saddlebags.  Most players finish their 18 holes in three days.  The Nullabore is a right of passage for many.  How you get across it is up to you.  We have run into lots of cyclests, the occasional walker, and have seen pictures of one man who pushed a wheelborrow the entire length.  We are glad we included it in the journey, but see no need to do it twice in one lifetime.

mother and Southern Wright Whale calf

At the end of the Nullabore is the Head of Bite.  It was here we found the famouse pairs of humpback whales.  Countless mothers with calfs playing close by strolled back and forth along the cliffs.  We lost count at 16 but some have seens as many as 46 in an afternoon.  You can easily loose an afteroon this way and one lady claimed she has spent 8 hours there, however, not to the pleasure of her waiting husband.

The wide open spaces en route to Adelaide made for great boomerang practice.  We even reciecved a few tips from the locals.  Still after many failed attemps we can only be glad we do not have to rely on our throwing skills for our dinner!

From here we will hop on a plane bound for New Zealand.  We have recieved a wonderful gift from Amanda's mother of a weeks stay in a resort at Wanaka.  It is a great oportunity to take a vacation from our holiday.