"my email ..." a State of Western Australia Travel Page by windsorgirl

Greetings,

I've left Perth now, after 4nights with Louise. She was a great hostess
and I'm really thankful that she put me up. I spent one day walking around Fremantle, or as the locals call it, Freo. (everything has to be shortened over here!). It's a suburb of Perth, quaint and very picturesque, right on the ocean. I also had a day in downtown
Perth and walked through King's Park, with great views of the Perth
skyline. I also spent a day helping Louise paint at her friend Di's house.

We later went out sailing on a real sailboat, which was a first for me. I
was a bit nervous about getting in the way or getting sea sick but Louise says I did a great job holding on to my drink AND the bag of chips, without spilling either. Sailing doesn't seem that hard afterall!

I also did an overnight trip to Rottnest Island (or Rotto). It's only
25min by ferry from Freo. The dutch named it Rottnest which translates to Rat's Nest. Lovely. They mistook the small marsupial quokkas for huge rats. They do resemble rats I guess but they hop instead of scurry. They are very friendly and I had a hard time keeping one from jumping into my backpack.

I rented a bike for both days and rode 27kms around the island on the first day, stopping for a quick snorkel in the cool waters. On day 2 I rode to all the scenic lookouts and then visited a great snorkel spot. It's funny how you forget how cold the water is when there's so much coral and fish to look at, but I must have been close to hypothermia when I finally came out!

I've been travelling south of Perth now for 6 days. I'm travelling with a
tour bus that allows you to jump off and stay as long as you like in any
town that they travel through, and then jump on the next bus that comes through. It's a great concept, I'm really enjoying it. My first stop was Bunbury (or as you may have guessed, Bunno), famous for its wild dolphin encounters. The dolphins are wild and come and go as they please so I felt very fortunate to be on the beach at 730am when one appeared. I was the only tourist along with 4 volunteers(who protect the dolphins from enthusiastic swimmers). I stood in waist deep water and watch Iruku (his name) swim circles around us, coming within 18 inches, but we're not
allowed to touch them. They're beautiful animals and it was a thrill to be so close to one. He stayed with us for 20 mins. Bunno also has a funky checkerboard
lighthouse and some great beaches for walking.

Next stop was Margaret River with the group. They make alot of great wine here and we had a stop for a tasting at one of the wineries. We also had a tasting at the chocolate factory. Hard to say which I enjoyed more...
Closer to town we parked and watched the Surfer's at Surfer's Point and went for a meal in town.

I jumped off the tour again the next day in Augusta after checking out
another lighthouse. I rented a bike there and rode 20 kms to and 20kms back from Hamelin Bay. There are shipwrecks here that you can actually snorkel over. The ships were from the 1880's so the wreck kinda looked like a pile of wood. There was a gorgeous white sand beach here, perfect for
collecting shells, and I have added a few for my collection. I also had another wildlife encounter here in the shallow waters with some 2 and 3 ft wide stingrays. People feed them so they will swim right up to you once you enter the water. I was able to touch one of these, it had a slimy, rubbery, raw chicken feel.

I jumped back on the tour 2 days later and we visited a giant Karri tree
that you climb up 61m for a view. I am now in Walpole and did a 20km hike this morning with a Swiss guy from the tour through the Tingle Forest. 10kms would have been enough since the scenery didn't change much for most of the walk and it started to rain. We were both pretty wet, but misery loves company and we had fun anyway.

Tomorrow I'm off to Albany for one night, then back to Perth for 2 nights.
Then I'll be heading north to do some serious snorkelling in warmer waters.

Hi Everyone,

My tour of WA is now over, I've returned to Carmel and Mike's home in Melbourne. It's great to see some familiar faces and it'll be nice to have a home base for awhile, a chance to clean and disinfect my backpack, my clothes and myself.

I really enjoyed my 26 days in the west. Perth is a very clean and
attractive city with heaps of gardens, churches as well as modern high
rises. I love the lively pedestrian malls and the excellent public
transportation where EVERYONE thanks the driver as they leave the bus. I also like the way drivers wave to one another on the outback highways. It seems that there is a comraderie amongst those that have discovered the secret of outback exploration. In general, all the aussies that I encountered were very friendly. Many stangers would wish me well when they saw me with my big pack with my canadian flag on it. They all had kind words to say about either their visit to Canada or some friends or rellies
that they have living there.

The last time that I wrote I was in the most southwesterly part of WA and hence the coolest. After a long wet walk in Walpole one morning, we had a good time drinking wine and playing cards at the backpackers all afternoon
and evening while it continued to rain. The next day was dry and I did a shorter 12km walk with a couple from Edmonton and a girl from France. We were lucky to come across a patient and very photogenic kookaburra. Later I
joined the tour again and we walked 40m in the air along the aptly named Treetop Walk in the Giant Tingle forest. Next stop was cold and windy Albany. I decided to abandon the southwest and head north for warmer weather and I wasn't disappointed. Even back in Perth for one day it was fine enough that I visited the local beach there for a dose of sunshine.

The next day I joined my "jump on jump off" tour and our first stop was at the Pinnacles. These are eerie natural stone pillars that dot the deserted landscape like tall tombstones or the ruins of an ancient city. We continued on to Kalbarri where I jumped off and stayed for 3 nights. There
is a beautiful canyon here with some picturesque viewpoints (and hopefully I'll have the pictures to prove it). We hiked down to the bottom and along the river for awhile. My next day I was dropped off 15kms away from the hostel along the coast and I walked back along the scenic coastline. The
first 8kms were right at the oceans edge with great views of the dramatic cliffs. I was a bit mistaken at first and followed a kangaroo path instead.

Although I lost a bit of time, I was lucky to actually come across about 6 roos that way. I could just see their eyes and ears fixed on me above the bushes until I approached closer and they hopped away. Once I found the proper path along the water's edge I could see a pod of dolphins not far off the coast. Eventually this path just ended and I had to go bushwalking for a couple kms before emerging on the beach. The last 5kms were through the sand so it was a pretty gruelling 7hr hike altogether, but well worth it.

The next morning I watched a pelican feeding. These are very large birds and yet parents were eagerly encouraging their very small
children(definitely smaller than the pelicans) to participate in the feed.
Any one(or even 2) of these kids could have fit easily inside one of those massive beaks. Now that would have been something to see....

Back with the tour, we drove to Denham so we could visit the famous dolphins at Monkey Mia...no monkeys here, just dolphins. We headed over there early the next morning and the dolphins arrived right on schedule. They are fed
3xday (unlike Bunbury). There was a crowd of tourists lined up and
waiting(including myself) and despite the commercialization it was still worth a visit. We had 3 dolphins approach quite close.

We also stopped at Shark Bay where we nearly got blown off the cliffs into the supposedly shark infested waters (we couldn't see any that day) and then we went to shell beach where the beach is made up of tiny white shells, not a grain of sand.

We next stopped at Coral Bay, arriving in time for a quick dinner and then an outdoor movie. Not a drive-in, but a bloke with a screen mounted on the side of his caravan who parks it on the lawn and projects a dvd image onto the trailer. He had quite a sophisticated surround sound system because despite the gale force winds that night, the sound quality was excellent. We watched Moulin Rouge cuddled up together on the lawn.

The next day we went to see why they call it Coral Bay. We snorkelled in the warm shallow waters of the Ningaloo Reef and saw the most beautiful and colourful coral. There was also a huge variety of colourful fish too, just not in large quantities. Coral Bay is ideal for snorkelling because you can just walk in off the beach unlike the Great Barrier Reef which requires a boat trip. I stayed here another 2 days and can't count the number of times that I went in snorkelling. Each time you see something new. The coral
formations looked like a beautiful underwater garden. I also did a boat trip there to the outer edge of the reef where we saw a large reef shark and huge schools of fish in the deeper water. We also had a chance to feed the fish and I was literally surrounded by a sea of fish. They were so interested in the food that you could reach out and touch them.

Last stop on the tour was Exmouth for 2days, also known for its diving and snorkelling. We went to Turquoise Bay and came within 12 inches of a beautiful sea turtle. She didn't swim away and we could see every marking on her face and fins. Our guide also came in the water and chased out a small reef shark from its cave so that we could get a better look. It was pretty comical the way 8 of us were trying to follow this little shark around with our fins and arms getting tangled together.

After a long drive back to Perth, I went straight to the airport and arrived in melbourne Friday night. mike was there to welcome me and we've had a great weekend catching up which I'll write about next time.