Please feel free to skip through – this blog is more of a memoir to and for me 🙂

I expected to be assaulted by the heat instead my senses were exposed to the birds settling in for the night, the noise was quite something as I exited Perth Airport. It was a short journey into the city which at around 8pm was like a ghost town and a very limited choice if you required food.

I was booked into the Ambassador Hotel, which was very under-whelming, how the mighty fall! Still it was comfortable and the advantage was that my Intrepid Tour of WA left from it the following morning.

I feel very lucky as the group turned out to be small, and a relaxed easy crew all travelling alone. Michael our tour guide (from South Carolina), living in Australia for 7-8 yrs, Geraldine – Sweden for 50 yrs originally from Melbourne, David – Sheffield, Andrew – Abergavenny & Rachel from Edinburgh.

See below Map of where our tour took us.

This was a nice, relaxed introduction to travelling for me. I 100% made the right choice to book and go on a tour straight away, I think I would have felt very isolated and a long way from home.

On Monday we made our way to Margaret river, stopping at Busselton – Busselton Jetty for lunch, I was so glad of a good walk and fresh air. Lunch was really nice just looking out at the water with a very nice glass of red. We then made our way to see the Nigilgi Cave where we were greeted by Josh, the indigenous people’s of this land like many were completely at one with nature knowing when a certain plants came into bloom or began shedding their flowers that different fish would be available for them. The caves were beautiful and a large version of what you would see in our caves in Fermanagh. Josh then played his didgeridoo in the cave – the acoustics were amazing and at this point the penny dropped that I was in Oz! We went down to the beach for a paddle before dinner just lovely and good for the sole.

Tuesday – what’s not to like, wine tour, cheese and chocolate factory! Before which we went to watch the surfers at Gracetown, note to self, should have worked on my core a lot more prior to this trip!

Fabulous to watch and just so beautiful. At this spot on 27th September 1996 at a primary school surfing competition, parents and children were sitting under the cliff watching the final heat of the day when the cliff collapsed killing 5 adults and 4 children miraculously one child was dug out after 2 hours and saved. A dreadful tragedy in such a lovely place.

Onwards to our wine tour, very timely indeed! What a beautiful place, having had wine, cheese and then a chocolate factory we skipped lunch with the option of an early tea. We chased the sunset and had some mince pies on the beach! Great idea Andrew! Then came back for a glass of wine and an early night.

Wednesday – As we left Margaret river I didn’t realise that we were broadly going off grid for the next 36 hours. We travelled down to Cape Leeuwin and the Donnelly River Village, this was a day of sightseeing with a lovely swim early in the day and an hour on the beach, The Leeuwin light-house and lovely coastal walk where we saw a statue on the beach of a lady named Layla breast feeding a fish- urgh! Each to their own ;-). The further south we go and into the forest of tall trees, it’s so beautiful as the sun twinkles down through the canopy a long way above us. 50 metres approx, that’s about half the size of the trees we will see on Thursday and the height of the structures/trellis’s that we walked on. We are cooking in tonight and on arrival at the accommodation it reminds me of a place youth groups go to with huge communal, dining and kitchen area, however, every room had an en-suite so whilst basic a step up from that!

On arrival we were warmly greeting by some very inquisitive Emu’s and oh my goodness there were about 4-5 kangaroos, so tame, so soft, 2 of which had Joey’s hanging out of their pouches, very cute, however, we all stayed to the side as opposed to go out front in case we annoyed mum and got a nasty kick.

I was reminded of Granda Morrow, as this was originally a logging community, such perilous work with many being injured or killed like Granda’s father in Canada. These men and women did not have an easy life.

Time to make dinner, I volunteered to do it , everyone mucked into and making and eating dinner was really enjoyable just nice easy company. Early start tomorrow so early to bed which is definitely a pattern on these tours so if you dont like early rises this is not for you!

Thursday: Nothing could prepare you for the force of nature Gazza at Walpole is, We went on a 2 hour river cruise, it was easily the most entertaining, enlightening and educational tour I have ever been on. The wealth of his knowledge was so impressive, history, botanical, birds, animals, geographical and lots more delivered with such fun, thoroughly enjoyable topped of with a lovely cup of tea and his 84 yr old mothers lemon cake – so moist really yummy. A must do if you are down this way, it was better than going to see a comedy show. Gazza had us falling about laughing whilst educating us at the same time. I am just not sure how much of it all went in!

Pic to follow on that one 🙂

On to the Valley of the Giants, something I had been looking forward to despite my fear of heights. The Tingle Trees are so impressive, some they think 4-500 years old maybe more, the Red ones have huge buttresses often their bases are hollowed out by fire, fungal and insect attack yet miraculously they remain alive and vibrant trees. The Yellow tingles are straight up and down and these Karri trees are in the top 3 tallest trees in the world and are typically around 80 metres tall. The tree walk is worth doing, I did find it a challenge, however, glad I did it.

We finished in Albany – had an English Pub Dinner and hit the hay.

Friday: A short tour of Albany, the beautiful coastline and a Quick look at the whaling station (no longer in operation) and then 5 hours back up to Perth.

We had thought of going on this wee day cruise 😉 – some interesting company!