I'M HOME!!!
After 10 days in the Lowlands, WA, I might finally be refreshed enough to start year 2 of Vet School. We were supposed to stay until Saturday the 22nd, but I missed the kitties SOOOO much!! I mean it was like landing in Perth for the first time without our American Kitties and trying to figure out how to sleep without fur-babies is REALLY hard. You would think less head butting = more sleep, but you end up kind of missing their crazy cat antics! I may also need to get stuff ready for school and one day wasn't going to be enough…. but in the end, we came home for the cats! :)
I will warn you up front that the photos got out of order upon upload and I do not have heaps of time to reorganise them! I am sure you will enjoy either way!
Day 1 - Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 and Day 2 - Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014:
Brian and I awoke around 7am to try and get the irrigation/electrical problem fixed. Once the electrician came out, Brian and him worked ALL day (9-6pm) on trying to find the bore pump, and dig it out through the worst tangle of roots I've ever seen! While they were messing with the electric and the bore pump I was busy packing and cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. Ran some errands for last minute stuff, packed up the car and finally gave up cleaning and preparing and decided to take the vacation plunge at 330am. [No sleep at this point]. Being an adult and going on vacation is SO much harder!! I appreciate everything my mom had to do for the cross-country vacations we used to take! We filled our tires with air from the coolest automated air pump ever! when you hook the hose up it tells you how much air pressure you have, you set it to what you tire is supposed to have and it does all the work for you! :) It was really neat, no more messing with tire gauges! We then drove through the car wash to make sure our windows were as bug free as possible. I drove for about an hour and a half without blinking the last 45 minutes because we were going through a reserve at 110kms/h and tiny tiny lanes with huge road trains trying to push our tiny car off the road with their wind as they passed! I finally had enough and pulled off onto a gravel road meant to be a rest stop. Brian took over but only lasted about 20 mins before he realised he was too tired for what the road was like! So just as the sky began to lighten we pulled off at another gravel rest stop area (No bathrooms at any of these fyi) and we decided to sleep for about 30 mins sitting up… we actually ended up sleeping about 2 hours (felt like 10 mins) with only one emergency pee break where I needed Brian to hold up a blanket so I could pee behind a tree! Thats the way I've had to vacation for years with my family! Hold it or pee on the side of the road! hahaha [officially day 2 now] Brian took the driving lead and ended up driving us all the way to the cabin without switching! We did stop for fuel a few times just to keep the tank full because it is a scary distance between towns! As soon as we got to the cabin we were blown away! It was absolutely amazing! We ate lunch immediately after unloading the car into the entrance way. Took a nap. Woke up for dinner (best vegan hot dogs ever) and watched Big Bang Theory while we cooked, and then started Avatar but pretty much went straight back to bed!
Day 3 - Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014:
We woke up about 9am (have to turn the water heater on and wait at least 20 mins before you will have a hot shower) so we ate breakfast while we waited. Our original plan was to head straight to Albany to get a map because our phones didn't work anywhere near the property [francis road, Lowlands, WA] check it out! :) Instead we ended up driving around the farmlands of the lowlands and introducing our TINY car to gravel roads. We travel at 10kms/h and we are all good! So what if it takes us FOREVER to go 10kms but we get to where we want to go eventually. Brian and I are actually super impressed at how our ford made it through this vacation, we are so proud of it, but we can't wait to get a car with 4wd! On this mini adventure of being completely lost and just hoping we would find the main road again we saw so many HEALTHY cows and horses and even wild kangaroos! All the cattle down south were extremely beautiful! They had the most muscles I've EVER seen and were just HUGE! We eventually found the main road and headed east towards Albany. On our way there we saw a 6ft kangaroo just jump in front of the car in front of us (land on the middle line) and then jumped right in front of the two oncoming cars….and was hit and killed instantly! The oncoming car that hit him just exploded bumper and hood pieces everywhere and after the impact he was coming straight towards Brian and I - HEAD ON - then he recorrected and pulled off the road. The car in front of us and us kept going because two other cars had already started to stop! Brian was driving and saw the initial impact and had to deal with the car heading towards us, while I just saw the kangaroo fall to the road, get run over and turn into a rag doll. He didn't explode, it wasn't bloody, he just instantly looked fake after passing away, Ive never seen anything like it…… Brian and I were in a state of shock for a good long while after that! We continued on to Albany and we made it! We drove into town, tried to find the information centre by following the signs, but ended up taking a scenic drive around this mountain side [Mt. Clarence] and over into the next town. We stopped near some beach trails and used the toilets and we planned on hiking around a little but then the rain had picked up so we decided we better go get lunch. we drove the scenic route back to Albany and had lunch at a vegan/juice cafe and it was really good! Albany is a really cute small coastal town that was super popular when the port was booming more and now Fremantle is the major port for WA and Albany just does grain and such and so now Albany has been transitioning to a tourist town and you can tell its still trying to work out the kinks in that one, but it was still a cute place to be. Brian and I didn't stay in any town very long - we were always by the coast! After lunch we went back around Mt. Clarence to stop at the scenic lookout points to take photos and then we explored more of the town on the other side of the hill by car because it was still sprinkling. Then after getting lost and driving around - finding the town called Dog Rock which has a giant rock in the middle of it that looks like a dogs head and it had a painted on collar! We couldn't stop to get a picture :( Only after this adventure did we realise Mt. Clarence was just in the middle of Albany and the town is technically considered to contain all the small suburbs around the base of the hill and that they weren't technically separate towns. After circling the mountain once and winding back up on Albany's main street we stopped at a camera shop and bought an 8GB SD card for the camera because I knew the 2GB one would never cover the whole trip! Next we once again went to the scenic drive where there was a turn off to go up a road that leads to the top of Mt. Clarence only to find that the road to the top was under construction so we tried the other road and that took us to an old World War 1 and 2 museum. We didn't actually pay to stay because it was too cloudy to see some of the cool lookout points to the ocean but we got to see a few of the big guns as we were turning around in the parking lot. We planned on going back on a clearer day, but it didn't happen this trip. Next we went to the liquor store and went to the grocery store to get a few BBQ supplies! And were going to head home… instead we missed the turnoff to the road we wanted and ended up going down the Frenchman's Bay Scenic Drive! It was the best place to get lost!! It was the arm of the continent that forms Princess Royal Harbour, King George Sound, and the Port for Albany. This scenic drive had many turn offs for sight seeing opportunities and Brian and I only turned down one of the roads to start and it was heading towards The Gap, but we didn't make it there that day. We stopped at the first parking area which was cable beach and there was a light house and crazy views of the ocean. Just snapped a view photos and then decided to try to find our way back to our cabin. The wrong turn ended up showing us some of the main places we ended up hiking on the rest of our trip and it was amazing!! When we made it home we just BBQd, played cribbage and finished Avatar.
Day 4 - Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014:
We woke up late and didn't hit the road until 10am. We went back towards Albany and went back down the Frenchman's Drive. We went to the farthest tip of the arm [that you are allowed to drive to] and to the west which was whale world - an old whaling station turned into a museum. We didn't pay to check it out. We went instead to the east side of this giant finger like projection of the continent. Found REALLY nice bathrooms, and started hiking. Then ate lunch at a really cute small beach. Then we drove back on Frenchman's Bay Road and took the turn towards the Salmon Holes! We hiked down to the salmon hole beach which was our first experience with LOADS of beach stairs!! We just missed the salmon spawning time. They come in to this little protected zone to lay their eggs and then they start leaving in February. Apparently they were all gone already. Today we weren't prepared to find access to the beaches and thought we were only going to be able to hike to look out points, so we didn't have our swim gear with us or on, but we went swimming anyway! You could tell it was definitely the Southern Ocean and it was Antarctic waters! Felt like glacier water for sure, but so refreshing! Next stop near the salmon holes was Water Bay Point and Misery Beach [Another dirt road]. Went for another little swim there! Then followed a different dirt road off the same main road that took us up to a parking lot which was the entrance to a 16km hike for experienced hikers to reach bald head! The extreme tip! We planned to get up early in a few days and spend a whole day hiking it (it told us to plan for a 6-8hour return hike! WOOT! We actually never did end up making the hike because we either did stay at home days or it was rainy and it would be too dangerous. We would love to go back and do that hike in the future! By this time it was already starting to turn into dusk so we decided to make the journey back to the cabin. On the way home we decided to try and detour some construction and ended up at a dead-end road that turned into the entrance of the Regional Prison… we moved away from there pretty fast :) no more detours and we made it home safe to BBQ and watch the movie Man On A Ledge.
Day 5 - Friday, Feb. 14, 2014:
VALENTINES DAY but more importantly it was Scooters FIRST BIRTHDAY!! We were sad we missed it, but we have been giving her extra treats and snuggles now that we are back! This day we headed West to Denmark. We make it there by 10am, ate the best bakery EVER! and took off towards Nornalup even further west of Denmark. Here we found the Valley of the Giants and the Tree Top Walk. We survived the 40m high canopy walk [I LOVED it and Brian survived it]. That boy and his fear of heights cracked me up the WHOLE time! After a few hours wandering around the giant trees and in the canopy we headed to the coast to find the Conspicuous Cliffs. It was a 10km dirt road and turtle's pace that eventually and randomly turned into a paved road that actually lead to the cliffs… it didn't make sense to have a dirt road first, but hey its Australia - I don't ask questions! The cliffs was an AMAZING beach- had a river running through the hills and down across the beach to meet up with the river! we spent a couple hours there and then took the 9km dirt road towards peaceful bay - where we couldn't find the road to take us closer to the coast so we ended up making a giant loop and heading back towards the south coast Hwy which would take us back to Denmark way. That last leg of the journey was also paved so that was a nice change. Then we headed home. Stopped in Denmark at the Butcher Shop and got some marinated steak and chicken for the grill! We also got some Mustard Honey Herb sauce which was REALLY good but different than anything Ive ever tasted before! Then on the Lower Denmark Road again heading towards the Lowlands instead of the away like last time - WE SAW ANOTHER ROO!! I saw him at the edge of the road a pretty good distance ahead and we slowed down from 110kms/h and moved into the oncoming traffic lane because there thankfully was absolutely no one around us, and then right as we got close to the roo he started to jump across the road, so we gently moved back into our lane as he jumped into the oncoming traffic lane. We were still around 80kms/h when we were right next to him! Brian did a great job at avoiding the Kangaroo, but seriously?!?! Another one?? too much panic for the heart! We made it home safe, BBQ'd started the movie Hot Fuzz but went to bed before the end again. We are getting old I think! haha
Day 6 - Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014:
Woke up early and made it to Denmark by 8am. Ate at the bakery again - I had some cold vietnamese rice paper rolls which were AMAZING! and off course we got a donut! Then we went to the Denmark visitor centre which had a cool tour of history and then at the top you could overlook the town! It was neat! Huge logging history of the old growth forest and then farming was advertised to get settlers to come but all the cattle suffered from Cobalt deficiencies from grazing where the Karri trees had been logged, but the soil was fine on farms where the tingle trees where harvested. They called it something like the Denmark wasting disease because all the cattle got so thin and sick. And it took them about 30 or more years to discover the problem! All the cows I saw, definitely were not suffering from that anymore! :) Next we went almost back all the way to the Vally of The Giants and went to the Toffee Factory! We were there close to opening so they weren't quite ready to make toffee that day, but they had plenty of samples and we got 5, 3packs of toffee [Banana, Hazelnut, Brazilnut, Apple, Rum Raisin], I got Brian a bag of popcorn & Peanut Brittle, we got a jar of Marinated Garlic Pickles [which are cloves of garlic pickled with mustard seeds? Its very interesting]. And we got Elephant Rock Cider that they make on city of this family run place. We got one bottle of strawberry apple cider which was like champagne and a hint of strawberry and a 6 pack of sweet apple which was 8% alcohol and pretty dry, but still good. Next we went to Greene's Pool and it was a beautiful swimming beach but crowded compared to every other beach of maybe one other couple, so we just took pictures. The Bartholomew's Meadry was next! They have over 600 beehives and we got some honey ice-cream and a jar of creamed vanilla honey! YUM! That was a hard decision after taste testing like 20 different honeys! Next stop was the Chocolate Lounge! It was AMAZING and was started by a lady (who we met) who came from Belgium! We bought so much chocolate! :) sooo good! The chilli/salt chocolate was surprisingly delicious! The Cheese Factory was next on the list! We got some garlic and chive feta, garlic and chive cheddar type cheese, crackers, mini summer sausage sticks, mango frozen yogurt and chocolate gelato! We totally forgot to get a cheese platter! But I think it was because we were disappointed in the lack of cheese curds!! We found a new business adventure down south! Must introduce cheese curds and fried cheese curds to Australians! ;) Good Ole' Wisconsin teaching me all about good cheeses! We finally made it back to Denmark, stopped at the Bottle-O to get some more alcohol (always needed). Then I got a new bathing suit at a surf shop as well as goggles and a snorkel! Sadly we didn't get to use my new goggles because lack of reefs and warm enough water to enjoy them in! Then we went back to William's Bay and instead of turning into the Greene's Pool parking lot we went down some crazy dirt roads to get to Madfish Bay. Here we were able to wade across this small sand bar to this giant rock island. We walked/hiked the entire thing. There was a giant pool on the top of the rock where fish and crabs were living! The whole time I was telling Brian to be careful near the open ocean side that was just getting slammed with waves and then in the middle of the rocks where a small crab pool was I totally slipped and fell right on my bum-bum! I also stiffened my left arm and caught myself with my palm - bad choice because I had a bruised rotator cuff for 3 days! It sucked, but at least in the moment I wasn't seriously injured and I could continue to hike and swim pain free. Once we did a lap around the giant rock island, we went swimming between the rock and the beach where we parked (next to the sandbar). He we saw a GIANT ray! It was really cool, but scary! Just saw a big black shadow moving out from the shallows heading out to open ocean! Next we drove to another beach on the same gravel road called waterfall beach, but didn't go swimming and decided to head home before we would have to battle kangaroos at dusk! Near Greene's Pool was also a road heading to Elephant Rocks, but it was getting to dark to go see them and we never got a chance to go back! One day! we BBQ'd for dinner AGAIN and Brian made really really good garlicy baked potatoes! We finished Hot Fuzz and went to bed! oh there was a little more cribbage at dinner time!
Day 7 - Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014:
Day of Rest: Slept till noon, watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith, played Cribbage and BBQ'd a light lunch, watched Big Bang Theory while playing Words with Friends, did laundry and dishes, BBQ'd for dinner, watched the Escapist, and went back to bed!
Day 8 - Monday, Feb. 17, 2014:
woke up around 9am. Turned on water heater and went to feed the wild birds, found 5 guinea hen eggs, put them in the chickens cage to be a better mother than the Guinea's are. Showered. Ate breakfast and drove back to the Frenchman's Bay Road and started at The Gap and the Natural Bridge. REALLY COOL! and the waves slamming into the Gap was JUST like thunder! It was grey and cloudy to so it was very deceptive! Next we went back to that lighthouse we saw earlier in the trip and actually hiked to it and past it to the lookout point. We forgot to pack lunch so we drove all the way back into Albany for lunch. came back to Frenchman's Bay Rd and went to the blowholes which was just opposite the bay of the lighthouse! They were really cool, but not blowing terribly strong spouts of water, just a little sound but the sound was as loud as gunshots! It was intense! As we were sitting there patiently waiting for the blowholes to pick up I pointed out 4 dolphins to everyone who was near us! :) I LOVE DOLPHINS! After the 800m hike to the blowholes and back up the mountain of stairs, we went back to the lighthouse parking lot and hiked down to the beach and there was a really cool stone wall that would break the waves so our little standing pool was very tame and it was awesome! Then it was home for another BBQ, cribbage and bed kind of night! We went to bed really early because we planned on doing the 16km hike to Bald Head in the morning, but then we ended up taking another relax day and doing nothing.
Day 9 - Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014:
Relax day number two
Day 10 - Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014:
Went to Albany to see if we could get some cheap shopping in, but no real deals were to be found. Had some lunch. And we planned on going to the Rickety Gate Winery and Pepper and Salt restaurant for dinner, but they were both closed on wednesdays so we just went home. changed into swimsuits and went to the Lowlands Beach which was 2 minutes from the place we were staying the whole time and it was BEAUTIFUL!
Day 11 - Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014:
We decided to come home early and started cleaning and packed up and were on the road by 12:30! :) We got home by 6pm! It was the hottest car ride I have ever experienced because our car lugs when the AC is on so we never turn it on and we can't have our windows open more than 1/4 of the way (3/4thup) at maximum at 110kms/h our little car might take flight! It shakes and sways and its just awful to drive…. so sweat box it was! We had such nice temps (70-80s F) our whole trip but it was seriously 95F most of our trip home! We got to give squirt some kisses but he is staying with Mommy #1 for at least another week :) He has a vet appointment coming up very soon!!! Lucky Him! Scoots has been talking non-stop and I missed her like crazy! Well I hope you enjoy the pictures and enjoyed my story! I know it was long!
OH and we are super mad that we totally forgot about going to the Southernly Most Point in Western Australia! EH, how could we? So mad at ourselves! But its located at West Cape Howe National Park at Torbay Head!
