Wine, waves and caves

17 January 2001, Manjimup, Western Australia

Here is the first instalment of this year and no doubt there will be more. Happy New Year to you all!

We had a really lovely Christmas with Al and James (and Debbie a friend of theirs from Stamford) – typical Aussie style with a visit to the beach followed by a BBQ. Dave did not let the Schindler family tradition go amiss and did his bit by making the champagne cocktails.

We then spent a few days around the Perth area catching up with friends. We brought in the New Year at the Trots (pony and trap racing) with Shaz having the most successful bet of the night (her only one) – great celebrations with a fantastic firework display to finish the evening.

We had one very stressful day trying to work out the motor vehicle regulations in WA – Spot’s registration was due, but as we bought him in New South Wales the regulations were different. Anyway we eventually persuaded NSW to allow us to re-register by post as at one stage we thought we might have to drive back to Sydney!

We even had one evening apart (the first in 3 ½ months) in Perth, which was something of a novelty if not rather strange. Shaz went on a girls night out with Al and Debbie, and Dave went to watch Tottenham v Ipswich at a friend’s house.

We started heading south from Perth on 3rd January and quickly got back into our ‘on the road’ routine. Al and James joined us for a great camping weekend at a lovely place called Peppermint Beach – we even managed to find an Indian restaurant to finish the weekend off in. The Chapman family who we also know from Perth just happened to be in the campsite next to us!

Our next stop was the Margaret River wine region where we took daily turns at driving so that we could both sample the local wines. We stayed in and around the region for five days and enjoyed watching the massive waves (apparently some of the best surf in the world, but we didn’t give it a go) and we also went ‘down under’ into a couple of limestone caves.

It has been rather strange the last couple of weeks for three reasons.

Firstly the climate has changed dramatically from the heat of the north – we are now enjoying much cooler weather (average 25 degrees) and even have to sleep under the duvet at night.

Secondly the distances we have to travel between places is so short – we have been used to planning food, petrol, etc for 400-600km trips and now we pass a town every 50kms.

And finally it is school holiday time here and most everywhere is very busy – something we are not at all used to, having often had campsites to ourselves. But saying that we are still meeting some lovely people. Only last Saturday night in beautiful Hamelin Bay the Aussie family next to us invited Dave out fishing (and he did catch one this time!), and had us both over to dinner – abalone, cray fish, steak, sausage and kebabs all washed down with some local wine! The Aussie people are on the whole very friendly and hospitable, not unlike the Irish!

We are now in Manjimup, the starting point for our next leg of the journey – exploring the Southern Forests area and getting back into the National Parks which we both love.

That’s all for now folks, please keep your news updates coming, we love hearing from you.

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