Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hi Everyone
Sorry we haven’t been in touch for ages.
I can’t believe it is Christmas already. It is so strange seeing Christmas decorations up everywhere and it is 32 degrees outside. We don’t feel very Christmassy at the moment because nothing reminds us of Christmas here.
I suppose I had better explain some of the photos we put up ages ago. There of some of Liam’s cousins 21st birthday when we all had to dress up as something beginning with ‘B’, we don’t dress like that normally!
We worked really hard in Margaret River on the vine yards. It was really hard work and long hours so my days in the vine yards are well and truly over! We worked on loads of different vine yards and winery’s but we don’t get much of it in England because it all gets sold here before it even makes it abroad. We started off shoot thinning like we told you before but after a month that ran out so we had to start doing wire lifting. That was so hard for me because I just wasn’t strong enough so I had to get Liam to help me a lot.
There are some photos of Kerry and Ross on there. They are the people who we stayed with for the two months we were in Margaret River. They are such nice people, we really miss them. One weekend they took us out to the Boranup forest for a sausage sizzle which was really good and the next day they took us out on their friends boat on the Blackwood River to a place called Augusta where we had lunch and you can see the river meeting the sea. There were stunning views, it was a great weekend.
For Liam’s birthday we went to an island off the coast of Perth called Rottnest. Rottnest is home to these little creatures called Quokas. They are only found on Rottnest, no where else in the world. I thought they were cute at first but I soon changed my mind. They look like a cross between a rat and a Kangaroo! Yuk. They were really tame and always after food off you. One even jumped up onto our table and started eating of my plate!!! On the island there are no vehicles allowed so everyone hires bikes. So we cycled to 11km around the island. My bum hurt loads the next day.
There is a load to do around the Margaret River region so we tried to make the mast of our time there. We went to one of many caves that are around. We went to Lake Cave. We had to go through a really small hole to get in there but it was massive when you got in there. They had lit it up beautifully. It was a bit eerie in there after a while so I was glad to get out.
The next town along is a place called Busselton. There they have the Jetty which is the biggest wooden structure in Australia. At the end of the Jetty there is an underwater observatory. We went there one weekend. The observatory was great to see the marine life that is really close to the shore. The coral was really brightly coloured. However we didn’t spend too long down there as there was a screaming child with apparently no parent around, so we left!
We were in Margaret River just in time for the Wine Festival which I was pleased about. The main part of it was held in Cowaramup where we were staying, called the Fusion festival. Loads of wineries for the area have stands there along with brewery’s and various food companies. They gave us a glass when we went in and you just go around all day sampling all the different wines, it was great. There was also a massive stage there where there were different bands playing all day. It was a great day, the sun was really hot so we were sat on the grass listening to the music. As the wine festival was on all weekend there were lots of different things going on all over the place. So we just drove around to various places. The cheese factory, coffee works, chocolate factory. We ended up at The Bushshack Brewery. They sell gourmet beers. Chocolate beer, passionfruit beer, strawberry beer!!!! Interesting is the only word I can use!
On our last weekend in Margaret River we decided we couldn’t leave without doing a wine tour. We went with a friend from work and had a brilliant day. We visited 5 wineries and a brewery. At each winery they give you four whites and four reds to try! We had a great bush tucker lunch with kangaroo and berries and witchetty grubs (we didn’t eat those). At the end of the day we had tried so many wines they just all started tasting the same. Then we had to go and meet everyone from work for goodbye drinks! Needless to say we were in bed early that night.
Liam’s cousins came down from Perth to say goodbye to us. We all went for lunch to the Colonial brewery where we all had a paddle of beer (you get a little glass of all the different beers they do) then back to Kerry and Ross’s for a game of cricket in the sun with a few wines of course.
We had to say goodbye to everyone on the Monday morning which was really sad. We had such a good time with Ross and Kerry and it had been great meeting the rest of Liam’s family and I’m sure one day we will go back. It is such a beautiful part of the world, I’m really glad we went there.
On Dec 4th we started making our way across the Melbourne. On the first day we stoped at Walpole to do a tree top walk which is quite famous around here. No one told me the bridges moved, oh my god I though I was going to fall out of the trees. I didn’t like it so I was glad when my feet were back on the ground. We made really good time, the journey is 3000km so it is like driving across Europe. We made it across the Nullarbor (meaning ‘no trees’) in 1 day. There wasn’t much to see and you don’t see anyone for hours on end. By the fourth day we were in Adelaide so we decided to stay for a couple of nights. We had a walk around the city. Compared to Perth it has got so much more history and it is a lot bigger! I really liked Adelaide although it doesn’t seem to have a good reputation with the rest of Australia. This is where it started getting hot, it was 34 degrees ain the day and it stayed 25 degrees at night. It was horrible in the van we didn’t sleep at all. We will have to do something about getting air con if it going to be like that.
Anyway we have arrived in Koo Wee Rup. This is a small town an hour out of Melbourne. There are lots of bushfires about 100km from here at the moment so there is a lot of smoke in the air. It is all over the news, it is quite scary as they can’t get it under control because there are strong winds. But apparently it’s quite normal for this time of year. We are staying with my family friends over Christmas and my parents will be here in a week so we are looking forward to seeing them. We have already been into the city which I love already, it had got a great cosmopolitan atmosphere and with all the Christmas decorations up it’s really pretty at he moment. We are off to the beach as the smoke has cleared a little today.
Thanks for everyone’s messages on our site, it’s really nice to hear from you all. I hope you are all ready for Christmas, it seems to come around so quickly, we have already been away for 6 months!!!! Already half way through.
Happy Christmas everyone xxx
- comments