We were only 10 km out of Margaret River and already we were lost. Peggy has given up on her navigator as totally useless. The Navigator feels that occasionally she gets it right, but the issue will remain forever in discussion. Best not to dwell on it.
However, every time we got lost (let me count the times....), we ended up having an unexpected adventure, so the navigator feels that these little side trips have actually been a lovely part of the holiday experience.
For example, if we hadn't gotten lost 10 km out of Margaret River, we never would have seen the guy taking his cows across the road. So there. >
Anyway, instead of going to Mt. Barker via Nannup, we took the roundabout way and ended up (at least this part was by design) in Augusta, which is the southwestern most city in Australia. We stood at the Leeuwen Lighthouse with the Southern Ocean on our left and the Indian Ocean on our right and froze our buns off. I have mentioned several times that the Indian Ocean is a different color--and you can really see it at this point (though it does not show in photos). The Southern Ocean looks dark and cold, while the Indian still maintains the bright azure blue when they meet at this point. (I decided against putting my feet in the Southern Ocean.)
After we left Augusta, we were headed for Pemberton and the Karri trees. Karri trees are the tallest trees in Australia and the third tallest trees in the world (second to the California redwoods and some ash tree). The oldest are estimated to be older than 400 years (making them younger than California redwoods as well). But they are uniquely shaped and impressive to walk under. When you see a forest of them on a hillside, it appears that the tallest of them are reaching out sharp branches to grasp at the air in the sky above.
We stopped in Pemberton at the visitor center to get the lay of the land and figure out where we were going to go. Peggy wanted to stop at the cemetery because she had been there before and remembered a grave she had seen of a young man (age 26) whose dog, after the man's death, used to come and sleep on top of the grave. After the dog died, they buried him with his master and added a statue of the dog to the tomb stone.
I love wandering around old cemeteries. You get such a sense of history of the town. But as I walked around Pemberton's cemetery, I got such an overwhelming sense of pain. Many of the graves were of young men who died accidentally, presumably in logging accidents (since this was a logging town--and still is). There were many babies and small children who died as well. When we came to one grave for a young girl of about 7, I just lost it and found myself unable to stop the tears. I've never quite been affected like that in a cemetery.
Next stop was a grove of karri trees. We decided on the Glouster Tree, the tallest in the area, and one which has been spiked so foresters can climb to the lookout house at the top and check for forest fires. It is now a tourist attraction and tourists are invited to climb the 153 spikes in the side of the tree (despite my stunning performance at the caves the day before, I declined the chance to climb several hundred feet into the air onto a small platform which was swaying in the breeze.)
We did, however, take an 800 meter walk through the grove of trees, which was lovely, as we were the only people on the trail until we got back near the Glouster Tree. We had a little dove-like bird which waddled on down the path ahead of us for quite a way, as if showing us the road, and an electric blue colored little bird which flitted in and out tantelizing us to try and catch him in our photo lenses. But we finally made it back to where we started and realized that it was after 1 p.m. and we hadn't had lunch yet.
We went to a take-away place and got chicken salad sandwiches (here "chicken salad" is chicken with salad, so it's a roll with sliced chicken, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and who knows what else....quite tasty). Peggy asked the navigator where we should go to eat our sandwiches. The navigator got us lost. Again.
HOWEVER, it was another mini adventure, as when we stopped to eat our sandwiches and check the maps, suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by six MG's, all of whom were out on their own travels from Perth. I had to take a photo. The car on the left in the photo (there are 3 cars which don't show) is from California. "Someplace that starts with G," the guy told me.
No more things to see, and we had places to go. We had another 100 km or so to drive, and made it almost without stopping, thought we did make one stop along the way to re-energize. When we got out of the car, we realized that the ground was covered with tiny wildflowers of all colours, which are so small that they are not visible from the road, but which are just gorgeous if you take the time out to stop and look around. It made the stop quite special.
We were headed to the home of friends of Peggy, Claire and Penny, who own three houses on several acres of land. They rent out one of the houses for people who want a "farm stay" in the country, and we are staying in that cottage. It came with freshly baked bread, warm blueberry muffins, a puppy, and a corned beef dinner. Now this is livin'!
We spent our first hours here investigating the livestock--sheep, miniature horses, big horses, various types of poultry, ducks, cats, and a couple of dogs, including the aforementioned puppy, who had Peggy eating out of her paw in about...oh...10 seconds or so. She took some terrific photos of her.
We had a lovely time over dinner, laughing a lot, and then retreated to the computer room where we settled in to get the "fix" we'd been missing for the previous two days. We will be here until Monday and it's a great place to just totally relax and enjoy communing with nature.
