Friday, December 02, 2005

OZ stories II

Day 7 – Wednesday 1/12

Made our way down to Albany, stopping countless times along the way in blink towns for all sorts of stuff. Stopped at the Fruit Barn in Donnybrook for fruits (the ever-present bananas) and an apple pie, which Jules subsequently squished (“Julian, Julian, pudding and pie, squished them all and made them die”). Then in Kirup for meat pies and Balingup for a shop called Tinderbox, which sells really interesting formulations for acne, eczema, baby rubs, pregnant women rubs and whatnot. And then Manjimup for cherry hunting, but no cherries. Apparently the season has been too cool for cherries to ripen. Ha, those people have a Cherry Festival this weekend.. see how they have a cherry festival without cherries!

One thing I’m really impressed with about Oz is that the toilets are really clean. I mean like really well-maintained, even the public toilets in the parks and remote beaches come with toilet paper and don’t smell. Speaks a lot about public consciousness here. =)

After all those stops, we made it to Walpole, Nornalup and subsequently the Tree Top Walk at about 3.30pm. The Tree Top Walk goes through the Valley of the Giants, huge karri and tingle trees that can go up to 40-60m in height and have a trunk larger than an MPV. Suay-ly, it started to drizzle when we were up on the top of the Walk, and we had to hurry back to ground level. Really weird, taking out my umbrella on top of the Walk and traipsing down the metal struts looking for all the world like a China girl. Oh well. On the ground, the Ancient Empire walk was also rainy but we got to see the root systems of the trees – they have buttress roots, so you can walk in between the roots and since they are so large, 20 people can stand together in the space of one trunk.. you get the idea.

On the way from Tree Top Walk to Albany, stopped at a place called the Elephant Rocks and Greens Pool. Greens Pool is a sheltered inlet, amazing in the large (to my Singaporean eyes) waves of the Great Southern Ocean. The water looks like it has had blue food dye poured in it (in the words of Dani) – really bluey, greeny, and clear.

Elephant Rocks are flat rocks that jut out into the sea; I still can’t figure why “elephant”, but the scenery there is first class. Plenty of small beach trails to explore, jump across the rocks on the seashore, enjoy the cold south winds (that blow off Antarctica, one would imagine). One mystery is that down one of the paths, we saw a wind vane, solar panels and a small fenced-up pond with a lifebuoy, but no discernable sign of human habitation and no reason for all this stuff to be there on the beach. Weird eh.

Albany was reached after sunset, we decided to grab food before going to the motel. Ate at the Venice restaurant along York St, Albany’s main street. We had pizza and a seafood basket (fish and chips again, sigh), which was a fairly good if salty dinner. Finally we got to the Albany Court Motor Inn (some combination of these 4 words anyway) and settled into 2 3-bed rooms. Sleep at last.. =)

Day 8 – Thursday 2/12

Big breakfast of steak and ham sandwiches that we had brought down from Bunbury the day before. We went to see all the rest of the Albanian sights we hadn’t yet seen, starting from the Gap and the Natural Bridge. The Gap is like someone smashed a knife down from heaven and cut a block out of the coast – the water rushes in and foams like crazy. The spray gets thrown up all the way to the top of the cliff where we are standing, about 25m or so. The foam is something powerful, man.

Natural Bridge is a formation where the center of a limestone wall has been worn away, creating a gap in through which the waves rush. Huge sounds. But the Gap’s better.

Interestingly, the place where the Gap and Natural Bridge are have been matched to the corresponding coast of Antarctica, in terms of both the shape of the coast as well as the patterns of rocks. Supports the theory that Australia and Antarctica were once part of the same continent.

After that, we made our way to the Blowholes. They are cracks in the rock where spray is forced up through, but there wasn’t any spectacular blowing as the waves were not big enough, and the wind was in the wrong direction.

Jimmy Newhells harbour was next, a pretty little harbour that was very well sheltered from storms. Then Frenchman Bay, a very very very pretty area where we had a ‘picnic’ sort of lunch by the bayside. Waded in the sea and got my jeans wet, had to wear Jules’ huge shorts (which were like ¾ pants on me) back to the motel. Ah well.

Sandalwood Factory was next, some out-of-the-way out-of-the-world place that sells emu oil (yuck I don’t even want to think about how they GET the emu oil) and sandalwood stuff. Strange people. My mum and dad seemed very happy with the sandalwoody smell and bought heaps of stuff.

Also went up Mount Clarence, a hill with good views of Albany and surrounds. Very cold! We drove to Middleton Beach and Emu Point in search of dinner, both very gorgeous places, and ended up eating at a fish and chip place in Middleton Beach. (Is fish and chips starting to sound familiar to anyone.. hoho). Was supposed to be a takeaway and we didn’t know and ended up eating inside, they had to wait for us to close.. Oops.

Thursday is supposed to be late night shopping, but by the time we got back to York St at 8pm, most shops had already closed. Managed to pick up a bangle from a shop named Tutti Frutti at Albany Plaza. Funny, me.. The damage so far, one pair of earrings, one bangle, one brooch and one necklace, and NONE OF THEM MATCH EACH OTHER. Hahaha..

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