Well Im terribly sorry to say that I have not been in a blogging mood for the last 2 weeks. We have been cursed with lots of rain and if its not raining it is cloudy, windy or cold and usually of all three. I can count on one hand the number of decent days weve had since being in the motorhome these last 3 weeks. We are getting super fat sitting around in the van waiting for the weather to improve so we can go outside and DO something. In fact I think this is THE worst holiday weve done in the 32 years Ive been dragging Noel around the globe. We did have really bad weather in April 1989 when 2 cyclones wiped out far north Queensland, while we road tripped up to Port Douglas and back. However we were young lovers then and endless hours cooped up inside was not a problem for us thenif you know what I mean (wink wink). Im sure Ive just freaked my sons out hahahahaha!!
Our other problem is that we have managed to perfect the ability to visit attractions that are closed or broken on the only days
that we are available in that area. People keep saying come back tomorrow or well be open on the weekend. Not helpful when we only have one and a half days at each stop before driving to our next destination. Even the freaking dolphins are not at the Dolphin Discovery Centre in Bunbury. They advertise that the right into the shoreline most days for interactions with visitors. So we delayed our trip north so we could go see them after being turned away the afternoon before (closing at 3pm!!! Who closes at 3pm???), only to be told by a volunteer that its nearly winter so the 70 dolphins are staying out near the ocean to chase fish. Surely there are still fish in the freaking huge bay for them to eat? Anyway, yet another disappointment.
Ok enough whining. Now Ill let you know about some of the things we have managed to do in between all the bad weather and closures.
We swam in the cold Indian Ocean at Greens Pool and followed that up with a very yummy cheese and fruit platter at Ducketts winery and cheese factory. Noel climbed the huge Gloucester tree
that just has rebar spikes, as hand and foot holds, winding up the tree trunk with NO safety net to catch anyone who slips through the bars!! YIKES. The tree is 58 metres high and is used as a fire lookout over the forest. My heart was in my mouth as I watched a family with 4 little kids climb down. The spaces between each bar were quite big and the kids had to take huge backward steps to climb down. I really did sigh with relief when they all got down. We did a tree top walk in the Valley of the Giants. Noel takes great delight in making the big walkways bounce while Im 20, 30, 40 metres off the forest floor, which freaks me out. It was so high up that we found out that a couple actually snuck in and base jumped off the tallest span. Noel and I saw them sneaking out into the carpark while we were on a walk. They didnt want to get caught or fined so just traipsed on through the bush that had signs everywhere saying stay on the path so the wildlife wouldnt be trampled. We were not amused.
We visited Jewel and Mammoth Caves near Margaret River. The good thing about caves is that not much inside when its pouring outside. On the way from Margaret River to Busselton we stopped at a place called Dunsborough. Its not a huge place and it was raining pretty hardyet again so after checking out the myriad of eateries, which is about the only thing to do in Dunsborough, Noel decides he feels like Subway. I stay in the van (to keep dry) and when Noel gets back he says Youll NEVER guess who I just ran into. It turns out that in the exact same 5 minutes that Noel is in Subway, 4000 kms from Sydney, he bumps into a guy that we had a 5 minute chat to while on a shuttle bus from Sydney airport parking when we went to Cairns, back in April!!! Can you even believe it? And the guy doesnt even live in Dunsborough. He lives in Perth and decided to have a day out in Dunsborough 250 kms from home. Bizzare.
