After escaping the "routine" of Badgingarra, we booked ourselves on a tour of the Southwest corner of Australia. We took 5 days to travel down to a beautiful place called Esperance and back to Perth via lots of little places on the coast.

We reached Esperance having visited the Dog Cemetary (don't ask) and Wave Rock, which is merely a giant rock that looks like a wave. Esperance is another beautiful place. What can we say. Again have a look at the photos and you'll see where we are coming from. The sands are sooooo white and the waters crystal clear and turquoise. There was a bit of a wind chill so we didn't actually make it into the water, but the view was fine from where we were! We went to Cape le Grand National park and climbed a huge rock to see views over the area, it was good to see although knackering after doing nothing for so long! We saw Sammy the Sealion, who unfortunately had a bad cold and sneezed a lot. Bless!

We then went on to a place called Albany and visited beaches like the photos all day long, which can get a bit tedious even though they were so beautiful!

Day four took us to the Tree Top walk where we got scared 40m above ground and wandered through the treetops in this huge forest. The walkway was all a bit wobbly and it doesn't help when you have a pesky German behind jumping up and down!! (Alex!!) We then visited the Bi-Centennial tree which has a look out at the top (72m high) which you can climb to using the lovely rods that are stuck into the tree. There's a handy net to catch you if you fall sideways, but no harness, helmet or handrail, which is helpful! Needless to say we didn't manage it, although the crazy German Walkway Wobbler got all the way to the top, so he could well be forgiven. After this, we were treated to a trip to the honey shop, where they sell all things containing honey. The wine was good, but the ice cream lacked creamy-ness, but was nice all the same.

Finally, day five took us to a chocolate factory and a winery, before 9.30am! We managed to complete all the tasks required and weren't too tipsy before heading off to climb yet more rocks from one beautiful beach to another. We did manage this treacherous climb which had us leaping over Elephant Rocks while the sea flowed in and out below. We managed to get a bit more flexible during the climb where we had to lift our legs over our heads to get through certain bits (with mosquitoes enjoying their lunch at the same time). After lunch of chicken Fajita's BBQ stylie at Yallingup, we headed up to Bunbury via Bussleton Jetty. It's the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, apparently. It's beautiful, but we would have been more impressed had we not been on a strict 15 minute countdown to leaving. The joys of tour groups. Finally we went on a dolphin cruise in Bunbury and were thrilled that the dolphins rode on the bow of the boat, which we haven't seen before. Basically the dolphins swim really fast at the very front of the boat and look to be having a whale of a time! Rich felt it was not unlike a dog sticking it's head out of the window and enjoying the breeze, which seems fair enough!

We'd love to say the group we were with were fantastic and sooooo much fun. But we can't lie! The Danish people were very solemn looking and I still don't know their names. Seasoned travellers too, maybe they should head home and look up "fun" in their dictionaries! Still, the rest of the group were ok, if a little quiet..... maybe we're just loud?!

Have fun people

Love

Kate and Rich xxxxxxxxxxxxxx