Margaret River

Sunday, January 24, 2010

I wasn’t the only guy who didn’t get much sleep, and that was mostly due to the snorer so I’m pretty blessed having at least a nice reason for being tired. We did a quick pack then headed away to a chocolate factory and a cheese tasting before getting into the town of Margaret River again, this time I got off the bus, along with Helen, Melissa and Burt, leaving only 3 people on the bus. We all stayed until the next Easy Rider tour went by which was in 4 days time, Burt just wanted to surf and avoid the snoring, Helen wanted to check out the town, and Melissa I don’t know, but we was all there, except for me who went just out of town to stay at The Lodge YHA.

My hostel was full of Japanese people, loads of them. When I arrived I met so many I got very confused and forget their names. There was also a mixture of others from France, Italy, Ireland, generally all over the place. I met 2 lovely French girls that remembered me from Perth who I chatted with whilst at the hostel who complimented my cooking, J they were looking for work, which seems to be big in the Margaret River and were staying around there hoping to find something or waiting for the next thing to arrive.

The first day I didn’t do much, went back into town and met up with the others, found out their plans etc. then I think I might have played chess with Helen, at which I lost terribly. The next day I went for a walk down the river with Helen (she’s nice to hang out with), and I talked, a lot. I think I was pretty annoying, although Helen was nice and didn’t hit me over the head with a branch to shut me up. I nattered away like crazy about all my problems and everything else I could think of, not quite sure why today had me feeling so talkative, or perhaps whiney depending on how you look at it, but either way I just couldn’t stop. Helens response was to kindly point out that I was being a bit of a nob, and to tell me to stop worrying and just let it work itself out. I stopped talking for perhaps 3 seconds before carrying on with my tirade. Eventually I shut up, which I’m sure brought Helen much relief, and I went back home to chill out.

At one point when I had no food, Yu (numerous name jokes were made) a Japanese surfer offered to cook for me, he was cooking a curry for a few people and included me in the delectable meal, then afterwards our Italian friend got out the profiteroles! This encounter led me to be involved with a little trip that headed down south. A group of awesome people and myself got in a 4x4 and drove. We headed south and meandered a little, taking smaller more scenic roads, this taking us through the Karri forests, which once entered confused the senses somewhat, I literally thought we had entered a giants world. We had to stop and get out just to wonder at the tall trees, this also led to a stinging fly getting in the car, which resulted in much flailing and attempted fly murder. Moving further into the mighty forest we took a dirt track and went down even more surreal tracks like tunnels through the trees, one of them leading to an off road event, true off-roading.

The road wasn’t even worth calling a road, I’m sure most cliffs are more stable to drive across however the car was a really good one, and it went straight over the boulders with ease, the track leading us to a sandy path. We got out and not expecting much trudged down the path to find the most beautiful scene I have seen in a while, and considering where I’ve been recently that’s saying something. The day was cloudy, and quite dark, yet the water was a striking blue green against the white sand, with not another person in sight and we ran down the little path taking photos and sliding down the sand to reach the beach. If it had been a hotter day we might have swum but as it was we were all wearing 2 layers against the cold and didn’t much fancy hypothermia. However it wasn’t necessary as we were content just to be there and see it. If asked to pinpoint exactly what made it so beautiful I couldn’t say, but we all agreed it was breathtaking and an amazing spot.

We all felt pretty elevated after this and next we headed just down the coast to Hamelin Bay, where there was other people. And apparently stingrays, which we didn’t really expect to see, so were naturally pretty surprised when we noticed a metre wide stingray floating past 2 feet from us. At this astounding sight we all got rather excited and began splashing about looking for more of them, we even touched them, being incredibly docile, to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had put something in the water. We could actually just stand there as they drifted over to us and glided over our feet. Then a quick climb up the rocks to take in the sun as it went down before heading back to the car and with a feeling like floating we drove back home.