From Gunny to Albany

Once again we can just say sorry for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, but here we are again, informing you on what has happend since the time around christmas!

In mean time we're not at the vinyard anymore, but before we'll tell you about all the exciting things we saw and did over the last days, we'll let you know about what happened at Gunyulgup Estate.

Before christmas we spent a weekend driving around the Margaret River region. We visited towns like Augusta, Nannup and Bridgetown. Even though (believe it or not!) it was a fairly rainy weekend, we enjoyed our trip and spent some hours in the lovely second hand shops.

We could also be found at the beach quite some times in the evenings, where we hoped to see a dramatic sunset. Even though these evenings supplied us with some nice pictures, the best sunset we saw was at the vinyard itself.

We spent christmas day all over the region, but especially on the beaches. We had, in fact, the hottest christmas in the world with +40degrees! Even though it was nice to wear nothing but swimming shorts over the christmas days, we didn't really feel the exciting december atmosphere that is all over Europe these days. On christmas eve we baked wraps, and filled them with vegetables, tofu, herbs and sauces. On top of that, we had warm cupcakes covered with vanilla custard. The time between christmas and new years eve was packed with work. On new years eve though we had a great time opening bottles of wine and champagne and eating chips & snacks and playing our recently bought game "Eternity II".

We didn't have any sort of firework in this region. The danger of starting a bushfire is just too high. So we welcomed 2008 with some sparkling sticks, sitting outside watching what seemed a thousand stars in the dark night.

During the last days at Gunyulgup, we saw two snakes crossing the street right in front of our car! They are way too fast to identify their kind or colour, though. The very last working day was on January, 4. Angie and Sjaak invited us to the Yallingup Caves House to have a nice goodbye drink under the setting sun. Our working mate Jim was there aswell, just like Sjaak and Angies daughter Saskia. (see picture below)

As a goodbye and thankyou gift they gave us a carton (!) of wine. This is the chance for us to thank our hosts for the past five weeks aswell: We had a great time and thankyou for all the advice and the hospitality!

The following weekend, especially on Sunday 6th, we packed our bags and placed all of our belonging into our Holden. At exactly noon we left "Gunny", heading towards Nannup again.

We didn't exactly get the best impression of the town last time we visited it ( it was raining bucketloads of water!), but at this point the sun was shining brightly, setting the sleepy town into a whole different light. We stopped at the Blackwood River Winery for a quick coffee and a piece of cake. We loved the food but especially the location very much. (see picture to the left)

Our next stop on the schedule was Pemberton. The town itself was, again, a bit sleepy. We stopped there to have lunch at the Big Brook Dam. It was getting pretty late and after several hours of driving we decided to call it a day. The following night we camped in the Shannon National Park, surrounded by bushes, trees and birds. We also met a couple from Switzerland on the campsite. They gave us great advice for an activity to do on the next day; they advised us to climb the 400m high Mt. Frankland. From the top of the mountain you have a beautiful 360degrees view over national parks. So the next day we packed up the tent again and headed for Mt. Frankland. We met the Swiss couple again there, and together we took on the mountain. The view on the top was indeed breathtaking...(see picture on the right). But the day had an even more breathtaking activity in store for us! Just after we went to the small town of Walpole, drove a scenic drive along the coast and visited the Giant Tingle Tree, we walked the Tree Top Walk. It might sound boring, but when you're walking 40m above the ground level, in between the massive Red Tingle Trees, which are unique to this park, you are fully aware of the power and strenght of nature (see picture on the left).

(Picture: Paul underneath the Giant Tingle Tree)

The town of Denmark was a tidy place, where Berrie got his hair cut and we visited some nice shops. Close to town are Green's Pool and the Elephant Rocks, some massive rocks in the ocean breaking the waves and offering a safe (but cold!) swimming beach.

After Denmark we went to Albany, the place where we are staying at the moment. What can we say, we absolutely love the city! It is located directly next to the ocean, has great shopping malls, lots of small but cosy shops (which create the towns nice atmosphere) and most importantly: lots of cafes. So far we had coffee at 3 different places, right now we're sitting in the Naked Bean Cafe (we rate it 5.5/10). But of course the city has more to offer than coffee. We went to see a war memorial (see picture on the right), with a magnificent view over the city of Albany and the surrounding area. Right after that we went to see the remainings of a fort from the first and second world war: Fort Princess Royal. We were highely impressed by the huge variety of things to see there: lookouts, bunkers, cannons and guns, galleries of belongings of soldiers from that time and loads more. After that we went back to our current campsite, Cosy Corner Beach. Situated right next to the beach, the waves are the last thing that we hear in the evening and the first thing to hear in the morning.


Yesterday we went to visit Whaleworld, 20km from Albany. This attraction features remainings from a cruel time in the history of Australia. Whales were shot by huge harpoons with grenades on them, and dragged into this whaling station. Flenchers cut off the blubber (fat), then the flesh, and then put everything into a huge cooker to produce the multifunctional whale oil. The oil was basically used for any product made during the 60's and 70's. We went on a whaling ship, saw a 3D movie, movies about whaling and sharks and took part in the very interesting guided tour through the complex. The whale skeletons impressed us (see picture below).

After a good 2 hours we went on to see a few more attractions, just a stonethrow away from Whaleworld. We saw "blowholes", if you're lucky (and the waves are strong) the water crashes into holes in the rocks and create a unique sound and sight. Unfortunately we were not amongst the people to experience that... We just saw a crack in the rock. The most amazing attractions though, were the Gap and the Natural Bridge. They were both sculptures of ocean rocks and even though we were disturbed by a huge, noisy crowd of French tourists, we enjoyed to see the formations. (Picture below: Berrie standing close to the Natural Bridge)

This very afternoon we got our new CD/MP3 player installed in our car! It is AMAZING! Kylie was the first to blast through the stereo.

That was it for now. See ya!


Distance travelled as of 11/01/2008: 5765km