We finally made it out in the car for some road tripping. We loaded up with food and camping gear and generally just headed south. We pulled in to any information centers along the way and gathered pamphlets and went to whatever looked interesting. We found some beautiful places and made it to the most southern point in Australia.
The landscape along the more remote areas is pristine. The water appears very powerful where it comes up along rock formation, too rough to get in. We took lots of photos so I can show you some of the beautiful areas. We found quiet beaches, forests, and general outback areas full of wild kangaroos.
Our first day we found an unique pier it is over a mile long, and once was used as railroad to load barges with wheat I believe. It is now only for tourists but it amazing to walk the length of the pier. At the end you can pay to go into a tunnel that allows you to go 8 meters under water to look at the coral reefs that are forming in the area and the underwater life. We took the tour and really enjoyed watching the various fish and the reef.
Along the pier people fish, mostly for squid, some people hearing our American accent asked us to join them to learn how to fish for squid. It was fascinating for Elise as the squid would squirt it's ink out once pulled out of the water. The water is so clear that the kids went snorkeling off the pier, just a few seconds after the kids got out of the water we saw three giant stingrays, I got a photo of a couple of them but they had moved away by the time I got my camera out. (I stand corrected -thanks Chelle - They are non-agressive).
We got to tour the Tingle Tree forest, which are the worlds third largest trees. The first two tallest trees are both found in California. There is a treetop walk where you get to gradually ascend to the upper level of the trees and walk around for quite a distance with a birds eye view of the forest. This I would recommend for anyone visiting here, it was really neat to be up that high on a secure bridge and look around for miles (kilometers). Look close at the picture below and you can see the bridge we are standing on, Todd took the picture from near the beginning.
We found factories where they make the local Western Australia chocolates, cheeses, nuts, and cereals. Samples are given out at all the factories, the factories are located in the wine country. Miles of grape farms dot the landscape all throughout this region. This area is called the Margaret River Valley.
Todd was in heaven as we stopped at each cheese factory for samples and to purchase some new cheese. The kids most enjoyed the lolly factory and chocolate factories. My favorite was the local nut factory where they sold chocolate covered nuts and varieties of muesli cereals.
The only complaint about the trip was that all the little kangaroos' mothers must have forgotten to teach them to look both ways before crossing the street. Hit kangaroos lay along the road side and whenever we were driving at dark, I was on duty to look for kangaroos crossing the street, more than once we had to slam on the breaks to avoid a roo who didn't look before crossing. Now I know why a high percentage of the cars here have roo bars on the front. From what we saw the roos are a lot worse than the deer that jump out at night. They seem to not notice at all, at least deer stop and stare at you. (The roos below had crossed a horse's fence and were eating his grass, the locals say the roos are very damaging to the farms.)
We made our first trip to an emergency room. Carson got hurt after doctor office hours and when we called the doctor's office they referred us to the local children's hospital. Carson got hit in the eye with a tennis ball at lessons. The eye puffed up and for awhile he just kept it closed and we iced it. Several hours later the swelling had got down but we noticed that his pupil didn't dilate. He had bruised the retina, and the eye doc is watching him for signs of a torn retina as he has a black spot in his vision and blurry vision. We have to go back to the doc to let them check his eye in four weeks to see if the retina will need to be reattached, or if it healed on its own. Leave it to us for a freak accident.
We miss you all and hope you are all well!
Love,
Todd, Pam, Nathan, Mikaela, Carson and little Elise
