A beautiful morning at last. And some yellow ringed-neck purple lorikeets, (which the French explorers named 28 because their tweets sounded like they were saying vingt-huit), greeted me on my little balcony over the lack as I jumped up to take some photos of the timber and cloud reflection on the glassy lake. I hurried into some togs and took a quick-paced hike on the trail that winds around the lake, up to a waterfall. It was only less than 2 miles, and I had to keep my eyes out for black snakes, but it was one of those early morning solitary walks that just set the day off right. After breakfast it was into the coach for a ride up to the Beedelup Waterfall (which I had already seen on my walk), with quick stops to photo the kangaroos in the morning sun, and watch the goat ram the post repeatedly. The waterfall walk included a swinging bridge, and we all took our time walking across and capturing the others as we navigated the wobbles. The waterfall was nothing like the one in Grampians — more like some water tumbling over rocks, but it was a lovely sound nonetheless, and a good little walk.
The coach delivered us next to Warren National Park and the Centennial Tree, which was a wide-trunked Karri into which spikes had been driven as a sort of ladder all the way to the top, at 65 meters! There was a young man already heading up the tree, barefoot, and I decided to give it a go — and climbed about 2 rotations around before deciding that it was enough. (It was further than anyone else on the tour tried, but clearly this was a young person’s venture!) It was pegged to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary in 1988, and was built like a fire lookout tree, but is only used as a tourist attraction.
A quick stop at a winery gave people the choice of what to have for morning “tea”, and as it was sunny it was nice to be outside on a patio overlooking a pond and watching the ducks and ibis.
Then onto Cape Leeuwin, where there the Great Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. There are only 3 places in the world where one can see two oceans meet and this is one of them. The lighthouse was built in 1865, as a necessary guard and watch for the ships heading into harbor in Perth or in Albany. The high winds in the area and the rocky outpost required a much deeper foundation be dug, down 22 feet in order to reach bedrock. It is at the most south-westerly point on the Australian mainland, and stands 128 ft tall. In addition to being a navigational aid, it serves as an important weather station. I found it fascinating to watch the waves from these two oceans collide and mix and wondered really whether anyone could tell the difference between the two massive, churning seas.
Who doesn’t love a sheep farm? And while I have seen sheep being shorn (last year, New Zealand), there’s just something about it that is interesting to watch. The lovely lamb being shorn today was lucky to have it’s entire coat shorn off in one big coat — one big merino coat. Our coach driver, Grant, suggested that I volunteer to be the shearer’s roustabout, which I did, and which just involved sweeping up afterwards! We then saw a demonstration of how border collies and kelpies herd and walk on the back of sheep — in a NY minute the collie had run off and the herd ran in — and were directed into the nearby paddocks. All the sheep for wool are ewes, because they provide the added benefit of babies — the males are shorn once and then sold for meat. There were two rams on the farm — they will do the “work” necessary to keep all the ewes productive! Not a bad gig.
Our accommodation tonight is on the beach at Abbey Beach in Bussleton, and it’s a lovely and calm post on a cove in the Indian Ocean. I took a walk along it before dinner and other than a few shells and jelly fish there wasn’t much to see — it was calm and like glass — a change from the windswept and huge waves at the southern tip.
The two English women who I’ve spent most of this trip with have been wonderful during what otherwise might have been a bit of a lonely 4-day tour. We’ve had some laughs, and it’s helped me get over my “me on a BUS TOUR!” Issue to have like-minded, funny and dear women to share it with. Tomorrow is our last day, but I don’t think this will be the last I hear of Valerie and Irene.
