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Thursday, November 5, 2009

More and more travel photos...

From Albany, we drove to Denmark! Not the one in Europe, of course! This is an Australian version. We stopped by Greens Pool to hang out for a while, but we were disappointed that it didn't look as nice as in the brochures, due to the cloudy weather. Still, the water was crystal clear, even though it wasn't greenish blue...


This is one of those few places here in the South coast where it's safe to swim, this pool is well protected from the ocean currents by the surrounding rocks.


Kevin wasted no time in clambering up and down the rocks to explore the area... barefooted!




Kevin's dad and Agnes catching up!


By then, we had enough of beaches and coastline, so we headed into the southern forests for a change of scenery. Our next stop - the forests of the Ancient Empire in the Valley of the Giants.







The tree-top walk, designed to sway in the wind to mimic life in the trees... didn't go down too well with Kevin, with his fear of heights!




On the way to lunch, we stopped by a serene river for a photo...


Marron (a local freshwater lobster) and king trout lunch - the signature dishes in Pemberton.



After lunch, we visited the old train station and enjoyed a karri-forest walk in Pemberton.






We stopped for the night in Augusta, where Kevin spent the night working on his research proposal.


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

More travel photos...

As mentioned in the previous post, we suspect everyone is probably sick of all the travelling pictures by now! But then.. what to do... we still have lots of travelling photos to post, especially with Kevin's parents visiting. This has got to be the most spectacular trip yet! Also, after the heat on the weekend before, we thoroughly enjoyed the cold spring air!
Stopping by a few small towns along the way in our 411km drive down south to Albany...

Next to a petrol station in Williams...



Rose Maze at Kojonup...



We arrived in Albany just in time for lunch... at what is now Agnes' favourite restaurant...

Vancouver 51!


Agnes' favourite risotto!


Albany boasts some spectacular coastline... of course not as keng chao as the great ocean road on the east coast (we think).


the natural bridge, the gap and the blowholes that weren't blowing (the sea was too calm)...




This part of Australia used to be joined to Antarctica about 50 million years ago, but have since parted ways. In fact, it seems these rock formations can still be matched to identical rocks along the coast of the corresponding part of Antarctica!

We were at salmon beach just when there was a break in the clouds, to give the ocean a beautiful turqoise hue.






It seems quite a few people die here every year...


Albany's famous windfarm, right next to a spectacular coastline - providing renewable energy to the town.






This is Oakview Cottage, officially Agnes' favourite apartment...


in Agnes' favourite town in Western Australia... Albany!


Sun going down after a long, tiring day...




And Kevin ended the day by working on his research proposal...



Monday, November 2, 2009

Aiyoyo... so hot!

It was 3 Saturdays ago. Who would have guessed that on a Spring day in Perth, it could go up to 36 degrees Celcius? Who would, on this day choose to travel up north of Perth to the countryside, which is even hotter? Only such as us. And what do you get on a hot day at the countryside? FLIES. Flies that stick closer than a brother!

Despite the warmth and the flies, we actually did quite a lot. It began with an unplanned stop when we saw a 'Strawberry Tasting' signboard.



Then, we went for a stroll at Yanchep National Park.





The next destination was the town of Lancelin but on the way, we stopped by Guilderton for some scenery. Here, you can see the river joining to the sea, creating an interesting contrast in the colour.



In Lancelin, we had lunch in the midst of the most annoying of flies. So, we gobbled down our food and moved on to the next stop. We went to the jetty and were greeted by the gorgeous turqoise sea. Lancelin is popular for water sports but of course, we only wanted to snap some photographs and get back into the car as quickly as possible!



One the way out of Lancelin, we stopped by the sand dunes, hoping to catch one or two sand boarders in action. Alas, all we got were more flies. If you click to enlarge the next photograph, you might be able to see the ones on Agnes' face!


Our final stop of the day was New Norcia, the only monastic town in Australia. We bought a loaf of fruit bread for $7.90, baked in the 100 year old wood-fired oven of the town's popular bakery.