South West Oz

Our superb apartment on New Years Eve
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We drove five hours to Albany on the South coast where we had booked our own little apartment for New Years Eve (courtsey of the Lindseys). Even though it was only one night it was fantastic to have a break from hostels and have our own place- we even had a balcony with a view. We got our monies worth by cooking a nice meal and watched a few DVDs. We only ventured out once at midnight, champagne and sparklers in hand, to watch the fireworks at the waterfront.

Before leaving Albany we explored the area including the coastal rock formations, the Natural Bridge and the Gap, a Whaling Museum (which was more interesting than it sounds),some great beaches - Frenchmans Bay and Narrarup - where we had a failed attempt at body boarding.

The Bridge
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We headed North West along the coast stopping first at Warpole for the famous 'Tree Top Walk'. It has to be said it was ok (it was basically a walk up a slope through some trees) but way overhyped and we were shocked to see "I survived the tree top walk" t-shirts in the souvenir shop. What next - "I survived the drive to work" t-shirts. Along the drive to Margaret River its a tall tree fest and we got a bit tree-d out to be honest. The highlight on this stretch was a trout farm/ restaurant where you catch your lunch yourself in the lake which they then cook up for you. We feasted on three tasty trout and enjoyed our first real  go at fishing although Michelle got a bit upset with the messy job of removing the hooks from the fishes mouths.