South Western Australia

Whew! I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry to give excuses, but the internet distribution in the more remote regions of Australia is either very slow, very limited, or very non-existent! So we have some catching up to do...

While WWOOFing at the apiary, we had the wonderful opportunity to take a trip to Wedge Island for the Australia Day long weekend. Our host's daughter and her friends were going to be passing by the property, and very thoughtfully offered to pick us up to go with them. Canada Day is fun and all, with fireworks, maybe some camping and a 24, but it's nothing compared to the celebrations that happen nation-wide for the Australian holiday! It is a huge celebration, with the "celebrating" starting very early in teh morning, and continuing til very late, for every day of the three-day weekend. Everyone and their mom hits the beach, in troupies and utes, decked out with shade sails, beach chairs, barbecues, and the Triple J top 100 blaring from every vehicle. We slathered on the sunscreen and bummed around the beach the whole sunny weekend, and Jason even got to experience a bit of beginner kite-surfing! We slept in our tent behind the beach shack, which was sufficiently full of sand by the end of the weekend. It was a great experience, and we got to meet many interesting people who had been gathering at this spot for many years. A great inundation of Aussie culture.

After our fun-filled and sting-filled time at Homestead Honey, Jason and I looked for a way to get to our next host in Margaret River, WA-the famous wine and surf region! Still not having a car, we were desperately searching on RideShare, Gum Tree (the Aussie equivalent of Kijiji), and Couch Surfers for a lift south, about 5 hrs away from the apiary. Our contingency plan was to either hitch-hike or bus it, but at the last minute we found a ride with another beekeeper! He was coming to our host's location to drop off some bee boxes, and heading home to Busselton, which was almost all the way to Margaret River. So we helped this bee man deliver some more boxes on the way, complete with (many) more stings for Jason, as he only had the one proper bee suit... and we finally arrived in Busselton around 10pm, a bit late to catch the bus the rest of the way. We asked our ride to drop us off at the nearby caravan park so we could camp for the night and leave in the am, but out of the goodness and probably pity in his heart he insisted we crash at his place instead. We arrived unannounced to the rest of his family, which seemed initially to be a source of tension, but after a little conversation I think they all felt that we weren't murderous hitchers. So we crashed in the lounge room, and his lovely wife drove us into town in the morning after dropping the kids at school :)

We did a bit of shopping while waiting for the afternoon bus, locating some new sunglasses to replace the ones that were claimed by the ocean at Wedge, and acquainted ourselves with Busselton. The bus ride took us through a scenic route to Margs, where we espied vineyard after vineyard along the lovely Caves Road. We finally contacted our host from town, who picked us up and took us to our new home for the next three weeks! We were amused and intrigued by Jim's evidently laid-back attitude, his Hawaiian shirt and surf shorts, and his American accent. Turns out he served in the Navy, and when his stint was up moved to Australia for the surf. He has been an active and innovative part of the local community for the last 30 years, and we were going to be staying at Matan's Art Gallery and Lodge, which houses artists and backpackers as well as Jim and his family. Jim and his wife are both talented artists, and for the three weeks we spent with them we worked mornings and afternoons on various art projects, took a midday beach break nearly every day, had dinner parties and pizza nights, bottled homemade beer and cider, drank it, and spent our days off learning to surf (or scurf) at the beautiful beaches on the south west coast of Australia. Needless to say, we were in heaven! We also hosted a West African Drumming Workshop at the gallery before our time was up, and you can see a video of our time at Matan's here. We also learned that these folks were well connected with our next two hosts that we had lined up, so we knew we would continue to enjoy ourselves in WA.

The other thing we managed to accomplish in Margaret River was to purchase a car! After chatting to some other travellers who were staying at the lodge, we decided it would be worth our while to invest in a vehicle that would allow us to see more of Australia at our leisure, and that would also serve as a bed when it came time to cross the long stretches of road to the other side of the country. So we managed to find a gently used Hyundai Lantra Wagon for $2000, with space enough for us both to sleep in the back. It has so far proved to be a great investment, low maintenance, and a very reliable car :)

So we drove our new car from Margaret River along the coast through Hamelin Bay and Port Augusta on our way to our new hosts in Denmark. We had a tip from a local fisherman in Margs to check out Hamelin Bay for some stingrays! It proved to be a great tip, and we caught lots of video of our close encounters with the creatures, as well as our visit to Jewel Cave. Finally we had the freedom to see some sights and stop along the way to our next destination, not having to rely on bus schedules or the kindness of strangers to get us where we needed to go. We drove through the giant Karri forests on our way to Denmark, home to some of the tallest trees on the continent, and the first real forests we had seen since leaving Canada. Australia is nothing if not beautiful, but forests and woodlands are not the norm, and we were beginning to miss the sight and smell of the trees. In this way we made our way to the southern coast of WA, and found our next destination at the Wolery, an intentional community near the green and alternative town of Denmark.

We spent two weeks here in a mudbrick, solar passive home, on a permaculture property, with a well-travelled couple who took us in as members of their family almost as soon as we met them. We ate the most amazing, fresh, organic and loved food from their extensive garden, homemade sourdough and preserves of all kinds, and Louise's beautiful Anzac cookies, made especially vegan just for us. We spent plenty of time in the garden with Lousie, making compost piles, harvesting veggies, and learning about the benefits of incorporating chooks and ducks in the fruit orchard. Our primary function while here was to help Simon build a new retaining wall out of Earthbricks, complete with a frame for a future pond. We finished it just in time, and got lots of footage of the building process. The other perk that made our stay in Denmark particularly memorable was the nearby beach, Greens Pool. Our first sighting of it's white sand, crystal clear waters and rocky surroundings made our jaws drop. It was the perfect spot to try out our new snorkeling gear that we acquired in Margaret River, and has certainly been one of the highlights of our trip so far. We spent so many days at the beach, and we were spoiled with weather until just before we left. Sadly we didn't get to take photos when the weather was pristine, but there are plenty of snorkeling videos from all of our underwater adventures. Simon also tutored Jason in some fine points of photography, which has certainly improved our ability to capture our trip on film ever since.

We were certainly spoiled with secluded beaches, beautiful coastline, and a very hippie friendly atmosphere in Denmark. We miss all of the lovely people we met in WA, and the summer weather, but it was time to move on to another part of the massive country and a new phase of our trip. We were about to cover about 3000 kms on our way across the desert, so stay tuned for the next post with all the photos and videos to prove it. In the meantime, here are the photos of our progress so far, and all of our current videos are here on youtube. See you later, WA!