Excursion to Southwest AUS- Part One

Day One:

We left Perth early in the morning and drove to Margaret River (about 277 km south). We stopped at a roadside café that served meat pies, lamingtons, drinks, and other refreshments. Luckly, I don’t drink coffee because the ordering process is confusing to me. You can order a long black, flat white, or a short black, and I have no idea what any of these mean. After driving for some time we arrived at the Busselton Underwater Observatory. It was located at the end of the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere (about 2mi long)!

Gumby in the 12 passenger van

This is a Lamington- yellow cake covered in chocolate frosting and coconut. Delicious!

Benjamin, a fish who hangs out by the window for extended periods of time.

Look how long this jetty is!

Around the beach and lining the roads were Norfolk pine trees. I learned they were originally planted in Australia for ship masts. The trees that naturally grew here were unsuitable so the English planted the Norfolk pines. I didn't get a photo, but here is one taken by someone else:

Source

After the jetty, we continued south to Dunsborough where we all went swimming. It was beautiful and the water was so blue! The beaches here are very different from the Puget Sound region. There are no rocks and the sand is very light in color.

Team Perth Swimming in the Ocean!

Later that afternoon we stopped by the Wardan Aboriginal Centre where we took a bushwalk with a guide who explained to us how Aboriginals lived off the plants and animals of the bush. I learned that the native people used the timing of flowering plants as an indicator of when it was time to hunt animals or move to the coast for a certain fish. The aboriginals that lived in this region were the Wardandi people. The guide showed us so many plants that I can’t remember them all, but the most impressive to me was the grass tree. It is found all over WA but only grows 1 cm/yr. The trunk is made of old leaf bases held together with a natural resin. The Wardandi people used the resin, combined with kangaroo poop and ash, to make a “plastic” for tools.

Other trees we saw were the Jarrah, Sheoak, and Banksia.

Also, never kill an albino kangaroo because you will never have any children and someone in your family might die.

Papery tree bark

I'm not sure what this is, but it looks like it could be a beehive

"Honky nut" from a gum tree

Aboriginal House- it would usually be covered in paper bark

Notice the spot on the tree where a shield was cut out of the bark. Eventually, the tree will regrow over this area.

This is the "plastic" a stick is rolled in the powder an held over the fire. This is repeated until a thick layer is on the stick. Before it cools, shells or sharp rocks can be embedded into the gooey plastic.

Day Two:

The bread for breakfast came in a labeled bag! I also ate muesli and yogurt and picked up a few tiny samples of Vegemite.

Our next stop was the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. I bought one bar of dark chocolate, but mostly I just looked around at all the different sauces and treats.

Wall of chocolate sauces!

The giant milk freckle was a wafer of chocolate with 100's and 1000's (sprinkles) on top

Our next stop was the Yallingup Shearing Shed where we fed sheep, watched a shearing, and saw a sheepdog demonstration. There were two dogs helping with the sheep; a border collie, and an Australian Kelpie. Both dogs were amazing and had not received any formal dog training. Instead, they had been bred to perform a certain job.

Baaa

Beautiful wool socks

Here is the Kelpie helping to herd the sheep. This dog would run on top while the border collie stayed on the ground.

We got to feed lambs milk. Look at their tails! They wagged like happy dogs! I learned when they get older a rubber band is placed around the tail. It eventually turns black and falls off.

Fun Fact: If you are developing a blister put sheep's wool around it.
Fun Fact #2: Sheep do not get sunburned after a shearing because the lanolin in their skin attracts dust to help block the sun.

Gumby and Pokey enjoying the sun on Smiths Beach.

I saw a Goanna lizard in the bathroom at this beach. It tried to intimidate me with its blue tongue and then ran into the stall where one of my group members was. Our tour guide told us they will bite people but are not dangerous. I could rename my blog Go(Anna) in Oce(Anna)!

After sitting on the beach we went to Mammoth Cave. It was nice and cool inside compared to the hot weather outside. We went on a self guided tour with earphones through the cave. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites looked like upside down ice cream cones, alligators, and elephant trunks. There was also fossil evidence of ancient macrofauna from 12,000 years ago, before the last ice age.
Part Two is coming soon...