South West Loop: Day 11

Today we would be climbing the irrationally tall Gloucester Tree, the tallest bush fire lookout tree in the world and they still use it today if the planes can't fly. There are three trees in the area you can climb, the Diamond Tree is a bush fire lookout but not as tall and the Bicentennial Tree is the tallest but it's just a tourist attraction, it's never been used for bush fire lookouts. We settled for just the one, our interest in trees was beginning to wane.

In preparation we cooked up some bacon and eggs on the BBQ at Big Brook Dam because we would be earning the grease later then headed off to see what all the fuss was about.

It's one of those situations where you stand at the bottom looking up and thinking "why the fuck am I going to climb this thing again?" You get up it using long pegs that are driven into the tree, spiraling up it to the top and the pegs bend when you step on them.

Bend!!

Whats the problem with using proper, solid structures in this part of the world??

Buy hey, we made it to the top, oohed and ahhed at the view and climbed back down because the novelty of being 61 metres higher than normal soon wears off. My arms killed the next day.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Southern/Indian Ocean

After the trauma had worn off and we'd invested in some well earnt souveniers we headed off to Point Augusta, home of Cape Leeuwin lighthouse and where the Southern and Indian oceans meet. This is worth checking out because you can actually see where they meet, the waves seem to come in a different angles, sort of moving away from each other slightly. Ah bugger it, go check it out yerselves, I can't do all your bloody sightseeing for you now can I.

Where The Oceans Meet

Officially Back On The West Coast

Point Augusta is the most south-westerly point on mainland Australia so this put us officially back on the west coast. Naturally this earnt us a celebration so we got to Margaret River, referred to as Margs by the locals, checked into the Inne Town Backpackers then booked into Goodfellas restaurant because they let you BYO. We rocked up with a cask of goon which they promptly decanted into a bottle and put on ice. See, going up in the world, us. We made mental notes to ditch most of our friends when we got back to Perth on account of them no longer being posh enough for the likes of us.

Note How The Pinky Is Held Aloft Whilst Pouring

Us And Our New Mate, Darko

After we dropped the rest of the goon back at the hostel we kidnapped the hilarious and somewhat camp Darko, our roommate (and yes, Darko is his real name) and headed off to The Settlers for more drinking even though I ended up spending most the night and a whole lot of credit texting Swoop.

I've decided I'm going to have that part of my brain removed that makes me like people until I can afford shares in Optus.

written by

Koala Bear on April 21, 2007 from Margaret River, Australia

from the travel blog: Sod Off Great Big Mission Round Oz

tagged RoadTrip, LovinIt and SouthWestLoop

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