The next morning we hired a car and headed south towards Margaret River. Mhairi’s brother Gavin lived (and surfed) here for 4 months ish. He’d hooked us up with the lovely lady he used to stay with (Barb). She was unbelievably hospitable, welcoming us into the house and really making us feel comfortable.

It was great to see Leask (friend of Gav’s and Mhairis that I’d met in ChCh) again. Dangerous though as a long nights drinking often ensues.. as it did.

At one point (I forget the name of the proceeding) Leask bought a shot of sambuca for each of us. What you had to do was

1: Pour the shot into a glass
2: Light the sambuca.
3: Expose some bare flesh (bum, nipple, chest etc..) and stick the glass to yourself (the alcohol burning creates a tight vacuum)

4: Once you’ve burned yourself enough, unstick the glass and quickly cap your hand over the top (don’t let any of those fumes escape)
5: Inhale the fumes through a straw (powerful enough)
6: Tip out any remaining fluid and inhale through a straw.

Fun.

Following morning up at 8am and off to go to the crag climbing.

Domhnall took us to a place called Willarbrup or something like that. The routes were excellent quality, brilliant friction and set against the Indian Ocean. Perfect.

Perth is a lovely city – at least those are my impressions so far. Domhnall lives close to the city centre (10 min walk) in an incredible flat. I so should have done medicine! Even has a whirlpool spa in his bathroom.

So our tour started with a quick look around the CBD before heading out to a place called Freemantle which was an old prison colony (I think). Full of cafe’s and eateries set against the ocean.

We went to a microbrewery for lunch (after what must be my 154th ice-cream of the holiday to date). After that it was of to the excellent free shipwreck museum there. Most of the exhibits centre around the wreck of the batavia (which then turned into mutiny, torture and murder). Interestingly, the ship was carrying what was going to become the Gateway to Jakarta.

Which they managed to reassemble when the wreck was eventually discovered. Short story – Pelseart the captain wrecked the ship on a reef and took off with the officers to try to bring help. They got everyone to an island only to discover there was no fresh water. Bloke wot was called Cornelisz convinced the soldiers to head off to a nearby island to look for water, and left them stranded there.

Cornelisz then started his reign of terror – killing the women, children and the sick. Nice guy.

The captain Pelseart came back a month later with a rescue, and the stranded officers and the mutineers were in a race to tell their side of the story. The officers got there first…

And, as you can see from this pic, the mutineers (who were all – except for 4 hanged) had their hands cut off.

After the museum we browsed some of the shops. I thought this was a truly excellent sign. One wonders what happens when someone with a bikini goes in?

A walk along the beach – which Mad Domhnall went for a swim in

took us to an eaterie. The interesting thing was that it is run by the chef of Jacques Cousteau. We got spaghetti bologneise. And it was utterly delicious.

Drinks with friends of Domhnalls and Mhairis brought an end to a really fun day.

Well, the 18th of Sept has come, and Mhairi and I spent a good three hours hidden in behind a petrol station, cleaning and hosing the van down. I’ve tried to put a video up, so if you really want to see what it’s like from the inside (in a conspicuously clean state) it should be here.

It has been such a great 5 weeks (7 for Mhairi) in the van. Go anywhere, do anything.. never pay for accommodation..

I’m looking forward to seeing my friend Domhnall in Perth (we get in at 1am, he arrives back from (passing) hard med exams at 09:30 that morning.. To be honest, I’m slightly nervous about Asia, just the amount of ppl everywhere, having to really consciously look after possessions all the time.. still, it’ll work out.

Oh.. if anyone knows whether there’s a decent crossing into Cambodia from Thailand via land lemme know – my guide seems to suggest land crossings are bad idea, and that it’s better to fly – but I dunno if that’s true.

Here’s a pic from yesterday at Barron Falls – Kuranda

Well, me off back to the van for the last (sniff) drive.

After the Atherton Tablelands it was off to the Daintree Rainforest – about 120km North of Cairns. It was nice there, would have liked to do a crocodile boat tour, but time didn’t allow really..

However, there were more fig trees about (yes, I have a strangler-fig-tree-fixation)

It has mangroves, pretty much as a part of the rainforest. Mangroves are any area which has sea water at ground level? Or something like that. Either way, they send up shoots to the surface (I think the roots get fresh water beneath the surface, and send up shoots to breath. Or something…) Anyway, here’s a picture!

There were also some funny signs (the bird is a cassowary).. the first sign was for a ramp + to be careful of the cassowarys. Some artistic wag.

And another one for a dip.. in the ocean perhaps?

Then today (friday) up earlyish and hiked up to a mountain called the devils thumb looking down over daintree. This pic is not from the top, nor even on the hike, but it is of the daintree coast :)

There are about 1,145,621 different things to scratch and tear at your legs… still, a great hike, would reccommend.. and didn’t see any (live) snakes either. bonus.

Finally.. finished ‘A long walk to freedom’ by Nelson Mandella. Superb book.. I felt so ignorant after reading it.. (well, during my reading of it)

Westish of Cairns is a place called the Atherton Tablelands.. it’s rainforesty, and slightly cooler than the coast (temperature wise). We headed there after leaving the whitsundays (600km or something).

There were lots of nice rainforesty waterfally walks to do. These two waterfalls (silver and nandroya) were purty..

and nandroya

Not sure if I’ve talked about strangler fig trees before. Amazing trees really, start off life the size of a mustard seed (or so) somewhere high up in a tree (deposited there by bird / whatever). They then send roots down, and eventually end up strangling the host tree (takes about 100 years or so) and then go on living for a further 300 years. Anyway, most impressive.

This pic is of the Curtain Fig tree. So called because when the host tree died, it fell onto another tree, and so more roots were sent down by the fig, creating this curtain.

And there was also the cathedral fig tree, another massive strangler fig.

We also did oppostite ends (so we didn’t have to return the same way) of a walk in the Misty Mountains. They weren’t misty, and the views weren’t great.. but still.. good to stretch the legs.