We are now back in Perth - after driving round the south west peninsular of Australia. The wineries tour in the Margaret River region was great - thankyou Bushtucker Tours - and we sampled loads of different wines at five different vineyards, as well as visiting a cheese factory and chocolate factory and eating a delicious bushtucker lunch (I especially enjoyed the witchetty grub pate). After leaving Margaret River we went to the beach and watched a lone surfer and saw a huge whale jump right out of the water. Then we drove on down the coast, stopping at several beaches en route to the Beedelup Falls. Our next stop was the Gloucester Tree near Pemberton. This was originally a fire watching lookout, but is now a tourist attraction. It is truly huge (over 200ft high) and neither Kate or I managed to climb very far up it, but we were most impressed watching those who did - especially reading about the man who made the first climb with just spiked boots and a belt. At least we had iron spikes to climb. We then moved on through impressive karri and tingle forests to Walpole where we stayed the night in a cabin by the river at Nornalup. For dinner we had local marron, which are like baby lobsters ... delicious.The next day we walked round the Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants, this is a very impressive suspension walkway that has been constructed right through the canopy of the tingle forest. The walkway sways quite a bit and is VERY high - so we were just a bit worried by the engineers who were preparing to absail down from the highest platform to do some 'essential maintenance work'.

We then drove on to Albany, where we visited the blowholes - and although the sea was not rough enough to spurt water, they still managed to perform a reasonably terrifying roar accompanied by a blast of air from time to time. We had intended to stay overnight in Albany, but it was really quite cold, so we decided to move on up inland towards Mount Barker.

We drove on a fairly minor highway, through the Stirling Range and once we got north of the mountains the weather started to clear, so we stayed at Narrogin for the night before going on to York. York is a very attractive town, with some old buildings which have been very well restored. The town is in quite a hilly area (apparently it reminded the first settlers of Yorkshire) which makes a change from the mainly flat landscapes further south. We spent the day wandering around and went for a last drive through the wheatfields to try to find some kangaroos (still only seen two at a distance, apart from a couple of roadkill specimens). No joy with the kangaroos, but we saw an emu and some very beautiful flocks of parrots swooping along the road in front of the car.

After staying the night in York, we drove on to Perth to stay with Yvette and Troy for a couple of nights before I leave for Singapore.