Perth and Margaret River, Australia 2-28-10

I remember thinking on the plane how crazy it was that I was actually flying into Australia. When I originally had the idea to travel and started planning this trip, over 2 years ago, Australia was my inspiration to go.  I remember watching a Planet Earth about scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef and I said, “I’m going there!” Australia was my goal while Europe and Asia were just sort of thrown into the mix along the way.

Funny now how after 8 months of traveling through foreign lands, my view of visiting an English speaking country doesn’t excite me as much as it once did. Regardless, I’ve met more Australians traveling than any other nationality and I know that Aussies are a blast! These next few months should be fun.

Originally, I planned to mostly explore the east coast of Australia. Starting in the south, Melbourne, and working my way up the coast to the north, Cairns (only interrupting the trip with a little vacation to NZ for 6 weeks). While looking for flights from Bali to Melbourne, I came across an airfare I couldn’t pass up, only it was to Perth, not Melbourne. I booked it and was able to find a cheap internal flight from Perth to Melbourne, so I just delayed my trip south by a week.

I didn’t know a sole in Perth, but I’m a member of CouchSurfing (www.CouchSurfing.com) and decided to give that a go. A week or two before arriving I sent out messages to a few CS hosts and had plans to meet up/couch surf with them when I arrived. I’ve “couch surfed” before through this site and before I left the US, I intended to CS my way through Europe and Asia. European hostels were too much fun and the guesthouses in Asia were so cheap that I never got around to couch surfing,

Alan, from Couchsurfing, picked me up from the airport and was the best host! He had water and a couple snack bars for me (he thought I’d be hungry after my long flight) and he drove me around to view Perth. We had a nice dinner in the city and then he dropped me off at my CS host’s house (Matt) where I would be staying.

Matt, a CS ambassador for Perth, is a huge (6’7) teddy bear kind of a guy with a big laugh and a fun-loving personality. He’s kind, is an environmentalist and a lawyer, and is one of the most generous guys you’ll meet. When I arrived he gave me a key and said “Come and go as you please, my house is your house, help yourself to anything in the fridge, laundry, TV, the train station is a 5 minute walk away, enjoy yourself!” It was unreal.

I set my stuff down in the living room/tv room and sat on my “bed” (the tv couch). Matt was off to play in a basketball game so I tagged along. In the morning I took a train straight for the city to take care of a few things… buying an Australian phone was on the top of my priorities list. Phone, check; charger, check; $11 for a sandwich, WHAT! Yeah, Australia is very expensive! Especially now since the US dollar is so low, it’s practically even with the Australian dollar!

I met up with Matt for lunch in the city outside his building and he told me he planned to drive out to his farm later. He and his family own a farm an hour inland from the city and he needed to water all the plants and tend to a few things out there since the weather had been so hot and rainless recently.

We left as the sun was setting and arrived at the hill top just in time to watch the sun set behind the water on the west coast. As we drove to the farm, kangaroos hopped in the woods and a goat scurried out of Matt’s fenced in garden.

The farm house was a large shed with 8 beds, a few couches, a kitchen, dining area, and an interesting bathroom. Over the course of the next couple hours I met a scorpion crawling on the bathroom floor, two large outback lizards in the bathtub, and a whole family of large spiders hanging out next to the toilet. It was quite an experience! I remember calling out to Matt as I walked into the bathroom, “Hey Matt, there are about 20 spiders right next to the toilet…. Umm.. is that okay? Do I just leave them??” For the rest of the night I tried not to go.

Matt drives up to the farm a few times during the week to take care of it and he hosts CouchSurfers 6 days a week, so he is always bringing people there and frequently has parties and concerts up at the farm as well.

Matt and I watered all the plants that needed to be watered and then played ping-pong before going to sleep early (we had to wake up at 5:30am). In the morning we fixed the gate the goat had mangled and before we left I grabbed some green and purple grapes off the vines to snack on.

I met up with Alan again and we went to Fremantle to have some fish and chips at the bay and then drank some home made beer from a place called “Little Creatures”. Little Creatures beer is sold all over Australia, but it tastes the best in Perth, where it’s brewed. Later I went out with Matt to a local bar near his house.

In the morning I caught a bus to Margaret River, known for their gorgeous coastline, delicious wines, and chocolate and cheese factories. When the bus dropped me in Margaret River 5 hours later I met some backpackers and called a hostel to have them pick us all up. Our new backpacking group (mostly all Germans) and I walked to the beach to watch the sunset, cooked dinner at our hostel, and then a few of us went into the city center (a tiny little place) to grab a couple beers and listen to some live music. A girl named Coby Grant, from Melbourne, was traveling around and promoting her new CD. She was great and our group spent the next couple of hours trying different Australian beers and listening to Coby and her band.

I was sharing a hostel room with two German brothers, Andre and Marius and we all agreed to go surfing in the morning with Richard and Charlie (Charlotte) who we had hung out with the night before. Richard had a car, a gorgeous Land Rover to be exact, and the 5 of us rented surfboards and wetsuits for the day. We drove to 5 different surf spots and a couple of them were decent. The first one we went to had a very strong rip current and a few of us got caught in it and swam for our lives. Luckily we were fine.

After the waves we dropped off the boards, and headed to wine country. I had asked my hostel owner to pick out his favorite wineries on my map (there are over 140 wineries to choose from) and our group of four set off to taste (Marius skipped out since he doesn’t like wine, true story).

We sampled six whites and seven reds at the first winery and Charlie and I picked up a bottle to share later at the bonfire we were planning to have on the beach. At the second winery the boys bought a shiraz and I picked up a bottle as well for Matt.

On the drive back we talked about our bonfire on the beach and were wondering where to buy firewood. I noticed we were driving past dried up woods and suggested we pull over and just grab some while we were here. We filled up the entire trunk of the car with dead wood and laughed the whole ride back. I told the Germans about smores and none of them had ever tried them or had even heard the name before! I felt it was my duty to introduce them to one of my favorite past times… roasting marshmallows over a campfire to make delicious smores!

Richard dropped us off while he parked the car and Charlie and I picked out a spot on the beach to dig a hole for our fire. We weren’t really sure of the policy on beach fires here, but figured we’d have a go at it anyway, after all, we’re all tourists and don’t know the rules here, right?

Rich and Andre carried over the wood and we started building a teepee from twigs… leaves and little sticks at the bottom and larger pieces on top (just like I learned from Indian Princesses when I was a little girl). The fire lit easily and lasted hours. A group of backpackers who were walking along the beach were attracted to our fire like moths and soon our little family of five grew to a clan of 14. We shared stories and I taught my friends how to make smores. I had to improvise a bit at the supermarket since they don’t sell gram crackers in Australia (the closest thing is a sugar biscuit, as they call it), but I had Lindt chocolate and fluffy marshmellows so the rest was taken care of.

Due to a lack of resources, we roasted our marshmallow on the tip of a knife that we would have to shove the handle of it into the sand of the fire pit because the fire was too hot to hold it. It worked and we all ate some delicious smores. Verdict? The Germans are fans.

The following morning I took a bus back to Perth and received a text that my English friends Sophie, Dugan, and Scott from Raily bay, Thailand, were all in Perth! They were living and working in Perth and we made plans to meet up that night. We started with drinks at a bar on the beach and then went back to Sophie and Dugan’s apartment for the rest of the night. When we all met in Railay I was taking a break from alcohol (too much boozing for the full-moon party week in Koh Phangnan before), so this time, they were all determined to get me smashed.

My last day in Perth I relaxed and went to the beach for an hour with Matt. When possible, I like to have an easy day before heading off to a new city. Matt was happy to receive red wine and we said our goodbyes before I headed for the airport at 9:00pm.

Melbourne, see you at 4:30am!