Travelling the Southwest

Maria and I have now been traveling for a week and a half and we've stopped off in a nice town called Margaret River on the west coast about 2 hours south of Perth. It's a surfing town with lots of beautiful beaches and nice shops and places to eat. We arrived here on Friday afternoon and since then we've mostly just been relaxing.

Our second day in Denmark, we went out to Ocean Beach and spent the afternoon exploring the beach and enjoying the sunshine. The water is unbelievably blue and the sand is so white!

Ocean Beach

 We were planning on taking the bus from Denmark to Walpole the next day but we met a lady named Judy in our hostel who had a car and was headed the same way so we decided to get a lift with her so we could stop and see more along the way. It turns out she is a world traveler and has been to all but probably 5 or 6 countries in the world! She's even been to Antarctica! Along the way to Walpole we stopped to see two of the iconic spots along the coast, Greens Pool and the Elephant Rocks, and did the famous tree-top walk in the Valley of the Giants (a forest of giant trees known as Red Tingle trees).

Greens Pool

Elephant Rocks

Tree-top Walk

One of the Giants

We stayed the night in Walpole and then set off the next morning. Judy was only going as far as Augusta but we wanted to continue on so we took the bus to Margaret River in the afternoon.

Our first day here we just explored the town and then hung out with the other people in the hostel. There's a pretty good group of people here and I almost wish I was staying in the area longer because it seems like a great place to be. Saturday we went into town in the morning and had an excellent cup of coffee at a place called the Urban Bean. We wandered around town for a good part of the day and then went back to the hostel to relax for a while before heading back into town and going for a few drinks at the Settlers Tavern.

Sunday we went to Prevelly Beach and the Riverfront Beach. The beaches here are absolutely stunning and relatively quiet. The waves are huge and it seems like a great place to surf. If I come back to this area I'll definitely have to take up surfing!

The Margaret River Bakery

Yesterday was a quiet day spent mostly drinking coffee. We went back to the Urban Bean, wandered around town a bit, and then went to a cute little bakery called the Margaret River Bakery where they have delicious, fresh food and good coffee. How I've missed good coffee! Later in the afternoon I decided to go out for a much needed run and explore the area and I discovered a system of beautiful trails through the woods. The main trail is track left from the old railroad but there are lots of other small trails branching off of it. There are lots of pretty bridges and the forest is so green and lush with big, beautiful trees. The weather was perfect for running and I felt like I could've run forever! I only planned on doing a short run but it was so nice I ended up running for more than and hour!


We're off to a late start again today but I think we'll go back into town for more coffee and then maybe go out for $5 tacos tonight. It's a hard life being a traveler...