The next day I woke up and all the dudes I was with the night before were all still out there, still drinking and talking about how awesome Creamfields was going to be! I hope they made it there in the end, because there were lots of different ideas floating around on how they were going to arrive and at what time and what they had to do first....I really hope they made it, lulz.
I wanted to trot over to Billabong to find out what time Simon wanted to leave and such...just get some final confirmation stuff you know how it is. I decided not to go my normal route (Sidenote: I had previously thought that my route was down a pretty sketch street, even during the day, just had that feel of a gangster street, and plus it's called Monger St and it connects directly to china town....pffft), luckily I made that decision that day because as I was rolling by there was a cop blocking off the street putting a bullet proof vest on. Apparantly there were shots fired and the whole street was now swarming with swat and blocked off. Looks like I......dodged a bullet there.......*insert CSI Miami tune*
Anyway, I eventually met up with Simon and his girl and we set off to Margaret River; then she got a phone call from work and had to go in that day so it just ended up being Simon and I. This probably worked out for the best, as she seemed like a bit of a worrier and we got up to some pretty dodgy things. We arrived in Margarget River at about 6pm, picked up some food (roast chicken and salad..to be combined later into a MASSIVE chicken salad) and headed to Red Gate Beach where we were going to meet up with a big group from the hostel. We got a bit lost on the way but ended up finding it eventually, we walked down to the beach to find a group of about 25 backpackers just chillin on lawn chairs in the dark drinking and smoking (Sidenote: Simon and I peeped some Cops/Rangers lurking at the entrance to the beach, probably making sure nobody drove out of there drunk etc.).
This was probably one of the coolest gatherings I've ever been to. Everyone was just sitting around talking getting slizzerd on the beach. Simon was going to stay in his tent on the beach that night and I was going to sleep in the car, so I help him set that up, it was pretty windy but we got it up eventually. We were out there for a while, then the rain started...and then it REALLY started. So we all retreated to our cars and began waiting it out, Simon assured me that it would pass within a few minutes because of the wind (Sidenote: I jumped out to pee during a lull and as I started the rain started up full force again...FML).
Eventually, the rain stopped for real and the skies were clear again. We kept the party going in the parking lot, one of the vans was blasting some music so that was good, I felt sorry for their battery though. This is when we assembled out enormous chicken salad...and man was it tastarific..full chicken + full bag of salad + balsamic vinegar. Chyeaaaaa~ The highlight of the night was probably the salad to be honest...but in a close second was meeting this guy who looked AND sounded exactly like Bear Grylls, it was actually crazy because he came from a town about 20mins from where Bear Grylls is from. His story was that he is Bears younger brother, but he just doesn't like the fame, he just does all the same stuff for the love of nature; hilarious guy.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of Rangers getting details from people and issueing $50 Illegal Camping tickets...hmm...good thing I have the uncanny ability to wake up in the nick of time (Sidenote: I once had a similar experience involving a girl and her parents coming back home at 2am instead of the next day). So I turned over and told Simon what the situation was, and he said "You want to flee the scene?"..and proceeded to pop on his tuque and slink out his side of the car down to the beach. The Rangers were all on my side doing the booking, I guess they hadn't seen us in there or were just doing each car one at a time instead of rouding the people up and getting all the info at once, silly Rangers. I decided to jump over the seat and get out the driver side. Good thing nobody there knew me before the previous night, too drunk to remember me, because when I walked passed all the people and the Rangers asked "Where'd that bloke come from, do you know him?" they all said no!...Beautiful...I just strolled down to the beach to meet up with Simon and assess the situation(Sidenote: A wise man once told me innocent people don't run from the scene, they just walk on and carry on with their business).
We decided to just wait out the heat at the beach, so we stayed down there for about 1-2 hrs and then made our way back up. We met up with some stragglers, the rest had gone for breakfast in town, one of the guys got lucky and didn't get fined but the others were fined $50...womp womp womp...After a quick chat, Simon and I decided to head to some caves that were down the road. This was a FANTASTIC idea, we stopped at one called Mammoth Cave (there was also Lake Cave and Jewel Cave) and it was really amazing. I've never been in a cave like that before, and this one was a good start, now I want to see more (I got some really nice pics but I can't upload them until next month...I need to get more selective with the ones I actually upload).
After that we headed further south to Pemberton to do a tree top walk or tree climb, they all seemed pretty cool at the time. The tree top walk was pretty far but the tree climbs (60m and 71m) were quite close. We stayed the night in a caravan park, to avoid any fines, I saw signs posted that it was a $1000 fine in that area. Surprisingly there were a TON of kids running around the caravan park, but I guess it is easter weekend so they were vacationing. It was just funny because I haven't been around lots of kids in a while. That night we had tuna pasta, which was pretty delicious, and I had an early night to try and get to sleep before Simon because he snored like a monster. This was my second night sleeping in the car, and getting rained on through the leak in the window, so I am thankful to be sleeping in a bed with a pillow and a blanket tonight! I didn't really have a bad sleep, just the damp feeling gets into your bones.
As it was raining again the next day we opted not to do the tree walk or tree climb. But if you look here you'll see how sketch the tree climb set up was LOL. It's basically just some iron rods sticking out all around the tree and a small fence to stop you from falling over sideways. So we decided to head back to Perth instead of put our lives at risk on some rods and a tiny fence. Driving around Australia is SO much different than New Zealand. Here there are really tall trees along the roads and lots of red sand/dirt along the road, it still has the nice scenic water views and such though. At one point we had a large river on the right and the sea on the left, pretty cool spot.
On our way back we stopped in a town called Bunbury to avoid some end easter weekend traffic. This turned out to be great, we stayed on the beach, Simon dried out his tent and surfed a bit and we ate some lunch. The sun was shining, not a cloud in site, a much needed refresher as to why I'm here, and great change from the rain. We also decided to stop in Fremantle on the way back and have a quick drink at a brewery/bar called Little Creatures. Remember how I said Fremantle was the place to be...well this is the place to be IN Fremantle. They brew their own beer and that's the only one they sell, the food smelled great, and the place is enormous (it's two warehouses attached). Really cool spot, the entire harbor area was really nice actually, and quite busy. I hadn't been down that far when I was there before so I'm glad I got to see that part before leaving here.
Headed back Perth after a pint and now I'm writing these posts~ This is pretty much real time blogging now! Off to Geraldton in the morning, maybe I'll find a job for a few weeks?....
Peace & Love
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