The next day was Australia day and Cam had arranged for him and Greg to golf a nice links course - Port Kennedy. As Greg walked the greens in 40 degree heat - dry, dry heat - he saw his first Kangaroo - a big male and then another one, a female with a baby(joey) in her pouch. Alex and I headed to the lake for a family breakfast bbq, an annual event with champagne and orange juice, loads of food and a great cool lake to swim in! The weather was perfect, hot, but not an ounce of humidity, and clear blue skies with not a cloud in sight. At midday Alex and I headed for a walk with her mom's puppy and we walked along the red earth road, surrounded by birds of every size and call. It is the heart of summer now and the grasses are a golden yellow. We ended the day with a picnic in the park just down the road, beside the river and a fantastic fireworks display. Not bad for our first day in OZ.
The week flew by, we had planned on spending a day or two with Cam and Alex but we ended up staying a week, they had loads of fun plans in store for us. We started our 2nd day out with a visit to Scarborough beach. The first thing that comes to mind is paradise. The view was breathtaking, like that out of a brochure for a travel company, white sand beaches and turquoise waters with big waves lapping at the beach. The sky was a brilliant deep blue and met the varying shades of turquoise and blue as the ocean stretched out to meet it. As we walked towards the water in the 40 degree heat of the day, we were shocked to find that the turquoise waters were crystal clear. The clearest water we have ever seen, it was like looking through a pane of glass to the bottom. Unbelievable! Not a bad way to start the day, and right there and then we fell in love with the west coast of Australia and it just kept getting better.
From the beach we headed to the Swan Valley. When one imagines a day spent wine tasting, images of tranquility, endless fields of grape vines, soft tranquil music in the background fill the imagination. The swan valley not only delivered, but also added a twist. In Australia, wine tasting involves sitting at the counter with a super friendly staff on the other side, pouring copious amounts of alcohol into your glass. The question “Which wine would you like to try?” never even leaves their mouth as the assumption is made before you even walk in – Try them all. This being said, we only managed to see a couple vineyards, so of course we had to go back for a second day a couple of days later. We sat out in the 40 degree dry heat to enjoy an incredible ploughmans feast with amazing views stretching before us. The enjoyment of this day was magnified ten fold as this was our first taste of wine, cheese, olives, fresh bread and meat in months! Yummy!
Next on our wine tasting adventure we ended up at Lamonts Winery. We didn’t notice the closed sign as we entered and it is a good thing we didn’t or we would have missed out on one of the most entertaining afternoons known to wine tasting. As we drove up a big aussie bloke flagged us down, Cam inquired about tastings and his response was “How much money do you have?” and so it began. He decided to open shop for us and took us inside cursing the heat the whole way. We had imagined he was a worker and quickly came to realize that he was the regular sommelier. The tasting that ensued was not typical in the least, it was full of cursing and inappropriate jokes, and absolutely delicious wines. Each wine was incredible in its own way – it is not very often that every wine is outstanding at a vineyard. He then broke out some special vintages for us to try. He chugged back half glasses as the afternoon progressed, but his knowledge of wine was incredible. To say the least he took any pretension out of the afternoon, had us in stitches the whole time, jaws dropping in disbelief at moments – “did he really just say that?” and creating an unforgettable experience.
The days that followed flew by filled with golf, fishing, swimming and sunshine. Greg and Cam went fishing, they were eager to bait their hooks and their friend Mark was dying to catch a fish. The fish was caught but by Greg and they swore it was beginners luck, and in the days that followed there were many fishing excursions and we dined on Greg’s catches of flathead, whiting and . On his first evening out fishing, as the sun lowered behind the skyline, lighting up the skies with the spectacular reds and oranges of the west coast, a dolphin road the waves right into the shoreline, feet from where Greg was standing, catching fish and ending up stuck in the sand before squirming free. A spectacular sight that left the boys more excited about the dolphin than the fish.
The fish was not the only seafood we sampled and we had our first experience with the blue crab, literally it is a purply blue and Cam cooked up a feast that had our mouths watering! We spent a fantastic afternoon “golfing”. By golfing I mean that the boys golfed and Alex and I decided that we should go and see the boys in action so we got a cart, chilled a bottle of white wine and followed the boys as they played along the river course with the city of Perth peeking at us in the backdrop. On a bitter-sweet note our week had to end and we said our goodbyes and got ready to embark on the next adventure - the South West Coast.
Willy Wag Tail
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