Trip to Margaret River

Margaret River is probably one of the best known Tourist places in Western Australia.  We went down this week, planing to stay for four nights, but we came back after one.

Ah well, before we came home, we got to spend some time at the beach, cold, showery and windy though it was. It was nice to see the weather coming so far away.  Up here behind the trees and hills, we see the weather just before we get it.  :)
 

 Here comes some more rain!

The dogs had a lovely time running wild on the sand and the rocks. We had the beach to ourselves both times we went there.

We ran a bit wild too, though I must say walking on the beach is still knackering for a pair of recovering lymies. 

Selfie with rainbow?

Me poddling about. 

I like this one of me and my girls.  

The only other time we went to Margs was way back in 1998.  I had my black labbie then too, my rescue girl, Sam.  Funny how things change and yet things stay the same.  :)

 

I remember having a hell of a lot more energy that time though!  It was in the halcyon days before Lyme disease.  It is Lyme that is partly to blame for our early return, due to the rotten chemical sensitivity it has caused in us both.

We tried hard to get the house we stayed in pre-organised so that it wouldn't have too many chemicals used in it when cleaned for our arrival, but even though the owners tried hard for us, the fact is that modern homes are totally toxic with fabric cleaners and carpet deodorizers and goodness knows what else.  It was awful for us both that first night even though we took all our own bedding right down to a mattress protector.

Then Rosie started to throw up and we decided that was the last straw, so home we came.  She cheered up as soon as we got her home, and so did we!  So much for holidays.  We might be a lot better than we were, but apparently we're still not well enough to go away like normal people!

Ah well, one of my reasons to go down was to talk to a Karri tree for my Druid studies, but I didn't get the chance. We did go and walk through some of the local forest that first day, so I did get to see some of them at least.  I've got a buddy up here who planted some Karri seeds along his creek-line that were doing ok last time I asked about them, so I might see if I can go talk to one of those.

It's a lovely forest down there. Much lusher and denser than our local forest, and the trees, even the Jarrah and Marri who are also our local trees, grow much bigger down there in the higher rainfall.  The Karri trees, who are local only to a tiny corner of our Southwest, are world famous.  Amazing!

It's hard to give a true impression of just how amazing these trees are, and plenty of people have probably done it better, but here is a tiny bit of video of what the Karri forest near Margs looks and sounds like. We had the river running just behind us so that is the rushing sound you can hear. 

I think this one by Perthwalker shows the local forest well.  So peaceful! 

So, we're home early, and having a nice relaxing time here instead.  I'm not writing for two whole weeks, and Andrew is home too, and we're playing musical instruments and reading and so on.  I think today I'm slated to help Andyroo build a new aerial for his amateur radio set up.  Hmm, think novel writing would be more fun than that!  :D

One fun thing I've been doing is writing a heroic, epic song for Freya Fjordrider, the over-the-top character from my Freya novels. I'm doing it on the Anglo-Saxon Lyre and making it sound very piratey and lively. I'm onto lyrics now.  I just have to decide how rude to make it.  :)