Some more of WA...

'Beaten by tempest and stormed by drift

Steady I keep my post

And laugh at the southern rollers large

For I am guard of the southern coast!'

And so goes the first verse of a poem that my class learned off by heart in Grade 6; 'The Song of Cape Leeuwin'. I loved that poem so much, I taught it to some classes during my time as a classroom teacher. 

This land feature is in Western Australia and on our recent visit there, I knew I just had to visit Cape Leeuwin! 

The European history of Western Australia features mainly British and Dutch explorers with the Dutch dismissing the area as pretty inhospitable. And this is true of Cape Leeuwin. In the poem it is 'the Cape' telling this story...as the second verse states...

' I watched the Dutchmen on their way

In the days of long ago

But they set no foot on my rocky shore

Where the billows break in snow.'

It is indeed an area of big rocks and rough seas and it's an area where two oceans meet; the Indian and Southern Oceans. 

The poem continues and explains how it was that the Dutch named the cape...

'They gave me my name and sailed away

And then the English came

With their straining sails on their plunging ships

And their flags flew out like flame'.

I've always thought that the poem needed another verse, but that's just me; the poet obviously thought not!! 😉 

So on our WA holiday I waited patiently for the day when we would visit Cape Leeuwin. My plans were...I would walk up to the lighthouse and go to the lookout area behind it and look at where those two oceans mingled. If there weren't too many people around I would recite the poem...😆.

We started the audio tour...look at that lighthouse! 

Steadily we climbed the hill...I stopped to take a photo of the part of the slope that we'd already climbed. ( good excuse to stop for a breather lol!) 

And then as we rounded a bend in the track...

Now to get to the lookout you have to walk around the back of the lighthouse...

No chance of that! There was a security guard standing at the base of the lighthouse. The reason for the barricades was maintenance on the top part of the tower.

So all we could do is make our way downhill again...

There are a number of old stone building on the site...

Intriguing? 

And a great view out to sea...

One of my friends sent me a photo taken of her standing at the lookout behind the lighthouse when she visited there a few years ago...

Cheeky aren't I??? But that's the view I missed. Oh well, we all have similar stories. 

(The poem 'Song of Cape Leeuwin' was written by Ernest Favenc, possibly 1936?)

Cowaramup...

On the way to Margaret River, we had a short stop in Cowaramup. What a sense of fun this town has? There are 42 life sized cow statues spread throughout the town. 

Everywhere you turn in the Main Street, you see cows!

The statues were erected in 2012 as a tourist attraction.

And a bit more trivia...in 2014, the town won a spot in the Guiness Book of records for having the most people dressed as cows gathered together. Delightfully quirky people I think! 

We had a little wander around the shops...lots of lovely handcrafted items to look at. DH suggested I look in the newsagent for the latest Handmade magazine. I had been checking shops in Perth, looking for this issue as I had rather liked a pattern that Anorina Morris had had published. I really didn't expect to find the mag in such a tiny town...but I was wrong!!!

That's Anorina's cushion on the front cover!

We were actually driving out of town when a statue high up on a pole caught my eye...?

We turned up a side street and found ourselves in a large park. And there in the middle...

It's a golden cow! Lol

Checking it out on the 'net' I found out that it had been an entry in a cow sculpture competition. According to the website, the statue is often nicknamed 'Rump on a Stump' 😳. 

The park is known as Pioneer Park and is delightful.

There are other sculptures too of course...a tribute to the pioneers...

And beautiful parrots didn't even look up from their feeding as we walked through!

Lovely, lovely creatures. 

I'd never heard of Cowaramup before that day, but I'm so glad we stopped and had a look around. 

Busselton...

On our drive from Bunbury to Margaret River, our first stop was at Busselton...another gorgeous town on the west coast of Western Australia. 

DH had read about a little train that runs on the rather large jetty at Busselton. So after finding a park for the car,  that's where we headed. 

'Extending 1.8 km over the protected waters of Geographe Bay, the heritage listed jetty is the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere....Construction...began in 1865, beginning as a mere 161 metres...Extensions were added over the next 90 years creating the remarkable 1.8 km length.'

This port was closed in 1973 and then of course government funded maintenance ceased. For many years it was hard work and private funding worked to restore the jetty and build the aquarium and other structures on the jetty. Eventually funding was received by the Western Australian state government. 

http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au/the-jetty/about-the-jetty/

Donations for the upkeep are still gratefully received...loved this pelican sculpture.

Tourists pay to walk on the jetty but we had decided to 'splash out' and buy tickets for the ride on the little train.

It was a cold day so the plastic blinds were down on the front and left side of each carriage...

The train goes very slowly...thank goodness! 

The jetty curves...

Every now and then we passed areas that must have been side moorings perhaps...

Here we are at the point where the train stops...there's more jetty after that building and we were given about 20 minutes to check out the end of the jetty...

We took some photos...wasn't it bleak looking out here? And yet it had been sunny at the other end of the jetty.

These photos were taken on the other side of the shop and aquarium.

Looking back to Busselton seafront...

We watched the little train 'engine' change ends ready for the return journey...😉

Facing out to sea...

DH was still taking photos...

But it was time to take a seat for the ride back to shore. It was lots of fun and so much history!

Home...

Yesterday morning  DH and I repacked our suitcases and with much rearranging of the contents, fitted in our holiday purchases. For once, I did NOT buy any yarn or fabric...nope not a bit! But there will be more about that in a future post. 🙄. 

Then it was time to leave our latest accomodation, a lovely B&B in Como a suburb of Perth, and head for the airport. 

Perth airport has 4 Terminals, spread over 2 separate areas of land...and despite being warned about this by my brother, we first went to the wrong airport. But we had given ourselves lots of time, so got to the correct place in plenty of time. 

So today was all about unpacking and also a few loads of washing. But the nicest task was sorting out those purchases.

Several packs of Western Australian chocolates for family...

A calendar from the wildflower farm for my neighbour...

Books for Anthea...

Some clothes for Anthea...

Some lovely soaps and a mustard from Vasse Virgin...( which is famous for all their products made with their high quality olive oil) 

Some stuffed toys that I will 'mind' for a while until Anthea is older! 😉😉😉

WA is famous for its vineyards; there are just so many. We visited a couple, including Woodynook, where we had an order for some port, from my brother. We ended up with 6 bottles of wine, including the 2 for Harry, and we sent them home by Toll Couriers from Albany. The box arrived today...all intact so my brother will be pleased. 

And I bought some potpourri from the wildflower farm. 

It smells delightful! So all in all, a very modest amount to carry home, but that's how I wanted it. 

And DH only bought 2 souvenir Teeshirts and one polo...very restrained! Lol.

And just like other members of K4BN, I also 'gather' items when I travel. DH and I carried our own soap so we could gather up the motel soaps. And of course any of the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner provided by motels, that we didn't use, we 'gathered'. 

And why are we such 'bowerbirds'? These items will end up being included in the hygienie pack  that K4BN  hands out to needy recipients. So these will come in handy helping people. 

I still have some 'travelogue posts' to do but the next post will be a FNSI.