Perth to Albany to Perth

This is our new van. We got rid of the other one because there's no need for 4WD on the rest of our trip south of Perth. It's much smaller inside than the old one, which isn't great seeing as another camper has come along for the ride. Grant joined us in Perth a few days ago so things have been cosy since he turned up. Fortunately the van does have a "badgers den" for him to sleep in. It's a bit worrying him being up there at night and although it hasn't happened yet, something in the back of my mind tells me he could come crashing down on top of us at any moment.

This part of Western Australia looks completely different to the barren red earth of further north. There are fields, beautiful coastline and lush forests. Near Albany there's an area called The Valley of the Giants, where there are massive eucalyptus trees which grow up to 500 feet. They've built a walkway up into the canopy which sways slightly in the wind!

It's becoming winter now, and although the days are still beautiful and warm, the nights are getting cold - so we are finally making good use of our thick down sleeping bags.

We stopped off at Margaret River, which is the big wine producing region of Western Australia, for a bit of tasting. There are hundreds of vineyards to choose from, but there is also one brewery which has pretty good beer, although still too chilled for Grant's liking.

This is a place called Frenchman's Bay, where while Grant was swimming a fisherman was scrambling to get a bigger rod from his car to catch "the big shark" he said he'd just seen glide past. What little tan Grant had when he arrived in Australia vanished from his face when I told him why the fisherman was launching a whole head of tuna into the ocean from rocks not twenty feet away. Despite hanging around for a while we never saw the shark in question, so we never found out whether or not it was a "man-eater." Or indeed whether there really was a shark in the first place. There's always the possibility the fisherman was just seeing things after having had one too many. But I'm not one to ruin a good story.... Grant swam with Jaws.