We're staying at a beautiful resort smack on the beach and in 'seasonal' weather it
would apparently look like this. (I took it from the brochure.)
But it looks like this. ( I took this after breakfast.)
So we've done a few tours. The first was a winery tour which was good, but the stand out was arriving at Knotting Hill as another group were leaving, only to hear this woman screaming like a banshee "LOUIE!!! GET OUTTA THERE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! COME ON!!" Someone's in trouble, we muttered to ourselves expecting some recalcitrant kid to emerge. But no, out slinks a grown man in a zip up tracksuit, sunglasses and a beanie - head bowed in submission. All afternoon we thought of poor Louie.
The next day we'd booked a Heritage & Cave Canoe trip on the Margaret River. We drove the hour to the meeting point and arrived just as it began to pour with rain. Paul, our guide, said to get back in our cars (phew) and drive down to the river mouth where we'd meet everyone else. As we all arrived, my friend Penny pointed... 'Isn't that Louie??' And indeed it was!
Thankfully it had stopped raining and as we launched the canoes, Paul gave us the drill, despite admitting he'd only been guiding these tours for a couple of weeks. So what did we learn? Well, pretty much everything about Paul. Including, but not limited to:
- His wife loves roses and orchids and always has fresh flowers in the house
- He loves gardening and is also fond of flowers
- His daughters are 12 (going on 26) and 9 (going on attitude - boom, boom)
- His oldest daughter loves horse riding and is, in fact, 'a bit of a jill-a-roo for those of you who know what that means'
- He's a huge fan of his Thermo-Mix
- His wife is a school teacher
- How much he got paid working FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) on a mining rail road (over $100k) but he missed his family too much so threw it in - it just wasn't worth it
- How much he weighs, the fact he's about 11kg over what he'd like to be for his favoured past time - mountain bike riding
- How he snapped a mountain bike but the manufacturer (Giant) replaced the frame - from America no less
- That he'd like to be riding '1000k' a month but just isn't getting the time
Getting the drift?? If you'd like to know more about Paul, do drop me a line.
So what did we learn about Heritage? Not much. There was a family who built a house on the banks of Margaret River and moved in.... in eighteen seventy - ..... Paul was struggling to remember what year. Trying to helpful, I said '1874? Seriously Paul, none of us know - just pick a year.' 'No, no, no,' he insisted 'I need to get this right. 1876!' Phew - what a relief.
We walked up from the river to explore the cave where those of our party who were feeling brave could crawl on their stomachs, combat style, through water and dirt in a claustrophobic passageway that led from the main chamber.... back to the main chamber. Paul explained that there has been a shipwreck in the 1800s and a group of 30 or 40 people lived in this cave for 6 months to 7 years. (Yes, I didn't understand that either - maybe some left after 6 months and maybe some left after 7 years??). Penny had the audacity to ask a question; what nationality were they? Paul didn't know, but he was quite sure they were Caucasian - not European. And believe it or not people, for once in my life I did not pipe up to correct him. I was quite proud of myself. And anyway, he was doing a fine job all on his own.
Yes, I could put this review on Trip Advisor but I do feel that would spoil the surprise for the next lot of unsuspecting guests!!
We're headed to Perth tomorrow for a few days before we catch the Indian Pacific train across the Nullabor to Adelaide so stay tuned.
