Our vacation, part 1

 So, we drove to Sydney on 10 April in order to spend the night at the Hyde Park Inn.  We had a 6 am flight the next day and didn't want to drive down the morning of the flight.  We settled into the inn, which looks out onto Hyde Park.  Since it was about sun down, we got to see bats, lots of them. 

Those shapes in the sky are not birds.  They are the flying foxes that are native to many parts of Australia, including where we live. 

On day 1, we got up early the next morning and flew to Perth.  Once we arrrived in Perth, we then drove 3 1/2 hours south of Perth to Margaret River. 
We rented a three bedroom cottage for our time in Margaret River.  While there were lots of nice things about the cottage, we didn't like the amount of critters in it.  There were loads of little wormy things and spiders and one giant cockroach.  We also only had two towels for our whole family for 5 days.  No other problems with the accomendations.
Margaret River is a very large wine growing region as well as a good base for visiting various parks around the area.
So, on day 2, we visited some local caves.



At the base of the doline, ready to enter the cave

 The first one we visited is the Lake Cave.  In order to get to the interior of the cave, you have to go down 300 steps through a doline.  A doline forms with the roof of the cave collaped.  This doline formed about 600 years ago. 

The caves in this area of Margaret River and much younger and more shallow than the caves that we visited in Jenolan. 

This picture shows a reflection in the lake inside the cave.  The lake has eaten away the bottom of the ground under two columns.  The columns are the only thing supporting the ground around them.  Pretty neat. 

Over the last 40 years, the water level has been decreasing a lot in the Lake Cave.  So much, that in the last 15 years, they've had to pump water into the cave, just to slow the rate enough for scientists to study the cave.  Incidentally, the region really took off as a wine growing centre about 35 years ago.

formations in the Lake Cave

  Our second cave tour of the day was to the Jewel Cave.

The Jewel Cave is also drying up.  It doesn't have the standing water like the Lake Cave, but many of it's formations are no longer active. 
We had some time to kill before our third and final cave of the day, so we drove over to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. 

This lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the mainland of Australia.  Cape Leeuwin is also the point at which the Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean meet.  At this point, my camera battery was done, and I could take no more pictures on that day.  We walked around the lighthouse, but didn't pay for the tour to the inside. 
We also visited Mammoth Cave.  Mammoth Cave is a self guided tour and was named after the many animal bones found inside the cave.
On day 3, we drove again.  This time 3 hours to Walpole to visit the Tree Top Walk and the giant tingle trees. 

The Tree Top Walk is a bridge that slowly rises while you walk through the forest.  The bridge is designed to sway quite a bit (in order to make you feel one with nature) and takes you to a height of 40 meters (131 feet).  I really enjoyed this walk. 

After the Tree Top Walk, we walked a few trails in order to see some giant tingle trees.  Red tingle trees are only found in this area.  They are a large eucalptus and have the largest base of all eucalypts.  They are a buttressed tree and can be hollowed by fire or fungi and continue growing. 

They can grow to 75 metres in height and live for over 400 years.

The above tree is the Giant Tingle Tree and is one single tree.  It was massive.

  After the tingle trees, we visited Mount Frankland.  Mount Frankland is a very large hill, topped with a really large hunk of granite.  We climbed to the top of the granite, using very narrow steps. 

Great view!

The sky seems to stretch forever. 
On day 4, we didn't take many pictures.  We had a easy day around Margaret River.  We visited the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, a brewery for lunch, a timber maze (very awesome!), a chocolate factory, a winery, and a fudge place.  It was a nice, relaxing day.

  The boys were excited because we actually paid to go into this lighthouse.  It is a much shorter lighthouse than the Cape Leeuwin because it is up on a hill.
Day 5 had us up early and headed out the door.  We said goodbye to Margaret River and started towards Perth.  We stopped in Busselton to take a Busselton Jetty tour.

Joe, looking at the Jetty

 The Busselton Jetty first went under construction in 1864.  The original jetty was 176 metres long.  Over the years, sand shifted around and made the jetty end less deep.  Ships also got larger.  The jetty was added onto over 10 times (up until 1960), making its final length 1836 metres.  A train was needed to run the cargo back to town and tracks were added to the jetty in 1909. 
The jetty and port closed for good in the early 1970's.  Cyclones and fires caused major damage to the jetty.  The government wanted to close and destroy the jetty, but locals wanted it saved.  They did manage to save it and have just finished another major renovation. 

We rode a train to the end of the jetty and visited the underwater observatory.  There are only a few like this in the world.  We walk down large steps and finally get all the way to the bottom of the ocean.  Through viewing windows, we could see all the sea life that lives around the jetty.  Corals and sponges growing on the jetty posts and loads of fish. 

And yes, you could see something similar at an aquarium, but this is the real thing!  They don't feed the fish or do anything to attract them.  The fish do what fish do.  Awesome!
We drove around and did a little looking around after the jetty tour.   We finished the day by arriving in Perth and checking into our villa for the duration.