South West WA
1 May to 20th June 2021
Sorry its been awhile since my last post but I've ben on holidays. Well actually I've been working.
I worked, picking apples at a farm around Donnybrook for 4 weeks, that was really great, bloody hard work but I enjoyed that.
I then took a tour down South to Albany and seen the sights down there. It rained most of the time except for when I was leaving, Doh! The photo's tell the story I hope.
It is very wet all down this southern area and it's amazing how many places have 'up' on the end, like; Balingup, Quinninup, Yoganup just to name a few. Apparently up is Aboriginal name for water. I was going to count how many but I gave up.
On my way back to attend a party at Donnybrook I stopped off at Harvey Dickson's Country music and Rodeo. That was really great. Harvey is a third generation on his farm just out of Boyup Brook He has built a huge shed containing a stage, bar and masses amount of junk hanging from the ceiling. He has had a hell of a lot of country stars there and his favorite was his old mate Chad Morgan. He said Chad is still alive and now in his 80's. I'm sure you all know who Chad is??? The shed floor is sand that he treats with massive amounts of water leading up to a show. The back stage areas are also impressive especially the green room. It is covered with posters of heaps of stars and Harvey tells me all but Slim Dusty and Elvis have been there. In the last few years he has added an impressive rodeo ground with the scene looking like you would expect with the Flintstones. Especially with his warped sense of 'root art'. Harvey did a tour of the shed and a very impressive record collection and even played one of Chad's unknown records. A great place to see.
I came back up to Perth and volunteered at a Blaze Aid camp at Brigadoon about 30min out of Perth. I planned to stay for 4 days and ended up staying 16. Great people here and interesting work re-fencing the fire ravaged areas. On my days off I did some great sightseeing trips around Perth, including a jet boat tour on the Swan River, Kings Park and a guided tour of Optus Stadium plus a couple games of golf of course.
The views of Perth from Kings Park are world class. The Park is 400 hectares and the biggest inner city park in the world ( so I was told).
Optus Stadium was voted the best stadium in the world a few years ago and no wonder. It's not just the state of the art interior it's also the impressive outside structures that impress. The Matagarup Bridge (the design represents the black and white swans), BHP Amphitheater the pontoon the parks and the views. You don't realize how much goes into putting a football team on the field. Sure didn't have these facilities when I played footy. Lucky if you got a warm shower.
I loved Perth, the people are so relaxed here and driving around soon shows you that. Always stopping to let you into the traffic and never any tailgating just a sensible distance at at the correct speed. Bloody unusual that, but nice.
I'm all set to head out of the Blaze aid camp today (20/6/21) but it's raining pretty heavy and I'm still not sure which way I'm heading, only North from here.
Regards Doug
