We started our trip early Monday morning. We stopped at the Kodja Place Visitor and Interpretive Centre in Kojonup. There, our Noongar guide, Jack Cox showed us around and told us a little bit about Aboriginal culture today. We then went outside and sat around a fire while Jack made us some genuine aboriginal tea. He put two cans of water in the fire until they boiled, then he dropped in tea leaves and then swung the cans around with his arm doing the windmill. Then it was ready! It was sooo good. :) He also gave us this bread biscuit thing to try but it was really bland and dry-I didn't like it. So then we walked around the rose garden, but since it's wintertime, almost no roses were blooming. ALl the flowers had very interesting names. In the U.S. our flowers are named things like Chrysanthemum, while these flowers were named things like Babe, The Allies and Pacific Triumph. Way cool.
We returned on the bus and headed down South. We arrived at The Cove (on right) in Denmark and met Illya, the owner and builder of our A-Frame. Once we settled in we took a short drive to Green's Pool and Elephant Rock. Green's Pool was absolutely stunning.The water was freezing,
but it was such a scenic place. It felt like you were deserted when you were standing there. There was no development nearby, which was so refreshing. The water was aqua blue and the waves crashed out on rocks and exploded with foam high into the air. Elephant Rock was cool too. There was a great view of the ocean and the rock formations there.
After we left Green's Pool we went to an Apalca Farm. There were all kinds of animals, including kangaroos, American bison, a camel, ginuea pigs, sheep and koalas! We got to feed all of the animals that we wanted. The koalas were cute but kind of shy, and they would make intense eye contact with you.
The kangaroos were so cute, but these were "sedated" because actually in the wild kangaroos are aggressive and malicious.One of the kangaroos had its baby in its pouch and it was so adorable! The mother wouldn't let us touch it, and of
course it didn't eat the regular food yet. Apparently in Australia the kangaroo population doubles the human population. We returned to our A Line for the night and after some bonding games with the CIEE group we all went to bed early cause of the jet lag.
.
In the morning we ate and prepared for the Bush Walk with Illya over Monkey Rock. This was a four hour hike, which started off pretty strenuous and got easier as we continued. It was definitely worth it for the view alone.
Once we had finished our hike, we ate a quick lunch and although exhausted, we drove to Walpole, where we did a Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants. It was amazing how tall these trees were. They were about 400 years old and the soil is so delicate that people can't walk on it, so they constructed this Tree Top Walk, about 40 meters up in the air.I was terrified of falling since the walkway was wobbly, but it had to be architecturally to be safe. Somehow telling myself that didn't decrease the dizziness or fear though. It was beautiful, and it was amazing how high up we are, yet how much higher the trees were in the sky. The bases of these trees were incredible too, with huge huge roots.
You could see for miles, to the coast and over rock formations and the deserted forest. Illya had to warn us to be careful of what we reached out to touch because they have Sword Grass I think it's called, where it has sharp edges and if you grab onto its leaves it will slice your hand open. Also we were warned about grabbing on to a snake when touching a tree, so everyone's hands were close by their sides the whole time. We got to the top of Monkey Rock and it was so foggy, you could barely see anything, and it waswindy and freezing up there. Illya showed us a cave made from fallen rocks and a huge abyss, which I took pictures of.
Once we had finished our hike, we ate a quick lunch and although exhausted, we drove to Walpole, where we did a Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants. It was amazing how tall these trees were. They were about 400 years old and the soil is so delicate that people can't walk on it, so they constructed this Tree Top Walk, about 40 meters up in the air.I was terrified of falling since the walkway was wobbly, but it had to be architecturally to be safe. Somehow telling myself that didn't decrease the dizziness or fear though. It was beautiful, and it was amazing how high up we are, yet how much higher the trees were in the sky. The bases of these trees were incredible too, with huge huge roots. 
We went back home and enjoyed the rest of the night by the fire.
When we woke in the morning, we started our trek back to Murdoch. First we drove to Albany to see 'The Gap' on the Southern Ocean coastline.
It was amazing how steep the rocks were and how angry the ocean waves were. I kept getting these visualizations of myself slipping and plummeting to my death. Paul had told us before we went out therethat if someone fell in that nothing could be done since it was so steep and the ocean was so violent, so that's probably why I was a little nervous.
Throughout our trip to Denmark I kept being reminded of movies I've seen. For example, The LIttle Mermaid, when she's lying on the rock and the waves are exploding up around her, or in The Princess Bride when they go into that house that's a tree where Wesley gets electrocuted. There were more, I just forgot them!
This trip has left me so excited to see all that Australia has to offer!
No comments:
Post a Comment