Margaret River

I got to Margaret River the next day and met a really friendly bunch of people at the hostel which was great. I always find if you're chatting within the first half an hour of getting to a hostel, you're gonna have a great time there! It was so lovely being back in a place where I could see the Milky Way again!

So the next day I went trawling the fruit picking agencies. None of them were very optimistic that I'd find something - so many people were looking for jobs round in that area.

The next day I went for a days volunteering with a company called 'Cape to Cape'. I had heard about it from a girl from Barcelona called Ona during my first evening at the hostel. The volunteering group does lots of different environmental projects between Cape Lewin and Cape Naturaliste in the south west. That day we went to Gracetown on the coast pulling up weeds. It was a really nice group of local people - I met a guy called Bruce and heard someone use 'Strewth' for the first time - I was very excited!

The next week in Margaret River I spent 4 days volunteering at another agency planting trees and the thursday again planting trees with the Cape to Cape group. That was a beautiful day - we were by Moses Rock on the coast and it was sunny and warm and we were planting trees in sand dunes at the back of the beach to stop erosion. We saw humpbacked whales migrating up the coast while we were working - it was brilliant. We had about 500 baby sedges/bushes/trees to plant along the beach, trying to cut off pathways that people use when they shouldn't be.

After we had planted them all, me and Ona got a lift with the local Ranger, Ranger Gil, and he took us to a pretty beach covered in shells and then to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory.

There's a soup kitchen in Margaret River and me and Ona went there one night. It does amazing food - a vegan curry - its huge! The place was full of really interesting people, and many of them were also doing the Cape to Cape volunteering as well so I already knew some of the people there. It was a very friendly place.

After I had finished my week of volunteering, I went to the farmers market at the weekend for a nose around, then I went on a 15k walk along the river. It was beautiful by the river and the reflections in the water were amazing! It was so calm.

That evening it was a Korean guy called Mike's birthday at the hostel. We decided to drive out to the River Mouth beach of Margaret River to watch the sunset. It was very peaceful there. From there we headed into town to have a coffee.

The next day I had to head north back to Perth (as I hadn't had much luck finding work around Margaret River, I found one north west of Geraldton instead on a cattle station so I had to head north to get picked up). The next day I met up with my friend Horey from Milford Sound who was working in the mines outside Kalgoorlie and who was on his days off at that time. We went round Fremantle Prison and did the tunnels tour which is below the prison. It was quite interesting and we got to go around in a kayak thing.

That evening we met up again in Fremantle to go to the Little Creatures brewery. Little Creatures is a very nice make of beer that has a pub attached to the Brewery. THey do several different beers so me and Horey had quite a few to sample... it was a very fun night although I was pretty worse for wear the next morning when I had to get up early to get a bus for 6 hours to Geraldton...