Hi everyone
I can’t believe it’s been another month already. Time is going so quickly. I’ve had my ups and downs but luckily more ups than downs.
I have to say that I am really enjoying backpacking. It’s a completely different way of life but I seem to have just fitted right into it. I love meeting so many new people and the whole social aspect of it. At first I was asking to stay in girls only dorms until I went to stay in Margaret River where all the dorms are mixed and actually it’s much more fun in a mixed dorm. It really does depend on the people that are staying there though. I have stayed in some really nice backpackers which just haven’t been fun because the people have been antisocial or cliquey and I’ve stayed in some where the facilities are very basic even dodgy sometimes but the people have been so lovey that you just don’t mind. My favourites so far have to be the Ocean Beach Backpackers in Cottesloe near Perth. The girls in my dorm were so lovely and the backpackers literally looked onto the beach which I loved. Everyday I went for a walk or a run on the beach and for a swim and watched the sunset. There’s something very rejuvinating about the sea and being able to watch the sun go down over it. I loved it. My other favourite has to be Margaret River Backpackers in Margaret River, a few hours south of Perth. It’s a lovely typical wooden australian house, very clean and modern. But it was the people there that really made it lovely. I met some lovely Japanese girls who were so fun and enthusiastic about everything. You definitely experience a lot when you stay in a backpackers, especially it seems in Margs. We’ve had the cops called out a couple of times when people have kicked off and tried to beat the manager with a fire extinguisher or smashed things up, usually because they’re really drunk or high which is a common occurance here. We went out to the pub one night after a party at the backpackers which meant most people had already had way too much to drink. One of the kiwi guys who came out with us got thrown out of the pub for being too drunk and standing on the table. He promptly jumped on top of a taxi and unluckily for him the cops saw him do it, tried to arrest him so he did a runner and they had to tackle him to the ground, gave him a fine and a court order. You would have thought after that he would be feeling very sheepish but he just laughed it all off and carried on having fun and even once he had sobered up he still thought it was funny – can’t let a thing like being arrested, ruin a good night out hey J We did get some good pictures of him though.
I did my first bit of seasonal work at Margs which was grape picking. We picked 6 tonnes of grapes between 15 of us. We were up at 4am to leave by 4.30 and worked until 2pm. Oh my goodness did I ache after that. The grapes we were picking were on really low vines so we spent most of the time either kneeling or bent over. Such good exercise though. The Japanese girls are I were their best pickers so we were asked to come back the second day to do some more work and by the second day my body was much more used to it.
Margaret River is a small town in the middle of nowhere and there is no public transport so if you don’t have a car you’re pretty much stuck there. Luckily I met a nice Swiss guy called Marc who was staying in my dorm so we hired a car for the weekend and went to Albany which is on the South West Coast. We stopped off at all the tourist spots on the way and as many beaches and walks as we could. The South West coast is so beautiful. There are so many places that are just blue blue sea and white sands with amazing views. I bought my own snorkelling gear because there are so many amazing places to go snorkelling, you just have to be careful of the rips which are pretty bad here. Very annoyingly I am completely freaked out by the stupid sharks so as much as I love snorkelling I spend half of it with my heart in my mouth wondering what that shadow was or if there is a shark about to come speeding out the darkness to snatch me up in it’s mouth and toss me around like a seal. It’s such an irrational fear and annoys me so much. Where I can I make sure that there is someone else in the water that is further out than me so that if there is a shark fancying a bit of human then they’ll be the first to die – I know I know I’m such a selfless person you can’t really believe that J.
I’m back in Perth staying at a backpackers called the Witches Hat which looks just like a Hop Oast house. It’s nice here but I haven’t met any people that I get on with really well. I’ve got a job in a tree nursery in Kulin starting on Monday so I’m leaving on Sunday morning nice and early to catch the TransWA coach. Kulin is about 200km east of Perth and looks like another small town in the middle of nowhere. I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing there but any work is good work and it’s pretty decent money.
Anyway, I’ve got so much more news but I don’t want to bore you with all the details.
Hope everyone is well. Miss you all.
Love Tricia x
