I have a few moments to myself, so I thought I’d pop another blog entry onto my camera’s Memory Stick to be uploaded next time I am online. I also have a load of photographs to share with you, but slow Internet connections with an hourly rate aren’t ideal for uploading them. For the time being you shall have to make do with a few hundred words instead of the pictures, for which I can only apologise.

We’re currently in Pemberton, staying in a wooden-built Villa attached to the YHA backpackers’ hostel. We’ve pretty much had the villa to ourselves since we arrived yesterday afternoon, which is nice.

Last time I updated the blog we were considering a trip to the Fudge Factory in Margaret River. This was indeed our first stop of the day. We didn’t spend long there, though, as there was little more to see than lots of sugary merchandise.

K suggested a visit to The Giants Cave (there was no apostrophe on the sign, so I have no idea if this was a cave of one or many giants, sorry). This sounded like a far better idea than stuffing ourselves full of chocolate, fudge, caramel and milkshakes, so off we went.

Ten dollars gets you a helmet, a big torch and a few spoken words from the guide on the cave. After that, you’re pretty much on your own with a huge, unlit underground cave. As we decended the steps towards the mouth of the cave, we could feel the temperature dropping considerably. I cannot recall what the outside temperature was on Friday (I think it was Friday, the days are all merging into one, now), but it has been in the thirties most days since we landed in Western Australia. The temperature in the cave was a pleasant 17 degrees celcius with 90% humidity. There were a lot of steps down into the main cave and with the torches off it was pitch black. Having established how dark it would be with no torchlight, we kept the bulbs burning brightly until we reached the far end and exit of the cave. There was a huge, sand-floored ‘ballroom’, where the roof was many metres above our heads. I forget now if that was before or after the ladder climbs. I tried with varying degrees of success to take photographs in the dark of the roots of the trees above us as well as the many calcium-based structures that had formed in the cave, I shall put them on Flickr sometime for you to criticise.

We opted then to head to Australia’s most South-Westerly point for a spot of lunch. Augusta marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean and has the third-tallest lighthouse in Australia. It also has a calcified water-wheel and quite a few flies (have I mentioned the flies before?). Other than that, Augusta is a pretty unremarkable town.

Back in Margaret River we made the most of the hostel’s outdoor swimming pool, which was just the ticket after spending a lot of the day in The Beast. We had a barbecue by the pool that evening and enjoyed a bottle of Chardonnay that we’d picked up Edward’s winery.

The journey from Margaret River to Pemberton was a hot one. I shall have to look out for a thermometer as The Beast doesn’t have one built in. I think that yesterday was probably the hottest day since we landed. I’m glad that we have the iPod and relevant adaptors with us, as there are vast stretches of road where there is no radio reception. The GSM phones lose reception regularly in between towns, much like the radio. For this reason we have a CDMA phone in case of emergencies (thanks to Mr Moore for the tip!). About half of the journey was on an unsealed road. Kilometres of loose red gravel on which the car tends to find its own tracks. Thankfully this road was mostly straight meaning that it wasn’t too much work keeping the car heading in the direction that we wanted to head and at the speed we wanted to head there. It was amusing to consult the rear-view mirror and to witness the plumes of red dust left in our wake!

We stopped thrice along the way, firstly in Nannup for a quick stretch of the legs and secondly in Manjimup for a bite to eat. Both towns were remarkably quiet for a Saturday, possibly even quieter that Augusta, one can only imagine what these places are like on a Sunday! Our other stop was at The Four Aces, four huge karri trees believed to be over 300 years old.

The first thing that struck me as we arrived at the hostel in Pemberton was Live After Death (in my opinion the finest of Iron Maiden’s live albums) was playing loudly in the office (in fact it is playing again today), I knew I was going to like it here. We were shown to our room in the villa and told that every Saturday all guests are invited to a free sausage-sizzle. What a nice welcome!

We had a few hours before the barbecue was lit and discovered that there was not only a winery but a brewery on the outskirts of town. We drove up to Jarrah Jack’s Cracker Jack brewery, where I tried all six of their beers ($10 for a rack of six glasses, about a third of a pint each). We picked up a six-pack to take with us to the barbecue. At the barbecue we got chatting to a couple of guys who we’d also met at the previous hostel. We joined them for a couple of drinks at the local pub / restaurant / betting shop / drive-through off-license afterwards. I was glad of those few beers as it meant that I got straight to sleep when I got back to the villa, despite the wedding reception in the hall next door. Sadly, the effects had worn off by the time the cockerel began to herald the crack of dawn this morning. Hey-ho.

After lunch today, we’re planning on climbing a big tree or two. Stay tuned.