A huge tingle tree near Pemberton - infrequent fires hollow out the insides, yet the tree lives on!
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Glenn's Journals 11-26-02 Western Australia

We were up and going a little later than I like but I am a morning person and Erin is not. Our first stop was Meelup beach which was on our recommended "must see" list from Adele. Meelup beach was extremely beautiful and very peaceful. We thought we would find crowds of "schoolies" running around every beach that we went to but Meelup beach was isolated enough not to have many people at all. Erin and I took our shoes off and relaxed on a rock near the edge of the water for a while. The view of the white sands leading up to the edge of the aquamarine and saphire colored waters were fantastic. This is a great spot for a beach day!!! Well, we had a few other stops we wanted to make today so we wouldn't stay for the whole day.
The Ngigli caves on the way to Yallingup, just outside Dunsborough, are an amazing site to see. There are many caves in the Southwest of Australia to choose from so Ngigli may not be the "one" to see but we enjoyed it all the same. We also were additionally lucky this morning as the entry fee per person to the caves was $16 Au but we ran into some kids from a school group (Year 12 "schoolies") that had 2 extra tickets so they sold them to us for $2 Au each. They were a fun group so we hitched along with them, especially so the guide would believe that we were with their group. The guide provided an up-front 5 minute information session about how the caves were found (a horse fell in a hole never to be found again) and a few other tidbits of history. We were then allowed to tour the cave for as long as you wished and the guide would be at a central point within the caves where you could ask any questions that you may have. We took our time walking through the caves and upon making our way to where the guide was listened to answers and asked a few questions ourselves about the caves and how they came to be. The guide was very informative and we appreciated that (Not all guides that we have met know more than a script that they repeat day after day). We spent about an hour in the caves before taking off down the road.
We were heading to Margaret River when we took a wrong turn and ended up in Yallingup. It is a small beach community with gorgeous views of the ocean. We got turned back around heading in the correct direction when we came across a hiker with a full backpack. She was a oung lady from Israel who was traveling around Australia for a year. We made one stop at a woodworking shop before making our way into Margaret River. We dropped the young lady off at the campground before stopping back in town for some lunch.
While in Margaret River we had lunch (fish and chips), did some window shopping, and checked e-mail (for the first time this week). We decided not to stay in Margaret River as it seemed packed with "schoolies" and the campground looked very full. We headed further south to a spot called Hamelin Bay. Once we arrived at Hamelin Bay only to find a campground situated there we continued on to Augusta. Agusta is a wonderful town on the southwestern most point of Australia. With some assistance from the information booth in town we located the Baywatch Manor Resort which is the local youth hostel affiliate. We were very much pleased as we learned that it was named the #1 hostel in Australia 5 of the last 6 years. What a wonderful hostel with all of the amenities including a huge kitchen area, sitting room, and very near restaurants and the grocery store. If we had more time we would have stayed longer.
After we had settled in to our room which ended up being a 5 bedroom dorm with a view of the ocean (we asked for a double) we headed out to dinner. We picked up a bottle of wine and made our way to a restaurant with the motto that they were the self proclaimed last eatery before the Antartic. Dinner was good and quiet as we wre one of only two couples eating there.
After dinner we returned to the hostel where Erin worked on journals and I went downstairs to read. There were plenty of other people downstairs so I met up with a couple of young ladies playing chess. Sharyn was teaching Leigh how to play chess and Leigh (for her first time) was doing rather well. I watched as they finished the game and then we sat around and chatted until midnight or so. They had remained friends since college and had hooked up to take a holiday together for the week in and around Augusta. By the time I returned to the room Erin was fast asleep.