. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: A year later.....Fremantle and goodbye to Buffy!!

First clean shave of 2011!!!!

After a nice quiet night in front of the wood fire, we got up and left our hostel buddies this morning and headed towards the west coast. On the way we stopped to see 'One tree bridge', a bridge made from one tree. Then after an hours drive we made it to Jewel Cave in time for a tour at 1230. It was a spectacular and beautiful cave – one of about 30 along the coast road, but known to be the best to visit. I really enjoyed the hour we spent down there.

After lunch in Augusta, overlooking the ocean, we visited the cape and its lighthouse and water wheel, built in 1891, before driving the coast road north, getting to Yallingup, where we saw a stunning sunset over the rocky cliffs and beach.

We are staying at another YHA, this time in Dunsborough, with the beach, just a few yards away. Its getting cold, as its now into winter here in Oz, but we are still having fun and have had a great day today.

After dinner I had a play with my new camera. I'm really happy with it and find something new on it everyday. Today I found out that I could leave the shutter open for up to 15 seconds, allowing me to take some really weird picture's in the dark using a torch!! haahaa!

In the morning I was up and out on a run by 8.30. It was a beautiful morning and as I ran along the seafront I saw loads of other people running, walking and swimming in the sea. I really enjoyed the run, for the first time in ages and did about 5 miles in the end.

After a shower we took a short drive west to walk around the lighthouse, before driving along the coast to Busselton where we hoped to walk the southern hemispheres longest wooden jetty and visit the underwater observatory at the end. Unfortunately as its a long weekend here in Australia, too many other people had the same idea and the observatory was fully booked for the day. We did walk the 2km jetty though and watched as the fishermen caught fish and a squid, which squirted its ink everywhere as it was reeled in. There were also more dolphins swimming out at sea.

Our last stop of the day was at Bunbury where we had arranged to meet Vinnie and Heidi. Vinnie was the bus driver on the new zealand tour and Heidi , his girlfriend was also there in NZ. We had a lovely hour sat chatting and laughing in a cafe, catching up on what happened on our NZ tour, the things we missed and what everyone else has been up to since. We then bade our farewells and headed back north to Perth.

Tonight we are couchsurfing again – This time in a large house with about 14 people. It is one of my worse nightmares. The people are nice enough, but the house is cold, I am tired and I cant see me getting too much sleep tonight. If I don't get any sleep I will be moving out tomorrow. No questions asked.

It actually turned out a lot better than I could have hoped. Although the house was freezing cold there was a division between the people. Myself, Buffy, Frenchie, Sarah and Fried (German) ended up sat in the lounge taking the piss out of the others (Smokers and dope fiends) in the back room. We all slept close on the floor and the sofas in the lounge and had a fun night, pulling together in adversity. It wasn't by any means a pleasant nights sleep, but we made some good friends out of the other surfers. There was even a point where one of the girls who actually lives in the house had a stand up argument with our host Matt (Who we hardly saw) about how many bloody surfers were in their house. She was a complete knob and we laughed at her wholeheartedly.

In the morning myself and Buffy had decided to leave for the YHA Hostel and Sarah nearly came with us, but stayed as her travelling friend had been of the other group and loved his night of sleeplessness and shite.

Me and Buffy booked into the YHA after dropping off our hire car and then had a devonshire tea and scones for breakfast before taking the train to Fremantle for the Bank Holiday Monday afternoon. We had a lovely afternoon wandering around the cosmopolitan town and having few drinks in a nice pub before coming back to the hostel for a lasagne and garlic bread for dinner.

The next morning we were leaving the hostel again and heading back to Fremantle. We have booked an apartment for 3 nights as a treat to ourselves for completing our journey from Sydney to Perth. We arrived at the apartment after an hour on the bus, to find out that it was locked and we couldn't get in! We rang the agent who told us we had been upgraded due to a booking error and we were now in a 2 bed apartment in the centre of town. After walking down to our new place we were really happy to find a spacious apartment with mezzanine loft for a 2^nd and a big lounge with tv and sofas. All for not much more than a hostel between 2 of us.

After settling in and having fajitas for dinner we hit the local pub – Rosie Ogradys, where there was a^th out of 10 teams, but it was a fun and cheap night out.

Wednesday morning started with a run around Freo (as the locals call it) and then we had a nice touristy walk around taking photos of some of the sites and having lunch in the 'Little Creatures' brewery, where inside the brewery itself there is a bar and restaurant, surrounded by the large vats containing the beer. It is pumped directly from some of these vats straight to the bar and pumps where it is served. Its a great bar and very industrial but also a bit quaint.

Later in the day we took the train back into Perth city, where we are going to another quiz night. That we decided to go to last week for Buffys last night here. We actually did ok again at the quiz night and came 4^th, winning a free half pint each!!

The next day Buffy got her stuff ready to leave and we had a spot of lunch and a beer in The little creatures brewery again, where we were joined by some of the couchsurfers we had met earlier in the week. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and a great way to say goodbye to Buffy. We have been travelling together for 57days now and I will miss her a lot. Its been a great journey from Sydney to Perth and adventure and a half. She now goes to Singapore and I have a few more days in Perth before flying to Bali. Its also one year today that I left The Netherlands and finished working, so a pretty big day today. I celebrated by having my first clean shave of the year!! I'm spending the night with a pizza and a couple of beers all on my own. Its weird being alone again, but I will get used to it!!