Happy Australia Day

Australians have always been known to have a fighting spirit, to have a 'not let the buggers get us down' attitude, to stand side-by-side in times of adversity.

The start of 2011 has surely shown this to still be true, and it is when I see strangers helping strangers, or standing up for the rights of people against the insurance companies, or donating what they can to help others, or putting themselves at risk to save others - that when I am proud to say I am Australian. It is in these times that we show our true colours.

My favourite poem is I Love A Sunburnt County - I wrote this post in 2009 and I link it again just in case you missed it the first time.

Happy Australia Day - we certainly are privileged to call Australia home.

My Favourite Place In Sydney

Do you have a favourite place to visit in a city that is not your own? On my first trip to Sydney way back in 2001 I happened upon the Chinese Gardens of Friendship - tucked away between Darling Harbour and China Town. This beautiful, tranquil setting always refreshes and inspires me. The beautiful plants, the tranquil water, the hidden corners, the architecture and the dragons - not only the carved dragon wall, but real life dragons that if you are really, really lucky appear before you.


I would love to get to the Gardens each time I visit Sydney, but the reality is that I very rarely find the time. This visit I was determined to get there and yet again I was enchanted as soon as I walked between the carved stone welcoming dragons and entered the wooden doors ... and the Universe smiled upon me ... I was honoured to have a close encounter with a dragon who chose to walk towards and sit beside me for a while.


If you ever get to Sydney, I hope you find the time to visit and that you are as inspired and enchanted as I am with this beautiful place in such a busy city. To whet your appetite here are just some of the shots I took on this visit ... enjoy.

A Room With A View

While we were in Sydney, we stayed in a room with a view - Level 19 at the Meriton Apartments in Bondi Junction. For someone with mild vertigo, it was a little difficult for me to go out onto the balcony to take these photos - but I just had to share. Lets just say I didn't go too close to the railing.

Oh and this post is not sponsored in any way, shape or form ... however if someone from the Meriton just happens to read this post and feels like giving me a discount next time, I certainly wouldn't say no ... I love staying there.

The Place You Love To Visit - Do You Have One Too?

Do you have place you love to visit? A place that is really special? Somewhere that replenishes your soul? I do.

I don't know why exactly that I am drawn to this place, but I know that whenever I am down in Western Australia's South West, if I am close I have to visit. I especially love to visit when it is close to sunset - to spend the time just sitting and being, watching the sun set over the sea.

But it more than just the setting sun that draws me to this place - it is almost a spiritual connection. The water here is never still, the energy is tangible and yet soothing. To sit and listen to the waves, to immerse yourself in the landscape - for me it is a truly a wonderful thing.

The small bay is rocky with a small area of beach - more often than not covered with flotsam and jetsam from the ocean. If you sit on the beach there is the illusion that the horizon and the oncoming waves are higher than you, that you are nestled between the hills behind and the ocean in front.

And so hubby and I find ourselves here whenever we are visiting the Margaret River Region. We drive to Augusta, we buy fish and chips and we head out to the Water Wheel. We eat, we walk, we sit, we watch the sunset and then we drive away always feeling relaxed, always feeling refreshed, always smiling.

And so, here are a series of photos taken on one visit to my favourite place, maybe one day you will visit too and enjoy it as much as I do.



The Water Wheel is now encrusted with limestone, it was built in the 1800s and was used to supply water to the lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper's cottages. It was also used in the construction of the lighthouse. The water still runs from the natural spring but is only used to keep the wooden and the wheel wet so it doesn't split and splinter. The lighthouse sits on the tip of Cape Leeuwin, where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet, a place where many a ship came to grief on the reefs and rocks.

She Returns

My Esperance Trip - A Quick Reflection

Day 1: Fly to Esperance, get ripped off by the Taxi driver and can you believe they don't take Credit Cards!!! Check into motel. Find room, why do they always smell so much - sweet sickly carpet cleaner or something - phew, not good for people like me with allergies.

Day 2: Get picked up by my wonderful colleague and drive to Stokes National Park - all up that day we did around 450 kms. Ended the day with deep sand 4WDriving, towards sunset, on the boundary of the national park. Next to us is a large farm, its paddocks full of grey kangaroos - think I lost count at around 40. Hard work trying to stay in my seat as we rocketed through deep white sand - apparently the way not to get bogged is to go fast - who would have thought. Ended up at the coast overlooking the majestic southern ocean, truly breathtaking - shame about the trip back down the sand track in the dark - watchful for roos, luckily they heard and saw us coming and hopped out of our way in lots of time. An 11 hour day - but what fun.

Day 3: Get picked up and off to Cape Le Grand and Cape Arid National Parks - we drove on the hard white sand flanked by aqua ocean for miles. Saw so many birds - Pacific Gulls, Crested Terns, Hooded Plover, Red Capped Plovers, Pied Oystercatchers, Sooty Oystercatchers, Silver Gulls - what a job, bliss. Amazed by the granite outcrops meeting the ocean. The white 'squeaky' sand beaches, the aqua ocean, the friendliness of staff I meet. Encounter with a carpet python right on the beach. Saddened by the dying banksia, struck down by Dieback, that is slowly working its way through our Parks. 30kms of corrugated track out to Poison Creek, lunch on the beach, more birds, fish jumping in the creek just before it makes it way into the ocean. Then 30kms back on the same road - reckon I lost cms off my bum - isn't that how those vibration machines work. More kangaroos and then some emus. Soaring wedge-tailed eagles. 650kms today.

Day 4: Off to Peak Charles National Park, miles of bitumen road before we turn off and drive down more dirt roads - through mud, over corrugation but most pretty good. Peak Charles and Peak Eleanora loom in the distance. Driving through woodlands now, salmon gums, then gimlet with it's bronzed stems, lots of mallee. Some very wet patches on the way out, a river crossing, then miles of straight road. Back to town to check out the Nature Reserves surrounding the 3 lakes, more dieback here, beautiful grey paperbarks fringing the lake edge. 450 kms today.

Day 5: A day in the office to debrief before flying back to Perth. Arrive late, very tired and glad to be home. My darling hubby has bought KAZZOOM to the airport so I could drive home in my little black beauty. Purring down the highway with no bumps in sight - bliss.

Day 1 : the beaches of Stokes NP (below)

Day 2 : Driving along beach to Cape Le Grand NP (below)

Encounter with carpet python at Hellfire Bay

Hellfire Bay

Death - Dieback disease

Death : wildfire Hellfire Bay

Old Man Banksia

Life : healthy banksia speciosa - stunning

Nature's sculpture : Cape Le Grand NP

Hakea laurina : also susceptible to dieback

Birth : Hakea laurina in stages of opening



Day 3: Peak Charles (below)

Peak Charles and Peak Eleanora

Salmon gums and gimlet

Day 3 : wetlands

Death : banksia sculpture against the grey evening sky

Paperbark sentinels