Holiday update #7

Sunday 13th July

Even though I went to bed early, I was still awake at 10:30pm so I figured I may as well do something instead of tossing and turning. I ended up finishing an entire That’s Life puzzles section in an hour before I finally crashed and slept through to 8am. By the time we’d both had our morning wake-up shower, a lovely cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast and decided what we were doing for the day, it was after 10am.

The rain didn’t seem to be too bad and I’d heard reports of whales down in Augusta, so we headed down that way. Debbie even let me drive her car. (I so want to get an automatic for my next car and one with cruise control would be even better!) It only took 35 minutes to get to Augusta and driving down the main street was an eye-opener. It’s nearly twice as long as the last time I was there with three times as many shops as there were before.

I was trying to work out where the whale viewing platforms were but couldn’t find them so we ended up taking a little scenic drive along the waterfront before stopping at a craft shop which was right next to the Tourist Bureau. After having a look around at all the souvenirs and asking where the best place to spot the whales was, we went out to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. Another place that had changed heaps since the last time I was there. You used to be able to just walk into the grounds and have a look around and you only had to pay if you wanted to go into the lighthouse itself. Now you have to pay just to get into the grounds, which is where the whale viewing platform is, and then pay extra for the lighthouse tour and the viewing platform binoculars. Oh well ... literally the price of change!

We decided to have some of the yummy smelling soup from the tearooms for lunch (we didn’t have to pay to get in there … just for the food!). It was so nice to able to sit there, eat lunch and not have to worry about the kids fighting or getting bored or disturbing anyone else. There were plenty of kids there but none of them were ours so we didn’t mind!

When we ordered our soup, the staff were trying to talk us into having some of their freshly baked scones. We finished lunch, sat and chatted for a while then thought we’d try them. One of the guys had even said they were “The best in the West”. Unfortunately, he was sadly mistaken! The Berry Farm’s scones are still the best I’ve ever had by a long shot. Once we’d finished what we could of the scones, we went outside to get some pictures of the lighthouse over the fences and then went to look at the old water wheel.

The water wheel used to draw water from a local freshwater spring and pump it to the lighthouse. It’s not used anymore and the wheel has calcified but it still made for some pretty photos, especially with the banded rocks in the background. I also tried to take some photos of the hundreds of shells stuck to the rocks but didn’t release I was standing in the wavezone. When the waves came in, the rock I was standing on got covered in water so I ended up with wet jeans legs again! Luckily not too bad so I could still get in the car without dripping everywhere.

We were both pretty windblown by this stage so we headed back to the house for an afternoon of scrapping. Amy rang Debbie several times during the afternoon for instructions on how to make a white sauce for the lasagna she was trying to cook, so Deb didn’t get much done and I only managed to finish a couple of the kids’ school pages but it was the perfect afternoon. Scrapping, cuppas, bikkies and great company … what more could a girl ask for?

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself because the boys hadn’t rung me once the whole time I was away and I thought it must have been because they didn’t miss me. Amy proved that wrong in one of her phone calls by telling Debbie that the boys were really missing me (they’d been out to Wayne and Debbie’s for dinner on Saturday night) so then I started feeling guilty for not ringing them more. Mother guilt is a wonderful thing isn’t it? After a phone call to them I felt a bit better and hope they did too. Apparently they’re helping Peter clean up his (very messy) side of the backyard and are having a ball playing the new PS2 games he bought them. A bit of bribery never goes astray!

At about 6:15 both Debbie and I developed a craving for Chinese food and went out to get some. The lady at the Chinese restaurant is rather odd to say the least! We fronted up to the counter where she informed us to “come back in hour” to place our order that would then take another 20-30 minutes to be ready. I think Debbie’s response of “Chooks it is then” changed her mind because all of a sudden she was quite happy to take our order. What a strange way to run a business!

When we eventually got our Chinese food, we came back to watch TV for a while before we both headed for bed at 9:45pm. Another great day in paradise!!