Sue Zann Toh

I have a sort of tradition of going somewhere and doing something on, or near, my birthday. I’ve gone down south to Margaret River for a 3 day romantic getaway. I’ve gone up north to Lancelin for a bit of quad biking.

This year I went down south again, but this time only one hour to Mandurah with a stop over at the Serpentine Falls for a quick swim.

The water was cold and refreshing on such a hot day. Hard to believe it’s meant to be autumn with temperatures up near and in the 40’s. I ended up slightly sunburned, mostly on the shoulders.

We wandered down to Mandurah and had a fish and chips lunch at Nino’s, then on the way back to the car we spotted a boat hire place and decided to take a boat ride. I thought it was pretty good value, $45 for an hour on a motor boat cruising around the Mandurah canals. We actually went for 2 hours, which was more than enough to explore pretty much all the canals and all the nice luxury houses and boats on the canals.

We weren’t fortunately enough to spot any wild dolphins in the main canals, but nevertheless, it was a fun afternoon.

I steered the boat for a little while, but I nearly got us stuck in shallow water so I decided to hand the controls over. It wasn’t very hard to steer and the boats have quite a decent turning radius. They only went up to 8-9 knots, which is roughly 15 kmph, and the speed limit in the residential canals was 5 knots.

After the boating we made our way back up to Perth and zonked out on the couch in front of a couple of DVD’s.

The last day of my birthday holiday. We had to check out by 10:00 am, so we woke up at about 8:00 am. You guessed it, we went for another dip in the jacuzzi. We didn’t stay in long because we were hungry for breakfast.

We checked out early and headed into the town center. Breakfast at Sail’s restaurant again, but this time we had our holiday favourite, bacon, eggs, toast, mushrooms, sausages and roasted tomatoes. The stuff heart attacks are made of.

After breakfast, we decided we had enough time for one more attraction in Margaret River before heading back to the “real” world. We went to the Eagle’s Heritage Raptor & Wildlife Center with the intention of attending the Free-flight display at 11:00 am.

We were about an hour early, plenty of time to walk around the park to see the raptors, eagles and other birds of prey. They were really incredible animals, beautiful and dangerous looking at the same time.

The Free-flight display was as much an educational talk as an awesome display of these birds. They are nature’s way of keeping the ecosystm free of sick and injured animals, but they are so misunderstood that they are hunted and killed instead of being protected. It’s sad to think that Western Australia is one of the few places in the world that doesn’t classify raptors and eagles as protected species.

After the introduction to the birds, for those in the audience who wanted to, they could head up and have the black kite sit on their hand. I was the first to volunteer. I was a little apprehensive, since the talons of these creatures could crush your hand if they wanted to, and yet, when they sit on your hand, they’re so gentle with their claws. They were also surprisingly light! I think the glove you had to wear was heavier than the bird itself. M also had his turn with the raptor on his hand. It was kind of cute, he was looking at the bird, and the bird was looking straight back.

We left for home after that. A 4 hour non-stop drive north back up to Perth.

More photos of our holiday can be found in the Birthday Holiday 2006 gallery.

I had the intention to practice yoga on our beautiful deck in the morning. I planned to do this ever since we decided to go on this holiday. Well, as things don’t always go according to plan, I didn’t get any practice in during this weekend away. After the exhausting first day with the drive down south, horse riding and great food at Ze Arc of Iris, I couldn’t bring myself to crawl out of bed at the crack of dawn to practice. Instead, I had a nice sleep in before getting up for our next adventure, mountain bike riding.

Dirty Detours MTB Adventures were our hosts for this adventure. We were going mountain bike riding through the Boranup forest. We’ve been to the Boranup forest twice before by car, the first time was with the encounter with emus and the second time was during an extended a trip in 2005 (I still haven’t finished posting about that trip! There’s a lot to write!).

We were taking the easy ride, since neither my partner and I had gone “real” mountain bike riding, we thought it would be better to classify ourselves as beginners. We did some street riding over the summer, going out for an hour at a time and sometimes more, but this mountain bike riding was serious stuff.

We didn’t want to eat too much before the ride, we had a light breakfast at our favourite breakfast spot, Sails, then made our way to the Settlers Tavern, our meeting point with Dirty Detours.

Our guide drove us to the Boranup forest from the town center, about 20 to 30 minutes drive. The weather didn’t look too good, it was overcast, cloudy and cold. It rained pretty heavily on the way there, and we were worried about getting soaking wet. In the end, I was actually thankful that it was on the cooler side. We got gently drizzled on during the ride and it was quite nice, refreshing and cooling.

Once in the forest, we were armed with a mountain bike each, riding gloves, hydration pack, our own helmets (we’re fussy about helmets!) and a quick mountain bike riding lesson 101, then off we went. I felt like an utter spastic most of the time on a mountain bike! The guide kept trying to give me tips, and as my brain would have it, I would do the complete opposite of what she was telling me! Not on purpose, I’m just a spastic sometimes.

The downside of the riding was that M’s bike broke something just about 30 minutes into the ride. We were really starting to get into it when this happened. After spending close to an hour trying to fix the damn thing (Our guide wasn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty! Hence Dirty Detours, I suppose), we ended up getting it in a usable condition and moved on.

Our guide took us to the most awe-inspiring spot in the forest. You really feel small and insignificant among the huge karri trees. There were a few baby drops and really narrow paths, but nothing very difficult or scary. When something looked a little too much for me, I’d just get off and carry the bike over (or under) the obstacle.

I was afraid I wasn’t going to be fit enough for this ride, but I held up ok. In the end, the biggest learning for me was “Look where you DON’T want to crash”. The body has a funny way of following where your eyes are looking. I fell/crashed off the bike a total of half a dozen times or so and got scratched up and knocked about a bit. You can probably guess that I enjoyed our jacuzzi after that adventure!

After our relative short mountain bike riding experience, we headed back to Margaret River’s town center and had a nice, long, leisurely lunch at VAT 107, another one of our favourite restaurants in Margaret River.

After our long lunch, we headed back to our villa at Losari Retreat and sat in our outdoors jacuzzi for a few hours. The jacuzzi was fantastic and just what I needed after all that riding around in the forest. We pretty much didn’t leave the jacuzzi until we got ravenously hungry for dinner and headed back to the town center.

Our dinner spot was Goodfella’s Cafe. I use to remember their food as being quite good, but this time, it was really quite inedible. I had some sort of chili pizza thing, which sounded good, but I couldn’t eat more than one slice because it would burn my mouth. Now, I can eat some pretty hot and spicy foods, but this was ridiculous! I ended up forcing down 3 slices before giving up and having a sticky date pudding dessert.

No surprise, after dinner we were back at our villa… in the jacuzzi… again.

We left on Saturday morning and made our way south to our lunch spot, the Other Side of The Moon Restaurant in Quay West Bunker Bay. We’ve been to that restaurant before and loved it so much we came back again. They have a beautiful view and great food and service. We shared a gourmet pizza, which was mouth-wateringly delicious, before continuing south towards Losari Retreat. We checked in the afternoon and after a quick introduction by one of our hosts, Jacky, we made our way to the horse riding place, Naturally Horsey.

Naturally Horsey is unique. It uses the natural horsemanship, also known as horse whispering, method of riding horses. It’s aim is to be able to ride a horse without a saddle or bridle or any other restraint. Obviously, this can be dangerous, so as beginners, we had a saddle and a natural bridle made of rope.

We spent the first hour with our horses before going for a trial ride. The hour was spent getting to know our horses. We started off brushing the horse and letting them smell us. My horse wasn’t very interested in me at first, but then decided to take a good whiff of me and left a lovely stain on my new white shirt!

We then moved onto playing some games with the horses, this was also a bit of training for us to learn how to control the horses in case something bad happened. It was also a great introduction into natural horsemanship as we played energy games with the horses. One of the games I distinctly remember was standing in front of the horse, looking directly at him, lifting the reins (made of natural rope) up in front of me, then tapping the reins with my fore finger and the horse would automatically start walking backwards! Neat party trick. When the horse did as he was “told”, I would then beckon him back to me and give him a good stroke on the neck.

My horse didn’t respect me very much at first, he was pushing and nudging me a lot and I had to learn to push him back and show him who’s boss. He eventually stopped trying his luck with me and we got along fine, for the most part.

At the end of the games, we had to mount our horse. The only other time I mounted a horse was with the aid of a platform, making the distance from the ground to the horse’s back less. This time, we had to mount our very big horses from the ground. I’m glad I do yoga, because it requires quite some flexibility and strength to get your leg in the right place and push up.

The trail ride itself was beautiful. It was so peaceful and quiet in the natural bush, and we even got pretty up close and personal with a kangaroo. My horse, like the last horse riding trip we took in Brookleigh, was slow. No matter how hard I was squeezing him, he just wouldn’t go any faster! The poor guide and my partner had to constantly stop and wait for me to catch up.

After the trail ride we had a shower to wash the horses off us, then jumped in the jacuzzi for a couple of hours. We didn’t really want to get out, but we had dinner reservations at Ze Arc of Iris, my favourite restaurant in Margaret River. The food at Ze Arc was fantastic as usual, thanks to Pascal et al. After dinner, it was back to our jacuzzi for a couple more hours, then bed. The next morning was going to be another adventure!

I just noticed that there’s a six month block where I just didn’t write a single word on here. That means I didn’t report on my birthday holiday.

I usually head off on a short holiday around the time of my birthday. The weather’s nice that time of year, it’s the end of summer and the beginning of autumn so it’s still warm but not scorching.

This year I got to plan my ideal holiday away. I decided I wanted to have a luxury time away with a little adventure in my favourite get-away destination, Margaret River. The adventure activities were going to be horse riding and mountain bike riding. Ok, so they’re not really that adventurous, but still…

The most important part of any of my holidays is the accommodation. As I said, this was going to be a luxury time away for me and my partner so it had to be romantic, tucked away in some hidden resort, but not too far from civilisation. After looking through what seemed like dozens of possible places to stay, and I mean dozens, you wouldn’t believe how many luxury accommodation there is in such a small area! Anyway, after looking through dozens of possible places to stay, I finally settled on Losari Retreat, a beautiful retreat with four different types of villas to choose from. Of course I had to go for the one named, “Endless Luxury Spa Villa” and as the name suggests, it’s seriously endless luxury.

It was a small house with wooden floors throughout, a big, beautiful, comfy bed, a gorgeous bathroom with two monsoon showers and dual sinks, one for him, one for her, a fully stocked kitchen with a deluxe coffee machine, a plasma television and best of all, an outdoor jacuzzi! Imagine that! A outdoor jacuzzi… not a spa… a jacuzzi, with constantly warm water always in the tub so you don’t have to refill the spa, just lift off the cover and jump in.

As I said, it was luxury, pure luxury, and I can’t wait to go back and spend another weekend there.

So it was time again to do something different in our lives, something we haven’t done before, something fun and exciting, but not too exciting and not too strenuous! The idea of horseriding came up during the South West holiday in 2005. I wanted the chance to go horseriding, but time didn’t permit it (I hadn’t initially planned it). So when we came back to the city, I marked it in my to-do list… “Go Horse Riding!”.

I found a sweet riding estate not too far from Perth city. It’s called, Brookleigh Equestrian Estate, located about 45 minutes from Perth in Upper Swan. As it was my first horseriding experience and I was the one organizing this “adventure”, I thought we’d start off with a leisurely trail ride.

We were given a quick introduction on:

• how to get on a horse
• how to get off a horse
• how to make the horse move
• how to make the horse stop
• how to turn the horse

My first impressions were “I don’t know if I can do this!”, but once we got going, it was a rather pleasant experience. My horse’s name was Solomon, he’s one of the older and more experienced horses used for trail rides. He seems very easy going, almost too easy going! He has his speed and when I tried to get him to walk a little faster, it was almost like he was saying to me, “No, not today”.

We didn’t get to trot or gallop on the trail ride, but we did have to navigate the horses through a rather large puddle of water and up and down hills. You wouldn’t think that hills were such a big deal, but there’s a bit of a technique to it. At the end of the day, I thought this particular horseriding trip was just the right mix of adventure, relaxation and fresh air. I can’t wait until our next horseriding trip!

Visit Brookleigh Equestrian Estate.

AQWA, formerly known as Underwater World, is Western Australia’s aquarium. AQWA is located about 30 minutes north of Perth city in Hillarys Boat Harbour. The aquarium is set out as a guide to WA’s coastline with four distinct areas,

1. Far North Coast
2. Shipwreck Coast
3. Perth Coast Marmion Marine Park
4. Great Southern Coast

AQWA offers more than just an aquarium for looking at fish and sharks. They have “AQWA Adventures” which includes diving or snorkelling with sharks (!) and whale watching during the whale migration months of September to December. They also have a cafe, bar and gift shop for souvenirs and can accommodate kid’s parties. They can even host a sleepover under the shark’s aquarium for kids. I was a little disappointed that the sleepover was for kids.
My favourite area of AQWA was the Shipwreck Coast. Its main attraction is the underwater tunnel running through a large aquarium filled with grey nurse sharks, stingrays or mantarays, hundreds of fish and a couple of large loggerhead turtles. It’s quite an experience as you stand on the conveyor belt while a giant grey nurse shark or smooth sting ray glides over your head! I loved the experience so much, I went around the circular tunnel at least 3 times!

Another one of my favourite areas of AQWA was the touch pool. The pool is home to stingrays, Port Jackson sharks, many fish, slate pencil urchins, starfish, a cuttlefish and more. I got a thrill out of sticking my arm elbow deep (and more!) to say hello to the stingrays, starfish and my favourite, the Slate Pencil Urchins. It was a bit more difficult trying to touch the fish, as they would swim away when they saw your hand coming too close.

There were many wall aquariums around AQWA as well, filled with colourful fish, lobsters, seahorses, seadragons, jellyfish, anemones and more. There was even an enclosure for crocodiles (only little ones) and outside, there’s Seal Island, where 2 female seals swim and play, and the Stingray Bay, the shallow pool of water where 2 species of stingray happily coexisting together.

If you plan to visit AQWA, make sure you give yourself at least two hours to wander the aquarium. There’s so much to see and learn (and touch!) and you wouldn’t want to be rushed. Keep in mind, this is a kid friendly place, and there’s going to be many children running around and making a lot of noise, so bring your patience with you.

See photos from our AQWA trip in the AQWA photo gallery page.

Visit AQWA’s Web Site

Our trip to the South West of Western Australia in 2005 took us 9 days and 8 nights. There were 4 of us travelling this time, so we stayed at a variety of accommodation, including hotels, motels and chalets.

I booked the accommodation for this trip. I did my research on the internet and ended up using a variety of methods to book our hotels, motels and chalets. Most of the reservation were made using the HotelClub.com web site.

• 
  Night 1 - The Clifton, Bunbury (motel)
• 
  Night 2 to 4 - Gazebo Lake Chalet, Margaret River (chalet)
• 
  Night 5 and 6 - Karri Valley Resort, Pemberton (chalet)
• 
  Night 7 - Karma Chalets, Denmark (chalet)
• 
  Night 8 - The Esplanade Hotel, Albany (hotel)

Select the attraction you would like to read about. These were the attractions we visited during our South West Holiday ing 2005.

Day 1

Serpentine Fall
Big Swamp Wildlife Park

Day 2

Dolphin Boat Cruise
Busselton Jetty and Underwater Observatory

Day 3

Quindalup Wildlife Park
Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse & Tour
Quay West Bunker Bay Resort
Wine Tasting @ Evans & Tate
Wine Tasting @ Vasse Felix

Day 4

Boranup Forest
Boranup Maze
Swim @ Hamelin Bay
Mammoth Cave Tour

Day 5

Trout Fishing @ King Trout Restaurant & Marron Farm
Climbed the Gloucester Tree

Day 6

Warren Tram
Wine Tasting @ Hidden River
Canoeing @ Karri Valley Resort

Day 7

Tree Top Walk
Ancient Empire Walk
Pentland Alpaca Farm
Wine and Cheese Tasting @ Ducketts Mill

Day 8

Natural Bridge
The Gap
Blow holes
Wind farm
WhaleWorld
Swimming @ Middleton Beach

You can see and do a lot in 9 days in the South West of WA. There was never a dull moment as we drove from town to town. Here is the detailed itinerary of our “down south” trip in 2005.

I have provided this itinerary for two purposes, as a travel diary of our adventures and as a template for those looking to plan a trip to the South West of WA. I like a good mix of activities from relaxing wine tasting to a little more adventure, like canoeing on the Beedelup lake at Karri Valley Resort.

Amazing what you can fit into 9 days. Looking back through this list, I can’t believe a group of four, usually disorganised adults managed to do so much in such little time!