Weekend Trip to Pemberton WA

Pemberton Fun!

This month Graham and I rented a car and took and long weekend trip south of Perth to Pemberton. Its a small Aussie town about 20ks from the coast. The area is known for its wine and large forests of Karri Trees ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_diversicolor ). In the black and white picture above you can see Graham fishing, and then you can see just how tall the Karri trees can grow!

The purpose of this trip was to try the trout fishing in the area. Trout is not a native fish to Australia and has to be stocked to rivers and dams for fishermen to enjoy. Only a few area's in Australia have trout fishing and Pemberton is one of them. We took our fly fishing gear and headed out looking for trout in the rivers and dams of Pemberton but came up empty handed. Graham swears he "saw"some trout, but sadly I did not. Graham caught the only fish on the trip but it was a Red Perch, and he had to quietly kill it as Red Perch are a invasive species of fish that are killing off local fish populations, it is illegal to put them back into the water. (I guess trout don't count, but I am sure they do not help the local fish populations either.)

With the fishing at a loss we decided to try the goodies on offer at the local wineries. We went to a few locals and bought a few bottles. The standout of the group of wineries we visited was The Wine and Truffle Company (http://wineandtruffle.com.au/). We tried the wines and had an amazing lunch stuffed full of truffle delights. Oh my goodness this was the best meal I have had in a long long time. I am dieing to go back! Check out the website, the truffle business is interesting, and it seems that The Wine and Truffle Company in WA are quickly becoming a big hit internationally as a source of truffles. When the next truffle harvest is on Graham and I hope to go back and meet and truffle hunting dogs and learn more about the process of growing and finding truffles!

While in Pemberton we stayed at cabin nestled in the big Karri Forest. The bird life around our cabin was amazing. Lots of colorful birds both big and small. We had some bird seed at the cabin and where able to feed the birds morning and night for a bit of fun! One bird in the picture above was a little more friendly then the rest. He had no problems flying up onto your shoulder for a feed of some bird seed. He was a little to tame for a wild bird but it was fun having a little bird friend to play with! He would walk right up to the door of our cabin and wait for you to come out and feed him. He was a cheeky little birdy.

One odd thing I wanted to report on in this blog was a strange place we visited on our drive down to Pemberton. Now if anyone has ever been on a road trip with me you know that I have a smallish bladder.. Not too small. I am better then some ladies I know, but yet I am unable to hold it for 12 hours as Graham would like me too. So as we drove down to Pemberton we had to call into a small town for a bathroom brake.

Most touristy towns in Australia have Information Centres in the centre of town. These normally have bathrooms. So we found ourselves a place called the Bridgetown Information Centre. I walked in and asked the kindly older lady behind the information desk where the bathroom was located. She replied "Through the museum at the back" I started through the town museum, full of baby scales, old bottles, a dentists chair, and a fully functional marionette theatre, complete with a marionette band, to the back of the museum. In the back I found no bathroom, but I did find what must be the largest collection of glued together and mounted jigsaw puzzles in the world. It was a huge room full of jigsaw puzzles hanging on the walls, and laying on tables. I had never seen so many solved jigsaw puzzles. Nor had it ever dawned on me that someone might assemble and collect so many of these puzzles. This space was actually used by the community frequently, by school groups, and I am sure a fair number of senior citizens. I did eventually find the bathrooms. Not in the place I was told they would be, but I will always remember Bridgetown WA for its fondness of the jigsaw puzzle!

That about raps it up for our trip to Pemberton. It was a good weekend away, and I feel I am getting to know the state of Western Australia a little better.