The Southwest- part 3

we left early on monday morning for the drive to denmark. and actually managed to leave on time (incredible feat for a car full of macphees!). we had no idea how long the drive and stops would take, but we needed to check in at the visitors centre by 5pm to get our keys. we decided not to risk it.

our first stop on the drive was to another vineyard: random valley. it is an organic winery we had been told to stop at by one of john's clients. they only recently opened their cellar door. we were glad we stopped when we discovered that it a- had fantastic wine (even i found a good one!) and b- it is a completely sustainable project. the winery received a government grant and built it's cellar door to funtion entirely on green energy. the walls of the cellar are filled with wine bottles, which are filled with water. it's a complicated process, but essentially warm/cool air gets filtered through at appropriate times to help keep the water temp reasonable, which therefore keeps the cellar door at 20 degrees all year. not to shabby.

our next stop along the route was in pemberton. we first had some lunch in a park, then headed to our next challenge... climbing a 60 meter karri tree. yup. how fun. there is one slightly taller tree to climb (68 meters) but it was further off the track. arriving on site, john's mom immediately went for a walk through the trees as she didn't want to watch us clamber up the tree. and not to blame her, really. you climb up on small stakes that have been planted in the tree (ages ago), with nothing but a bit of wire/mesh to one side. you circle around the tree, and if someone is coming down/up, you just share the tiny stake with them and hope it holds. but the view from the top! amazing. it overlooks a lot of greenery and farms, but it was neat because we were above the trees. the gloucester tree (as it's known) was used as one of 8 "fire watch" trees back in the day. it was a lot of fun, though the nervous little girl climbing up ahead of me and down before me, kind of stressed things out a bit.

back on solid land, we continued on until we hit denmark, got our keys and settled into our rental. it didn't look so hot from the outside, but was remarkably nice inside and only a short walk into the village....