'Citing Stuff mk II

Sorry I hadn't posted this earlier, I've come down with a filthy cold and I could only get time to do it today.

Anyway...

Thursday

We got up and cruised off from our very comfy Margaret River apartment and went down to Augusta, where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We cruised to the lighthouse on the southwestern tip, but we were stuffed if we were going to pay to get in as we'd already done out lighthouse bit, so we took photos of it from a distance.

They don't encourage cross species mating at this lighthouse

This was the Shaguar being creative

This was me being creative (and slightly off centre)

After this we had a pleasant drive through the southwest to Albany, stopping off on the way at a little old logging town called Pemberton to explore their visitor centre. After that we headed off to do some nature exploration.

We got to the treetop walk near Albany in the Valley of the Giants, which was a 40m raised walkway. It was awesome stuff and heres some pics to prove it.

A view from 40m up

A tree with a burnt out centre and me for scale

Another burnt out tree with me inside it

A fat arsed wombat coming out of its burrow

These huge trees are estimated to be up to four hundred years old.

We got into Albany around 6pm, checked into our hotel, unpacked, relaxed then went to KFC for dinner. The Shaguar got a couple of bits of chicken and two small tubs of gravy to eat my large chips with and I got a meal deal thingy. They duly arrived and they'd given her literally a bucketful of gravy.

And she ate it all with relish admittedly over two days. We had a lovely quiet night in and slept like logs.

Friday

Got up and explored the town. The Shaguar was most interested in the op shops (surprise!!) while I wandered off and looked at Dog Rock.

Yes, in fact I travelled back in time to take this photo (nothing to do with the batteries in the camera being flat). We drove to the top of a local mountain and war memorial thingy and checked out the view and wandered down a local beach where there was no surf. Despite this, there was a class of people being instructed on how to surf, mostly by standing on their boards on the beach.

We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon and sat relaxing in the spa before having a quiet night in.

Saturday

We cruised back to Perth around ten in the morning and got in around 2pm and checked into the pub we were staying at in the heart of Fremantle. But the room wasn't ready, so we dropped off out bags, got a drink on the house and ordered a meal. It arrived, the Shaguar got Nachos and I got a Parma, and we munched down.

We wandered upstairs and our room still wasn't ready. We were given a meal ticket as compensation and went and explored the main drag of Freo. The Shaguar looked at rock shops, book shops and other discount stores.

After this and around midafternoon we wandered back to the hotel, where our room was finally ready and had a nanna nap.

That night we strolled the main drag, bought a stack of books, got some extremely scrummy gelati and enjoyed the life of Fremantle. We then went to bed but didn't get to sleep until late and unfortunately the Shaguar was kept awake a while longer by off tone belltower clock across the street that chimed every quarter of an hour (and a chainsaw lying in the bed next to her).

Sunday

Up and off to Guildford to stay at the historic (or hysterical) Rose and Crown Hotel in rather modern rooms which were quite comfy. We checked in after midday, unpacked our bags and rested, the Shaguar went for a quick swim then we headed to the Belvoir Amphitheatre to the Good Vibrations festival.

We explored where all four stages were in the venue and settled on going to the secondary stage, which was the Amphitheatre itself, to catch some acts. The amphitheatre was a beautiful place, with trees scattered through it and decent sized steps so that everyone got a good view of the stage no matter where you were.

There were masses of people packed into this particular section of the festival and we enjoyed the progression of acts. We saw Nightmares on Wax, who was a dub/dance act that had a few songs I knew, but none that really grabbed me. Following this, and throughout the day, as they dismantled the stage and set up for the next act they had DJs playing, who were actually pretty good.

Up next was DJ JS-1, who played a set of rock/hip-hop/dance and mixed it in an insane way. It was brilliant as he'd cut between AC/DC to ABBA to Herbie Hancock to Rage Against the Machine in the space of a minute. Then he was cutting the same section of a song back and forth between two turntables at insane speed before doing the same thing on one turntable using his foot. Once he'd gotten the crowd warmed up, he called "The Undisputed Beatbox Champion of the World TM" Rhazel onto stage.

Rhazel, using a microphone, can imitate the drum beat, sound effects and rappers or singers on a great number of songs. And he is seriously good at it. He had JS-1 play songs, then he'd imitate them perfectly using nothing but a mic. Despite a few problems getting the sound right he put on a great show and really got the crowd into it.

Following this was the reason why I bought tickets to this concert. The Jurassic 5 were up and let me tell you, they were well worth seeing. The crowd went nuts as they put in a high energy show, playing a great mix of their old and their new songs. The group are four MC's and a DJ and the amazing thing about them is, apart from being intelligent, literate rappers that put across a positive message (which is a rarity in the music industry nowdays), they have four different toned voices (from low to high) that fit together really well. And they can sing as well.

From the moment they came on stage they had the crowd in the palm of their hand, kept them entertained, made jokes and were obviously having fun together out there. They also distanced themselves as far as they possibly could from the direction the USA is currently headed, which also went down well with the crowd. The only complaint I had was the DJ was set too far back in the mix, so you couldn't easily hear what the backing track was or what he was doing unless he was solo, but other than that, I loved it. There's a rumour going around they could be breaking up soon, and if this is true I'm damn glad I got to see them before they did because they were seriously good in concert.

After this we extricated ourselves from the amphitheatre and wandered out and waited for an hour at the main stage for the Beastie Boys to come on. We claimed our spot, back and on one side of the stage and waited.

As we waited we were accosted by a drunk guy who happily chatted to us about the lack of coverage from his mobile in the local area (which is literally just on the outskirts of Perth- so pretty sucky). The Shaguar is with the same company and had being suffering the same problems throughout the holiday so she vehemently agreed with him. He continued his rant before being distracted and his mind wandering off back to the stage being set up. Then his brother came over, so the guy introduced us to him (although he didn't know our names). I was Tony and the Shaguar was Danza.

Then the B-Boys came on and did a best-of set list. It was great, they were fun but you could tell they were at the end of a tour. The keyboardist (I'm not sure if it was Money Mark or not) went nuts and at one stage even played the keyboard with his head while doing a handstand on it. They drank a bottle of Dom Perignon to the crowds health and even gave a shoutout to Fremantle and Rottnest Island. They played No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn, Brass Monkey, Shake Your Rump, Root Down, Three MCs and One DJ, pretty much all of their big hits along with several of their instrumental songs off In Sound From Way Out, and finished with Sabotage (which was also dedicated to George Bush). A heck of a gig and a mighty fun day.

We raced off to the car after Sabotage and beat the rush of traffic and was back at the hotel around 11pm to shower and collapse before leisurely heading back home the next day.