Our Australian roommate offered to take the four of us Americans home with her for the weekend to experience life on the farm in Southwestern Australia. We drove several hours south from Murdoch Uni, stopping at the Old Coast Brewery for a cold cider and eventually arrived at her family's property just outside of the adorable little town of Donnybrook. The town is in the center of apple country so the streets are lined with apple shaped lanterns. On Saturday for lunch, we got some of the best sandwiches I've ever had at a little cafe on the main road. You never know what surprises you'll find in the most random places! Speaking of surprises, Gnomesville. Yes, it's what it sounds like: literally thousands of gnomes lining the walkways and streams off a random bit of road. People have brought them from all over the world to create an amazing (yet somewhat creepy, in my opinion) little village.
It was great to be at Alex's farm and spend time in an Australian home with an Australian family. We had a great home-cooked meal of fish and chips the first night and swapped stories. Her dad built a huge bonfire for us out in the pasture and we roasted marshmallows and introduced Alex to s'mores (which have had rave reviews, by the way...Americans may eat a lot of sweets, but we sure do know what's good!).
Saturday morning, Alex took me out to the pasture with her to bring in her horse, Starbucks, and her dad's mare for our morning ride. I grew up riding, but it had been a long time since I'd been on a horse for a real ride. None of that going on a trail in a line sort of stuff for me this weekend! :) We took a nice relaxing walk around the land to see the lambs and the calves. So precious! Starbucks even took me on an unexpected adventure across the creek and jumped up the embankment! I only got a few branches in the face and I managed to stay on, so I'm quite proud. It felt really good to be in a saddle again. I would have been content to spend the entire weekend out there, but eventually I had to give someone else a turn.
We had some time during our weekend to check out other local treasures along with Gnomesville. We went to a couple of the wineries in Ferguson Valley and even bought some great feta cheese! Everything was really beautiful, and quite a different terrain than what we've experienced in Australia so far. Driving home at dusk, we saw dozens of wild kangaroos in the fields! That was our first time to see fully wild ones and it was an incredible sight. The buck of one group was absolutely huge! Sunday morning was spent exploring Bunbury: beaches, a lighthouse and a basalt jetty, the most southerly mangroves in the world, and a cafe for lunch. A nice, relaxing weekend if I do say so myself!
Thanks to Hannah Busskohl for the awesome pictures in this post, and the several she's contributed to other posts!
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