Damian “The Idiot” Hall very nearly left Australia without visiting Western Australia’s utterly gorgeous but little-known south-western corner. Luckily, he came to his senses…
I’m an idiot. No, not because of the haircut (though, yes, I paid money for it). And no, not even my habit of falling in love with every girl within a mile radius after five schooners (okay, three and-a-half), without ever having the courage to approach them.
They’re both impressively idiotic, but I’m talking of my neglect for a part of http://www.tntdownunder.com/article/2437918549.html[Australia], an astonishing area I almost didn’t see at all. I spent five years in the country (amazing where a few careful fibs on your CV can get you) and saw almost every region. But one I very nearly didn’t bother with was http://www.tntdownunder.com/article/2437943251.html[Western Australia]’s south-west region.
Just before leaving Australia recently (don’t do it kids), I visited friends in the WA capital and they suggested that heading south (stop that), was well worth it.
I wasn’t too fussed – I hadn’t met many travellers who’d been there.
However, Lonely Planet raved about the region recently, naming it in one of their global Top 10s to promote a fancy new coffee table book.
Plus, my http://www.tntdownunder.com/article/2441563055.html[Perth] pals showed me a few pretty amazing pics, which started to win me over. Quite possibly they’d had enough of me and simply wanted me gone. But, in the words of Alan Partridge: “Needless to say, I had the last laugh.”
I had a spare week, so I grabbed a campervan and hit the highway. The plan was to do the long drive to Albany first, then work along the south coast and slowly up the http://www.tntdownunder.com/article/2438435412.html[west coast], back to Perth. It was a good plan.
