There's more to life than wine

Because I've been so busy and was without Internet I'm still blogging about Margaret River from last week.

Entering day two in Margaret River we were feeling more adventurous and ready to experience something other than wine. We couldn't wait for the Bush Tucker canoe trip down the river. We met our guide at the mouth of the river and jumped into our canoes with a guy traveling alone from Scotland. He would be in charge of steering the vessel while I would be setting the pace. Brianne chose the middle seat, dubbed the "Chardonnay seat" by our guide because you don't have to do anything.

With dark skies and an approaching storm, we made our way down the beautiful river until we got to an inlet fullnof interesting looking trees. We joined the group for some history about the trees from our guide Jim. They are 400 year old paper bark trees known for their healing properties and ability to take your worries away. Aborigines would use the paper thin bark of the trees as bandages. But they would also sit against them or hug them to relieve their stress.

Once back on our boat it started pouring rain as we made it to the next stop to have lunch and crawl through a cave. Lunch was full of exotic meats and other foods indigenous to Western Australia. We had kangaroo, emu and some other interesting fruits and nuts. I tried mot everything and none of it was terrible. But none of it was great.

Jim took us into the cave where we crawled on our bellies with flashlights. The ceiling height was extremely low. Not even two feet. All was good until we came upon a narrow area and for some reason a man smaller than the guide couldn't figure out how to get through. He then started screaming for his son who had made it to the end. Brianne started to get claustrophobic and I was telling her to to take breaths. The man finally made it through after yelling "bloody hell" a dozen times. And then we saw the light, squeezed through and were welcomed by our group of smiling faces.

It was quite cool to experience but we did have scrapes and bruises from doing the army crawl through the cave. I couldn't wait to rinse off in the river. But first we had to climb a steep hill to see a breathtaking view of Margaret River.

Once back to our boats we continued on and met Jim down the river where we gathered for more history. While sitting in our canoes it poured again! I could not make out everything he was saying but I learned a few things about the first family to settle there after the aborigines. They built homes and had lots of children. Today, the Cheney family lives in the home. No relation to the former Vice President.

We paddled back in the rain and of course it stopped raining when we returned our canoes. Overall though it was a really great experience.