A Writer’s Wanderings in Western Australia

What began as a two week holiday in the beautiful south west of Western Australia, ended up being a lovely mixture of work and play. In fact, the whole holiday only happened because, at a charity ball, my husband placed an excellent bid at a silent auction for a 3 night stay in a 5 star heritage accommodation house in Albany, called The Rocks. If you ever want to treat yourself, that’s the place.

Mostly, work never seems like work for me – so a morning of meeting delightful booksellers, an afternoon of research around a wedge of history, a full day spent presenting to 400 delightful children at Padbury Catholic Primary School in Perth and a small presentation at a wine bar in Albany organised by The Singing Tree Bookshop and Walker Books – intertwined like ribbon with the sightseeing, ambles along pristine beaches, treetop walks and wanders around such places as diverse as Kings Park, Wave Rock and through the Karri Forests of Pemberton.

The wildflowers were stunning and each so different, Wave Rock was inspiring, Augusta where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet was breathtaking and every so often little gifts of surprising story ideas jumped out at me like shining gems, as they do when your mind is free enough to accept them.

The rest of the accommodation was varied and some probably starless, but we would never have appreciated the 5 star treatment if we didn’t have something to compare it with would we?

Here are some photos, which say it all really.