I rented a car over the Easter weekend so managed to get out of Perth and have an action packed few days.

About 18 of us from the hostel decided to go camping at Margaret River from Friday to Sunday.  Margaret River is about a 3-4 hour drive south from Perth, it's a popular holiday destination for many people who live around Perth, and as we found out too late about half of the whole population head down for Easter weekend - apparently it is the busiest weekend of the whole year.

Our camping trip was poorly planned and involved purchasing tents/camping equipment the morning we set off! Also we didn't book any accommodation beforehand which was a big mistake.  We arrived late afternoon and drove around a couple of camp sites but all were fully booked - we ended up driving around for ages, eventually finding ourselves down some random country road leading to a lake surrounded by trees - we decided to just camp there.

The weather over the two days was pants, it was cold and rainy (reminding us of holidays back home).  Also as you can imagine there were a few disagreements and some conflict between 18 cold, wet and tired backpackers.

Margaret River itself was OK, I don't understand why it is called Margaret River though,  it was more of a stream than a river.  It is the wine producing area of Western Australia so if you like visiting wineries and breweries (of which we visited a few) then it is the place to go, however as the designated driver I couldn't drink much.

The highlight of the trip for me was a visit to 'Gnomeville', it was down some random road in the middle of nowhere.  There were thousands of gnomes, not sure how they got there but the gnomes seem happy enough.

Back to work today (Tuesday) but only for three days! It is ANZAC day on Friday so it's a bank holiday! Lovely.  I've decided to stay on at work until 16th May, they wanted me to stay longer but as stated on my last post I feel like I've had enough of Perth.  I'll work until 16th, stick around for a week or so then head up north where it is nice and warm (35 degrees plus).