Chittering Valley / Penguin Island

Having got a long weekend, my mates and I decided to explore the suburbs of WA and headed down to Chittering Valley and Penguin Island.

Chittering Valley is about 80 plus kilometres from JDK and took about an hour to drive there. Flanked by rolling hills and endless farming land, we enjoyed the scenic drive though the temperature was searing.

Leonard and I first stopped by Western Valley, one of the vineyards in the region. The shop attendant Kristy (not sure if I got her name spelled right) was friendly and poured us generous amounts of wines to sample. The reds were quite good and I got a bottle for only $10. We then spent a good hour snapping photos around the vineyard outside.

Beautiful vineyard, eh?

Grapes ripe to be picked. Surprisingly it didn't occur to us to try them!



This well is termed "Old Well" and was built by the monks in New Norcia many moons ago.

Yes, many many moons ago.

The next day, we enjoyed a day off and hence we decided to check out Penguin Island with Chris' friend Winnie. Charles couldn't make the trip as he was due to fly, so we made the trip without him.

Penguin Island is about 5 minutes off the coast by ferry. It is about 45 minutes' drive from JDK. There is a sandbar that you can walk to get to the island if you didn't want to pay the $17.50 ferry fee that we did. Having got there about lunchtime, we sucuumbed to our stomachs' growling and settled for a very salty meal of fish and chips at Rockingham. Very salty, very oily and definitely unhealthy.

We took the ferry across and launched the Cam Whore Action Group rightaway, snapping away at anything that seems remotely interesting. Interestingly, we didn't see any wild penguins during the time we spent on the island except those kept in captivity meant to draw the whoos and ahhs from kids. My view is that penguins only return to land to nest when the sun sets and the last ferry timing of 4pm meant that we (or any other visitors) were not fated to have any penguin encounter.

Having been to Penguin Island off Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, this one pales in comparison. It lacks the magical feel that the Melbourne one gave me but nonetheless it was a good outing to get some nice sun and cool sea breeze. It was interesting to note that the penguins on both Penguin Islands were fairy penguins, the smallest penguins in the world!

Feeding time!

Lord of the Rings gathering

This little bugger came down and strutted his stuff. Damn cute!

Penguin Island - no penguins but there are many enthusiatic photographers like this guy called Leonard. The pains to get a perfect shot... tsk tsk.

Reminds me a little of The Twelve Apostles in Melbourne

Oops. Too much post processing :P

After a tiring day in the sun, we took a drive back and freshened up before heading to Mundaring off Great Eastern Highway for some "world famous award winning" pizza. It was another long drive and it was late evening by the time we got there. Having had to wait 45 minutes for a table, the cold wind assault came fast and furious. It was cold! The weather here is turning wintry and it was no joke when you have to brave the cold in the wee hours of the morning preparing your aircraft for flight.

Anyway I found the pizzas a tad too extreme, tastewise. Too sweet (desert pizza), too salty (BBQ sauce) but the crust was excellently crisp to the bite. I did enjoy the pizza dinner though, especially with the boys (Leo, Charles, Chris) and the girls (Winnie and Min Yi). Charlesy and I had a fit of sugar rush and we couldn't stop laughing at a stage when we had a bout of fart competition. Gross yeah.

In all it was a very fulfilling weekend and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the flying front, I have not been flying since last Monday and I am getting bored. Afraid that I will forget all the little mental notes that I have been making and afraid that I have lost the confidence to take to the air. My solo check is coming; a week ago I was bursting with confidence but now the confidence has dipped. Let's see how the next flight goes.

A shoutout for the good work to Leo for a good performance in his solo check today. Dude, I'm sure you will clear it in the next flight. Dinner at Springybark this Sat on you mate! :D