Monday, December 28, continued...

Following the canoe trip we headed south to our next B&B in Pemberton. This is the heart of the tall trees country, and the "tingle" is the tallest tree in Oz, growing only in the extreme southwest corner of the continent. There are also beautiful "karri" and "marri" forests here, and the karris sometimes reach over 200 feet tall. Although the drive down took an hour and a half, we did not pass one gas station, fast-food restaurant, etc. For that matter we barely saw any other cars, and this was on a main road, during the peak summer, holiday season.

After checking into the B&B we went out to dinner, and there are not a lot of choices in Pemberton. The restaurant we ended up at was a throw back to about the 1950's, complete with frilly lace curtains and light fixtures you'd expect to see in a saloon in some old Western movie. The artwork consisted of pictures of trees in the process of being chopped down. The only other photos on the walls were of prize winning steers, and the music playing was country western from waaaay back, sounded like songs from the era of maybe George Jones and Tammy Wynette, or possibly even older. We could have been in some little town in Oregon or Idaho, with all the logging photos, but the seafood was excellent. We had marron, the local delicacie, which is found only in this extreme southwest corner of the country. It looks and tastes like a small lobster, and along with the marron we had both baked trout and smoked trout. Afterwards Bill went to the "toilet" to wash his hands and when he came back, he said I had to see the restroom for myself. Well, first I had to try to find it, because when I followed the signs for "toilet" there were 3 doors, all marked private, and the only other door led to the outside. The waitress saw me standing there and yelled out, "Ya got to go outside luv, then it's out on the verandah." Well, sure enough, outside was a small building with a sign on the door which read, "Toilet," and sure enough there was a toilet in there, but no toilet paper and no sink. That was outside in the open air, but there was no soap or paper towels, just a sink. But at least the bathroom fit in with the ambiance of the restaurant.