Happy New Year, everybody!! We’ve been in Sydney now for three days and whilst reluctant to coin Mac’Ds marketing phrase… we ARE Lovin' It. Last night we celebrated the Hogmanay festivities with the thronging crowds between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, so if you see any footage on the TV do watch out for us waving like idiots to the helicopters above! It was a great night, which we kicked off at about 4pm by heading into the Circular Quay area of the city and taking a drink or two. We then sped into the night to find [View Full Entry]

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Kalbarri was eventful - to say the least. We had a bit of a trauma the day before Xmas Eve. We'd been on an excursion to the Hutt River Province - which Alan will write about later - and a T shirt was purchased for Mr McCabe during our visit. He loved it and was really desperate to put it on, therefore when we stopped on the way back at a deserted lookout spot on the coast, full advantage was taken to fish the shirt from the back seat and get changed into it. Disaster struck. We were having such a [View Full Entry]

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This is the very short version of this wacky tale..... In 1970, a farmer gets fed up with the deal he's given by the Australian government on wheat production, so he sets up his own country and gets away with it due to a legal loophole (which has since been closed to avoid same thing happening again). Leonard doesn't pay taxes, and has been reigning sucessfully over his 75 sq kilometres ever since. Think Monaco without the glamour of casino life and exciting car races. They have their own currency and we got our passports inspected and stamped the day we [View Full Entry]

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The most northern point that we visited was a place called Exmouth, which boasts a sub tropical warm climate all year round, and a coral reef which you can view by snorkelling directly from the beach. The area is incredibly remote at the tip of a peninsula roughly half way up the West coast, and Exmouth itself is surrounded by National Park in every direction, with rivers, gorges and unusual and exciting wildife (pretty much like most places in WA in that respect). We had a bit of a mixed bag of experiences here - some great, and some which left [View Full Entry]

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OK, so before I start with the story, I'd just like to mention a bit about the title. Because there are so many gorgeous beaches here, and the water is teaming with wildlife, everyone encourages you to go snorkelling. However. I'd like to advise that at no point during our trip, will I be doing any sort of swimming in the open sea or snorkelling, due to my incredible ''might be sharks in the water'' phobia. Alan might go in for a lirrle dip, but not moi. Anyway - lets crack on with the blog...... ......Heading further up the East coast [View Full Entry]

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Occasionally you go to a place and you think that it’s going to be fantastic, that there’s going to be loads to do & see. Hey, its beside the sea, weather’s going be grand, the brochures look amazing; there’s fishing and canoeing and heaps of other stuff going on. Then, on approach to the said place, you get a twinge of something that you can’t quite put your finger on, something that makes it seem a bit dull, bit boring. It’s quiet - there’s no cars around, no people in the pubs or on the streets…A feeling of dread comes over [View Full Entry]

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Back to Perth eventually after a mammoth drive from Kal and Wave Rock. Knackered, we found our hostel remarkably quickly and checked in to find that it was pretty fabbo. Governor Robinsons it is called and is situated in the funky part of town (sorry, city!! I keep forgetting) called Northbridge. It had - and I kid ya not - SMEG cookers. Now this is pretty unheard of in hostel land. Also, the building itself is renovated from two old town houses, and they have kept all the gorgeous stained glass etc. Just lovely - we can recommend if anyone out [View Full Entry]

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The drive back to Perth from Kal was going to be long enough, but just to spice things up a bit we did a big fat detour (we’re talking about 400kms here) to visit a real unusual rock formation called Wave Rock. Its situated near to a place called Hyden in a mega rural area of Western Australia referred to as the ‘Wheat Belt’. You guessed it, they grown wheat. But enough about the wheat belt - I want to tell you about Wave Rock. It’s so called because its shaped like the crest of a wave just before it breaks. [View Full Entry]

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The next stop on our tour of the South of Western Australia was the Goldfields area. Which actually doesn’t have that many hills - in fact it was pretty flat, but as we all know, that is what you exclaim when you find gold. We were booked into the YHA in Kalgourlie-Boulder which is a mining town with pretty much nothing else around it. Our drive from Esperance to Kal. (as us locals know it) took us through a great deal of dusty scrub - very remote, hot and dry with long, straight roads lasting many miles. These are to allow [View Full Entry]

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Picture this… we’re basking in the glorious, mid afternoon sunlight, on a pink & grey sparkling granite breakwater. Alan’s fishing away and I’m just lounging, taking in the delights of the spectacular nature around us. Behind us are rows and rows of pine trees bordering the perfectly white pristine beach of Esperance. To the right of us is a frisky sea lion, belting up and down the line of a wooden jetty, attracting the attention of nearby fisherman - he’s hoping for a freeby dinner! To the left of us are three of the most beautiful wild creatures we’ve e [View Full Entry]

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