Australia

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We had to use our heater when we woke up for the first time since arriving in Oz - I can’t believe what wimps we’ve become since travelling! Since crossing the tropic line we’ve really felt the difference in temperature.

As it was our last day in the van we had to get up early to go through our list of chores like emptying the grey water, filling up the drinking water and emptying the toilet.

Once we were sorted out, we drove across the road to the beach where the Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre was based. We weren’t really sure what it was all about but when we got to the front desk we were eagerly told the dolphins were in and it would be $8. How could we resist?! We paid our fee and made our way out to the beach to join the small crowd of people who were in the water. Just as we reached the edge of the water everyone started walking out back towards the beach. The dolphins had left already.

It wasn’t like Monkey Mia where they come at set times each day for feeding. Although they also get fed at Bunbury they are a lot more unpredictable.

We were browsing around the shop and the information centre to learn more about the dolphins when we heard that they were back in the bay again so we rushed outside to join the crowd. This time we did get to see a dolphin. It swam in front of the line of people to give everyone a good view, before finally turning around to leave.

It was our cue to head off as we had quite a drive ahead of us to get back to Perth to drop off the van.

The road to Perth was so busy that we had to go as slow as 70kmph in places. It felt very different to our usual speed of 110kmph..

We’d arranged for my cousin’s husband, Nitin, to meet us at the campervan hire place as he worked around the corner. It was a strange feeling emptying our luggage out of the van for the final time knowing that a big part of our journey had come to an end. We’d been living in a van for the past three months!

It must have been ten years since I’d seen my cousin Jo, and longer since I’d seen Nitin. Their daughter Jess was only a baby when I last saw her and she was now 18! They’d emigrated to Perth in the 90s. It was nice to know that even though we were a long way from home for Christmas we were going to be spending it with family. It was also comforting to think that we were going to be staying still for more than a week!

We loaded our things into Nitin’s car and he drove us to their house in the district of Mindarie. Up until then we hadn’t realised how spread out Perth was. Apart from the high rise buildings in the CBD, the rest of the city was low rise and sprawling with plenty of greenery. He tooks us a scenic route to their house past lots of huge oceanfront properties. We were amazed at how new and pristine everything looked.

Jo was waiting for us when we arrived and apart from the Australian twang in her accept she didn’t look any different.

After a beer and nice home cooked dinner, Jo and Nitin took us out to the marina nearby to check out the view over a coffee. It was a lovely sunny evening but was surprisingly blowy - not as hot as we’d been expecting. The coffee shop menu was amazing - there were pages and pages of different coffees and iced drinks. That’s definitely something I’ll miss at home as the café culture out in oz and NZ is amazing.

The rest of the evening was spent chilling out and watching an old bond movie. It was such a novelty watching tv and sitting in a sofa. The biggest novelty of all was getting into a big bed - we had the best night sleep we’d had in months!

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