Perth-Brisbane

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We’d had enough of the farm by the time we left. Funny how sometimes 2 weeks feels like a lot longer. We drove the short distance into Perth where we hit a stroke of luck as we rocked up at a hostel which just happened to have a carpark and a 3 bed room which had just become available. That evening we drove out to the airport to meet my friend Jenna. Very exciting to see one of my best friends after so long away travelling.

Perth was having a heatwave while we were staying and I had contracted a tummy bug, which sorta sucked. We went out for a beer one evening with Jenna’s cousin who lives in Perth. We couldn’t get into the pubs in the main nightlife area of Northbridge due to not having the correct attire, so instead we had a kebab and watched those who did. As it turns out, the correct attire is a tube dress and high heels for the girls and light blue jeans, while shirt and pointy leather shoes for the boys. It was like a uniform on the streets of Perth.

We moved on to the nearby town of Frementle, stopping in Perth’s King’s Park on the way out. It had a nice view of the city but was more of a jogging park than a BBQ park. Guess which I prefer?

Fremantly was nice. Good size. Nice atmosphere. Pain in the arse to find a hostel with a car park as usual though. We got a crappy one in the end. We had a roommate who snored, coughed and never made eye contact (let alone spoke).

On our first day we made the compulsory visit to the Little Creatures brewery where we had some rather nice lunch.

Next day we caught the ferry out to Rottnest Island. It was a funny little place with that fake atmosphere of a theme park but without the screaming. Here we rented some single geared bikes and attempted to cycle around the island. It was a pretty place with lovely, if rather windswept, beaches. It is also the home of the Quokkas - a marsupial about the size of a small wallaby but which looks more like a big (but cute) rat. You only see them on Rottnest island and they were all over the little town.

On our third and final evening we did a night tour of the prison which was cool. They really made an effort to create a bit of atmosphere.

We stocked up in Frementle and set off for the big drive back over east. We stayed in a combination of the tent/car, bunkhouse and static caravans over the windy Nullabor. We drove about 500km a day along largely straight featureless roads. Without pushing it we made it into Port Augusta in 5 days. We continued on through inland NSW until we finally arrived back on the east coast at Port Macquerie in another 5 days. The nicest place we stayed was also the last - Tamworth. It was a good sized town with all the amenities surrounded by nice countryside. It wasn’t half as country as I had feared. We went out for a nice steak. We also got a really awesome cabin and for 2 nights which felt like a holiday after all the one-nighters.

The east coast has been lovely and sunny and green and lush with palm trees and rivers and loveliness. We like the east coast. We spent a couple nights in Port. There was a half-iron man on. It was very tiring watching those poor poor people run up and down in the sweltering sunshine.

We continued back up the coast stopping at South West Rocks where we had also stayed on the way down in March. It is a very nice relaxing little seaside town.

Onwards and upwards we headed to Coffs Harbour where we did not stop last time. We found a good cabin on a park by the beach. Coff’s Harbour was a bit weird. It didn’t seem to have a town centre as such; it was spread out all over the place. It was really really windy on the beach so we didn’t go in the water. That afternoon the storms moved in. Lucky we left when we did because the next day it flooded and the highway out was closed.

We drove up to the backpacker central of Byron Bay where unfortunately the storms followed us. Unable to find a cabin and unwilling to camp we stayed in a backpackers. Byron is well expensive to stay but we found a cheap and nasty backpacker bar to eat and drink at.
We had a good night out on our first backpacker do since Neighbours Night way back in Melbourne!

Now we are back at Clare & Tony’s place in Brizzy! We are very proud of the Chang-mobile of making it all this way (over 25,000km). I would sum up the trip but I’m gonna leave that until I have a bit of retrospect. We fly home in 2 weeks.

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[Mum and dad]

And in the end
So the weary travellers make their final blog. Congratulations- you have circum-navigated the Australian sub continent. You did better than Burke and Wills. We are so impressed. Lots of love Mum and Dad