Chasing the Sun - Perth to Carnarvon

---

---

12 August 2011
Dear Friends and Family,
It has been a long time since our last blog entry and now it seems there is a lot to say… So, hang on…
We are currently sitting in a sandy red van park in Carnarvon 900km's north of Perth. The charm of the town is in its down-to-earth and unpretentious nature which I like. Just as well, as our intended 2 night stay has morphed into two weeks! Funny story, actually, in a painful kind of way…
We were camped about 80km's south of Carnarvon in a free park surrounded by about 10 other travelling groups (grey nomads in vans and European back-packers in Kombis) with a toilet but no water or electricity. No problem though, as we have the means to overcome such difficulties! So happily we set up for the night and as I was getting something out of the car my arm and a fish-hook took a great liking to one another and would not be rent asunder! Great force was applied to pull the hook out the way it had gone in, but to no avail due to the barb! A couple in the adjoining van then emerged to offer assistance. So, on the bonnet of the car the surgery began with antiseptic and pliers, as Sue (feeling very guilty about having left the lure attached to the rod!) cut the hook (amidst numerous swear words - Sue not me!) while the neighbour wrapped her arm around my shoulder and kept telling me how brave I was! Sue then pushed the offending hook through my intact skin making a new wound (thanks a lot!) and with a great sense of indignation threw the offending remains of the hook into the bush (not before a few photos were taken for this blog, of course!). But hang on, I forgot that not all of you are nurses and may well be queazy by now, so please read on and let me assure you there will be no more gory stories!
The next day I visited the little hospital in Carnarvon for a tetanus injection. I had to fill in a registration form which asked for "occupation". Well, within 5 minutes the hospital supervisor had asked me to "stay for a month and start work tomorrow"!! I declined! But, to make a long story short, we ended up staying a week for, as it happened, there was a sick little neonate in need of nurses who would not turn the three-way-tap the wrong way on an umbilical venous catheter….and that was us!! Unfortunately after one shift, I promptly came down with a cold and left Sue to do double shifts! I felt bad, but she got all the money!! Anyway, soon after our arrival in Carnarvon the RAA mechanic diagnosed an oil leak from a turbo inlet gasket on the car and could not do the job for almost a week. So as we'd have been waiting around for that anyway, we all agreed that the fish-hook episode had ended very nicely indeed (if only I'd been able to work). The lovely hospital supervisor, Di, promptly embellished the story even further saying that treatment was withheld until I had signed a contract and that she had put a piece of carbon paper under the medicare form so that my signature had been copied onto a contract!! As it turned out, they booked the shifts through the agency we had joined in Perth and it was as simple as faxing a time-sheet through at the end of the week! I only wish we did have two or three years to travel so that we could stop here and there and work for a month, but it seems we now have a long way left to travel in a short time! What an enormous country this is!
So after a tour of Carvarvon with the lovely Di as our tour guide, we travelled on 70km's north-west to a beach-side camping ground near spectacular cliffs and blow-holes where we swam and snorkelled (sadly the coral is mainly dead due to human activity - apparently including sunscreen - though the tropical fish were beautiful). We saw numerous huge whales some of which were breaching. We camped opposite a couple - DJ and Sheila - who were travelling indefinitely (with their cockatoo perched almost permanently on DJ's shoulder) in the most enormous luxuriously kitted-out bus in the world. Imagine a large luxury coach then add 25% to the length and the height! Then add a 7 metre covered trailer as high as the bus in which to tow the suzuki car. They were lovely and friendly and we sat with them outside one evening around their little portable chimenea (fire-place). At one point I asked whether they also carried a small tinny boat or kayaks in their trailer. DJ replied, "No, just a light plane". I laughed out loud certain they were joking, until I looked at them and realised they weren't! Sue jumped in and saved the day by changing the subject while I quickly rubbed the smile off my face!!
After a few days we turned back to Carnarvon as the oil leak was worse, not better. We had been told initially that the turbo was also leaking oil but that traveling on would be fine as long as we kept an eye on the oil level. Not so now, as things have deteriorated so we are waiting another week here for a new turbo to arrive from Melbourne! Looks like the earnings from Sue's work here in Carnarvon will be needed sooner rather than later! So, let's hope everything will be fine after that.
Anyway, that is where we are now (and why). The last blog ended in Perth after our trip to the South-West so I will return to Perth…
We spent 8-weeks in Perth and worked at the King Edward and Princess Margaret Hospitals (very royal indeed!). We got plenty of work and by the time we left were just settling in and getting to know the staff!! My last visit to Perth was 17 years ago and it has grown so much since then. The traffic is now nearly as bad as in Melbourne! We saw evidence of the mining boom in Perth too with numerous van-park residents being "Fly-Flo's" - those who "fly in, fly out". One of our neighbours was a woman of about 30 who arrived alone with a huge van and backed it easily without assistance. No wonder! She is a Fly-Flo who works up north as a team-leader in the mines and used to drive a 320 tonne triple road-train! That also explains why she kept calling us "mate"!! I caught up with lots of old friends in Perth which was great and we did all the usual sights-seeing things including the Fremantle markets and the beautiful beaches. We also visited the famous King's Park and Botanic Gardens where we buried our beautiful, sweet, gentle little pet rat Molly who died of an ovarian tumour. Sneaking into the natural bushland with spade in hand required great stealth as we didn't want to be suspected of being native plant thieves nor did we suppose that burying a pet rat in King's Park is actually allowed!
On another occasion while walking thru the mall in the city we turned to see a pair of very slender long fake-tanned legs at which everyone was staring. These said legs had feet at the end which were ensconced in the most ridiculous shoes I have ever seen in my whole life, plastic stilettos about 8 inches tall whereby the soles of the feet were almost at a 90 degree angle to the ground (shoes designed to restrain and contain in a way that is not unlike ancient chinese foot binding). As the crowd parted I saw from behind that the said legs were also attached to a long slender body and a head with long flowing hair. She was so tall (only in part due to her stilts) and with the fake tan and mini-skirt, I said to Sue, "Must be a transvestite!" Sue disagreed. She thought it was Megan Gale. And she was right!! When she turned around I saw she was no transvestite, but seriously she looked as if she was from another species she was simply so different from everyone else! I understand why such beauty turns heads, it's just sad that in the face of the struggles of the human condition, superficial beauty is given such value.
One of the highlights of our time in Perth was a trip to Rottnest Island. In fact, once there, we wish we could have stayed a week! Rotto was part of mainland Australia until 7000 years ago when sea levels rose. It is 11km's long and is a 30-minute ferry trip from Fremantle. It was "discovered" in 1696 by a Dutch explorer (though, no doubt the Aborigines knew of it for some 40 or 50 thousand years before that!). He mistook the native Quokka for a rat, naming it "Rott Enest" meaning "rats nest". It has a fascinating, sad history having been used as a penal colony for Aboriginal men, a reformatory for "wayward" boys, a salt mine (the Aboriginal men were the labour force), a summer residence for the Governor of the Swan River colony, an internment camp during both world wars housing German and Italian prisoners of war, a defence site for Fremantle's submarine base and as a signal and communications station during WW2 "manned" by the Women's Royal Australian Navy Service (WRANS). In 1907 it was declared a public park though there are restaurants and accommodation options there. We took our push-bikes over and had a great day cycling. One of the lovely things is that apart from service vehicles there are no cars. Heaven! There are many old building which were built by hand by the Aboriginal men who quarried the land and painstakingly slaved away. They were treated with great disdain receiving only 1 old worn blanket against the windy winter nights, were not fed any fruit or veggies though they grew them for the superintendent and the leftovers were fed to the horses. On each Sunday, they were not fed at all but were free to wander the island and fended for themselves using traditional methods of hunting and gathering (that day was probably the only thing that kept them going). Later, young boys were incarcerated there and were sent for minor offences such as the 8 year old sent for three months for being a vagabond. Interesting too that a 13 year old was given 6 months for stealing pigeons while a 17 year old was given only 4 months for "Assault of a female". We were given historic tours by volunteer guides, cycled through the old cemetery, around the lakes and up to the lighthouse built in the "13th year of the Colony" in 1842 by the "Native Prisoners".
After a sad farewell to Perth and our friends there, our first stop was the surreal landscape of the Pinnacles. They are made up of thousands of limestone pillars resembling termite mounds which jut out from the sandy orange desert floor. Geologists are still unsure as to how they came about but an Aboriginal story is that they are the fingers of the men who have been sucked into the shifting sand-dunes after having visited there despite having been warned not to go. We also visited the museum (now known as the Discovery Centre) and the shop (now known as the Retail Service Centre"!!).
Spending a lot of time in van parks is an interesting experience. We saw an amazing set up with a camper trailer being towed by a huge three-wheeled motor- bike. In Perth there was a young couple with two kids (about 3 and 1) who were sadly living in a camper trailer and a few couples living in tents. And it was cold most nights! Many others live permanently in van parks but in much more comfort. Some of the "permanents" have amazing set ups with car-ports, little gardens, little picket fences, and even garden sheds on their sites. It must be something about being a van park permanent but they usually seem to fill their outdoor space with all sorts of quirky bits and pieces such as gnomes and toilet seats! One couple even had a personalised number plate which read, "2oldfarts"!!! I was surprised initially to see an occasional grey nomad with a walking-stick but since then we have seen a few with walking frames hobbling into their vans and last week we even saw a gorgeous little old man in his electric Gopher who tore up and down the camping strip in it then climbed into his big 4WD car with his wife in the passenger seat and off they went!! I want one of those!. It seems that 90% of the Grey Nomads are from Victoria or QLD, so much so that a Western Australian man said to us the other day, "If Victoria is 'The 'Place to Be', how come you're all over here?"!! Also for anyone who wants to tell me that feminism is obsolete, try being two women travelling, when 99.9% of Grey Nomads are 60-75 year-old couples. For some of the men, I think we are a challenge to their sense of what they consider to be appropriate gender roles. We have heard, "Look out, here come the women drivers". Then later, while Sue and I were cooking together in a camp kitchen, a man said to Sue, "If you're old man likes beer, tell him the best beer around here is…". He obviously assumed we were cooking while our husbands were having a beer back at the vans (as it should be!). Once in a national park when we were collecting fire-wood, a bloke genuinely called out, "You should get your men to do that!" We looked around, but alas, there were no men to be had! Another time a man who had struggled for so long to reverse his van into their spot that I said to Sue they must be caravanning for the very first time, started giving me directions when he saw us moving to another site!! I wanted to laugh and say, "I wanted to help YOU!!". In the beginning we did need help with reversing the van and it was appreciated (thanks Doug!), but now we are experts (almost) and men appearing from everywhere without even asking if we would like help and yelling, "left down, now straighten up. Okay, right down now…" is wearing a bit thin!!! Of course it's only a minority of men that assume we are helpless, and I have restrained myself in each of these situations knowing that though help is never given to other men without first being sought (i.e. the assumption is that we need help because we are women) I have graciously smiled for I know they mean well!
The funniest episode was just after we had left the Pinnacles. We were camped in the bush. It was a long strip with vans and kombis scattered along near the beach. A couple turned up in an ancient 4 wheel-drive and stopped right beside us! We groaned thinking they intended to camp two inches from us, but the bloke got out and started chatting. He was about 65 but looked older with beautiful stark blue eyes but a worn, weather-beaten face. He looked like an old Vietnam Vet with a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which seemed to be supported by his living on the fringe and the fact that one leg was a wooden peg! He said that he and Cath (sitting in the car who turned out also to have an artificial leg) had been camping right where we were for a month and that the local council ranger had shooed them away a few days before. So they had gone elsewhere and were now back. They wanted to collect the old bits of metal they had used in the fire to sit their billy on, which they had left behind. Once collected they seemed resigned to go and find another camping spot. Except that the "bastard of a car" wouldn't start. So we went over to find him tying up bits of the engine with rope and twine that he had pulled off a tree!! The side of the car was covered in lovely murals and I suspect the previous owners were hippies! In colourful language he told us that he had just bought it but that it keeps breaking down as it has a computer which works just like a woman's brain. I don't think that was meant to be a compliment to either the car or to women in general!! Anyway, though the Vietnam Vet theory may be still true, that's not how he lost his leg. Years ago, he and a mate were drunk and whilst walking home from a Collingwood footy match, were hit by a car. The friend died and he lost his leg. All the more reason not to barrack for Collingwood, Sue reckons!
Next we visited Geraldton which was a lush green area with sheep and wheat. We visited the Museum (or should I say the "Discovery Centre"), which was great. We learnt that the first car arrived in WA in 1894 and that 50 to 80 men took up to a year to clear and build just one mile (2.4km's) of road. We read all about the many ship-wrecks along the Batavia coast including the Batavia which ran aground in 1629 resulting in an amazing story of murder, mayhem and mutiny! Glad I wasn't there!
From there we headed off to a most fascinating place… The Hutt River Principality- Independent Sovereign State - home of Prince Leonard of Hutt and his wife Princess Shirley - monarchs of the only principality in the world declared without bloodshed! In 1970, farmer Len Casley, disgusted with government quotas on wheat production seceded from the Commonwealth of Australia! Probably the most eccentric person I have ever met, he is now a man in his 80's (I would guess) and spends a good part of his day providing royal tours (at no cost) to the many visitors who come from all over the world. For me, it was the first time I have ever had a Prince wait outside the bathroom for me to finish my shower so that the Royal Tour could begin!! You see, we camped on his 75 sq. km royal property just behind the farm house (powered site $15! - Australian dollars acceptable!). We were the only ones camping that night and as we drove in, the Prince was waiting for us!! We weren't sure how he expected us to greet him so we muttered a quick "hello"! He didn't look much like a Prince with an old jacket covered in dog hair, but he is after all, a prince with humble beginnings! I must say the royal camp-ground was a bit run-down with a tap handle that bounced off and a blocked shower drain, but when I mentioned these to him he said he'd look into it!! So, after we emerged from the shower in the morning, he took us through the official government office and post-office where we viewed Hutt River currency as well as stamps. We saw the official flag, anthem (composed by Sir Jon English - knighted by Prince Leonard!) and the official Rolls Royce, which was a gift from one of his citizens, of which there are more than 13,000, most of whom live in Australia and have duel citizenship! We read of his constitution and his armed forces which play a strictly ceremonial role. Apparently three of his 8 Princely children live on the property and continue to farm the land. He does not have an Australian passport and claims to have travelled internationally on his Hutt River passport??! I asked what would happen if someone were to commit a crime in his country and he asked what my intentions were! He then replied that such a person would be deported back to "your country" Australia!! He said that, "Australia gives us nothing and we give them nothing". He has no external power (the generator went off at 10pm) nor any other services, though he did say that he still has an Australian driver's licence as he had one before the secession! (though he said he doesn't drive his Rolls, because, "A Rolls requires a chauffeur"!). We were later told by a local that he turned up at the hospital last year for treatment but that as he doesn't have a medicare card he had to pay! He has a confusing eclectic view of life and its meaning and established the "Royal College of Advanced Research" to study the fields of "Science and Spiritual" and he had all sorts of mathematical formula displayed which made no sense to me at all, though maths was never my strong point! Apparently "God is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, which numerically is zero". According to an Australian Government website, the secession is not recognised by Australia, but he showed us a copy of an ATO document stating that as a non-resident of Australia he is not required to pay tax, as well as an old document on Australian Government letterhead stating that his secession is legal. The post-cards with Hutt River stamps which we sent from within the Province were delivered to "Australia" by Australia Post, so I'm not sure what the legal situation actually is but it was a crazy place to visit and I can now say that I have been to two countries on this continent… well, maybe!!
From here we travelled to Kalbarri where we walked the spectacular gorges of the Kalbarri National Park as well as along the spectacular coastal cliffs which reminded us of the Great Ocean Road. In town at the jetty, Sue approached a fishing boat and purchased a snapper for $10! As she filleted it on the table by the beach, two people walked by and admired her catch commenting that she had done well! We finally admitted that the only effort had been to open a wallet, but she had a brief moment of glory before the humiliating truth was told!! And we even took a photo - the fish Sue wished she'd caught!
Next we entered the Shark Bay World Heritage Area with idyllic clear water and white sand where we looked forward to seeing the beautiful dolphins of Monkey Mia. They have been fed there since at least the 1960's and it was gorgeous to see them! I wanted to jump in the water and hug them but fortunately things are now tightly controlled by the Department of Environment and Conservation. In the past any dolphin that turned up was fed all day every day and visitors would touch them and swim with them. Back then, some dolphins would stay in the shallow waters and be hand fed for 8 hours a day. Eventually they realised that very few calves were surviving and that as numbers of tourists grew, the dolphins were starting to become aggressive and bite. The high calf mortality rate was a mystery until they realised that the mother dolphins were staying in the shallows enjoying fish-on-tap and were not taking their calves into open water where they could learn social skills and feed from their mothers. The calves cannot feed from their mothers in shallow water and were dying of malnutrition as well as from viral diseases contracted from humans who were touching them all day. They were becoming aggressive because, as the ranger said, "So would you if hundreds of people tried to pat you on the head each day"!! So now, it is very tightly controlled. There are only 5 dolphins on the feeding program, female descendants of the original feeding dolphins. Others do come in to say hello, which is lovely, but only the same five are fed. They are now fed only 300g-500g of fish three times per day between 8am and 12md and the interaction is not allowed to extend for more than 30 minutes per feed. The most common question is, "When are the dolphins fed?" and the answer is, in dolphin time. In other words, they come in when they want and in fact not all of the 5 necessarily come each day and even if they do they may not all be interested in feeding. They will need 10kg-12kg per day of fish, so what we feed them now is just a snack. There is a very strict "no-touch" policy and even the rangers are not allowed to touch them though the dolphins often rub their bodies up against the legs of the rangers! So we arrived at 7.30am to a crowd of about 120. We were required to stand behind a rope until the instructions had been given to us by the rangers. We then entered the water (to ankle deep) while the rangers stood thigh deep and gave us interesting information through a microphone. They identified the dolphins who by then were swimming up and down in the shallows about 3 feet from us, and informed us of their relationship to the each other: mother, grand-mother, brother etc! Eventually the thawed fish arrived in buckets in the hands of the "Volleys" (volunteers who must do a minimum of 4 days whose jobs include thawing the fish, keeping log-books of which dolphins come in and sweeping and tidying etc). We asked about being volleys, but unfortunately there were no current openings! When the fish arrived (their favourite is butterfish!), we had to leave the water and were told that those who jump up and down and say, "pick me" and those whose toes were still in the water would not be picked! (500g of fish equates to only about 5 fish, so only 5 people per feeding dolphin will be selected to enter the water and give a dolphin a fish!). I said to Sue that I thought only kids should be selected, but as they seemed to choose a wide range of people, I really, really wanted to be chosen!! I wasn't 😞 but the sweet 12-year old boy next to me was, who then apologised for being chosen ahead of me! What a beautiful boy! I told him I was very glad he was chosen which was true! So we hung around for the next two feeds and as the crowd thinned we kept our fingers crossed but with no luck. So we returned again the next day, and probably because by then I had asked so many questions, the rangers realised just how keen I was, and I got chosen!! I fed Puck who is 34 years old (the females live 35-40 years) so she is now an old lady! It was all over in a moment and as Sue was initially on the wrong angle and was trying to reposition herself in a hurry, the photos are blurred! Oh well, I was so pleased to have done it and to have seen them so close and I don't apologise for my child-like enthusiasm (except that I felt bad when a 12 year old felt he needed to apologise to me!!). Anyway, sorry if all this detail has bored you, but as you can tell, I was rather excited by it all! In fact, I wish I could have put Amelia my 6 year-old great-niece on a plane and taken her there 'cos she's the only one I know who would have been more excited than me (possibly with the exception of Cathy Bradley!!).
Our next visit was to the tip of the cape at Francois Peron National Park. We followed a sealed road until we hit a deep red soft sandy track and a tyre pressure gauge! We reduced our tyre pressure and engaged 4 wheel-drive. At the tip of Cape Peron we came across beautiful pristine, almost deserted beaches. We would have liked to have stayed a week! On our return we inflated the tyres and headed back to the van park. It had taken us more than 4 hours to drive the 160km return trip!
Our next stop was Shell Beach at Hamelin Bay. Because of the bays geographical peculiarities, the water in Hamelin Bay is warm and has a salt concentration 4 times that of usual seawater (the Dead Sea has a salt concentration ten times that of normal sea water) so few species survive there. One that does is the Cardiid cockles and the beach is made up entirely of their small, white shells. The shells have been building up for about 4000 years and are 5 metres deep. Over time the shells gradually cement together and in the past were cut into blocks and used to make houses! Another salt-tolerant organism is the Cyanobacteria which was the first life-form to appear on earth 3.5 billion years ago. They grow in colonies trapping sediments which form rock-like structures called Stromatolites (we called them Strommies!) which was our next visit! I had read of these in Bill Bryson's book "Down Under" and was looking forward to seeing them, though, as Bill Bryson says, its not the sight of them that is exciting, it's the idea of them. They are the world as it was 3.5 billion years ago. Over time, by producing oxygen, strommies allowed for the development of more complex life forms (eventually including you and me!). They were not discovered in Hamelin Pool until 1954 when it was thought there were no living strommies left in the world. Bill Bryson quoted a palaeontologist who said that if the world were attuned to the real wonders of the stromatolites, this site would be as well known as the pyramids. As little as 60 years ago, wagons rolled over them carrying wool to waiting ships as no-one appreciated their wonder nor knew that they grow at only 1cm every 30 years. The wagon tracks can still be seen in the strommies even today. We arrived into the van park beside the strommies. It was dry and dusty and really seemed like "the middle of no-where" with the beach not visible from the park. We were greeted by a slightly annoying but amusing English man whose idea of humour was to hurl insults! We tossed up whether to take the short or longer walk to the strommies and in the end he convinced us to camp there and do the longer walk in the morning. By this stage we had developed quite a teasing rapport with him and he said, "I bet you won't do it (the longer walk) you lazy bitches"!! We did! And so I wrote a poem…
There once were a couple of Pommies
Who ran the van park at the Strommies
He said, "You must walk"
And though we did balk
We walked, all thanks to that Pommy!!
The next night we camped at the free camp 80km's south of Carnarvon and you know what happened there! (the fish-hook incident!).
As we entered Carnarvon the first time, I had a sense that we were getting closer to the tropical zone. There are dozen's of banana plantations here, it is a huge, lush fruit and veggie growing area and palm trees line the streets. Sadly the Gascogne river which is usually subterranean and enters the ocean here, flooded severely just after the QLD floods and damaged many of the plantations here from which much of the town is still recovering. It is also home to the satellite dish which received transmission of famous first words from the moon!
So that is our story thus far!
Once the car is fixed, we'll head to Coral Bay, Exmouth, Cape Range National Park, and then east to Karijini National Park which so far about 5 million people have raved about!!
Looks like we'll be doing the east coast in a hurry, but we decided a while ago to see all we could here, while we are here, as we may never pass this way again…
Anyway, take care…
I have attached photos of most of the places mentioned, so don't forget to keep scrolling down if you would like to see them all. Also if you'd like to see them in a larger format just click on any photo.
Hope you are all well…
Ros (and Sue)

---