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Published: November 25th 2009
Perth and West Coast We flew from Singapore to Perth, where we met Dave's brother Mike - who was in Australia on holiday for a week. Arriving in Perth was a strange feeling; everyone spoke English, drove on the left, and the streets and houses all looked similar to England. Long lines of flat roofed shops set back on the side of the roads felt very American. We'd been in Asia for so long, with street stalls and peddle rickshaws dominating the roads, and weren't used to seeing all of the cars and civilised 'order'. It was a culture shock, yet felt familiar at the same time.
Perth itself is a fairly small city, with skyscrapers and pedestrianised shopping areas in the centre. Twenty minutes drive from Perth, along the Swan River, takes you through the most affluent suburbs to the Indian Ocean. The water's pretty cold, but the coastline is very pretty. The locals descend on the beach after work - walking and keeping fit. It's a really nice atmosphere. Our first meal in Australia was fish and chips, overlooking the sea!
It felt good being in Australia - welcoming, good food and really lovely
people. The only real problem was the prices, with most things being the same or more expensive than the UK and this wasn't helped by a weak pound! A real shock coming from Asia.
On the first day of our road trip, we headed off on a 400km drive to Albany on the south coast. The drive was long and dusty, and we hardly saw another person on the road - it felt typically Australian, with red soil and vast open spaces. Half way along we stopped for lunch, which Dave cooked on our newly bought camper stove. It was great, apart from the flies! We were bombarded by them, and hoped they'd disappear by the time we got to the coast.
We arrived in Albany, a small coastal town, surrounded by some of the most beautiful beaches. There were dozens of secluded bays, with clear waters and white sandy beaches. The countryside was green, and full of rolling hills. In fact, it felt just like Cornwall. We booked into a charming hostel (our budget no longer stretched to guest houses!) and relaxed for the evening....finally free from flies.
The next day we toured the coastline, starting
off at Frenchman Bay. As we wandered down to the water we saw 2 dolphins swimming in the clear water and riding the waves as they chased fish to shore. It was an incredible sight, absolutely amazing! ·
We spent the day visiting the bays between Albany and Denmark - which has one of the most beautiful beaches called “Green Pools”. At the beach, a reef forms a protective barrier to the rough Southern Ocean with a lagoon of shallow green / blue water, scattered with smooth rocks forming giant pools.
The following day we traveled west along the coast, to Walpole, where we visited the 'Valley of the Giant Trees' - a national park of Karri and Tingle forests. The tree top walk allowed us to walk 38 metres up, seeing the top of the canopy. Afterwards, we drove up through Margaret River region to Busselton, where we laid our heads for the night, in a pretty grim hostel.
We were told that Bunbury (45 minutes north east of Busselton) was the place to find more dolphins. So early the next morning, we headed off to find them! A dolphin centre had been set up to educate
people about dolphins, and they regularly had visits from dolphins, who would swim freely into the bay. They had recorded sightings of 200 different dolphins within the bay, and to our surprise about half of them had shark inflicted wounds on them. One had been attacked by a Great White whilst trying to protect her young, and had her dorsal fin bitten off. Unfortunately while we were there, we didn't see any dolphins - not due to lack of effort, as we marched up and down the beach in the midday sun trying to find them. That afternoon, we drove back through Busselton and onto Dunsborough - a thriving small town surrounded by stunning bays, all with white sand and clear waters.
On the last full day of our 'road trip' we took the opportunity to try and see some Humpback whales, migrating from Broome (north west Australia), back down to Antarctica. Humpback whales are 12-16 metres long and weigh approximately 40 tonnes. We set off on a whale watching boat - excited, but not entirely hopeful. The best way of us spotting a whale, was if it was to breach (lunge or leap out of the water), causing
a huge splash. A long 45 minutes went past, with us all anxiously waiting and watching the still horizon. Finally, Dave spotted a big splash a mile or so away, the captain headed for the spot. As we drew near, we spotted the whales - there were 5 or 6 of them swimming close to the surface, and we often saw their dorsal fin and upper body outside of the water. We saw a couple of whales slap their fins on the surface, and raise their tails high out of the water and slap them back into the sea. It was incredible. There were 2 groups of whales, with each group swimming closely together. They would let us watch them for five minutes or so at a time, before disappearing and reappearing again further along. We spent about an hour watching them, it was one of the most amazing things we'd ever seen.
Ayers Rock and The Olgas After leaving Mike, we flew from Perth to 'Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park' to see one of Australia's most recognisable national icons. Ayers Rock (known by Aboriginals as Uluru) and The Olgas (known as Kata Tjuta) are two incredible
rock formations in the middle of desert.
Ayers Rock stands 348 m high with most of its bulk below the ground, and measures 9.4 km in circumference.
The Olgas (meaning 'many heads') has 36 domes, covering an area of 21.68 km². The highest point, Mount Olga, is 1066 m above sea level, or approximately 546 m above the surrounding plain (198 m higher than Ayers Rock).
Both sites are sacred to the Indigenous Aboriginal people.
We stayed in dormitory accommodation at the 'The Resort' which is actually a collection of different hotels and hostels all linked by free A/C courtesy coaches close to the National Park . The town centre is just a couple of shops and a post office. Everything is highly organised and a little more expensive than usual, but when it's 45 degrees in the shade and there are 1000's of tourists paying top dollar rates, the Australian government takes no chances.
Our first stop was Ayers Rock at sunset. It was amazing - we couldn't believe how desolate 'The Rock' is, and how the colours change as the sun sets. It moved through the colour spectrum from brown to red to
orange. Just looking away for a couple of minutes showed completely different colours and shadings.
The next morning we visited The Olgas for sunrise. We woke up at 4.30am and drove 55km to get there for the 5.50am sunrise. As the sun pierced the morning sky, it was one of our most magical experiences. We watched the sun light up The Olgas, and as it did we could see the silhouette of Ayers Rock in the distance. The sun, sky and landscape changed colour dramatically, and as they did, so did The Olgas.
We spent the morning walking through 'The Valley of the Winds' in The Olgas - it felt incredibly spiritual, almost as if we were being watched by Aboriginal ancestors! Strangely the surrounding area was calm, desolate and dry, but between the glowing canyons of The Olgas, a warm wind gusted over us to the green valley floor and running stream.
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Moira Hyde
non-member comment
lost for words
Hi You too it is just so great reading your blogs. I showed the last one to my Australian friend Kim and she was mightily impressed. She has the house in Bali that I told you about. Well done Dave for spotting the Whales after 45 minutes - I think I would have gone all mesmerised and sleepy with very little chance of spotting anything at a mile's distance. Do you know where you'll be at Christmas? Do you have an address where I could send a little prezzie? I do hope you made contact with Kate, I know she'd love to hear from you. She lives in Bermagui, NSW. I'd be very keen to get details fo places you stayed in Lombok and Gilli Islands. Lots of love for now xxx