G'day Mate, Let's Put Another Shrimp on the Barbie

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Sorry for the major delay with my blog - but backpacking is a busy past time, what can you do?!

So, next stop on our trip was Australia and they certainly weren't kidding when they said it was a big country were they?...wowzer.

We flew into Perth on the west coast and instantly loved the country, for me particularly the clear blue skies and boiling hot sun was a winner 😊

We only had about a week and a half on the west side (innit), so decided to hire a car and visit as much of the coast that we possibly could in such a short time. And we certainly did just that.

Our first destination was Shark Bay, 1000km north of Perth, and that is what I call a road trip! Highlights along the way included a stop at the Pinnacles Desert. Despite being the hottest I think we've ever been, it was bloody impressive, there was something quite special about standing in the middle of a desert, not something you do every day that's for sure.

Considering the distance, we had to stop-over somewhere for a night along the way and given that there was really only one other town along the way (yep within 1000km!!!), we didn't have much deciding to do! The place was called Geraldton, a cute little seaside and port town, with a combined feel of holiday location and redneck central... We had fish and chips by the sea, which reminded us of home, with the chilly gale force winds blowing along the seafront! Also visited a local pub where everyone knew everyone, a bit like Neighbours, but no Dr Karl...ridic.

The next day we continued on our adventure to Shark Bay, completing our 1000km mission. Arrived in a little one-street town called Denham, a lovely place running along the seafront. Living in our travelling bubble we'd kind of forgotten about the fact new years eve was the next day and that accomodation may be pretty booked up. Luckily we managed to nab a cute little cabin on a caravan park right by the beach...result. It was so cute - we had space for friends too (if we had any on the west coast of Australia), with 2 sets of bunk beds and a double bed! It also came complete with a cosy little kitchen area.

Off we went to the supermarket, where we purchased all the essentials, including a 40 pack of fish fingers, of course. Our challenge was that we were going to have to use them all up in 2 days...never going to be a problem with Simon Backshell around.
...That mission was accomplished - we survived on a diet of fish finger sandwiches for a few days - absolutely textbook.

While we were in Shark Bay we visited a beach at Monkey Mia, where every morning you can see dolphins swim right up to the shore for feeding 😊 Unfortunately we didn't get to go into the water, like you normally can, because there were a couple of baby dolphins, but they were still very close and it was amazing to see dolphins in their natural habitat swimming around. So cool.

New Year's Eve was certainly one we won't forget in a hurry. There was a choice of 2 pubs to go to in Denham, so we selected one and decided we'd head there later on in the evening. In the meantime we would sit outside at our cabin consuming 5 litres of 'goon' (boxed wine for you non-travellers) and eating more fish finger sandwiches, whilst listening to music. Awesome. Considering we had 5 litres of wine to get through (of course we had to drink it all), we decided it would be a good idea to combine drinking with the card game, 'shithead'. To cut a long story short whenever the pack was stacked we both had to down whatever we had in our glass. The result? We got very, very drunk. So we got ready and wandered down to the pub...trying not to get blown away by the gale force winds along the way. To say everyone knew everyone in the pub was a slight understatement. EVERYONE we'd seen throughout the previous few days, working in shops, working on the beach with the dolphins, working in the petrol station, was in this pub. We didn't really fit in if I'm honest. So we didn't stay long....went back for, yep you've guessed it, another fish finger sandwich.

By 11:45pm, Si was asleep/passed out on a chair outside. Despite many desperate attempts to wake him and him claiming he was having 'a power nap', he was not budging. So, rather than missing the midnight countdown myself, I decided to sit in the car and listen to it on the radio. Very awkward indeed when a huge group of people in the cabin next to us saw me, as they sat outside celebrating with the whole family. There was a great party atmosphere in that car though, I can tell you. In the morning, Simon kindly reminded me that I could've watched the countdown on the TV in our cabin, which I'd forgotten about. Sure...happy new year too you too.

Once that mission was accomoplished we started to head south again, back towards Perth. It was amazing how we would literally drive for 4 hours and the scenery wouldn't change one little bit. The land is just so vast and empty, we'd see nothing for hours...not a house, not a person, nothing. Such a huge contrast in comparison to busy old England!

For the rest of our time on the west cost we also stayed in:
Dongara - a strange little place where I'm pretty sure everyone was related to each other

Fremantle - an awesome port city containing some well-preserved 19th-century buildings and other cool heritage stuff

Bunbury - a cool little beach town, where again we got to go and see dolphins being fed on the shore and this time we got to go in the water right up close to them 😊

Margaret River - an AWESOME surfing town, with a huge food and wine culture (well, not for backpackers, we had supernoodles and goon!). Also a place where Simon and Lydia decided to go for a nice leisurely walk and nearly get killed by a Skink. Well, not quite, but being in Australia we were very weary of any creature or animal around us. So, when this weird large lizardy looking thing walked across the path in front of us, we decided not to take any risks. That was until Si thought he'd try and budge it out the way by kicking something towards it to scare it. The thing that he kicked actually hit the poor little bugger, which certainly made it scurry off...but then, as we walked past it, it made a rather nasty hissing sound at us. We made it through though and live to the tale...whatever next hey?!

We also visited a place called Walpole, home to the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk 😊 The 600 metre walkway runs through the trees, 40 metres above the ground; it was so cool! To make it feel even more like you're actually living in the trees, the walkway swings gently as you walk...so exciting!

The end of our west coast adventure finished back in Perth, where this time we stayed in a hostel right in the heart of the city. On arrival at the hostel, I went to pull back the curtain to check out the awesome city views...and next thing I knew, the curtain pole was flying towards my head. Very safe indeed. The guy on reception didn't have any ice, so gave me a Calippo ice lolly to put on it...what a waste of a quality ice lolly. On the plus side, I did show him the size of the bump it had left on my head and he gave us free internet access and bottled water. What a guy.

Whilst in Perth we visited Kings Park, the aquarium and a few of its gorgeous beaches. Very nice place indeed. Infact, even though we only saw a small section of it, the west coast definitely gets a thumbs up from us. 😊

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