Blogs from Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 593

It's been a little more than a year my emotional retirement from vineyard work in New Zealand. Tearing myself away from the viticulture industry has rendered me a shadow of my former self. That is why I am pleased to announce my triumphant return from retirement. I arrived in the small town of Busselton a couple of weeks ago. It is about 3 hours south of Perth. I'm playing it smart this time around and working before I am completely destitute, like what happened in New Zealand. This way I'm free to leave as soon as i get sick of my job. I'm working on a huge vineyard out of town by the coast. If you're ever deciding what kind of Australian wine to buy, be sure to pick up something produced at Bantry Bay. That ... read more

Hello again! We have a backlog of blogging to do and being as we've had to start a shift at stupid o'clock (11:30 pm) we've got some time to kill! So now I shall tell you the tales of our Journey north to Darwin, through the land of the Crocodiles, the many gorges, the cold water and the Bungle Bungles! Having Spent a short amount of time in Perth after the planting of thousands of trees we then decided to head north to the tropics were the sun shone and jobs were a plenty, supposedly. We decided to take a flight to Broome. we landed at about seven in the evening and tried to find accommodation, not very sucessfully, it took us ages but eventually me ben and jim mangaed to find a place to stay, ... read more

OK, Well it's now August 27 and I'm in Thailand. I uploaded these picutres, but never got around to writing the journal - probably because I didn't keep it as I was travelling from Broome to Darwin, so it seemed a bit of an effort to think it all up. Alas, here it is. . . The journey from Broome to Darwin was nine days of total Outback. Just outside of Broome, we stopped at a roadhouse which was the only place we could purchase alcohal for the next 8 days, so I picked up a 30 of beer to enjoy around the campfires. We camped in a National Park the first night. We walked down to the river to watch the sunset and catch a look at some freshies (pictured). I was always told crocodiles ... read more

Petrol Stations.... that is how WA will be remembered...after 2912km in 10days! Had a fantastic flight with Quantas from Singapore to Perth. With Video-On-Demand (which allows you fastforward/pause the different films/programmes), and served the finest West Australian Wirra Wirra Shiraz by a flight-attendent who looked like he would be more at home on a rugby pitch than squeezing down the narrow aeroplane aisles, the scene was set for a comfortable journey. The icing on the cake was the quality viewing, from National Lampoons Wally World to Monty Python. Heaven! So arrived in Perth, and after considering a number of different tours up the West Coast, (and having experienced near heart-failure at the prices, after 3 months in Asia!) it was decided that the "sensible" approach would be to hire a campervan and do it ourselves...... And ... read more

Somehow I've found the Perth photos! Am very pleased because there are some crackers, and it means Helen will not be killing me! As I mentioned in the previous blog we went to see various Australian animals ... just look at the photos actually, the first ones are just stuff around Perth. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer back home. Winter in Darwin is bloody hot, especially if you have to wash cars, but I shall explain about that later. Take good care of yourselves, Love Ben and Helen x... read more