Australia - Sydney & the West Coast

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Quarantine in Australia is a little stricter than most countries, they took Laura's shoes away to be fumigated and not a moment too soon in Phil's opinion. Our friend Ross was waiting for us and ferried us to their new home in Putney that he and his wife Lyndal had just moved into.

We spent a few days with Ross and Lyndal and while they were at work we were out and about exploring Sydney. We caught the bus to Circular Quay, wandered around the Opera House and the Rocks, had lunch overlooking the harbour and climbed to the top of the Harbour Bridge pylon and took in the spectacular views (we opted not to do the bridge climb on grounds of cost).

One evening we went out for dinner with Ross & Lyndal and on the way back home stopped at a few view points overlooking the harbour and the bridge. It was a clear night and the views were stunning, Sydney is a very picturesque city.

We also spent a day at the Taronga Zoo. It is in a beautiful location overlooking the harbour and the animal enclosures have been designed with the animal in mind, which is better for the animals but it does mean that you may not always be able to see them. They do a few live shows with some of the animals and we saw the seal and bird shows, both of which were excellent and above all informative, not just circus shows. Along with the usual collection of marsupials, killer snakes, reptiles and bugs, they also had some snow leopard cubs which were pretty special to see.

Before heading off to the west coast we managed to squeeze in a cruise around the harbour with Captain Cook Cruises, which gives one a good idea of how large and sprawling the city is. We bid farewell to Ross and Lyndal and boarded a plane for Perth.

We spent a few days in Perth with Nerine whom we met on our Africa overland tour. Perth is a pretty city, small too, the City Bus Tour didn't take too long! On the day we did the bus tour we ended up in a pub with a bunch of soon-to-be-despondent Brits watching the Ashes cricket.

Nerine took us to Fremantle for fish and chips and gave us a Perth-by-night tour, which included a trip to Kings Park that has some magnificent views over the city.

Next up was a trip around the South West by campervan. When Phil booked the campervan online he saw that the 3 berth was the same price as the 2 berth, so assuming that the one would have more space than the other he booked the 3 berth. When we went to pick up the van we were amused to find out that 3 berth means 3 knives, forks, spoons, chairs etc. living quarters are just a little cosier - oh well!

We set off in our little Campette, Laura was relieved that we were given an unpainted upgrade as the paint jobs and slogans on the Wicked campers were pretty dodgy, first stop Busselton.

We found a drive-in cinema, apparently 1 of only 2 left in Western Australia - bonus! Laura had never been to one so off we set with a 2 litre bottle of coke and a big bag of crisps. We were just settling down to watch the first film, Garfield Two, with the traditional tinny speaker hanging on the window when our neighbour tapped on the window and informed us that the modern drive-in cinema goer tuned their car radio into the soundtrack for a much better all round experience. This turned out to be true - modern technology never ceases to amaze! We had a great evening and Laura was duly impressed with her first drive-in experience. For those who are interested, the second movie was The Devil Wears Prada.

We spent a few days in Busselton and took in the local area visiting: Dunsborough, Meelup/Rocky Point, Yallingup and Margaret River. We stopped at a chocolate factory, cheese factory, olive farm and a few wine farms - needless to say they all involved tasting! At the chocolate factory we had a chocolate fondue in the garden.

On a drive through a national park a Kangaroo and her Joey hopped out in front of us. Startled the Joey leapt into its mum's pouch and off hopped Mum - it was great to see.

On one of our more energetic days we took a walk to the end of Busselton Pier, which is just over a mile long and visited the underwater observatory there - definitely worth the walk.

Continuing our anti-clockwise trip we took in Augusta with its lighthouse and now immobile water-wheel and stopped in Albany for a few days. The drive to Albany through the tall forests was fantastic. We stopped at the Beedelup National Park to see the falls & suspension bridge and did the Tree Top Walk near Walpole, which is suspended up to 50m above ground!

Our first evening in Albany had a rather bizarre start when some chap started playing the bagpipes out on the beach - presumably sent there by his wife.

Whilst in Albany we took a drive to the old Whaling station, which is now called Whale World and has a rather exorbitant entrance fee that prompted us to have lunch in the restaurant instead. On the drive we stopped at Franklin Bay, the Salmon Holes, Stony Hill, the Gap, the Natural Bridge and the Blow Holes which weren't blowing as it was low tide. They still made a hell of a racket though, which gave Phil the fright of his life and sent him scampering back over the rocks much to the amusement of Laura and other onlookers.

We found the regulars at the campsites to be very friendly and offers of " if you need anything just shout" were common place. It would appear that a lot of retirees sell up, buy a motor-home/caravan/palace-on-wheels and set off in pursuit of fairer climes and adventure. Some of the motor-homes we saw were spectacular, one was towing a people carrier bigger than our campervan!

En-route to the Stirling Ranges we stopped at Hopetoun for the night and were given the distinct impression that they don't get a lot of visitors and that those that do visit aren't necessarily welcome. We left early the next morning and headed inland to see the Porongurup National Park, where we did an hour's bushwalk (we saw a lot of bush), and the Stirling Ranges (we didn't see a lot of mountain). The weather was not great that day so we weren't as impressed by the ranges as perhaps we should have been. The weather was too poor to climb Bluff Knoll, which was our original intention, so we set off in the pouring rain, destination Esperance (we saw a lot of wheat fields).

Esperance is in a stunningly picturesque part of the world and is blessed with miles and miles of beautiful white sandy beaches. The esplanade is lined with Norfolk Pine trees and a long pier reaches out to the deeper water where cargo ships used to moor. A walk along the pier treated us to an impromptu swimming display by the resident sea-lion who must have mistaken us for fishermen - eventually he swam away looking for more successful looking fishermen who might have a spare fish or two.

Our guide book extolled the virtues of cycling the 40km tourist drive that loops out of Esperance along the coast , inland to the Pink Lake and back into town. Fresh(ish) from our Tour-de-Kruger cycle experiences we assumed this would be a doddle by comparison and headed off for the nearest bike shop. Two hire-bikes, 3 litres of water and a sense of adventure in hand we set off along the coast, after first walking up a steep hill the likes of which are not to be found in the Kruger National Park, or on any other ride that we may have done in the past. At the top of the hill we were met by a stiff head-wind and miles of lovely, but unfortunately rolling, coastline. Four hours later we arrived back in Esperance with a dry water bottle, cramped legs, sore bums and very little desire to do any further exercise in the near future. Our experience served as a painful reminder of the old adage "Don't believe everything you read"! Pain and suffering aside, it was a very beautiful ride.

Leaving Esperance we headed inland to Norseman. One of the many people we had got chatting to on our travels had recommended a stay in there, which was our intention until we got there. There is nothing much to Norseman, all that was missing was the tumbleweed to complete the first impression of dereliction. We stopped for a burger at the local (only) takeaway which is housed in an old supermarket. Space was plentiful but choice wasn't, they were waiting for a delivery so an ice cold coke was out of the question, water had to suffice. The burger was the biggest Phil had ever seen but he didn't try too hard to identify all the ingredients.

We had a wander around 'town' and headed into a 'Second Hand Book Shop and Doll Museum' as we were running short of reading material. The shop's name had piqued our interest too so we felt compelled to have a look. Within 5 minutes of entering the shop we were well acquainted with the owner's somewhat troubled life story (details of which I won't go into here). She's a lovely old dear but obviously doesn't get a lot of custom. We paid our $2 each and headed into the museum as much out of interest as to try avoid a retelling of the life story, which was now being foisted on an unsuspecting Dutch couple who had come in behind us.

The museum is a collection of over 3000 dolls, most of which appear to be collectors items, as well as what we're sure is a priceless collection of vinyl records. Anywhere else in the world, the place would be doing a roaring trade. None of the collection is catalogued, but if you ask, the owner will regale you with the history of any item you care to point out. This is likely to follow on to the next story so be prepared for a long stay or make sure you have a good distraction to make your escape. In our case the Dutch couple were a godsend - who knows they may still be there!

There wasn't much else to Norseman that we could see. There is still a lot of mining in the area but it would appear that it is cheaper for the mining companies to fly the miners in to the mines than to house them and their families in the local area. We decided to press on to Kalgoorlie.

Kalgoorlie is a mining town, there is no other reason for it to be there that we could determine. We visited the Super Pit which is the biggest man-made hole in the ground we have ever seen. A mining consortium has bought up all the concessions in the area and started open-cast mining as this is the cheapest way to extract gold. The result is an absolutely massive hole in the ground the size of which is difficult to convey in words. Suffice it to say that the world’s biggest dump trucks with a pay-load of 266 tonnes looked like ants at the bottom of the pit.

We also visited the Mining Hall of Fame, which was quite interesting above ground so we decide to do the old mine shaft tour too. The tour guide was a retired miner and he spoke at us for a full 45 minutes in the broadest Aussie accent you can imagine as fast as he possibly could and in a monotone, this was after promising the Czech couple that he would speak slowly for them. We would like to nominate him for the most boring and useless tour guide in the world award, if one exists. If we'd had to listen to him any longer, I'm sure the group would have contemplated mass suicide!

On a Saturday afternoon we decided to take a walk around town, the guide book makes special mention of the architecture, so off we went. We arrived at 3pm and the main road was deserted, devoid of all life and cars. We thought this a little strange until we noticed that the entire area had been sealed off, for the end of year parade as it turned out. Bonus we thought, we'll just go and have a drink in the local pub and wait for the show to start. We got to within 10 yards of the pub when a man came stumbling through the swing doors (yes - swing doors!) and promptly threw-up in a flower pot, wiped his mouth and headed back in for more. This made us reconsider just how thirsty we were so we headed off to the local museum to kill a few hours until the parade started.

At about 5pm the town started to fill up and soon the streets were lined with young and old as the floats started to rumble by. Rumble is an apt description as many of the vehicles were mining related, including a 3 trailer road train and the dump truck mentioned earlier, its wheels were higher than the shop fronts! The parade was great fun with loads of sweets and freebies being hurled into the crowds by enthusiastic (some might say sadistic) float goers.

Phil managed to catch a stubby holder, which was put to good use throughout the rest of our trip. You had to have your wits about you as sweets and goodies seemed to fill the air, there were more than a few yelps of pain as a string of gum balls met their mark.

All the local clubs and societies were represented, though Phil was of the firm opinion that the parade would have been much better off without the appearance of the Kalgoorie Belly Dancing Club - what a horrific sight! The mental scars linger still.

Show over, we headed back to the campsite and got quite drunk with an Irish couple we got talking to in the camp kitchen.

Before heading back towards Perth, we decided to visit an old mining ghost town. It wasn't quite what we expected as there was absolutely no evidence of there ever having been a town on the spot other than the odd sign depicting where buildings used to be. Disappointed we headed west towards Perth, stopping in Coolgardie for a look around and Merriden for a night.

The camp site in Merriden was quite close to the railway line and the trains rumbled by at regular intervals, some of them had as many as 120 carriages and took a few minutes to go by. There were also 2 resident kangaroos, which must have been the owner’s pets as they were sporting rather fetching little pink vests - it must be stressed that this is the back end of nowhere so allowances should be made for some eccentricities.

After miles and miles of rolling wheat fields and very little else we completed our loop of south western Australia and were pleased to collapse into a real bed again - courtesy of Nerine’s much appreciated hospitality.

Hospitality which extended to her lending us her car to visit the Pinnacles a few hours drive north of Perth, just outside Cervantes. We stayed in a permanent caravan on the local camp site and had a wonderful meal at the Best Western hotel. The Pinnacles are a bizarre collection of rock formations sticking out of the ground over quite a wide area. Anyone interested in phallic symbolism is sure to have a field day here.

We spent a few more days with Nerine catching up with our emails and travel blog and booking the next leg of our journey. Phil bought a 5 foot didgeridoo complete with a training DVD, pity the poor neighbours wherever we settle!

Nerine dropped us off at the airport, we were bound for the Whitsundays on the east coast.

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