Melbourne to Western Australia

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After handing back the keys to our Richmond abode we hit the road to Adelaide. This was a 750 km + drive, something we would have to get used to. The Barossos offered to put us up for a couple of nights so it was a nice start to the trip with some great portuguese cuisine, mmm bacalho! (some cod fish dish). Luis's parents were great hosts. Our first proper sightseeing was a trip out to Adelaide Hills, home to some of South Australia's best vinyards (or winerys as they call them here). Its also home to the german village of Hahndorf. Yvonne was disapointed as there wasn't really a great variety of German food and the place was a bit tacky. Although I have to say the beer was up to scratch!

From Adelaide we headed west and before crossing the Nullarbor (latin for "no trees" i think. as you can imagine is quite a barron expanse of land about 200 kms wide) we stayed in Streaky Bay for our first night of camping. As it turned out it was also the worst. The place was infested with mice. Even the Pied Piper of Hamilton would have been powerless here! Even as we erected the tent there was mice running over my feet!! We got to sleep eventually and when we woke up in the morning there were a few rodents in the lining of the tent having a nice nap. Thankfully the camping experience has improved since then!

We stocked up in port Augusta before the long drive across the Nullarbor. We landed in Norseman where the guide states that the "must see" sight in Norseman are the corregated iron camel monuments in the town center. If they replaced "must see" with "laughable"it would have been more appropriate. We spent the following couple of nights in Esperance. This was a beautiful seaside town. Some of the best beaches in Australia were dotted around this town including twilight beach which was voted australia's best beach of 2006. (i don't understand how the beach charts change on a yearly basis...) it was an amazing beach. we had great food in "the loose goose", the premier rerstaurant in the town. Yvonne tried their famous "Pigs Nipples" and wasn't disappointed. By the time we had reached Esperance we had travelled 3300 kms in about 5 days so it was nice to have a couple of days at the beach. The couple of days in Esperance really whetted our appetite for everything else WA would have to offer.

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