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Published: August 16th 2008
Little Critters
Thank God for zoom on a cameraHello everyone and welcome to a belated update of our blog, almost 16 months after we have left home and I’m delighted to announce that Rebecca has found it in her heart to trust me with my very own take on our misadventures around the land.
So, what’s to report? Well after nearly 5 months of inactivity and our brains leaking out any sense we once had in that pit of a supermarket we had accumulated a fistful of dollars to have a go at something different.
Our remaining days there where quite surprising, The employees of Coles supermarket, Mosman Park, The very same employees who approached us with about as much enthusiasm and camaraderie as if we were ridden with the bubonic plague for the first 4 months of our stay suddenly decided they were actually quite sad to see us leave, Malcolm, the 20 odd stone trolley collector even had tears in his eyes as he heard of our impending departure! While we were quite glad to be leaving it seemed everyone decided that we were actually quite approachable and we were showered with gifts and a buffet lunch, (which only Rebecca attended due to me having a
The Pinnacles
Everyone loves a bit of Black and White much more important prior engagement). One person who wasn’t so keen to well wish us was our beloved housemate Kurt, whom was a Bain on our lives throughout our stay, he was so furious when we gave him our two week notice that we in fact had a blazing argument days before we left.
Kurt , The beer swilling, chain smoking, guitar strumming divorced loner will be missed the way you miss a boil on your rear end.
One “person” we were devastated to be leaving behind was our best friend and always happy Staffordshire terrier, Ralf. The loveable canine was a constant source of amusement during our stay and we became very attached to him and will remember all the stick chasing forever.
Maybe we aren’t good judges on Perth as a place, on one hand we Didn’t venture too far away from the city itself, We did visit the usual areas around the city, Northbridge, Subiaco, Cottesloe and Fremantle for our weekly pilgrimage to the markets, and we never actually visited anywhere further south than Fremantle which is only 18km away, but on the other we lived like Australians for a while, we went to
Tropic of Capricorn
another landmark notched work, came home and walked the dog. And got a feel of what it would be like if you moved to a place like this, as so many around the world and especially United Kingdom strive towards, it might be exactly what many are looking for, Sure Perth has some lovely beaches which are within easy reach of practically any populated suburb. Also the central business district (or city centre) could be traversed in 10 or 15 minutes, transport is cheap and efficient, and the whole city has a slow, laid back feel to it, traffic jams do occur but they hardly compare to an hour or more sat on the m62. The trouble with Perth is that is the most isolated capital city in the world, many would protest that you don’t need to go anywhere and the closest capital city to Perth is Jakarta in Indonesia and Travelling to Adelaide in South Australia involves a 3000km journey, pretty much the distance from London to Moscow, ( thank you Lonely Planet), You commonly hear Perthians bemoan the fact that you can’t just drive an hour and be somewhere else, one thing we quickly realised in our upcoming campervan trip
Its Alive!
Trees Surrounded by Red Dirt part deux.
Another thing we noticed and by no means am I trying to Pigeon Hole every Western Australian out there because we met some good people (most of them Foreigners) but the People of Perth are, shall we say unique. Maybe it’s a culture clash or maybe we were just unlucky but on more than one occasion we came to a disagreement or heated discussion with a local, most of these situations arose and ended with the principal reference of us being English, I think we are both thick skinned and big boys and girls and can handle a bit of a dig here and there about any minor imperfections we may have but too many times there was a nasty streak and dare I say it with the British references but a hint of racism? The curious thing is White Australians have been on this land for approximately 200 years compared with Indigenous Australians of 40,000 years who are looked at as second class citizens by many, and the point I’m trying to make is that with most White Australians if you look at their family tree will have British or European descent and should maybe have
big long road
"We are on the road to nowhere...." a think about where they come from before opening their mouths.
Anyway, after leaving our house of 5 months on the 7th July we headed into the rather shabby but cheap Wicked Campers office to be given keys to a rather shabby but cheap wicked campers van for our trip up the West coast of Australia, these vans are decked out with all the functional equipment you could need to sleep and eat and with the added bonus of deciding our own itinerary for the next 10 days we headed on the long road north, Destination Exmouth a meagre 1200km away, before we left we devised a plan of where we wanted to head to, but with the distances involved it was unrealistic, also the disadvantages of not being able to drive late into the evening or night due to stray animals pegged us back even more.
Upon leaving the urban sprawl of the City it was immediately apparent of how little industry there is in this enormous state, less than 50km out and that was where we hit the bushland either side of the road and that would be all there was for the rest of our
Red Dirt
Eptimoises Western Australia 9 day drive, a little further was when we came across the red dirt that symbolises Australia. Our first stop was the attractive town of Geraldton about 8 hours north up the coast from Perth, there is a small-ish settlement of about 20,000 people with a nice promenade, lovely beckoning beaches and token lighthouse, we could well see us having a nice relaxing time here but for the fact our ambitions took us further north to hang around any longer.
Geraldton is really the last town of any decent size to stock up on essentials and already the cost of fuel had escalated $0.20 above that of Perth prices to about 1.70 a litre (by the time we finished our northern journey in Coral Bay the cost was $2.00!) a reflection of transport costs in this barren land. I don’t want to know how much it gets to in Broome or The Kimberley!
Again we headed north to Carnarvon which is famous for supplying the state with Bananas year round, we were surprised how few plantations we saw but maybe they were all tucked away somewhere! It was a tiny place, and temperature had rose considerably towards 28 degrees
Dusk In Geraldton
By the Beach for a typical Aussie evening sky and all the resident bugs like cockroaches and mosquitoes had returned with a vengeance to remind us we were back in tropical land.
Eventually we veered off the North west Coastal Highway onto road 352 a mere 100km from Coral Bay , passing the Tropic of Capricorn sign and wild Emus we turned into our destination Coral Bay on Ningaloo Reef, this minuscule “town” was in fact one street, which led down to the beach, after paying over the odds for a campsite complete with salt water shower and resulting rusty shower block, we headed to check out the beach and for me more importantly what lived underneath the crystal clear blue waters sheltered by the outlying reef, As I headed off into the water Rebecca waved me on vowing to come and rescue me should anything unpredictable occur. The water below was special with stingrays and all kinds of fish pumped with steroids sussing me out and all within paddling distance of the beach, the main beach itself was crowded with holidaymakers, but following the beach 20 minutes around the corners we were rewarded with pristine empty beaches for us to top up or restart our long faded
tans.
We spent a couple of days salt showering and decided to return south at a chilled out pace to see what we missed out on the trip North, a full 12 hour drive returned us to probably our favourite area in what we have seen In Australia, albeit Queensland, Western Australia and a snippet of New South Wales. The service town of Cervantes about a 4 hour drive from Perth houses The Limestone Pinnacles desert, in between Kangaroo infested bush and a beautiful Indian Ocean as a backdrop, The relatively sized desert is an area of limestone pillars that jag out of the ground, and at sunset or preferably at sunrise the pillars dance with the movement of the sun and create spectacular visions of this silent special place.
Half an hour’s drive from Cervantes is the small community of Jurien Bay, A beach paradise totally devoid of tourists and the usual fanfare that can destroy the beauty of a tranquil spot. Maybe in Summer Jurien Bay is heaving but on this July day myself and Rebecca were the only people on this long stretch of beach, and is exactly the vision we had of Australia before we arrived,
Lighthouse
On West Coast at Dusk it’s a shame it took almost a year to find it. Unfortunately it looks as though the workforce may be heading to build more tourist blocks here but hopefully the town will retain its beauty and secluded feeling.
Upon returning to Perth we had our midweek saver with Virgin Blue returning to Brisbane for our 9 week stay to look forward to. We were greeted by Aunty Gill and Aunty Eileen to return us to Algester almost 10 months after leaving and it was lovely to see everyone again. The next 3 weeks were spent trying to scout out work, we were pretty unsuccessful, I managed to find 2 or 3 days a week at Electronics Boutique playing with video games all day, well so I thought, I didn’t so much pick up a controller in my time their so a lifetime dream was shattered, elsewhere we hit a wall nobody was calling despite handing out tens of CV’s and a mall every 500 metres full of shops, In the end we figured that folk around here didn’t want to employ candidates who couldn’t commit to five years service, so we had to make a hasty decision......
We decided
Red hot Bitumen
On another steaming day in the desert that with time running out before our long awaited flight to Kuala Lumpur, we needed to work for 6 weeks and we needed to do it now, we scoured the internet for work on farms, fruit picking, pruning or anything, we turned up towns we had never heard of some I wouldn’t even try to pronounce in far flung remote corners of Queensland. In the end we have come to Stanthorpe a town about 230km inland and straddling the border with New South Wales, Stanthorpe has a population of 10,000 and is famous for the summer harvest of Apples, indeed a few miles from town is a giant red apple on a post looking like it needs a lick of paint, of course because we are in the southern hemisphere it isn’t summer so the trees currently bear no fruit, Luckily we have found work as a farm hands performing all kinds of chores, as we harvest spinach, cauliflowers and salad mix, In fact there is a gate midway through the farm that is the border between Queensland and New South Wales!!
my job is basically to drive a knackered old Ute around collecting crates full of salad whilst bex
Can you see?
Incy Wincy suspended in mid air and our new friend Frankie are on the back of a harvester sorting out the good from the bad, also putting nets down to stop the crop getting frost bitten, yes I did say frost, Stanthorpe lying at a high altitude is one of the few places in this state to receive snow and the night before we arrived the mercury sunk to -7!
Well we have worked one week now and all those people that say farm work gets easier is lying!! Its hard slog, and the body uses muscles that have remained dormant for years! We slept 12 hours last night! But seriously we are enjoying it and grateful for the extra work we are getting before we leave Australia.
We are moving house in the morning, our one weeks stay will be over in our share house, and the reason? well the house is pretty revolting, the bedroom is ok, but the shower and kitchen need fumigating never mind cleaning, the housemates themselves are fine, A couple of Italians and Germans a piece, and a Nepalese guy who thinks its acceptable to smoke over your cooking and has a penchant for fried saveloy sausages, and at $220
Miami Or Canarvon
A Slightly tropical entrance to the town of Canarvon per week is a rip off, we have found a place minutes from work and $80 cheaper per week, and the great thing is nobody else is there! It’s In the middle of an apple orchard and it looks like we have struck gold, and in terms of cleanliness it doesn’t compare with this dump.
Sorry for the length of this blog but we wanted to continue our stories hope you haven’t missed the time to do a few jobs around the house whilst reading this set of gumpf.
Regards Stephen and Rebecca
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Smelly Durian
non-member comment
Get it right
Its underdeveloped because Australia has the second least people to area ratio with 6.4 people per square mile(Mongolia has less). Maybe you should try there if your looking for more underdevelopment. Our Durian Bay also used to be called Jurian Bay, until a big ship full of the smelly fruits was shipwrecked on the shore, forcing the residents to evacuate for a month, until a team of Asians could be called in with a truck of IceCream to eat up the mess. Enjoy your Holiday.