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Published: January 26th 2006
Perth
We spent the Christmas period in Perth, staying in what must be the nicest hostel in the World with a real home from home atmosphere. Slightly more expensive than our normal digs but really well fitted out and a more mature clientele made for a relaxed and welcome treat.
The owner threw a Christmas Eve party that most of the residents attended which led to a group of us getting together to spend Christmas day on Cottesloe beach, baking ourselves instead of the turkey (altough we looked like a prize bunch of turkeys the following day - rouge being the colour of choice!). Whilst the ladies sunbathed and elegantly sipped on the vino, the chaps showed the locals a thing or two with a display of true british aquatic sporting prowess - body surfing. Or more accurately described as semi controlled drowning through the use of the belly flop in the face of the oncoming large waves. Needless to say the locals were enthralled at this spectacle and we feel we have started a new craze that will soon be sweeping the nation. Perhaps not. We then lived the true Aussie dream by holding a BBQ back at the
hostel recounting the numerous waves that we carved. "Too easy" as they say round these parts......
Perth is a fantastic city inhabited by 1.4 million people (only 1.9 million in the whole state of WA) next to great beaches and with plenty to keep you entertained. The city is clean, has a great social scene (is reputed to have the most bar and restaurants per head in the world), has good transportation and boasts many great places to see both in the city and within 30mins to an hour of travelling.
The only downside we found was that perhaps our hostel might not have been situated in the best area of Perth as we kept running into the local nutters who would chat endlessly about nothing, or argue loudly with themselves (often losing!) or air punch as they walked the streets. Must be a similar ratio per head to the restaurants.....
Among our most enjoyable times here were the days we spent at the nearby town of Freemantle (referred to as "Freo") which was apparently inhabited by Andrew's great uncle and perhaps still his family (quite a spooky coincidence and we are trying to trace the enlarged
family tree at the moment), Kings park with its great view over the city and river and the outdoor cinema where Wallace and Gromit were enjoyed under the stars. We also spent a fantastic few days catching up with one of Grace's old friends and her family who have had the very good sense to relocate to Perth. Hello Liz, Georgia, Jack, Jayson and Bach the dog! Their hospitality was fantastic and in return we made sure we put the family pool to good use. We were spolit rotten by the privacy compared to the hostel, decent sheets and duvet on the bed, power showers, and what's more our first roast dinner in four months. We were also treated to a great night out with the family and friend's to watch the local Western Force rugby team.
The van
We were transformed into pikeys when we picked up our new home on New Year's Eve, a Toyota Hiace. This was to be not only our transport, but also our place of eating and sleeping for the next 77 days and as we'd been reassured so many times before, the best way to truly see Australia whilst saving
on hostel and tour costs along the way. "The Beast" offers us so much feedom and space and the campsites we've visited so far offer great facilities that we couldn't imagine a better way to get around now. Within days of picking it up, however, we did manage to slice off the air vent on the roof. Whoops!
The plan was to go north, east and then south to Sydney, however, due to timing and the northern climate, we were advised to leave the north until later in our trip. We changed our itinerary to go north as far as Exmouth and then return to the south before heading east on the southern coast and finally north from there.
The pinnacles
Not quite around the world in 80 days, but more like around Oz in 77, the epic voyage began with a visit to the Nambung National Park where the Pinnacles are situated, a desert of peculiar limestone pillars some as high as 5 metres, some eroded into really weird shapes. Nature gave us a good demonstration of the erosion process as we were sandblasted ourselves. Andrew's knees fitted in perfectly!
We decided to put
our newly acquired fishing gear to the test at a nearby beach, however due to the lack of torch, our night fishing escapade was more akin to Stevie Wonder martial arts school with flailing rods, hooks and smelly bait. Needlesstosay the catch was small, err non-existent.
Kalbarri National Park
Our next destination was the Kalbarri National park where we spent a few days taking in the sights and trying to relive Andrew's youth. On the way we stopped to enjoy the fantastic coastal scenery with turquoise waters against a dramatic cliffside backdrop. The flies (no one tells you about them beofre you come here) appeared in multiudes and so far have been on most of our tour with us whenever we leave the van. Certainly not as much fun as walking the dog and as one local put it "they're REAL friendly."
We took a 25K drive over some unsealed roads to get to more gorges and sights and visited the dramatic Hawks head (pictured), Natures Window (pictured), Z Bend for rock climbing (stumbling) and swimming into rock pools (where the fish nibble your feet).
Grace indulged Andrew's desire to revisit his youth (no we did not
dress him in pampers that's another blog) but instead took out a Hoby cat to show off his sailing skills, or lack of. Three capsizes later and with Grace taking on more water than the titanic in her final hours we headed back to shore to the disappointment of the sellout crowd who were taking bets on our survival! With steely determination to prove our nautical capabilities, we booked a canoeing trip up the Murchison river that was advertised as 'suitable for all ages and abilities' figuring we had the most and least of these two qualities. Having canoed before we were not quite as shocked as the families with small kids to learn that canoeing against really strong side winds is next to impossible. The various stops along the way saw the numbers fall like flies (oh god we wish they would, the flies that is) until the final leg at which point saw Andrew partner the birthday boy who wanted to paddle the final couple of K's against ridiculous winds. It was at the point of departure that he told Andrew he'd had 3 heart attacks previously. Finally a relieved Grace greeted a somewhat knackered Andrew at the
Shell beach
A word in your shell like....final stop who was ready for a large drink and to hit club duvet.
Monkey Mia
The success of the Kalbarri visit stirred us up for more beach life and we headed north up highway one to the remote resort of Monkey Mia.
At this point we should mention that the main interconnecting roads between towns are like A roads back home but due to the large distances involved there is barely any traffic - often 30 mins between catching sight of another car and it is like driving from London to Manchester on a small road in the desert with perhaps one stop at a small town for petrol. The small town town consisting of the petrol station and if you are lucky, a campsite. During our stop at one of these, the owner had decided upon a siesta to beat the heat so we took the opportunity to put the van under a parasol itself and went for a dip in their pool. On leaving we managed to slice the airvent off the roof as the parasols on the way to the pump were at slightly different heights. Muppets.
We were gutted that there
were no monkeys to be found at the mia, but there was plenty of sea life and it is renowned for its Dolphins who visit daily - except for the previous two days to our visit. Their lack of appearance even made the news as they had only ever missed one day previously in seven years! Luckily for us, the smell of Andrew's sandals (my god they are BAD) must have alerted them to the fish on offer in the morning and we were joined by seven or so of flippers cousins for brekkers.
Based on our good luck with nature thus far, we took a trip on an ex racing catamaran to view all that was on offer in the bay. We were treated to sights of many dolphins (no need for us to have gotten up at the crack of dawn then!), hammerhead and tiger sharks, rays, turtles, and dugongs with calves (no not cows) in return for our hundred Aussie dollars. Thailand this is not!
We ended the day with some dusk / night fishing where the local pelicans gave us some hints and tips (see pic) and were rewarded with our first catches of
Spangled emperor
No that's the name of the fish two snappers that were unfortunately a bit on the small side to eat.
Coral Bay
As we passed the tropic of Capricorn, next up was the highly recommended resort of Coral bay lying 150Km's (or so) South of Exmouth on the Cape. We arrived in time to see everyone disappearing from the resort fast due to the rapidly approaching Cyclone Clare that was moving inland (right next to our next destination) and heading right for us. With a severity 3 warning (meaning start to make plans to adios) we sought the advice of the locals who told us to stay put (apparently they took visa and wanted whatever cash we had) and we were soon heading for the beach ignoring the warnings of Clare with some freshly acquired snorkelling gear. Look out fish here we come!
After two days taking on water through the newly improved fresh air vent in the van we made repairs to the beast. At this point Clare decided that she could inflict no more damage to us (the repair was that good!) and promptly moved past us South, dying out. This prompted us to bid au revoir to the people and many
The 3 Amigo's
But no singing bush.... fish we saw (or that's what we'll tell you over beer when we get back anyway!) to head to Exmouth - bustling town on the Ningaloo Marine Park and Cape Range National Park.
Exmouth
Passing Emu's, Roo's and Gallah's aplenty on the way here, we were greeted by breathtaking scenery and wildlife. The Cape Range National Park was exceptional but was as far north as we could go until the weather would became potentially hazardous for us to pass. By this point it was reaching 44 degrees (no joke), but generally in the shade we enjoyed a 'cool' 36 degrees.
We spent several days camping here on the beachside sites where the park joined the Ningaloo marine park which is the world's largest coastal reef. Perfect opportunity to scare the hell out of the fish with our snorkelling and swimming skills(?). The sand really was white and the waters were a lovely turquoise colour and warm as bath water (almost but you get the picture).
For us, the most memorable times were watching the turtles, snorkelling the reef and deep sea fishing.
Our first glimpse of a turtle was not in the W.C but close to the
shore when one popped its head out of the water. We decided to spend the evening there to watch them land and head up the beaches to lay their eggs before returning to the safety of the sea. Quite a lengthy process! We were not quite aware of how large these boys (actually girls) were and found ourselves taken aback by the sight of these huge turtles lugging themselves up the sand. They really are more adapted to aquatic life! We were so impressed we took a visit to the local turtle centre to learn more about them, how they evolved and their fight against threat and extinction. Almost as amusing were the ghost(?) crabs who gave a surpised Grace a nibble on the toe who promptly reinacted a cross between baywatch and a screaming lunatic from some dodgy horror flick!
A glass bottom boat was booked to go further out on the reef to check out the coral, fishes and look for the turtles in a more hospitable habitat. We also got in 30 mins snorkelling and at this point the fish were less afraid of us as our swimming style (less flailing now) had improved somewhat. On
Turtle on Jurabi beach
She's been a laying.... our way back to shore we were rewarded with sightings of a tiger shark - thankfully not all nature decided to appear during our snorkel.
Our most expensive trip was a day's deep sea fishing with a couple of dutch lads and our captain 'Cookie' assured us that his 10m catamaran was so stable that we'd have no worries about being ill! Well the waves must have been more choppy than Cookie had imagined as he got a soaking having left the roof vent open and within an hour both Grace and one of our Dutch friends were calling for Huey and Ralph over the side. We believe the fishing term is called 'chumming'.
Despite the weather we had a successful trip and managed to catch quite a few fish toward the end of the day. After some initial fish that had to be returned including fish too small to keep, a puffer fish and some baby sharks, things started to hot up a bit with the first decent catch by Andrew of a 7 foot shark that took 30 mins to reel in. We managed to get a great picture of it (see below) and Cookie promised
Skippy
Say what, there's a boy trapped down a well? to vouch for its size for all those disbelievers! We also caught several types of Cod and Emperor and kept enough to feed us for a couple of days to take the sting out of the cost of the trip. A great day.
Well it's goodbye to Perth (and North of) as we head to the South West to look around the various parks, beaches and wineries before the long journey to the East coast........
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Charlie
non-member comment
god I am so jealous
Well the photos and diary is brilliant and makes me feel as though I am almost there - Grace you are looking a disgusting colour and where did that washboard stomache come from - mine is elegantly hidden under 10lbs of fat - or so I would like to think... Now back at work for three days but could be travelling overseas shortly for a couple of years - Kula Lumpa in fact! will update shortly -love to you both xxx