Australia day 84 – Yanchep to Perth, WA

Posted on Monday, 08 Jun 2009 by Hattie

And here we are in Perth!  Who would have thought that this clapped-out old van that goes under the name of ‘Hostile Takeover’ would have made the journey all the way from Darwin without major mishap or breakdown particularly given such an inauspicious start.  The gods must have been smiling on us!  Perhaps the epithet emblazoned on the back of the van had an element of truth ‘Without order nothing exists;  without chaos nothing evolves’.  But ours was definitely not the most provocative or entertaining slogan we have seen along the way.  Some of the huge number we have come across include ‘If I were you I would have sex with me’ (South Park), I’m a schizophrenic and so am I’, ‘ Lord knows I just want to break free’ (Queen), ‘Stinky Bum’, What’s wet, pink and likes dark holes?’, the words to Strawberry Fields (The Beatles), ‘Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink’ and the one I like the best ‘If only men were as satisfying as chocolate’.


 

We are now into our last week in Australia and have a number of things to sort out before we leave.  Not least, booking our flight out of Indonesia otherwise we could be refused entry, getting some more anti-malarials to see us through to the end of the trip, cleaning out the van in readiness for it’s return on Wednesday, booking airport transfers and accommodation in Bali, collecting our passports from the Indian Consulate plus a number of other little jobs.  All of which will keep us pretty busy for the next couple of days at least. 

 

After booking into the campside in the suburb of Redcliffe about 8km out from the centre we drive into Perth and make an appointment at the Travel Clinic for later in the afternoon.  We then walk 20 minutes to West Perth to the Indian Consulate office on the edge of Kings Park only to find it closed.  It’s opening hours are 12.30 to 1.30 pm Monday to Friday!  Back at the clinic we have more success and for a mere £140 including consultation fees we have secured 11 weeks supply of doxycyclin anti malarials. 

 

It’s too cold to sit out after dark so we retreat to the MacDonalds up the road to avail ourselves of the warmth and, just as importantly, the free wifi.  They also do a rather nice ‘Mr Whippy’ type ice cream with a flake for a mere $1 – so who could resist!  Yes, we know how to live the high life!  It allows us to book a couple of night’s accommodation in Ubud on Bali – another job done.  Still no progress with Amex though and the connection isn’t good enough to support Skype in order to make a chase-up call.  That will have to wait for another day.

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Australia day 83 – Cervantes to Yanchep, WA

Posted on Sunday, 07 Jun 2009 by Hattie

Last night was a bitterly cold and even at 8am the temperature is still only 8 degrees.  It is proving hard to keep warm at night even sleeping fully clothed and with the additional blankets. We re-light the fire this morning and have breakfast huddled round the flames for warmth.  Cows and sheep can be heard grazing somewhere nearby and galahs are calling in the trees as the sun filters through the leaves.  Despite the cold start we are in for another gloriously sunny day and even at this time of year (winter) the temperatures are in the 20s when the sun is out. 


 

Cervantes – which is not full of people tilting at windmills – is a small sleepy town where little opens on a Sunday apart from the general store.  The main attraction in this area is the Pinacles Desert in Nambung National Park a few kilometres outside town.  Lonely Planet describe it as ‘other worldly’ and the large limestone obelisks rising out of a golden desert create a surreal landscape that could well be a set from Star Wars or Star Trek.  Thousands of  naturally occurring limestone pillars some as tall at 5m weathered by the elements into some intricate shapes, are scattered across an area of 400 hectares.  There is a short walking trail as well as a 4 km loop road which winds through the formations, for those, like us, too lazy to walk round. 

 

From here we travel further south to Yanchep about 70km of Perth.  We are now within striking distance of our goal and the end of what has been an amazing 10,000 kilometre road trip.  We can hardly believe that we have been on the road for two months!  As we approach Perth there is less bush and more rolling farmland.  Trees are much more in evidence, traffic is on the increase and sheep and cattle graze alongside the highway.  We camp a Willanga Grove Rest Area.  This rather noisy site on the roadside is not our first choice, that seems to have been decommissioned.  So we have to make do.  This, unsurprisingly, is not a popular site judging by the absence of any other vans and the abundance of firewood.

 

 

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Australia day 82 – Eneabba Bush Camp to Cervantes, WA

Posted on Saturday, 06 Jun 2009 by Hattie

Blue sky and sunshine greet us this morning and by mid morning it is lovely and warm.  We are making our way down the coast to Cevantes to visit the Pinancles Desert National Park and along the way stop a Leeman Green Head and Jurien.  Leeman is a tiny fishing village (population 680) with an old wooden jetty jutting out into a picturesque bay.  A large grassy area fronts the ocean edged by small, single storey houses.  The few people about are drawn to the jetty like us, curious to see what might be swimming by.  A young boy is fishing.  And we are in luck as two massive sting rays glide under the jetty posts;  each with a wingspan of at least 5′.  Leeman might well specialise in large creatures as we come across a monster ant which must be at least an inch long, it’s massive pincers clearly visible;  a nip from those and you would know about it.


 

Green Head is a similar kind of place, but seems to be slightly more popular with the boating set if the number of 4wd and boat trailers are any indication.  The focal point here is the boat ramp.

 

Jurien is another lovely, unspoilt bay with a white sand beach strewn with washed up seaweed.  But as well as the debriis, seaweed grows along the waters edge clinging to the sand and preventing it from being washed away.  This gives the impression of miniature cliffs along the waters edge.  This sleepy ‘resort’ seems to shut up shop at the weekend;  the visitor’s centre is closed, as is the only internet cafe and the ‘bottle-o’ and indeed most of the few other shops.  Only the general store and the petrol station are serving customers.  So we push on to Cervantes and stop overnight at Tuarts Reserve, a delightfully secluded camping area shaded by large Tuart trees.  We are now becoming expert at foraging for firewood – essential for keeping warm in the evening. 

 

As the weather gets progressively cooler and the sun rises later  so our sleeping habits are returning to a more normal pattern – going to bed later providing the firewood lasts, and getting up later once the sun’s begun to take the chill out of the air.  Andy still rises early, but now lights a fire in the  morning to keep us warm while we eat breakfast.  A fire is definitely one of the pleasures of   rough camping in Australia and – despite the lack of facilities – gives it the edge over staying at caravan parks where fires are strictly prohibited.

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Australia day 81 – Dongara to Eneabba Bush Camp, WA

Posted on Friday, 05 Jun 2009 by Hattie

We wake to a lovely, sunny, if rather chilly, morning;  not a cloud in the sky.  Our self-imposed task today is to sort all our gear with the objective of reducing the weight of our backpacks and making life easier for the next leg of the trip.  We plan to jettison what we no longer want and send home anything we won’t need in Indonesia and India . In all we identify 15 kilos of stuff a third of which is straight in the bin.  We box up the rest intending to post it home.  But get a bit of shock when we discover that it will cost over $100 dollars to send it surface mail; probably more than the contents, mainly clothes, are worth.  A radical rethink is required.  The parcel home is much reduced in size and the remainder is donated to the local charity shop.  A more acceptable cost of $45 is the end result.  The lady in the post office couldn’t be more helpful and understanding, taking our change of heart all in her stride as though it was quite normal for people to come in with two huge parcels, changing their minds and coming back a few hours later with one of much reduced proportions.  Our backpacks should hopefully now be much lighter as a result – although  snorkelling and fishing gear as well as swimming shoes and one or two items of clothes acquired along the way will have to be accommodated.


 

The promised email from Amex has not materialised.  So we are no further forward on that front.  Another call to them will have to wait until we reach Perth on Monday.

 

Tonight’s stop is Eneabba Bush Camp, a huge area of bush set well back from the road which we have all to ourselves.  There are no facilities whatsoever here – this is rough camping at its most basic – but at least there is plenty of fire wood.  This looks like an area that sees flash flooding;  a thin layer of white sand covers the reddy-brown earth beneath.  Noise from the occasional car drifts from the highway to compete with unseen frogs croaking in a small gully a few yards from the van.

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Australia day 80 – Dongara, WA

Posted on Thursday, 04 Jun 2009 by Hattie

Dongara on closer inspection turns out to be a rather attractive little seaside town with a definite sense of community. mingled with a holiday atmosphere.  Situated behind the sand dunes that front the Indian Ocean to the west and bordered by the Irwin River to the south,  the unspoilt surroundings have a windswept beauty.  It is cloudy and distinctly chilly and fleeces are the order of the day.  We are staying another day in here primarily to be able to call Amex again when the London offices open at 4pm local time.  We spend a day dilly-dallying around town, browsing the few shops and taking a short walk on the seaweed-strewn beach which falls steeply into the sea and back into town along the shady and unspoilt bank of the river.  On the sand dunes we pass a couple of women frantically looking for a missing child.   We are about to offer to help in the search when the child is found and there is a tearful reunion.


 

We find a laundrette to do some washing and avail ourselves of two power sockets that are presumably provided for the use of customers, to charge our laptops.  Just outside town there is a small wetland area behind the sand dunes which is very popular with the local duck population as well as several other species including a pelican.

 

At four we are back on the internet for another frustrating call to Amex.  Despite their assurances yesterday, the claims team have not still not reviewed the claim and we seem to be no further forward.  In fact, we have taken a few steps back as Amex are now saying that they will require sight of specific original documentation to support the claim.  What exactly they can’t say at this stage.  This setback is all the more frustrating because all the documentation was faxed to the Amex Assistance in Sydney back in Novemer and we were assured that it would be forwarded to London and that the claim would be paid on the strength of what we had supplied.  Now we must wait for Amex email later today details of the documents they require. 

 

While we are logged onto Skype, Mike calls from his office in Leeds – the first time he has found us online since he signed up to Skype in early May.  By what chance is it that he happens to be logged on at 9.30 am … in the office?  We have a short chat before he is called away to a meeting.

 

Back to the camp area we stayed at last night with a van load of wood collected along the way.   A fire is the only way to keep warm on these cold nights and there is something rather special about sitting under the stars watching the flickering flame dancing and crackling .  Tonight we are on our own.

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Australia day 79 – Geraldton to Dongara, WA

Posted on Wednesday, 03 Jun 2009 by Hattie

Geraldton has an historic centre and pleasant suburbs facing the Indian Ocean.  Otherwise it has little to remark on other than the view of the drilling rig that sits prominently in the centre of the bay.   We do a little shopping, visit the second-hand book shop which, rather enterprisingly, doubles up as an internet café, so that as I spend half-an-hour or so browsing the shelves, Andy can occupy himself researching accommodation in Bali.  After selecting three books and exchanging three, we visit the post office to get prices for sending some of our stuff back to the UK.  We are determined to seriously reduce the weight of our backpacks so that we don’t spend the next three months struggling under the strain of ridiculously heavy luggage on the next leg of our trip. 

We leave Geralton behind and arrive in the small seaside town of Dongara further down the coast by mid afternoon.  Dongara’s outstanding feature is the majestic avenue of fig trees that line Moreton Terrace in the centre of town.   A visit to the visitors centre which is housed in the Old Post Office is rewarded with a list of things to do in Dongara which runs to an implausible three pages of typed  A4.  This is followed by another session on the internet.   We have been trying for what seems like weeks to find an internet café that has Skype and stays open beyond 4.30 pm so that we can make some calls to the UK.  Firstly to chase up on the status of our insurance claim for the expenses we incurred at the Hanoi French Hospital and secondly to change the tariff on my mobile phone which has come of contract  and, for a phone not getting much use, is costing far too much at 35 pounds a month.   In Dongara of all the unlikely places there is a electronics shop that has broadband access and stays open normal working hours. 

The Amex claim has been dogged by problems;  the delay caused by the Hanoi French Hospitals administrative failure to take the payment from our account meant that the claim couldn’t be submitted until February;  the discovery that the claims email address quoted in the policy handbook delayed the claim by a further month;  and since we sent the claim to the correct address in early March we have heard nothing.   All call to the London claims office reveals that due to an administrative error in their automated system the claim has not been allocated to a claims officer.   I’m assured somewhat apologetically that the claim will be prioritized today and someone will be able to speak to me about it if I ring back tomorrow – no-one in the claims team is available to speak to me at the moment as they are all in a meeting!

The call to Orange is more successful but only marginally less frustrating;  Orange have a complex, multi-level IVR system, the sort that involves choosing  from several options only to present several more and several more after that, by which time you’ve lost the will to live and are selecting any option a random just to get through to someone who will talk to you.  On the first attempt I speak to the retentions team who provide me with another number to call, which turns out to be discontinued.  The second attempt gets me through the phone upgrade team who transfer me to an Indian call centre and a person I can’t really understand but it seems that I can’t have the tariff I want because I wasn’t on the right contract.  So I ask to close my account and, yes, I’m once again talking to the retention team!  At this point I’m offered a sim-only contract with double the minutes of the tariff I had asked for from the Indian lady for 15 pounds a month.   A result, but surely it shouldn’t be such hard work.

We camp just off the Brand Highway at the Midland Road Rest Area.  It’s a pleasant shady site, if slightly noisy;  there seems to be an electricity generating plant somewhere close by but out of sight. There are three other groups of people here including an Australia with a Japanese wife who we never see.  He on the other hand is very chatty and brings over a beer for Andy as he sets about lighting the camp fire – not one for me of course –  this is strictly a boys’ tete-a-tete. 

Which brings me on to the absence of a well-developed sense of political correctness in this country, which in some ways is refreshing and in others quite shocking.  For example, a whole variety of gollies are sold without anyone seemingly batting an eye, Wicked have a slogan on one of their vans that contains the word ‘poofter’ which would probably cause uproar in the UK and terms like ‘coon’ are used by some people without a second thought.   Our self-styled pc police would have a field day here, I’m sure. 

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Australia day 78 – Northampton to Geraldton

Posted on Tuesday, 02 Jun 2009 by Hattie

We return to Northampton to complete the heritage walk.  All the sights historic interest are strung along the main highway and comprise a mix of 19th and earl 20th century buildings including the old post office, the old police station, two churches, and a number of shops.  The interiors of some of the latter appearing little changed since they first opened.  One in particular has original fittings and an overwhelming smell of moth balls.  We browse the shops and pick up a rather nice silk shirt shirt for $5. 


 

Then on to Geraldton to do some grocery shopping, check emails at MacDonalds.  Geraldton is a large town by comparison with most places along the west coast, with a population of 20,000.  We don’t stop long as we plan to return tomorrow and in the late afternoon we head to Ellendale Pool to camp.  This is a pretty spot  by a large ‘swimming hole’ tucked under a sheer escarpment.  The only drawback is that, when the temperature of the water is 24 degrees or more microbes carrying amoebic meningitis become active;  there is a large notice advising against swimming, but rather ambivalently providing safety instructions (such as don’t put our head under water and, hold your nose when jumping in) for those  foolhardy enough to ignore the warnings.  But who in their right mind, one has to ask, would put their children’s, or indeed their own lives, at risk by swimming  here given the risk? 

 

The camping area along the river has recently been upgraded and delineated with posts whih have had the effect of placing most of the area out of bounds to campers and thus much reducing what appears to have been a large camping area along the river so that with four or five vans it seems a little crowded.

 

Wide loads are a regular sight on the single carriage highways.  They are preceded at some distance by an advance vehicle displaying a sign announcing a wide load vehicle.  There invariably follows two enormous lorries.  More often than not each is carrying half a house or on some occasions it might be a piece of large machinery.  They take up as much as two-thirds of the road.  On-coming traffic have to take whatever avoiding action is necessary, which usually entails pulling to the side of the road, to make way! 

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Australia day 77 – Kalbarri to Northampton, WA

Posted on Monday, 01 Jun 2009 by Hattie

The weather is much cooler with intermittent sunshine.  Winter seems to be arriving early this year.  Northampton is a charming National Trust-classified town established in 1848 which is about as old at it gets in this part of the world.  There is some splendid architecture here – grand stone buildings with wide verandas and olde worlde stores with corrugated tin awnings seem incongruous in this country of  the prefab.  The Old Convent, now a provider of budget accommodation and the pretty ‘gothic’ style Catholic St Mary’s Church next door are wonderful examples of the 20th century designs of Monsignor Hawes, a English-born Catholic priest who spent 27 years of his life in Australia and left his mark in several towns around the mid-west.  The interior of the church is more like a chapel but for the images of Christ on the cross and St John holding the baby Jesus, which dominate its small interior.  But it is a bank holiday and only the visitors centre – housed in the old Police Station – and a couple of petrol stations are open, so we decide to come back tomorrow for a more thorough look around.


 

On to Horrocks, a little, slightly untidy, seaside village with a smelly, seaweed-strewn beach and a reef just offshore.  It’s rather overcast as we take a short stroll along the beach.  On the way back to the car park we discover a covered picnic area with sink, tables and – unbelievably – two working electric sockets.  It seems rude to pass up this golden opportunity to charge up the laptops and camera and brew up in the meantime. 

 

We return to last night’s camp ground collecting some firewood along the way.

 

 

 

 

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Australia day 76 – Kalbarri to Northampton, WA

Posted on Sunday, 31 May 2009 by Hattie

We are down by the beach by 8.45 am for the pelican feeding which takes place daily on the Kalbarri foreshore. A small crowd has gathered but there is no sign of either the volunteer with the bucket of fish or, indeed, the wild pelicans. Twenty minutes later we are about to return toe van when the lady with the fish appears, but the pelicans seem to be otherwise engaged – apparently it is mating season and the waters of a nearby lake are full and food is plentiful. We hang on for another 15 minutes or so as the lady with the fish bravely tries to make up for the absence of the star attraction with some general information about pelicans (did you know for instance, that a pelican’s bill can hold 12 litres of water?). All the while she is tossing fish towards the beach to be greedily snatched up by a large flock of seagulls who presumably can’t believe their good fortune. We are just about to leave, when our patience is rewarded. The first pelican descends from the sky, shortly followed by three others. With a three metre wingspan and huge bill they are a remarkable sight in flight. Gradually they make their way up the beach coming right into the semi-circle created by the crowd, where with an expert eye, they catch the fish in their bills.

Today is the Canoe and Crayfish Festival in Kalbarri. A few craft stalls, a couple of bouncy castles and the crayfish stall form the backdrop for this event, the highlight of which is a number of kayak races in the bay and a tug-of-war. The former proves to have limited appeal, to us at least, as only the start and finish take place within viewing distance whilst the rest of the race goes on somewhere further up river. We spend a while browsing the stalls and inspecting the winners of the sandcastle competition before deciding to say our goodbyes to Kalbarri and continue our exploration of the coast.

Our first stop is at Jake’s Point, a popular surfing beach with huge curling breaks of the sort you usually only get to see on television. There are some seriously skilful surfers out today and we stand on the rocks watching their displays. But more attention-grabbing are a pod of about half-a-dozen dolphins who are also here to frolic in the waves and surf the rollers. Just like the surfers they wait in the swell for just the right wave and when it comes they swim inside it until the surf breaks. As it carries them forward they fly out of the front of the surf in a perfect arc. Then just as their performance seems to be over, the hole pod leaps, perfectly sychronised, through the back of the dying wave and swims out to sea to start the whole process over again. The simple things in life are definitely the sweetest!

Eventually, we tear ourselves away; the dolphins have tired of their recreation and we hungry.for lunch. In the afternoon we visit several coastal viewing points that fall within Kalbarri National Park – Eagle Gorge, Island Rock, and Natural Bridge- before heading on the Port Gregory to see the Pink Lake. There is little to detain us a Port Gregory which is a small fishing village-cum-holiday retreat and we make our way to a camp ground just south of Northampton collecting wood on the way for an evening round a camp fire.

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Australia day 75 – Kalbarri, WA

Posted on Saturday, 30 May 2009 by Hattie

We take a long walk along the town beach round the heads and south along the coast.   It’s possible to walk as far as Red Bluff beach nearly 6 kilometres away, but we content ourselves with a shorter stroll which still takes us most of the afternoon.  From the viewpoint at the heads there is a good close-up view of the melee of waves that converge on the rock bar at the mouth of the river.  A white beach backing onto sand dunes stretches all the way to Red Bluff Beach.  Jaggedy rocks emerge from the sand at the water’s edge  to create a wide shelf –  the remnants of long-since eroded cliffs.-  against which the swell of the ocean gather force to unleashes mighty curling waves that pound the shore.  The energy and power is mesmerising holding an enduring fascination.  Is it possible to tire of watching a wild sea?

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