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Tag Archives: Yanchep
Australia day 84 – Yanchep to Perth, WA
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.
Posted in Australia, Western Australia
Tagged Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Yanchep
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Australia day 83 – Cervantes to Yanchep, WA
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.
Posted in Australia, Western Australia
Tagged Australia, Cervantes, Western Australia, Yanchep
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