Albany – Western Australia

Albany turned out to be a surprise. It used to be the capital of WA, it has a beautiful large deep harbour and a pop of 25,000. It was the first place we had seen since Perth that had more than one main street. It still had the feel of being a long way from anywhere (which it is, and that is why the capital moved to Perth) but it was a relief to have more choices.

Albany - WA

We stayed in a B&B for the first time on this trip. Needless to say it was a bungalow!! Very nice though. Albany has a good paved road that goes to Perth, it is one of those single carriageways that takes the notorious Australian road trains, nearly 100feet long. They are fun to overtake in a little Toyota!

We are now back in Perth to catch a plane this evening to Cairns. may get a chance to update at the airport…

Margaret River – a pretty little town

Ooops – here’s another blog I should have published before the last one or 2!!!
No worries, I expect you can sort them out.
Dropped on our feet again…found this pretty little hotel within walking distance of the town centre, it is a traditional building with a veranda and a corrugated tin roof. It is on the river and has an English garden out front.

Margaret River is a one street town, which, needless to say is all closed down by 7pm every night. That is rather surprising as it is the Ambleside of the Lake District, the Betws-y-Coed of North Wales or the Winter Park of Orlando, it is summer, there are loads of tourists and when we said to our hotel manager “we were just passing through” he said “where are you passing through to? You have arrived!”

We have done our touristy things today…beaches, caves, lighthouses etc. We went to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse and nearly got blown off the edge of the earth! It is exactly the point where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean and it was as rough as hell. Later we went round the corner to a small bay and it was all peace and tranquility, what a difference.

Tomorrow we have booked up a tour bus to take us on a full day of wine tasting. Perhaps I will be able to try all the wines because before it was always a worry about drinking and driving. Problem gone….yippeee!!

I blame the Japanese!!

We left Margaret River and travelled south and east, we were in forests for the first 170 miles and the trees were enormous. They are called Tingle trees, a derivation of the aboriginal name for them.

A walk in the forest - 200 ft up!

 We spent the night in Walpole, according to the locals – there is the north pole, the south pole and Walpole, all three having about the same population (I added that last bit!!)

There is only one town between Margaret River and Walpole and that is Pemberton (pop 750). A welcome break for the best bacon and egg sandwich in Oz and a petrol station that was a welcome relief –

I blame the Japanese for me getting within a millilitre of running out of petrol!
I blame the Japanese for me getting caught speeding!
I blame the Japanese for me being breathalysed at 2:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon!

Why do I blame the Japs? … because I have a Toyota and the gauges are deep set into the front console of the car and you just can’t see a thing they read. So it ain’t my fault.
I have now learnt my lesson and drive everywhere with the lights on, that way you can just make out the gauges in daylight.

The nice policeman let me off the speeding fine, my breathalyser score was zero and I managed to get 49.9 litres of petrol in the 50 litre tank in Pemberton – that WAS close!!

I just can’t describe how remote it is here, we are at the bottom left hand corner of Australia,

Walpole

 to the south of us is the Southern Ocean and then Antarctica and the South Pole.. It is definitely cooler as you go south, Perth is at 33 degrees and we are at 22 degrees

Margaret River was the end of the earth and we are nearly 400 miles further round the coast to nowhere. I say nowhere, but we are making our way to Albany and I would like to apologise right now for things I may say tomorrow for anyone who has any affinity with Albany on any continent in the world (now there’s cryptic for you…).

Tim Tam cocktails

Yesterday was our wine tasting tour and great fun it was!! We did 4 vineyards, a brewery for lunch and a few knick-knacks like chocolate factory, venison farm, cheese shop thrown in for good measure. By the time lunch was complete, having tasted their 6 beers and the free pint that comes with dinner – and done 2 of the vineyards, it was all getting a bit hazy!!

Somewhere along the line in the afternoon one of the girls overseeing the wine tasting introduced me to Tim Tams.  The Aussies could not believe us Brits had never heard of Tim Tams and what to do with them! Well here it is.  This is it.  They are chocolate finger biscuits like the bourbon at home but covered in chocolate.  You’ll never guess what you have to do with them……………………………. you bite off both ends, dip one end in your fortified wine and suck through the biscuit like a straw until the biscuit eventually disintegrates and you eat the liquor sodden biscuit!  Well this sounded like heaven to me so when we finished the tour, we went straight into the Supermarket and searched out Tim Tams.  Had another beer in one of the two pubs and then made our way back to our pretty little apartment.

Now maybe this is a well trodden path with the Tim Tams and I just haven’t lived.  Maybe it is a Uni thing and I have missed out.  It could be a childish thing to do which you grow out of but I am hooked – never again will I sip fortified wine straight from the glass.  It’s sucking through a chocolate biscuit for me FOR EVER.  God bless Australia!

So you can see why I didn’t get to blog yesterday.

Today we are travelling further south through unchartered waters knowing not where we will rest our head tonight.  The only thing planned is our flight from Perth on Tuesday so we are free and easy.  Hope I can find internet access.

Surprises in the outback!

I seem to have messed up a bit… this blog should have been before the last one. Can’t be perfect all the time!!

We left on Saturday for THAT rock – Wave Rock – 220 miles inland from Perth.  It was an interesting trip right from the start.  After about 7 miles we leave the suburbs and drive through a National Park Forest for the next 30-40 miles.  After this it opens up into the ‘Wheat Belt’ for the next 150 miles and then into the Bush of the Outback. 

They say you haven’t been in the Outback unless you get a puncture or hit a kangaroo.  We did one of these – can you guess which?  No, you’re wrong – we had a puncture! Strange really because there are two settlements between Perth & Wave Rock.  We stopped for lunch at the second one.  The only place open was a small cafe.  It was

Downtown Saturday afternoon!!

Saturday afternoon at about 1 p.m.  Everything closed at 12 noon.  We went into the cafe and I decided to have a meat pie.  (Australia is famous for meat pies and fish and chips).  I asked what I could have with my meat pie and the old guy said ‘Anything you like’.  I said ‘Fries?’ he said ‘Nope’, I said ‘Mashed potatoes?’ he said ‘Nope’ so I said ‘I’ll just have pie on its own thanks’.  Good job he and I got on so well as it turned out!!

 There were another couple in the cafe and the man pointed out that we had a puncture in the rear wheel of our car.  We ate our lunch (lovely pie) and went out to survey the situation.  I was standing there weighing it all up when the old guy from the cafe saunters up and says he would ride his bike down the road to see if the man who mends tyres is in – it is Saturday afternoon so there is no chance of his garage being open.  Well it turns out the tyre man has gone to Perth so the old man proceeds to change the tyre for me

A helping hand

  The spare was of course a 50 mile an hour emergency thingy and that somewhat impaired our progress.  So that was the first 120 miles of Outback journey completed – only 350 miles to go!

Arrived at Wave Rock Motel at about 430 p.m.  Well, what a surprise it was really nice.  The rooms were clean and comfortable and the staff very friendly 

 WAVE ROCK

What a grand sight this rock makes.  It is as they say in the USA…..  AWESOME!!

It looks like sand or a giant wave breaking but it is in fact granite!  You can get some idea of the size from the photos.  It is so remarkable that it takes your breath away.  We

Im-press-ive

clambered up and down it, walked along the top, pretended to surf down it and had a whale of a time there was no one else there and we could just act silly we had been stuck in our car for 6 hours so we needed to let off some steam.

I can surf like an Ausie!!!

 

Back at the Motel for dinner.  We found it was a Cook Your Own.  You buy a slab of beef and cook it yourself in the Dining Room on a ‘Bush BBQ’ they provide the veggies, salad and bread and you just tuck in.  It was excellent!!

MEAT!!!

 

I must tell you about this Town.  Population 460 with 1 cafe/garage, a motel, one sealed road and a railway line that goes through and that’s it.  The bus comes from Perth on Tuesdays and returns on Thursdays.  The nearest police is 75 miles down the road and the crime rate is zero.  As long as you don’t count drink driving …  but more of that later.  The wind was very strong and dust storms were everywhere.  There are probably more remote places in Australia but this will do for me.

 We couldn’t get our puncture fixed so it was going to be a long slow journey back to Perth. 230 miles away.  After dinner we went to the Bar for a drink.  It is obviously the only drinking place in a 50 mile radius and there were dozens of people in there.  Mostly well inebriated males, a few Sheilas and a couple of tourists.  It was just like you see in the films of Australia.  We got talking to the Barmaid who was from Glasgow.  She had been in the Outback for four years and loved it.  All I could think was what a terrible life she must have had in Glasgow.  She told us how all these drunk men get in their Pick Up Trucks and drive carefully home.  I suppose it doesn’t matter if you are all over the road when you are the only vehicle and the road is a red dirt track.

 On Sunday morning we went back to Wave Rock for another look, but this time the flies were out in force.  It was impossible to ignore them.  They get in your ears, up your nose

Diane’s fly prevention kit

 and crawl all over any exposed skin.  They don’t bit just irritate.  You can buy nets to put over your head for two dollars and that seems a necessity in the Outback.  We couldn’t buy any nets as the shop was closed Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday!!!

We eventually arrived back in Perth about 4 p.m. and as we drove in we could see these huge bush fires in the suburbs.  As I said Perth is the 3^rd windiest City in the World behind Chicago and Wellington N.Z.  and the flames were being whipped up by the gusting 50 m.p.h wind.  So far there are 49 homes completely destroyed and 90 damaged.  No casualty though.

 About that guy who was lost on his boat in Queensland they found him alive and well.  He took his boat into the mangroves and rode out the storm.  So there were no fatalities for that huge cyclone.  Wasn’t that amazing?

 We’re back in Scarborough near Perth now for a rest day and tomorrow when we get around to it, we will head 300 miles south to the Margaret River.

Travelling day

After our rest day yesterday, today we have driven south to Busselton – about 120 miles south of Perth.

 There is not much to say today but the weather is beautiful, 33 degrees C  and we have landed ourselves in a Beach Resort Hotel for the night. 

 I returned the car today to Hertz with the puncture not mended and was charged $90 Aud.  I have excess damage waiver which cost me £80 but I have to claim in back from the agency from which I hired the car – we will see what happens – but that looks like £60 down the drain!

 We were supposed to fly to Cairns today but changed our flight to stay on this west coast for another week.  We now fly to Cairns next Tuesday, stay for three nights (hoping for a kind slot in the weather to visit the Great Barrier Reef) and then fly down to Brisbane where we are either going to go north up the Gold Coast or south down the Sunshine Coast.

 Tomorrow we are going to continue our journey to the wine region of the Margaret River.

Sometimes it is difficult to get internet access when we are freewheeling from place to place so my apologies if I can’t update every day  but I will try.

All Change

The cyclone has passed now some 36 hours ago and the news coming out of Queensland is not very good. The eye of the cyclone went south of Cairns and has caused widespread damage to the area we were to drive through to get to Brisbane (Cairns to Brisbane is the same distance as New York to Miami, doesn’t look it on a map!).  Trees are uprooted, power lines down, flash flooding…all the usual. Mercifully I think there is only fatality, a young man who went out to his boat just as the cyclone was hitting. That’s amazing as it was the biggest Cyclone to hit Australia for a generation.

We have decided to stay over here in Perth on the Indian Ocean for an extra week, we are 2,880 miles from Cairns so not in any danger. We are going to go about 200 miles south of Perth and explore the Margaret River, another wine growing area (hic) … standby for some strange blogs from me!  …

I need to update you on our perception of Perth. Having been here a week now, we have had time to understand the area and people a bit more. Perth is not a provincial city as I said before and I think I undersold it! It is one of the most isolated city’s in the world and it has some real old English customs… shops close at 5:30pm, breakfast is from 9 -11 am, lunch from 12-2pm and dinner from 6 – 8pm, shops close Wednesday afternoons and so it goes on … but once you have got over these little irritations and see the beautiful Swan River bay (bigger than Sydney Harbour), the glorious blue sky, the leisure facilities on the river bank and the open spaces right in town then the place begins to grab you. We like the easy style of the Western Australians and the outdoor facilities on offer in this city.

We are off again tomorrow, our bungalow time has expired! We are going to drive 225miles to look at a rock (no, not Ayres rock …  that’s 2,500 miles by road!). We are going to stay in a motel in a one horse town … not expecting much in the way of accommodation, so anything above “bloody awful” will be a bonus!

I will let you in on our secret place in my next blog…

Quiet Day…

But not for some. We have woken this morning to listen intently to the news channel on the effects of Cyclone Yasi. We have plane tickets into Cairns for next Tuesday, so we are keen to see what has happened over there. As I write this the eye of the cyclone has passed through but no one is venturing out for a couple of hours yet. Luckily we have not booked any accommodation nor car hire yet for that leg of out travels, so we are flexible.

The picture above is not our latest accommodation, nor is it Diane drunk, it is just an indication of how quiet our quiet days are!!

Shakespeare in the gardens was terrific, I didn’t know Romeo had a Ausie accent, but it was very well done and very enjoyable.

Not much to report today, just waiting on the news from Cairns.

Sun, sea and … Shakespeare

Yes, I know, it’s supposed to be sun, sea and sex… but when you get to my age a bit of culture works wonders!!

Been to Scarborough today, a really beautiful sandy beach just north of Perth (about 8 miles, actually). You know the way… leave Perth and pass through Cambridge, go down the Brighton Road, past Brighton Beach until you reach Scarborough. Honestly, that IS the way. No wonder Australia is topsy turvy, upside down!!The waves really crash onto the beach and you have to swim between the flags, a 30 yard stretch, which is patrolled by the lifeguard. There’s a sand bar there and the young Australians go over the sand bar to the real surf. Me, I just wallowed beach side of the sandbar with the younger kids.

Talking of young Ausies, there were a lot of young bucks showing off to the bikini clad girls today on the beach. It is the last day of the summer holidays, back to school tomorrow, and I guess it was the last chance… If you didn’t find summer love today, then that’s it for another year! Nothing changes, does it.

On the way back from the beach Diane saw this small truck with “marsupial transportation” written on the back. We discussed for quite some time what marsupials they might be transporting and where might they be transporting them to? When we got closer I read the sign on the back of the truck….it said “wrkis4ppl thatcantfsh”… with eyesight like that would you let her drive in Australia? answers by pressing the comment button!.

We had a nice morning drinking coffee and eating cakes in Freo, the afternoon on the beach and this evening we are going to an outdoor theatre in the botanical gardens. It is Romeo and Juliet, we borrowed some chairs, we have a cool box, a bottle of wine and mosquito spray and we’re all set.

Will let you know tomorrow how it went.

Oh yes…I forgot to add a picture of an English/Oz bungalow yesterday for my American readers (I think there’s only one, unless  Angela is reading this as well, are you?)… so here is our bungalow. More on our bungalow living later …

Our "Bungalow"

Bye Adelaide – Hi Perth

We made a new friend in Adelaide. The outcome of the Friends Reunited encounter was that we met Sue for tapas and a bottle of wine, we sat for 3 hours reminiscing and comparing childhood memories. It was funny, sad and entertaining all at one go – strange the things you can remember if you dig deep enough. Sue asked me if I remembered  the “Andersons” and straight away I said “are they the dirty family?” I don’t know where that came from but it was right! (hope they aren’t reading my blog!). Sue is lovely and I’m sure we will remain friends.  I’m still amazed at the coincidence!

Arrived in Perth after a two and a quarter hour flight and two hour time difference.  Found our bungalow which we have hired for one week.  For my American readers I have attached a picture of a bungalow!  This style of property is very popular in the UK. and Oz is the land of bungalows!  We actually staying in Freo – that’s what we locals call Freemantle.  It is on the Swan River estuary and the main street is one long al fresco dining experience …. it has a bohemian feel with loud music, crowds of people and a lively atmosphere………………..right up our street – we love it.  It feels like Key West or other places where people go to enjoy an uncomplicated lifestyle.  Yesterday, Sunday, we had a lazy day.  Got up for breakfast in our bungalow and went back to bed for two hours!  This travelling around, enjoying ourselves is very tiring. 

I am right now sitting in a pavement cafe having ordered my long black coffee and considering the differences between Sydney/Melbourne and Adelaide/Perth.  The first two are like Capital cities world wide – skyscrapers, river side walks, beautiful restaurants, theatres etc.  Adelaide/Perth have less of a wow factor and are similar to our towns like Leicester, Portsmouth or Norwich.  The one common factor so far has been sunshine and friendly people.