Guildeton to Perth

Day 186

Wake up and as it looks like a nice day we decide to stay another night at our Guilderton campsite so go to pay and are told that we can stay but will have to move sites as they are fully booked as today is the official start to ‘schoolies week’.

For our European readers ‘schoolies’ is when the high school kids finish their exams and go off for a week of partying and generally getting drunk and causing a nuisance so as you can imagine we were both overjoyed at the prospect! I seem to remember when I had finished my exams we all went to the pub and had a drink but now it seems to have grown into a week-long booze cruise.

As before we packed up the bare minimum (chucked everything in the back of the van) and drove across the campsite with the pop top up and the solar blankets still on (I at least removed it from part of the windscreen so I could see where I was going) to our new position and unpacked everything again.

This over with we decided to have a look round at the sights of Guilderton. Literally 5 minutes later, having walked to the petrol station we were back at the campsite and thought we would take advantage of the (somewhat) calm day and hit the beach

When we got there the surf was most definitely up and the waves were huge, dumping right on the shore and so as Carmen decided to sit this one out, I (bravely) stripped down to my shorts and was in. The waves certainly weren’t any smaller when you were in either and after being caught out by a few and turned over and over like I was in a washing machine a few times I had enough and retired back the safety of the sand to warm up (good fun though).

Back at the campsite and it was certainly filling up but these were no ‘schoolies’, they were all families from Perth down for the weekend and just about every car that pulled up seemed to have a boot load of screaming kids with them (I think we would have preferred the schoolies) and so before long it felt like we had parked in a school playground.

The good thing about kids is that they go to bed early.

Day 187

The bad thing about kids is that they get up early and so we were packed and on the road bright and early, heading for the bright lights of Perth (glad we had not booked in for the whole weekend).

As we approach the city the traffic suddenly increased to epic proportions and at first we thought there must have been a natural disaster or some mass evacuation taking place because everyone drives like it is there last day on earth and every set of lights (and by God there are one or two) seems to be the starting grid of a grand prix! You can tell it’s a while since we have been in a big city.

We left the motorway and decided to take the beach road into the city and after driving through endless outer suburbs for what seemed like hours we stopped at City beach and got out to have a look.

The wind had picked up again and the sky was a bit overcast so it was a quick look and we were off to find our new home. We had picked the closest campsite to the city thinking we would be in the heart of the action but as we got close we realised all we were in the heart of was a giant industrial area!

Luckily we hadn’t booked anything so out came the map and we drove back across town to a suburb called Gwelup and the ‘Karrinyup waters caravan park’ where we got a nice spot right on a lake with ducks and swans swimming about in it.

We soon realise that the ducks are quite used to people as no sooner had we set up than we were visited by a whole troupe of them (collective noun for ducks anyone?) all sniffing around for a crumb or a crust.

Strolled off to find the shops and a pleasant ½ hour walk later through a nice park and past Perth’s answer to neighbours we arrived and duly stocked up.

Day 188

After a good night’s sleep it was time to hit the city and so we set off walking to the nearest train station (very few busses on a Sunday).  40 mins later we arrived and vowed to find out about the busses as neither of us fancied doing that walk too many times.

Three stops later and we are right in the heart of the city and luckily find that as we approach the tourist information we are just in time to join a guided ‘city orientation walk’. The woman takes us along the main shopping mall and to Perth central railway station where we get a demonstration of using the ticket machines and which tickets to buy (very useful) and learn about the free busses that operate throughout the city centre.

Then it was out of the station and along Perth’s Cultural precinct containing the museum and various galleries and back along another mall to London court, which as the name suggests is a little slice of London in the middle of Perth!

Then it was on past the town hall and down to the supreme court and the old botanic gardens and a bit further down to the banks of the Swan River and the Swan bells. The bells were donated by the city of London and apparently are bells from St Martins in the Field (I think they must have had some spare bells lying around). Finally we looked across the way to Kings Park and the tour was concluded. The woman had rambled on a bit and got side tracked pretty easily but it had been worthwhile and we both felt pretty orientated.

Not wishing to backtrack (we were both knackered) we took advantage of the free busses and had a seated tour of the city’s highways and byways and alighted at the station to get the train home only to face the 40 minute walk back to the campsite.

First impressions of Perth were good, after endless suburbia the city centre actually feels very compact and easy to navigate and get around and all the main attractions are close at hand.

Day 189

Another trip into the city and this time we were getting the bus. Of course when we arrived at the stop we had just missed one and had to wait nearly an hour for the next (still better than walking again). With our new found knowledge of the ticket machine we were at it like old hands and before we knew it we were back in the main shopping mall.

Carmen went in for her job interview and I had a stroll round, finding myself in a games shop eyeing up the latest releases (Christmas coming up) and when she was out we had a further browse around and after a constitutional pint in the pub brought some groceries and headed home.

Day 190

Polly is due her next service (including new timing belt)and so after ringing around to get some quotes (ranging from $750 to $1400!) we booked her in at the local Mitsubishi dealer and headed out for a driving tour of some of the cities beaches. First stop was the petrol station and we were amazed at the $1.28/litre price so a full tank later ($40 odd!) and our first stop was Mettam’s pool.

The wind was up again and the beach looked quite rocky so we sat in Polly and had some lunch and continued along the coast to Scarborough beach. The wind was still blowing but the beach was lovely here and there were quite a few people sunbathing and splashing about and so we walked along the front and sat in a shady area for a while people watching.

Continuing on we came to Cottesloe beach, the nicest beach so far with perhaps the grandest surf lifesavers club in Australia (so far).

Again it was very windy but the beach and foreshore was lovely with a good looking pub and at least one fish and chip shop and I think we will be back here (minus Polly) if the wind ever drops.

Our tour complete for the day we stop and grab some shopping on our way home and return to find the ducks are out in force again, sniffing about looking for scraps..

Day 191

With Carmen due to start work next Thursday we extend our stay at the campsite till the 20^th December (and probably to the New Year) and so we now have an address to send all those large gifts (both birthday and Christmas) to:

Karrinyup waters resort

467 North Beach Road

Gwelup

Perth

6018

Back into the city and time to tackle our first gallery, the W.A. state gallery in the cultural precinct. The gallery is split into 4 periods and has some good pictures and sculptures by some of the big names and we happily loose ourselves for a couple of hours.

Back outside and with the wind dying down the temperature is (finally) rising and it begins to feel much more like summer and so we sit in the City orchard and admire the view before continuing on to have a look at the party capital of Perth, Northbridge.

Much like Kings cross in Sydney we surmise with a multicultural range of eateries, bars and clubs and a few groovy shops (although it’s not exactly kicking off on a Tuesday afternoon).

Head into Paddy Palin outdoors shop and finally (there are only 4 shops in Australia) get to spend my gift vouchers which I  got as a leaving gift form my old job and with it get a new pair of sandals (thanks SDS).

Head home on the train with our newly purchased ‘Smart rider’ cards (think Oyster card) and seem to have sorted the bus timetables (after collecting armfuls) as there is one waiting for us to whisk us straight home.

Port Gregory to Guilderton

Day 179

Time to pack up and leave Port Gregory and head south to our first big town in what seems like forever, Geraldton is todays destination.

The road is quite busy and as we round a sweeping right hand bend a road train throws up a stone and BANG, he’s only gone and cracked the windscreen!! A small crack at first but by the time we arrive in Geraldton it has already crept its way to the pillar.

This really does seem like a big city and as we approach an intersection we are both puzzled by the coloured lights at the side of the road, which seem to change colour every now and then. As they turn red we realise that they are in fact traffic lights and that we probably should be stopping! The novelty soon wears off and is replaced with contempt at the fact we seem to be stopping every 100 metres or so.

Head into Coles to do some shopping and are literally dazzled by all of the bright lights and the seemingly endless selection of food. Both a bit overwhelmed by it all it takes us a while (and a lot of self-control) not to go crazy and fill the trolley with all of these beautiful looking things. The other thing that also becomes clear is that it must be approaching Christmas (and therefore my birthday). All of the decorations are up and the seasonal faire is out. Again it takes a lot of self-control (on my part) not to fill the trolley with Christmas puddings and custard!!

Fully stocked up we head out to our campsite (complete with lighthouse) and set up in the ever increasing wind. By the time we are finished you might say it was a bit breezy.

To try and get some rest bite from the wind and to avoid siting in the van all afternoon we walk into town and find ourselves in a pub drinking beer (Don’t know how that happened!).

Day 180

Time for a (long overdue) haircut, so we’re off on the bikes. After cycling up and down just about every street in town looking for barber (there were a hundred flash looking salons) and not finding one I settle for a salon full of women and with an air of trepidation head inside and politely ask “Do you do men as well?”. Of course they did and 5 minutes later I am back on the streets feeling considerably lighter.

The Beatles would have been proud!

Head to the Geraldton regional branch of the museum of Western Australia, which although badly laid out was pretty good. The best and most interesting display was a video about Australia’s only woman gold processor. She has her own rock crushing equipment and all of the other bits and bobs you need to extract gold from rocks (I thought it was good anyway).

Then it was on to the Geraldton gallery and to see an exhibition of this years ‘Moran prize’ for photography. Some great photos (and some not so great) but we were both not sure we agreed with the winner.

Starving hungry by now we head off in search of a fish and chip lunch, cycle around and see a quite a few places but they are all shut (it was only about 2 o’clock)! The one place that was open didn’t look at all appetising and so both disappointed it was back to the campsite for a sandwich instead

After lunch and in now gale force winds we strolled around the corner to have a look at this lighthouse.

The wind really is blowing so it’s a quick look and back to the safety of the van for an afternoon of reading (after exchanging some books at the book exchange) and watching films.

Day 181

After a windy night and more forecast (apparently it is windy in W.A. for months on end!) we decide to head on and leave Geraldton. On our way out of town we stop at the historic settlement of Grenough. Nowadays it’s like a giant outdoor museum consisting of a collection of restored heritage buildings. We park up and have a look round the gift shop (often the best bit) and discover that you have to pay for the privilege of walking up and down the street! A quick trip to the loo’s (thankfully free) and we decide not to bother after all and so jump back in the van and head onwards.

A short drive down the coast and we reach the small fishing villages of Dongara and Port Denison. The wind has died down and it’s lovely when we arrive so we decide to stay and check into the campsite. Of course by the time we have set up and had lunch the wind has picked up again and has brought with it the stench of rotting seaweed!

We chance a walk along the sea wall and a quick look at the sights but the wind has now reached cyclonic proportions and so we return to the (relative) safety of the van and spend another afternoon watching films and reading.

Day 182

In the hope that it might be less windy further along the coast we pack up and head off for Jurien bay. We arrive and set up and sure enough it is less windy, still blowing but at least bearable and so we go for a stroll along the beach to the harbour and back. When we return the jetty is packed with people fishing and they seem to be catching as well so we vow to return later.

Now we have been thinking about getting some work for a while now and as we are approaching some growing areas we thought we would make some enquiries. Carmen rings the number and speaks to a man who tells us there is some work available for experienced pickers but as we are not experienced he would not employ us!!

(Note to self, next time tell the man we are experienced)

By now of course the wind has picked up again and so we spend another afternoon in the van watching films.

Day 183

The fishing rods are out and we are straight down to the jetty this morning to try and catch us some dinner. Before too long Carmen has hooked something and reels it in to reveal that it’s a Blowfish (poisonous) and so back it goes. Shortly after I am in and it’s a small Snook, far too small to keep though (would you believe it) and so back he goes as well. We continue fishing for a while but after feeding the fish most of our bait we decide to call it a day.

Mercifully the wind seems to have dropped considerably today and so we spend a lovely afternoon sunning ourselves and swimming about in the ocean.

We return to the wharf, rods in hand for the sunset and it’s almost a party atmosphere, lots of happy people fishing and chatting away and so we settle in, quietly confident that we will catch something.

I do manage to catch 5 more small Snooks but as seems to be the case not one of them is big enough to keep (even if we had kept all 5 it wouldn’t have made much of a meal!). Luckily it’s the taking part that counts and I am happy to have at least caught a few fish and so retire happy.

Day 184

Pack Polly up and head off in the morning to our next natural wonder, the Pinnacles. Made up of thousands of limestone pillars on the edge of an area of sandy desert. As with most of these things (we are finding) no one really seems to know how they were formed and the visitors centre provides you with a couple of alternative theories.

The Pinnacles themselves are pretty good though and the track allows you to drive right in and amongst them and Polly enjoys her time off-roading along the sandy track.

We decide to head inland to get away from wind and to visit Australia’s only monastic town! New Norcia is a strange place, straddling the Great Northern highway 150KM (or so) north of Perth with a collection of Spanish style buildings that look somewhat out of place in the western Australian outback. The whole town (including pub, bakery and roadhouse) are owned by the monastery although we later find out there are only 8 monks living here!

We arrive in the afternoon and so are too late for todays guided tours but decide to stay the night and instead head to the bar to sample some ‘Abbey ale’. Based on a Belgian recipe the beer goes down pretty well and along with this they brew their own range of wines and two types of port, Oh and they bake their own bread and as we sip the ale we contemplate how busy the 8 monks must be!

Day 185

Wake up and head over to the visitors centre for the much anticipated tour of New Norcia. The other people seem to be a lot older (and all look religious) and we wonder if this is some sort of pilgrimage. The tour itself is not much cop, interesting enough but the woman was not the most eloquent and we didn’t even get to see a monk (probably too busy baking and brewing).

The buildings are quite grand though and some of the history is quite interesting although some of the previous teachers were the infamous Maris brothers (those of kiddy fiddling fame) and so I’m not sure it would have been a nice place to be (surprisingly the guide glossed over this fact).

The tour complete we head off back towards the coast and decide to have a final night (or two) of relative quiet before heading into Perth. Pull up at Guilderton and check into a lovely campsite right on the beach in time for a beautiful sunset over the Indian ocean.

We never tire of seeing the sunset

6 month kilometres update

This is the moment you have all been waiting for, it's the 6 months kilometers update!

Starting kilometres

Current kilometres

So we have a current total of 20,688 KM travelled.

Here is the original list of peoples guesses and we have put a line through those that are already out of the running.

Still a long way to go and we will do another update in 3 months time.

Hamelin station to Port Gregory

Day 172

Pack up and leave the station and head north along the Shark bay world heritage drive. Only a short drive and we pull into Hamelin pool and jump out excited by the prospect of seeing the world’s oldest living organisms, ‘Stromatolites’.

These living rocks have been around for about 3.5 billion years and for 2 billion years (give or take) were the only life forms on earth. They quietly capture carbon dioxide and burp out oxygen and singlehandedly managed to raise the oxygen levels in the atmosphere to about 20%, which allowed more complex organisms (you and me included) to develop.

We were understandably excited and raced down the beach to the boardwalk.

Not exactly much to look at and with the sun beating down (and the flies having a field day) we quickly walked around staring hard at them waiting for something to happen which of course it didn’t. I guess you don’t survive for over 3 billion years by showing off! But As Bill Bryson says ‘it’s not the sight of them but the idea of them which is exciting’.

Next stop along the coast is shell bay, where literally millions of tiny cockle shells are washed up to create a beach of sorts, up to 10 metres deep in places (Apparently they grind up the shells and feed them to chickens to make their egg shells hard!) Not really much to do here but have a sit and start counting. I think we got to about 54 before the wind got too much and we headed back to Polly to continue.

Arrive in Denham which is the most westerly town in Australia. The most westerly point is further up the coast but is 4WD only and in retrospect our most westerly point would have been at the blowholes and point Quobba a few days ago! Basically Denham is just a stop for people heading further up the coast to Francois Peron National Park and Monkey Mia (and the famous dolphins), there are a few shops and a pub and what looked to be a thriving fishing industry but there was nowhere to buy fresh fish and even the supermarket only had the frozen and crumbed kind!

We did our shopping and drove on to Monkey Mia and arrived at the entrance to the park. Now we both had expected that our National Parks pass would actually allow us entry into the National parks but oh no, it seems the government have realised there is money to be made here and so we had to pay for a day pass to get in!

Checked into the resort (camp site) and were actually quite lucky with our site. A beach front site is $50/night and were all exposed to the wind and sun but we were one row back (shaded by the trees) and only had to pay $37. Set up and turned in for an early night so that we could be up early for the dolphin feeding first thing.

Day 173

Up early and straight down to the beach to see the famous dolphin feeding. Dolphins have been coming to the beach every day since the early 60’s and in those days you could buy a bucket of fish and feed them to your heart’s content. Nowadays of course they have realised that this is probably not a good idea for wild dolphins and the feeding is strictly controlled. So you all line up along the shore and the ranger (plus helpers) come out and pick out a few lucky punters to feed the dolphins half a dozen fish each. As soon as we arrive you can see them all swimming about in the water looking hungry and the ranger duly comes out and gives you a sort of safety briefing (No going in the water, no touching etc) before the helpers appear with the buckets of fish.

There must be 7 or 8 of them there and even a little baby one there with its mum and when the buckets appear they come right up to the shore and some of them even start posing (a hangup from the old days apparently).  

Carmen gets picked out as one of the lucky feeders, wades out and puts the little fish in the dolphins mouth, which it takes very nicely (leaving all fingers intact).

Once all of the fish have been eaten the dolphins head back into the deeper water for a bit, but not for too long as they get up to 3 feeds every morning. We hang about on the beach for 10 minutes or so and they come back again for their second go. We all get the same briefing again and stand on the beach watching as the lucky few present the dolphins with their fish. The rangers know the individual dolphins and have given them names (Carmen fed Nicky). We hang around again and sure enough after 10 minutes or so they come back for their final feed.

In the afternoon we decide to go for a swim and a snorkel in the sea and as luck would have it the dolphins are still hanging about and do a semi-circle right past us to have a look (they probably recognised Carmen from feeding this morning)! The snorkelling is not really any good but I guess we have been spoilt by spending a week on the reef which would have been hard to top.

Day 174

Time to leave monkey Mia but call into the National Park proper for a look, it’s mostly 4WD and so not accessible by us but we get to the ‘heritage precinct’ and station homestead and stop for a look at the historic sheep shearing buildings (rubbish) and have a paddle in the 40deg artesian hot tub.

The whole park is part of ‘Project Eden’, in which they are trying to eradicate feral animals and reintroduce the native animals. This area is on a peninsular and at the narrowest point they have built a fence and have set up speakers playing the sound of barking dogs to scare off the feral dogs and foxes and it appears to be working.

Call in at Denham (more backtracking) again to pick up some supplies and head back up the world heritage drive to spend another night at Hamelin station.

Day 175

Time to head further south and no sooner have we set off than we manage to hit 2 birds in first 2 minutes! Stop for fuel and check but luckily they haven’t left any mess on Polly and so we continue carefully on.

Head along the highway for a few hours (and a few hundred kilometres) and turn off through Kalbarri national park to Kalbarri, a lovely sleepy little fishing village on the Murchison river mouth.

Set up in a great little spot overlooking the river and have a walk around the bay to the ocean and call in at the local pub for a drink on the way home.

View from our lounge

Day 176

Up in the morning and jump on the bikes (it’s been a while) and along the cycle path to the southern beaches. Stop at a few beaches along the way, which all seem to be sheltered by an offshore rock shelf but the foreshore is also rocky and so we don’t attempt a swim.

Come to the end of the line and a surf beach with a healthy looking point break. As we get closer though the surf is huge and most of the surfers who are attempting it have helmets on so I think this is probably not the time to show off my skills and leave it to the locals instead (Plus I didn’t want to show them up on their home turf).

Head back and spend the afternoon relaxing around the campsite and enjoying watching the world go by.

Day 177

Head back out through Kalbarri National Park and stop to admire all of the wild flowers which the park is famous for. Even though we are at the end of the season there are still hundreds of them in bloom in a rainbow of beautiful colours and we spend a happy few hours strolling through meadows of pinks, yellows and oranges.

A bit of a side track and we find ourselves in another country! The Principality of Hutt river seceded from Australia on 21^st April 1970. Basically Prince Leonard, a wheat farmer wasn’t happy with the governments’ quotas at the time and so decided to make his farm into a principality!

As we arrive HRH prince Leonard himself, an 80 something year old man comes out to greet us and gives us a guided tour of his principality. Consisting of Government offices, a post office, an interdenominational church and some farm buildings It’s not much and has never been officially recognised by the government (interestingly it has by the tax department) but he really is king of his castle! (www.principality-hutt-river.com)

Royal roller

One of the sons (another prince) appears and before I know it I have been roped into work helping him bail up some sheeps wool! It takes us just over an hour to do 2 bails and although I am knackered by the end of it I am always happy to help out a royal where I can (My dad will be proud) and he even gives me $20 for it.

We go back to Prince Leonard and get our Visa for the day and even get some money exchanged before heading off back into Australia to continue our journey.

Down a pretty good gravel road for what seems like ages (about 50KM) and we thankfully hit the tarmac again and come across the ‘Pink Lake’. Coloured by very high levels of Beta carotene (the stuff in carrots) the lake really does appear bright pink when the sun hits it.

Around the back of the lake is the tiny village of Port Gregory, with a shop and a caravan park there’s not much else to it but with we check in and stroll down to the charming beach with its calm waters protected by an offshore rock shelf and enjoy an evening stroll.

Day 178

Woke up to another beautiful day and decide to go for a stroll along the beach. Plenty of people fishing off the beach and as we walk along people seem to be catching fish left, right and centre so head back to the van to get the rods out.

Set up the tackle and it’s back down to the beach to try our luck with a range of lures. Just as we pick our spot the people next to us hook a huge fish and encouraged by this we tentatively cast in.

2 hours later and not one bite we decide enough is enough and head back to the van, slightly disheartened.

As soon as we do get back the campsite owner approaches us and tells us that some people are booked into our site for the weekend and we will have to move! More than slightly annoyed (they had told us to park where we like when we arrived) we throw everything into the van, leave the pop-top up and the solar blankets on and drive through the campsite to another spot on a grassed area where we spend the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing.