What we've been up to January and February 2012

Poor little Mystery Ship had a catastrophe while we were home in Calgary over Christmas. The power went out on the docks for several days. All of our frozen foods thawed and were on the verge of spoiling before the problem was discovered by our boat checker. Of course everything had to be "binned" (Australian for - put into the garbage can). The marina's response was that we shouldn't leave food in our freezers while away. Our argument was that the marina power should stay on and the marina personnel should check the boats like they told us they would! Oh well, it is done now.

 

Things have been busy for us January and February, but it is mostly just work stuff, getting the boat all back up to snuff again; ready for the next cruising season. We did our motor tour which took a good chunk of time.  We also did a boat jaunt up to Manly Harbour by Brisbane for a few days just to shake the dust off of everything. In boats, if you don't use it, mysteriously, whatever it is, doesn't work the next time you turn it on. There is an inside channel from Sanctuary Cove to Brisbane between the North and South Stradbroke Islands and the main land, much like the Great Sandy Straits further north (did that last year) very shallow, sandy bottom and well protected from the travel conditions that one would face if on the outside in the open ocean. So it was a fun, easy cruise and we got to check Brisbane out.

 

We've met quite a few Australian boater couples in the Sanctuary Cove Marina, so our social calendar has been quite full. We work gruelling hours, like common deck hands, all day long under the relentless Australian sun then kick back with these people for refreshments, laughter and good fun in the evenings. Our Australian dialect is getting better "Hayagawn mate" is Hello, "heaps" is lots, "too easy"…… you get the picture. "All good!"

 

The weather has been a mix of hot, hot sun and drenching, flooding rains, big contrast, but not really any big deal.  Life is pretty good in this little corner of the world.

Motor Home Travels of South Austalia - Final Chapter (Finally?)

21 We are getting a bit tired of "holidaying". So, today is Sunday - after Mass (we managed to find another church - google is a great thing), we head off down the road, backward (meaning we have been here before), to Coogee Bay. There is a new housing development going in and we spend the afternoon browsing through Show Homes. Today is the first day of calm weather along the south part of Australia and it is absolutely gorgeous. This is a marina community and this is the time to sell houses, but it only lasts until mid afternoon when the winds pick up and the water is crazy again.  Things are really getting boring now…. When we get back to the camp ground, we wash the exterior of the camper van. Three weeks and 4000 plus kilometers of sun baked bugs - we have quite a job to get it clean (part of the rental contract - sucks. Don't they have employees? Why do we pay rental fees?)

 

22 Final day. We spend the morning cleaning up the interior of the unit. That done, we head off to see a bit of the country side in the Swan Valley, north east of Perth. This is their wine area, but we've done that kind of thing already, so our efforts are pretty half hearted. We stop at two cellar doors and visit more than anything. Bought some great chilli cheese! We turned the camper van in and taxied to our hotel. It is a dump! There is a great business opportunity for hoteliers in Perth. There are no vacancies in any hotel within 10 k of the airport! Anyway, it is only 2:00pm and the room sucks, so we catch a bus into downtown Perth. The big deal about today is that we have found the best Thai food restaurant "Ever", Hahm (or Red Orchid on the cc receipt). This is now our number ONE rated eating experience in Australia.

 

23 Fly back to Brisbane and rent a car back to the boat. The holiday within a holiday is done. It has been great. Glen and I have received many blessings.

 

Still South Australia - Part 10

17 Today we are making a bee line for Perth, 425 km. But by 11:00 we are getting bored with the interior driving (all really nice farm land, but miles and miles of it) and head back out to the coast which brings us to a place called Mandurah and it seems to be interesting enough that we will stay here for tonight and we'll check it out tomorrow.

 

18 Although Mandurah is a larger center, the down town is still only a 1/2 hour drive through and we buzz of to Clifton Lake for a walk to see the thrombolites - oxygen creating organisms that make little rock like humps in the water. These are throw backs to the evolutionary times when our atmosphere was being created. With that done, we head up the coast to Freemantle and Perth. A stop in Freemantle for a pizza and a brief look at the Ship Wreck Museum has us planning how the next few days will unfold. Freemantle is said to be best on the weekend, so we carry on to Perth - basically the same city - as we will do Perth tomorrow and come back to Freemantle when it is a happening place.

 

19 We are back to taking the public transit again, because the motor home is too big to maneuver on city streets. Actually, it is nice to be able to just stare out the window and (for me) not worry about determining where we are on the GPS and the map so that we arrive where we plan - we know where this thing goes! All things considered, Perth is just another city. We explore the streets well and our priority is to find a great place for dinner. Just talking to people is how it all happens - Glen decided that he needed to have a personal care kit (nail clipper, scissors etc in a travel case) and just by chance in one of the arcades (malls) that we are there is a shop for such things. So we get chatting with the owners and long story short we are directed to an Italian restaurant for dinner (The BEST!). "Perugino" is all that they said it would be, this is a good thing as we have not had great food experiences so far, except for "Appellations" in the Barossa wine region.

 

20 Back to Freemantle, it is an easy drive from where we are stationed. We spend the day doing "tourist" things, buying souvenirs, lunching in sidewalk cafes, doing tours. We are now the proud owners of an authentic didgeridoo, Glen will entertain guests (kidding). The Freemantle Prison tour is fascinating; I never want to go to jail! This place started, to house the prisoners sent from England and operated until 1991 as a high security prison.  They only ever had a "bucket" for a toilet! (no such thing as plumbing in 1850, so no room was allowed for flush toilets) Oh, for a short period they tried chemical toilets, but the inmates figured out how to make the chemicals "palatable" for drinking by filtering it through a loaf of bread and they got all disorderly, so that idea was disbanded. With the chemicalized bread, they used to leave it on their window sills so the resident birds could eat it, then they (the inmates) would laugh themselves silly (remember they were stoned on toilet chemical) as the birds - now drunk - would fly into the walls! Small things amuse small minds - right?

Motor Home Travels of South Australia - Part 9

15 On to Albany today, a mere 525 k further along the coast. We get in early enough to explore the down town before we park up at our "deluxe" (really) camp ground. We have our own private bathroom/shower facility. Even though the caravan unit we have rented has it's own bathroom and shower, it is far easier to use the amenities provided by the parks we camp in, so you can imagine that having a private bathroom is pretty "posh" (or maybe you don't care!). We are mere footsteps from the crashing surf which is bashing onto the powder white sandy beach that stretches the whole length of the bay - several kilometers. Of course we have to get out there and feel the sand between our toes and get sprayed with the vaporized sea water. There are couple of guys kite surfing along the breaking waves - the wind is howling at about 40 knots - so when they catch air….they fly about 30 feet up and most times they aren't in control enough to land right side up, thus bombing back into the water. It is quite exhilarating to watch.

 

16 Albany's National Park has sealed road access so we have the privilege of getting up close and personal with the local wilderness. We are set for a day of walking and hit all of the natural wonders and do a trek across one of the home bay's sheltering headlands. Great views, beautiful scenery, lots of exercise and the high light was catching a flock of Black Cockatoos feeding. What a gang of characters! They squawk like crazy as they fly from bush to bush and then talk to each other in "mum, mum, mum" little voices while they eat. These are very large birds and this is their only area of habitat according to the new bird book that we have of Australia's Birds. Oh and we have about 100 pictures of three different types of lizards. We have some serious picture editing to do when we finally get down to it, one of each will be fine.  

Motor Homes Travels of South Australia Part 8

13 We stayed the night camped at the Caiguna roadhouse. We awoke to rumbling bellies (kidding) and made an early start; grocery stores in Esperance were singing a syren's song to us. Just as a side note, diesel along the Nullarbor is $1.97 per litre and this rattle trap that we are driving is guzzling like crazy. Esperance is on the coast and our camp ground is across from the beach. We have restocked our fridge and are giddy with anticipation for a real meal. The beach walk is a reminder of how insignificant we are. The sand is powdery fine, the wind is howling at about 40 knots and to say the surf is pounding…. is an understatement. We are small potatoes on this planet.  It is fantastic!

 

14 Today, we were going to do a 30 minute helicopter ride and see all of the good things about Esperance from the air. I am (was) so excited, I've never been in a helicopter before. But the day dawns overcast, misting rain and the wind is stronger still than yesterday (if you can imagine!) so the heli guy says he's not going to fly. Fine by me, I can't imagine being buffeted around in an eggbeater over wild oceans and rocky cliffs and wondering what to grab, my lifejacket or parachute.  So we drive. First the scenic Ocean drive and it takes us along breath taking beaches and monumental granite headlands, one two, three, four. These pristine beaches are empty. Yes the weather is blustery, but even in calm, hot days; these places are un-crowded, the Aussies are very lucky to have this luxury at their doorsteps. Next we head out of town to the Cape le Grand National Park, more beautiful beaches and diverse plant systems and granite mountains (hills), yada, yada. But we are blown away with how incredibly beautiful. Today, with the windy conditions, everything is wild and rugged but we stop to imagine what a calm day would bring and we see pure tropical paradise. The sand is like cornstarch, both in color and in texture, so fine, it scrunches under you foot step like snow. Amazing!  We are fortunate to be able to see this because the roads to get here are black top (or bitumen in their language) and every other park that we have come across has been 4x4 access only. So our advice to future road travelers of Australia - make sure you are in a 4x4 so you can see the best She has to offer. Oh, and we came across two "wild" kangaroos nibbling leaves while doing a walk in the park. This has been a great day.

Motor Home Travels of South Australia Part 7

12 Guide books are somewhat creations of fiction, not that what they tell you is in a certain location isn't there, but they make everything sound so "you have to see this!" that we find that we pull off to see things that really aren't that impressive, including whole towns. So I guess guide books are really great elaborations of the truth. Reader, read between the lines. Today we head out across the Nullarbor Plains.  (null - "no", arbor - "trees") This takes up all of the middle portion of the south of Australia; similar to our prairies, but way different. Super dry, the vegetation ranges from scrubby bush, to scrubby trees, to scrubby grass….. you get the picture, almost 2000 km of a constantly changing vista. The scenery is lovely in it's own wild and natural way. The area is a wild life preserve too, but we only saw two pair of emus and too many road killed kangaroos to count. I guess the roos come out at night and are similar to our deer in that they run toward your lights as you drive down the highway. The semi trucks out here have great big bush bumpers on them (roo bumpers) and protective screens across the windshield, so it is obviously a problem. This area also has camels. No, you are right, not naturally, but turned wild from the camels brought in to haul freight from east to west Australia in the early years. The story is that now the Aussies are rounding the camels up (instead of shooting them) as they consume precious grass lands and are shipping them back to the Middle East because the Aussie camel blood lines are more pure and diverse than what they are back in the lands of their origin. Regardless, we didn't see any, which sucks. So the highlights of today, we stopped at the Head of the Bight, (the dipped in portion of Australia that looks like somebody took a bite out of it) which is a part of the coastline that has impressive 90 meter limestone cliffs, perpendicular to the crashing ocean below, very awe inspiring. For all of the days that we have been traveling beside this South Ocean, it has been rough and windy, not an inviting piece of water at all. Next is not a highlight, but a low light, crossing the border from South Australia state into Western Australia state. They have quarantine! This station is in the middle of the Nullarbor and is 525 miles east of the next grocery store (we are heading west) and they take ALL of our fruit and vegitables! The roadhouses (rudimentary truck stops) that are sparsely scattered between this point and Norseman (next town) do serve food, buuutt… refer to the mention of "truck stop"! I'm still, typing, so you can tell we didn't starve.

Motor Home travels South Austalia Part 6

10 Exploring Port Lincoln; well the population is 13,600 so it is not a big place and it only takes a short bit of time to see the foreshore or down town area. We have our lunch of lovely fresh oysters and head off to the Lincoln Park Nature Reserve; but something is not sitting well with Glen and we head back to the camp ground while he is still feeling well enough to driving. We'd both be dead if I suddenly had to drive this big bus on the wrong side of the road. No it wasn't the oysters, as he says he was feeling a bit off prior to lunch. Happily though an afternoon of sleeping and resting was all he needed to be feeling better. I had even dug out our travel insurance, just in case.

 

11 It is January 26 and more significantly - Australia Day! Our brief poll of Australians didn't really answer our question as to what they were celebrating, eg. Confederation, first settlement or what? Just a celebration of being Australia, I guess. Again, we are covering a lot of ground, but take time out to drive through the Coffin Bay Nature Reserve and are rewarded with some stunning beaches, crashing ocean surf, enormous sand dunes (basically the whole coast!) and rugged cliffs. We spotted and photographed an emu in the wild. They are funny creatures. The terrain they live in is scrubby brush about 5 feet tall and their heads are just tall enough to see over the tops, so we played a game of hide an seek to get our pics.  Back on the main road, about mid day, we pull off to look at Murray's Hay Stacks. Big freaking granite pillars and knobs, not rocks, because they attached to the huge rock plate below them. The rock is dated at 1500 million years old and the formations as they stand today are about 100,000 years old. A whole village of them clustered on a farmer's sheep field. Weird things are on this earth. Our final destination today is Ceduna, the gateway to the west.  A quick drive around this town and we have seen it all. No worries (Aussie lingo) we're here to rest for tomorrow's marathon drive.