Its another tantalising piece of road to Coral Bay which is still the great NW highway with a turnoff to Coral Bay. The roads are all sealed but the one to Coral Bay was a recent addition. Prior to that it was a dirt track and a 4WD domain which kept the Britz toaster brigade and anybody with 2WD out. Now it is relatively easy place to get to and a regular stop on the flashpacker trail. Now when we left Denham, Des and Annette took pity on us and gave us a Bill Bryson Audiobook..Downunder.
We are the only Britz van with a tape machine in the western desert and the Western Hemispere...sigh
We had listened to TBO Elton John which is great...the first 26 times...and then well Sad Songs becomes saddos and then we have to switch to ABC Western Australia radio which is a bit 'Good Morning Vietnam' a la Radio 210. Thats the local nonsense in Reading...and then there is James Lush who god bless his mum...sounds like Gary Davies...the king of nonces if ever there was from the heady days of Radio 1...well when you are about to renounce the Lion King and apply to the priesthood for a vow of silence...turn it over.
So we cut into Bill Bryson. Actually I think he is a brilliant writer in his genre and the stories about England, the pubs, the people. We pick up in Aussie and he beautifully describes Perth and then embellishes each stroy with facts, simple stuff. Lovely bit about the Stromatolites in Hamelin Pools where we had just been and a lovely bit about a trip to Alice Springs with his producer mate from the beeb involving good aussie hangovers and not opening puffy eyes for risk of bleeding to death!
Anyway a very good story which really tickled the van muppets:
'So this freind of his is having an extension done and his daughter was helping the builders. At the end of the week they give her a silver coin for helping them and the father takes her to the bank to open an account. The manager asks her if she enjoys working with the builders and she says yes. Then he asks her if the builders are likely to be on site next week and if she is going to be working and she says 'only if we get the fucking bricks!' boom boom. Well after a diet of EJ this was a breath of humour badly needed.
After all this we arrive in Coral Bay and it looks small, sandy and the home to Ningaloo Reef. There is lots of men gathered around another gutting table for the
catch of the day so fishing is all well and good and living in Coral Bay. The campsite is great and we wander to the Dive shop. We dive tomorrow on Ningaloo - inner reef.
From the shore you can see the reef fringes the whole bay and forms a sanctuary inside for the inner reef. The weather has been rubbish recently and diving on the outer reef, where the big fish live and probably the sharks, is a no go.
The reef stretches up to Exmouth in the north and Whale Sharks are here for 2 months and have just left..no worries.
The diving the next day is fabulous and then we snorkel in the bay in the afternoon which is a tad murky but the water is a beautiful temperature and there is coral and stuff to see. Fo comes snorkelling on the dive boat and probaly sees more life on the surface than we do below the surface. The coral is in great nick and there is plenty of life with sharks, rays and barracuda around. The next day we are doing the
'Manta Ray interactive experience' as the lingo goes.
We leave at 9 as usual and make for the place the spotter plane tells us the Mantas want to get 'interactive'. The visibility sucks and i think the pilot has been on the grog. We follow a couple of cold leads and then Emily, Dive Master and spotter girl, gets a hot lead and swims along behind the assailant with her arm directly in the air indicating visual contact. She was very fast considering she only had one arm and two fins to propell with and she signalled for us to enter the water. We followed the Manta for a long way but didn't interact too much as she was clearly late for a meeting on the other side of the reef and we were all in hot pursuit. They are truly beautiful animals and there will be other meetings! We knock off and head for a dive on the reef again. Very beautiful, lots of life and a great divemaster in Emily who can finally bring her arm down from above her head with some heavy physio.
Apart from the diving and the local fauna in the bayside cafe the town is deliciously small, the beach reaches all the way round the bay where you can always find a quiet spot to yourself and its generally paradise. Like the whole of the west coast at this time of year campsites are full, you cannot book ahead in most cases and everybody wants to be in the same place. It is set to grow although hopefully it won't lose the special atmosphere it has now. Besides that there is still very few resorts on the coast and heaps of coast. We have to leave, the toast is ready and we have only a couple of weeks to get to Broome...back on the highway again towards Karratha and Dampier, Fo's spiritual home!
Friday 20 July 2007
The North West Highway to Coral Bay
We leave Perth in our Moulinex Toaster (Britz Camper) looking forward to nights being serenaded by cicadas gazing lazily into the skies as thousands of shooting stars break over our heads as we barby the hind quarters of a mammal or two. You really do leave civilization very quickly and we were on the open road. Other campers showed their respect by a wave of the hand...we were in a huge club of toasters all cooking slices around the rim of Australia. Allegedly because of the season it is the only way to travel as hotels are full and there ain't nowhere else to stay...Hail the camper van nee 'galloping Gourmet' kitchen on wheels...no crustaceans will be safe in our neck of the woods..you will fry!!! Our first stop is Cervantes, crayfish capital of Western Australia (WA). It is now off season and the boats are pulled up onto the shore and the fisherman have all gone off to spend their wads up and down the coast. We check into the Pinnacles Camping Park. Standard issue in WA is a 'very large' 4Wdrive with 'roo-bars' on the front (preferably with a Rams horns mounted atop - a la 'Dukes of Hazard') towing a large camper...the Roo-bars are essential as we nearly took out two Joeys as we foolishly disregarded the advise about driving at dusk, and they are very big! Their carcases lie on the side of the road where other 'duskers' have come to grief. We cook ourselves spaghetti bolognese...when in Rome...and a charming fellow from the next camper along called Andrew drops in with some friendley advice and a bottle of Kinwarra for the Spag. Its delicious and the stars and planets, especially Venus, welcome us to Cervantes. The camper is split into two and one bed is made up of the seats and table, the other is a shelf perched above this table with a foot of room above it. I get the shelf....by dint of fact that i can actually climb up there and by getting into a particular position which would have made Houdini envious...remove my clothes and wriggle into my sleeping bag. If you want to get out in the night..forget it. In the dark you have to balance one foot on the sink and the other on the end of the seat/bed and lower yourself into the abyss...reversing the procedure for re-entry to shelfdom! Its the best nights sleep I've had for a while which must mean I have tendencies to Japanese hotels and karaoke...strange. Fo, being an insomniac is awake through the whole procedure reading 'Billabong Bills 50 easy to cook Emu/roadkill' recipes. We leave teh campsite and drop into the garage/deli/bakery/bait&tackle shop/family advise centre for breakfast. A terribly gay blade cooked us a slap-up and gave us some friendly advise about the best way to approach a pinnacle although i think we are on crossed conjugates at this point and we leave for the 'Pinnacles Desert'...which is full of pinnacles. Extraordinary large natural forms of re-cemented sandstone in a sea of sand dunes. They are dramatic and interesting and we both mount one for the benefits of a saucy photo! We leave knowing we have a long drive ahead to Sharks Bay and Denham...hoping its nothing like the one near Slough. We arrive just before roadkill'o'clock and check into a charming campsite on the bay run by whats left of Stalag 93 from '44. The bay is fabulous and we take an dusk walk along the esplanade into town. We have already enquired with Haupmansturer sheila in the camp shop and she rather charmingly assured us that no boats would take us to Dirk Hartog (DH) Island where Dampier landed in 1699. Strange really, the bay is full of boats and you can see DH island, surely some salty seadog would dump us there before going off to the slaughter that is the fishing charter business that is the mainstay of the fleet. On top of this there must be a hundred boats all parked around town all waiting to join in the fishing-fest nay daily marine slaughter! We talk to the first fishing boat 'Unreal' fish charters...well!!! Heath (not cliffe) agrees to take us and he is the friendliest seadog you could ever meet. Great we are set but not for a few days.
Still Denham has a wealth of things to do and we are going to do them all. First off snorkelling equipment and then to the beach. Snorkel for hours, nothing to see but the water is gorgeous...and what a sunset...this is definately not Slough!
Over the next few days we do the sights! We swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia, they are such perceptive animals and are very tame here, they are fed in the morning but not at any other times as they have a propensity to get lazy - then not go fishing for themselves or teach the little pups how to catch dinner. One pup this year has already died from starvation.
The following day we go to Whalebone and Shell beaches. Both beautiful places in this empty landscape where you are unlucky if you are not the only visitors. There is so much space and so much unspoilt coastline. The coast from Perth to Exmouth is 1800km -ish and then you have another 1000 or so km to Broome with only 6 or 7 small centres of population. Things are changing though and the area is in boomtime with the mines in the north desperate for workers and shortages of people all the way up the coast. Tourism is taking off but the only way to travel is in a camper and it really does feel like a frontier area with most of the roads having only recently been paved but they still flood if the rains come...which, rather surprisingly, they frequently do. This gives the whole area a carpet of light green and small flowers break out over the entire desert..thus the 'Flower State'
We also visit Eagle Bluff which is a meeting place for all kinds of Planktonics. Sharks, dugongs, turtles etc all come into the bay to feed and chat. The whole of Sharks bay is a marine reserve and covers some 24000km2 which is practically all carpeted in sea grass. The depth of the bay is sometimes only 4m and it traps the seawater in pockets. These pockets are distinct areas which have high salt concentrations becoming hypersaline. The species of animals that inhabit these hypersaline areas are thus distinct to these pockets and adapt specifically to the local conditions. Thus you find specialist animals which are found nowhere else on the coast or in the world. New species of animals are constantly being found in Sharks Bay and there is no sign that there is any shortage of new ones, just not enough scientists looking for them.
In the campsite there is a wealth of people and some fantastic characters and similar to the animals around here I imagine they are not found anywhere else in the world (except Earls Court obviously). They are colourful in their character, in their speech and stories and they are incredibly friendly, open, hospitable people who seem to enjoy every day for the 'hell of it'! I really like them. We have met Des and Annette, both psychologists (worrying) and they are great fun and a mine of information. They have the most gorgeous Labradoodle called Lizzie who is complete character and we want to steal her away and take her north. This is not practical.
Dirk Hartog Island is tomorrow and the anticiaption is killing Fo...more spaghetti then to quell this over excitement........
....as a descendant of William Dampier I am honoured to write this piece of the blog -our trip to Dirk Hartog Island where Will landed in 1699 on his commissioned 'voyage to New Holland'. He had thoughfully written the coordinates down in his navigators log and so we landed at exactly the same spot of the island - now known as Dampier's Landing. Luckily for us we had a travelling companion and explorer Leon Deschamps, local Denham lad and acute Dampier nut - there is nothing he doesn't know about Dampier, Dirk Hartog, turtles and aboriginal pursuits to name but a few subjects.
We were all fascinated - including Heath and Byron our friendly seadog brothers.
We swam ashore to behold the low dunes just as Dampier had descibed them and a paradisical beach skirted with beautiful aquamarine shallows. Dampier collected and recorded 24 species of flora from the west coast of Oz, many from this exact point and his specimens still exist today in the herbarium at Oxford University. So I set about emulating my life-long hero and attempted to identify and collect the same species Dampier had 300 years ago. It was not difficult - my first step onto shore and I could see cuttle fish 'shell's' all across the tide line stretching away to the east. Dampier is attributed with the discovery and naming of the cuttle fish in the annals of natural history as well as the avacado, an archipelago, Sharks Bay itself and the word 'barbeque' to name but a few. He was quite a bashful fellow and didn't feel the need to name his discoveries after himself - sometimes losing the kudos of discovery thereafter.
We trod carefully through the bush and came upon the commemorative plaque installed at the site where he was expected to have collected his samples on August 17th 1999 exactly 300 years after he first set foot. Sadly we were reminded of 21st century man here where a plastic clad windswept barbeque (would you believe) blew in shredded tatters across our horizon. Leon was positively embarrassed.
We made our own discovery while on the beach - a magnificent armpour-plated crab with golden hairy legs and claws - hopefully a new sub-species (also a Dampier word)to be attributed to a Dampier in 2007!
We sadly had to leave Dampiers Landing if we were to sail round to Turtle Bay another haunt of Wills, and poor Leon and Byron had the unenviable job of hauling aboard this super slim torso. Talking of humpbacked whales, one very courteously breached before us as we rounded Cape Inscription - this was turning into the BEST day. The steep red cliffs of Turtle Bay loomed in front of us and again a beautiful beach with an array of shells and plants , and a sad little loggerhead turtle cemetry half way up the cliff - their husks baked in the sun. Leon speculated they had been taken by seabirds for a turtle meat lunch - but I wondered if they weren't washed up there during a storm as there were so many in one place.
This was another magical backdrop of family (and world) history with still a few more in Western Oz to go - sayonara Sharks Bay - we will return.....
It is sad to leave Denham, the campsite full of 'Go West' characters but Coral Bay calls and we have to go via Carnarvon...Wales?? On the way to Wales we stop off at Hamelin Pool, an old Telegraph Station, famous in itself as a telegraph station but an older more important living thing lurks here (and not the knotty old relic who sold me a cornetto. Here, in ancient reefs off the beach, are to be found stromatolites, the first living things to inhabit our planet 3.5 billion years ago and they are still slowly going about their business now. Single celled animals which grow only 1cm a year in a, leaving their skeleton behind in the form of prehistoric and pre 'National Desigh Awards' totally random lumps which to the untrained eye may be an insignificant blob. Not so these animals give off small amounts of oxygen which then accumulated over 2 billion years to give us our primeval oxygen rich atmosphere...so in effect the 'big daddy' of us all! Magnificent.
We stay the night in Carnarvon and they arrange a firework display for us, the charm offensive goes on. Its a day of revelling and boozing and they have indulged. There are merry folk everywhere and lots of people swigging out of highly suspicious bottles of coke.
We set off north again after a coffee and egg and bacon not...McMuffin from a charming Coffee shop in Carnarvon. We set off sated for the Blow Holes just up the coast.
Its a great drive, the recent rain has bought all the flowers out in the desert and we skirt the McCleod Lake to Quobba, blow hole capital!! Another breathtaking piece of coastline with the most incredible jets of water shooting up to 50-100 feet in the air as a front drop to a coastal swell of titanic proportions crashing onto the coastline and breaking on the reefs which fringe the coast. We stop for a little
snorkel in the bay. The water is not so clear due to the swell I imagine but it is a great little bay full of conflicting currents from the inlets and surprisingly good life on the reef. A stop for a Blowhole experience with photos...next stop Coral Bay.
Still Denham has a wealth of things to do and we are going to do them all. First off snorkelling equipment and then to the beach. Snorkel for hours, nothing to see but the water is gorgeous...and what a sunset...this is definately not Slough!
Over the next few days we do the sights! We swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia, they are such perceptive animals and are very tame here, they are fed in the morning but not at any other times as they have a propensity to get lazy - then not go fishing for themselves or teach the little pups how to catch dinner. One pup this year has already died from starvation.
The following day we go to Whalebone and Shell beaches. Both beautiful places in this empty landscape where you are unlucky if you are not the only visitors. There is so much space and so much unspoilt coastline. The coast from Perth to Exmouth is 1800km -ish and then you have another 1000 or so km to Broome with only 6 or 7 small centres of population. Things are changing though and the area is in boomtime with the mines in the north desperate for workers and shortages of people all the way up the coast. Tourism is taking off but the only way to travel is in a camper and it really does feel like a frontier area with most of the roads having only recently been paved but they still flood if the rains come...which, rather surprisingly, they frequently do. This gives the whole area a carpet of light green and small flowers break out over the entire desert..thus the 'Flower State'
We also visit Eagle Bluff which is a meeting place for all kinds of Planktonics. Sharks, dugongs, turtles etc all come into the bay to feed and chat. The whole of Sharks bay is a marine reserve and covers some 24000km2 which is practically all carpeted in sea grass. The depth of the bay is sometimes only 4m and it traps the seawater in pockets. These pockets are distinct areas which have high salt concentrations becoming hypersaline. The species of animals that inhabit these hypersaline areas are thus distinct to these pockets and adapt specifically to the local conditions. Thus you find specialist animals which are found nowhere else on the coast or in the world. New species of animals are constantly being found in Sharks Bay and there is no sign that there is any shortage of new ones, just not enough scientists looking for them.
In the campsite there is a wealth of people and some fantastic characters and similar to the animals around here I imagine they are not found anywhere else in the world (except Earls Court obviously). They are colourful in their character, in their speech and stories and they are incredibly friendly, open, hospitable people who seem to enjoy every day for the 'hell of it'! I really like them. We have met Des and Annette, both psychologists (worrying) and they are great fun and a mine of information. They have the most gorgeous Labradoodle called Lizzie who is complete character and we want to steal her away and take her north. This is not practical.
Dirk Hartog Island is tomorrow and the anticiaption is killing Fo...more spaghetti then to quell this over excitement........
....as a descendant of William Dampier I am honoured to write this piece of the blog -our trip to Dirk Hartog Island where Will landed in 1699 on his commissioned 'voyage to New Holland'. He had thoughfully written the coordinates down in his navigators log and so we landed at exactly the same spot of the island - now known as Dampier's Landing. Luckily for us we had a travelling companion and explorer Leon Deschamps, local Denham lad and acute Dampier nut - there is nothing he doesn't know about Dampier, Dirk Hartog, turtles and aboriginal pursuits to name but a few subjects.
We were all fascinated - including Heath and Byron our friendly seadog brothers.
We swam ashore to behold the low dunes just as Dampier had descibed them and a paradisical beach skirted with beautiful aquamarine shallows. Dampier collected and recorded 24 species of flora from the west coast of Oz, many from this exact point and his specimens still exist today in the herbarium at Oxford University. So I set about emulating my life-long hero and attempted to identify and collect the same species Dampier had 300 years ago. It was not difficult - my first step onto shore and I could see cuttle fish 'shell's' all across the tide line stretching away to the east. Dampier is attributed with the discovery and naming of the cuttle fish in the annals of natural history as well as the avacado, an archipelago, Sharks Bay itself and the word 'barbeque' to name but a few. He was quite a bashful fellow and didn't feel the need to name his discoveries after himself - sometimes losing the kudos of discovery thereafter.
We trod carefully through the bush and came upon the commemorative plaque installed at the site where he was expected to have collected his samples on August 17th 1999 exactly 300 years after he first set foot. Sadly we were reminded of 21st century man here where a plastic clad windswept barbeque (would you believe) blew in shredded tatters across our horizon. Leon was positively embarrassed.
We made our own discovery while on the beach - a magnificent armpour-plated crab with golden hairy legs and claws - hopefully a new sub-species (also a Dampier word)to be attributed to a Dampier in 2007!
We sadly had to leave Dampiers Landing if we were to sail round to Turtle Bay another haunt of Wills, and poor Leon and Byron had the unenviable job of hauling aboard this super slim torso. Talking of humpbacked whales, one very courteously breached before us as we rounded Cape Inscription - this was turning into the BEST day. The steep red cliffs of Turtle Bay loomed in front of us and again a beautiful beach with an array of shells and plants , and a sad little loggerhead turtle cemetry half way up the cliff - their husks baked in the sun. Leon speculated they had been taken by seabirds for a turtle meat lunch - but I wondered if they weren't washed up there during a storm as there were so many in one place.
This was another magical backdrop of family (and world) history with still a few more in Western Oz to go - sayonara Sharks Bay - we will return.....
It is sad to leave Denham, the campsite full of 'Go West' characters but Coral Bay calls and we have to go via Carnarvon...Wales?? On the way to Wales we stop off at Hamelin Pool, an old Telegraph Station, famous in itself as a telegraph station but an older more important living thing lurks here (and not the knotty old relic who sold me a cornetto. Here, in ancient reefs off the beach, are to be found stromatolites, the first living things to inhabit our planet 3.5 billion years ago and they are still slowly going about their business now. Single celled animals which grow only 1cm a year in a, leaving their skeleton behind in the form of prehistoric and pre 'National Desigh Awards' totally random lumps which to the untrained eye may be an insignificant blob. Not so these animals give off small amounts of oxygen which then accumulated over 2 billion years to give us our primeval oxygen rich atmosphere...so in effect the 'big daddy' of us all! Magnificent.
We stay the night in Carnarvon and they arrange a firework display for us, the charm offensive goes on. Its a day of revelling and boozing and they have indulged. There are merry folk everywhere and lots of people swigging out of highly suspicious bottles of coke.
We set off north again after a coffee and egg and bacon not...McMuffin from a charming Coffee shop in Carnarvon. We set off sated for the Blow Holes just up the coast.
Its a great drive, the recent rain has bought all the flowers out in the desert and we skirt the McCleod Lake to Quobba, blow hole capital!! Another breathtaking piece of coastline with the most incredible jets of water shooting up to 50-100 feet in the air as a front drop to a coastal swell of titanic proportions crashing onto the coastline and breaking on the reefs which fringe the coast. We stop for a little
snorkel in the bay. The water is not so clear due to the swell I imagine but it is a great little bay full of conflicting currents from the inlets and surprisingly good life on the reef. A stop for a Blowhole experience with photos...next stop Coral Bay.
Thursday 12 July 2007
Adelaide to Perth - The Nullabur Plain
All aboard the Indian Pacific – came over the tannoy in Adelaide rail station. A wonderful locomotive with silver grey carriages freshly washed for the similarly grey nomadic passengers. We jumped into Red Kangaroo class, very middle of the range – and cheerily laughed when shown to our sleeper cabins, the same size as your kitchen table. Not much snoring room for two chunky virgo's!
Across the Nullabour we voyage with 3000kms to go gaping at the soon-to-be-familiar vision of blue-grey low lying shrubbery speckled onto a deep terracotta backdrop , the occasional tree, there when you go to sleep and there when you wake up 7 hours later. At least a feeling of consistency.
When you spend time in an enclosed space with strangers from all corners of the globe,whether it be on board a Chilean ferry or an Australian train you certainly get to know their characters and habits enough to write a book, no less! I enjoy people watching at the best of times and I enjoy more trying to guess creatively their lives and places of work, why are they travelling, who have they left behind? This journey was no exception and we had a glorious time spying on (and being ignored by) those wealthy types in up-market Gold class who had their beds turned down and a 5 course gourmet meal with a selection of superior wines , Australian only of course. (We had what suspiciously looked like British Rail sandwiches turning up at the corners due to the air miles!) They had probably made their money investing in the Gold mines of the southwest and had come on this trip to see how their investment was doing at the Superpit in Kalgoorlie where we stopped for a few hours one evening. Kalgoorlie is a fascinating mining town before, after and during the goldrush and we were lucky enough to have the most amusing tour guide who was hell bent on showing us among other buildings, the houses belonging to the local hookers and their red lights. Luckily for the ermine clad elite, gold mining is going through a huge BOOM! and the giant pit (largest opencast mine in the world) full of seemingly dinky toy trucks it was so deep, produces 1 tonne of gold per day!! 'No worries' as they say out here - none at all it would seam!( 'Scuse the pun)
Everybody in Red Kagaroo class became familiar with a family of four children all under 8 yrs with the most patient amazonian mother and the naughtiest 3 year old Oscar running up and down the corridors in the sleeping carriages giving us all a wake up call at 5.30 am. His brothers and sister invariably locked him out of their carriage for a bit of peace I imagine so he could scream and yell making sure nobody else had any, until he was let in. "Oh so your'e Oscar' each grey haired occupant would say when they emerged blearily from their undersized carriage. He will be quite a character one day. When we arrived I was happy to note mum and all four kids were greeted at Perth, by her equally amazonian sister and three cousins. What a school holiday this will be - I wonder how may Dads would have made the same trip across the Nullabor?
Arriving in Perth we had the fortune to meet up with kindly friends of Sheryl Campbell whom we had spent many an hour chatting to on the Navimag trip in Chile, and they gave us valuable guidance on places to visit and how not to be run over by kangaroos on manouvres while driving our camper through the bush as we proceeded up the west coast of Australia. Perth is a beautiful city , spacious and green with wide avenues and stunning scenery, capped by Kings Park overlooking the city and Swan river. Here we whiled away many an hour tramping about the 1000 acres of botannical beauty and gazing humbly at the memorials of those who gave their lives through Australian history. It is a serene place of reflection in a stunning position.
In Freemantle the victorian buildings of worth still stand preserved with reverence contrasting with the innovative modern architecture of the Western Australian Maritime Museum . Here I was fortunate enough to meet Dr Mick McCarthy, Curator, marine archaeologist and professed Dampier fan who dived onto the wreck of Dampiers leaky ship the Roebuck, where it sank in Acension Island. His team, within the first hour of the expedition, salvaged the ships bell and a giant clam from Williams shell collection that went down with the ship. Fascinating stuff! I have to thank Mac for all his encouragement and guidance towards my plans of hopefully contributing further to the profile raising of old Uncle Willliam. You never know, my dreams may yet to come to fruition!
Across the Nullabour we voyage with 3000kms to go gaping at the soon-to-be-familiar vision of blue-grey low lying shrubbery speckled onto a deep terracotta backdrop , the occasional tree, there when you go to sleep and there when you wake up 7 hours later. At least a feeling of consistency.
When you spend time in an enclosed space with strangers from all corners of the globe,whether it be on board a Chilean ferry or an Australian train you certainly get to know their characters and habits enough to write a book, no less! I enjoy people watching at the best of times and I enjoy more trying to guess creatively their lives and places of work, why are they travelling, who have they left behind? This journey was no exception and we had a glorious time spying on (and being ignored by) those wealthy types in up-market Gold class who had their beds turned down and a 5 course gourmet meal with a selection of superior wines , Australian only of course. (We had what suspiciously looked like British Rail sandwiches turning up at the corners due to the air miles!) They had probably made their money investing in the Gold mines of the southwest and had come on this trip to see how their investment was doing at the Superpit in Kalgoorlie where we stopped for a few hours one evening. Kalgoorlie is a fascinating mining town before, after and during the goldrush and we were lucky enough to have the most amusing tour guide who was hell bent on showing us among other buildings, the houses belonging to the local hookers and their red lights. Luckily for the ermine clad elite, gold mining is going through a huge BOOM! and the giant pit (largest opencast mine in the world) full of seemingly dinky toy trucks it was so deep, produces 1 tonne of gold per day!! 'No worries' as they say out here - none at all it would seam!( 'Scuse the pun)
Everybody in Red Kagaroo class became familiar with a family of four children all under 8 yrs with the most patient amazonian mother and the naughtiest 3 year old Oscar running up and down the corridors in the sleeping carriages giving us all a wake up call at 5.30 am. His brothers and sister invariably locked him out of their carriage for a bit of peace I imagine so he could scream and yell making sure nobody else had any, until he was let in. "Oh so your'e Oscar' each grey haired occupant would say when they emerged blearily from their undersized carriage. He will be quite a character one day. When we arrived I was happy to note mum and all four kids were greeted at Perth, by her equally amazonian sister and three cousins. What a school holiday this will be - I wonder how may Dads would have made the same trip across the Nullabor?
Arriving in Perth we had the fortune to meet up with kindly friends of Sheryl Campbell whom we had spent many an hour chatting to on the Navimag trip in Chile, and they gave us valuable guidance on places to visit and how not to be run over by kangaroos on manouvres while driving our camper through the bush as we proceeded up the west coast of Australia. Perth is a beautiful city , spacious and green with wide avenues and stunning scenery, capped by Kings Park overlooking the city and Swan river. Here we whiled away many an hour tramping about the 1000 acres of botannical beauty and gazing humbly at the memorials of those who gave their lives through Australian history. It is a serene place of reflection in a stunning position.
In Freemantle the victorian buildings of worth still stand preserved with reverence contrasting with the innovative modern architecture of the Western Australian Maritime Museum . Here I was fortunate enough to meet Dr Mick McCarthy, Curator, marine archaeologist and professed Dampier fan who dived onto the wreck of Dampiers leaky ship the Roebuck, where it sank in Acension Island. His team, within the first hour of the expedition, salvaged the ships bell and a giant clam from Williams shell collection that went down with the ship. Fascinating stuff! I have to thank Mac for all his encouragement and guidance towards my plans of hopefully contributing further to the profile raising of old Uncle Willliam. You never know, my dreams may yet to come to fruition!
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Melbourne to Adelaide
Leaving Sydney behind we head down Highway 1 on the first leg of our road trip round Australia. I am excited - the wind through my hair and another capacious hot chocolate in my tum we head for the hills - well the coast actually that lies between Sydney and Melbourne . The little corolla straining under the weight of our ever growing book collection we drive through plenty of eucalyptus forests not passing many cars at all which is, I am warned by the wise old fruit next to me, something I'd better get used to - oh,and its raining. No, I mean raining ,,,,hard. New South Wales and Victoria have been on desperate measures for 3 years without a single drop of rain and resevoirs at all time lows of 23% and the like - and all they had to do was invite a little known Dampier to stay and the whole place suddenly gets a lot more dampyer - hic!
Battling through the never ending forests of gum and the sound of it being rapaciously chewed in my ear by the now 18 months (and counting) non smoker we hole up in a pretty lagoonside town of Merimbula in a hotel motel with a peculiar sense of spatial design. The tumbleweed rolled past us down the deserted street as we attempt vainly to find a cafe, restaurant or front parlour open and warmly welcoming the disconsolate heroes with huge pies or roast of the day - and it was only 8pm. Eventually we had to 'knock up' a kindly Thai grandmother who was putting her bed socks on behind the CLOSED sign on the door and persuaded her to knock us up a quick chicken sate which we ate salaciously back 'home'.
Dawn broke behind a wall of water and leaving still fewer local smiling faces behind we set off towards Melbourne hoping to reach Bairnsdale for the next stop. We took a brave guess that this was not going to happen as we left New South Wales and progressed into Victoria....underwater. The bridge over the River Mitchell had been obscured by the torrent which had burst its banks -the road was closed. We were steered to stop overnight (but more likely 3 nights) at Lakes Entrance, the attractive tourist spot where several rivers converge into inland lakes that only a strip of land,the said township, and miles of stringy dunes,separates lake from ocean. This is where we should have used our combined MENSA score of 408 to work out that torrential rivers converge into lakes which overflow into...Lakes Entrance, and they did exactly that - into our motel car park overnight. So upon rising we were faced with the news that 3 lakes and four rivers were approaching from the rear and the full moon promised the highest tide of the year from the front - hmmn, time to leave. It became a humbling experience driving gingerly through little villages completely awash with river water, only the cross bar of the soccer goal visible above the swirling muddy soup and trees buried underwater almost to their tops. As we left the flood plains and climbed up towards melbourne the sheep in fields by the road gradually became whiter and cleaner - as they found higher ground.
We arrived in Melbourne to a very warm and fluffy welcome from Nicole and Julian, the highly fit and intelligent thirty somethings we had the pleasure to meet in El Calafate, Argentina on the Perito Merino Glacier. Would Mark manage a week of vegetarian fayre I wondered to myself as his face contorted at the sight of Lentil and Kidney Bean soup with extra pulses, vainly trying to pluck off the white hairs sticking to his black fleece, courtesy of Nic and Julians little princess, Chebbie. Seriously, we had a wonderful time slobbing out in their smart flat while they commuted to their highly important work places, interspersing huge cooked breakfasts with strenuous trips to art galleries and museums, Federation Square and the Luna Fun Park in St Kilda. Here our friendly Melbournians decided to pay me back for my slovenly ways by frightening me out of my pants on the oldest roller coaster on the planet seemingly made of balsa wood and old chewing gum and having a remarkable propencity to sway in time with the gusts of wind and rain. Thanks guys..... The other highlight of our stay was the nail biter game of rugger at the amazing MCG stadium between the All Blacks and the Wallabies - Mark knew, of course , the Aussies would win and they did - don't they always win everything??!
With a short 50 minute hop to Adelaide by air and our white fur covered luggage in tow, we arrived to be met by another old KJC school friend Jeremy Goldfinger, who seemingly has struck gold in his garden or won a bundle on Canasta in the Casino Royale in Monte Carlo! The lovely Vicky, a woman of the greatest patience, sweet Laura and vivacious Matt in his wedding dress greeted us at wind and rain swept Goldeneye Castle making us very comfortable and replete, and helped us watch Wimbledon late into the night. The following day we ventured together down to the coast to tiny seaside village of Sellecks where Gold-Bond has a beach house to see how it had faired after the storm and heigh ho, how small this world is, Trents parents live down the street behind! So a merry meeting was had by all where old friends met new and hopefully last as long as Goldenpants run of luck at the Casino!
With sage words of advice about investments and MI5 Jeremy dropped us at the Adelaide train station for the next leg of the trip boarding the Indian Pacific sleeper train to cross the Nullabur Plain to Perth. Grey nomads brigade - we were searching for our bus passes before we realised we still have fourteen years to go - and 3000kms - you just get carried away with the ambience of it all!
Battling through the never ending forests of gum and the sound of it being rapaciously chewed in my ear by the now 18 months (and counting) non smoker we hole up in a pretty lagoonside town of Merimbula in a hotel motel with a peculiar sense of spatial design. The tumbleweed rolled past us down the deserted street as we attempt vainly to find a cafe, restaurant or front parlour open and warmly welcoming the disconsolate heroes with huge pies or roast of the day - and it was only 8pm. Eventually we had to 'knock up' a kindly Thai grandmother who was putting her bed socks on behind the CLOSED sign on the door and persuaded her to knock us up a quick chicken sate which we ate salaciously back 'home'.
Dawn broke behind a wall of water and leaving still fewer local smiling faces behind we set off towards Melbourne hoping to reach Bairnsdale for the next stop. We took a brave guess that this was not going to happen as we left New South Wales and progressed into Victoria....underwater. The bridge over the River Mitchell had been obscured by the torrent which had burst its banks -the road was closed. We were steered to stop overnight (but more likely 3 nights) at Lakes Entrance, the attractive tourist spot where several rivers converge into inland lakes that only a strip of land,the said township, and miles of stringy dunes,separates lake from ocean. This is where we should have used our combined MENSA score of 408 to work out that torrential rivers converge into lakes which overflow into...Lakes Entrance, and they did exactly that - into our motel car park overnight. So upon rising we were faced with the news that 3 lakes and four rivers were approaching from the rear and the full moon promised the highest tide of the year from the front - hmmn, time to leave. It became a humbling experience driving gingerly through little villages completely awash with river water, only the cross bar of the soccer goal visible above the swirling muddy soup and trees buried underwater almost to their tops. As we left the flood plains and climbed up towards melbourne the sheep in fields by the road gradually became whiter and cleaner - as they found higher ground.
We arrived in Melbourne to a very warm and fluffy welcome from Nicole and Julian, the highly fit and intelligent thirty somethings we had the pleasure to meet in El Calafate, Argentina on the Perito Merino Glacier. Would Mark manage a week of vegetarian fayre I wondered to myself as his face contorted at the sight of Lentil and Kidney Bean soup with extra pulses, vainly trying to pluck off the white hairs sticking to his black fleece, courtesy of Nic and Julians little princess, Chebbie. Seriously, we had a wonderful time slobbing out in their smart flat while they commuted to their highly important work places, interspersing huge cooked breakfasts with strenuous trips to art galleries and museums, Federation Square and the Luna Fun Park in St Kilda. Here our friendly Melbournians decided to pay me back for my slovenly ways by frightening me out of my pants on the oldest roller coaster on the planet seemingly made of balsa wood and old chewing gum and having a remarkable propencity to sway in time with the gusts of wind and rain. Thanks guys..... The other highlight of our stay was the nail biter game of rugger at the amazing MCG stadium between the All Blacks and the Wallabies - Mark knew, of course , the Aussies would win and they did - don't they always win everything??!
With a short 50 minute hop to Adelaide by air and our white fur covered luggage in tow, we arrived to be met by another old KJC school friend Jeremy Goldfinger, who seemingly has struck gold in his garden or won a bundle on Canasta in the Casino Royale in Monte Carlo! The lovely Vicky, a woman of the greatest patience, sweet Laura and vivacious Matt in his wedding dress greeted us at wind and rain swept Goldeneye Castle making us very comfortable and replete, and helped us watch Wimbledon late into the night. The following day we ventured together down to the coast to tiny seaside village of Sellecks where Gold-Bond has a beach house to see how it had faired after the storm and heigh ho, how small this world is, Trents parents live down the street behind! So a merry meeting was had by all where old friends met new and hopefully last as long as Goldenpants run of luck at the Casino!
With sage words of advice about investments and MI5 Jeremy dropped us at the Adelaide train station for the next leg of the trip boarding the Indian Pacific sleeper train to cross the Nullabur Plain to Perth. Grey nomads brigade - we were searching for our bus passes before we realised we still have fourteen years to go - and 3000kms - you just get carried away with the ambience of it all!
Monday 9 July 2007
Aussie, Sydney
We left New Zealand on a very, very large jet and the flight was rather cool with a great new comedy on the streets called 'Wild Hogs'. John Travolta is even funnier than when he was packing a pair of pop socks in his spandex pipes in SNF. Its a great Mid-life crisis spoof with Home Improvement man 'Tim' and lots of Harleys.
We arrive in Sydney and it looks even bigger from the air than i remember, still gorgeous after all these years. We pick up a compact and make for Bondi beach, it's only 5pm and a sundowner would be fabbo on the beach with a view of the ocean.
They have really cleaned Bondi up and there are walkers, joggers and gentlefolk everywhere. Sundowner and then off to Nick and Nickys in Clovelly. Great to see N&N again and Alice has shot up and is gorgeous 14's.
Next day is to Manley at dawn to meet Trent and pick up the keys to his flat. Manley is still the most beautiful place with the fir trees round the bay and the esplanande full of joggers and cyclists. Trent is looking good and we get to chat before he is off to Melbourne. Down to the Steyne Cafe for breakie...memories are made of this.
Spend the day in Manley and then back to Randwick. We take a walk with Nicky and Lucy - the Labadoodledandy - to Bronte and Coogee beach. Surf is totally up and the surfers are giving it their all in 8 - 10m waves. Back to Cafe city in Coogee and a gorgeous lunch - for Lucy too as she cleans up the pizza crusts littering the pavement. Sydney is awash with Cafes, restaurants and people eat out here..and who can blame them when you sre surrounded by sea air and blue sky...ad this is mid winter.
Saturday we get down to Bronte fo breakie and then get our swim gear and get down to the sea-water pool where Nicky get washed around like a washing machine while swimming and Nick and i do a teenage thing and Rail-Jump at the edge of the pool with the waves crashing over the top...its sensational!!!
Fo does lots of work for the book by visiting the museum in town where there is tons of stuff from the buccaneering past. There is also two replica boats in the harbour....Endeavour and The Bounty and they look so small!!! How did they survive with so little room and so many people on board??
Well to cap it all, unbelievably, the Opera House is showing the Barber of Seville, bit of favorite Opera and we get tickets. The Opera House is really something and to arrive for a large show in the main auditorium with the Chatterati of Sydney (not discussing butter) is top potato. This is the opening night and the Auditorium is full, the actors are already on stage lolling and chatting waiting forthe gun. The set is sumptuous and Gaudi-esque with great curvaceous features, rich colours complimented with lush costumes for the actors. The whole show is delicious, Rosina sings like a lark, the story holds, the singing tight with beautiful nuances in the acting. Alice whispers to Nicky at half time 'don't ever bring me to the Opera again' but i think she enjoyed the second half which has much stronger sections. I remember seeing 'La Clemenza de Tito' - Mozart and feeling exactly the same as Alice...It was more mindnumbing than watching the England Footie team...sorry Amadeus, that is harsh...England football makes Jonathan Ross look interesting!!! Pah, anyway my highlight of the trip so far...sorry Machu Picchu, more songs, dance and light hearted orchestration to tickle the fancy.
There is a small bar on the level behind the auditoriim where you have the half time drinks...the view over the habour is beautiful and the bridge is lit up in the left corner, the whole harbour and bays lit up to the right and i think you can see the fair on the north bank with the Ferris wheel standing out like a catherine wheel...although the view of the NCP car park behind the Hexagon in Reading still resonates!!!
We leave Sydney omorrow but this will stay in the memory for a long time. Ta ta Sydney....
We arrive in Sydney and it looks even bigger from the air than i remember, still gorgeous after all these years. We pick up a compact and make for Bondi beach, it's only 5pm and a sundowner would be fabbo on the beach with a view of the ocean.
They have really cleaned Bondi up and there are walkers, joggers and gentlefolk everywhere. Sundowner and then off to Nick and Nickys in Clovelly. Great to see N&N again and Alice has shot up and is gorgeous 14's.
Next day is to Manley at dawn to meet Trent and pick up the keys to his flat. Manley is still the most beautiful place with the fir trees round the bay and the esplanande full of joggers and cyclists. Trent is looking good and we get to chat before he is off to Melbourne. Down to the Steyne Cafe for breakie...memories are made of this.
Spend the day in Manley and then back to Randwick. We take a walk with Nicky and Lucy - the Labadoodledandy - to Bronte and Coogee beach. Surf is totally up and the surfers are giving it their all in 8 - 10m waves. Back to Cafe city in Coogee and a gorgeous lunch - for Lucy too as she cleans up the pizza crusts littering the pavement. Sydney is awash with Cafes, restaurants and people eat out here..and who can blame them when you sre surrounded by sea air and blue sky...ad this is mid winter.
Saturday we get down to Bronte fo breakie and then get our swim gear and get down to the sea-water pool where Nicky get washed around like a washing machine while swimming and Nick and i do a teenage thing and Rail-Jump at the edge of the pool with the waves crashing over the top...its sensational!!!
Fo does lots of work for the book by visiting the museum in town where there is tons of stuff from the buccaneering past. There is also two replica boats in the harbour....Endeavour and The Bounty and they look so small!!! How did they survive with so little room and so many people on board??
Well to cap it all, unbelievably, the Opera House is showing the Barber of Seville, bit of favorite Opera and we get tickets. The Opera House is really something and to arrive for a large show in the main auditorium with the Chatterati of Sydney (not discussing butter) is top potato. This is the opening night and the Auditorium is full, the actors are already on stage lolling and chatting waiting forthe gun. The set is sumptuous and Gaudi-esque with great curvaceous features, rich colours complimented with lush costumes for the actors. The whole show is delicious, Rosina sings like a lark, the story holds, the singing tight with beautiful nuances in the acting. Alice whispers to Nicky at half time 'don't ever bring me to the Opera again' but i think she enjoyed the second half which has much stronger sections. I remember seeing 'La Clemenza de Tito' - Mozart and feeling exactly the same as Alice...It was more mindnumbing than watching the England Footie team...sorry Amadeus, that is harsh...England football makes Jonathan Ross look interesting!!! Pah, anyway my highlight of the trip so far...sorry Machu Picchu, more songs, dance and light hearted orchestration to tickle the fancy.
There is a small bar on the level behind the auditoriim where you have the half time drinks...the view over the habour is beautiful and the bridge is lit up in the left corner, the whole harbour and bays lit up to the right and i think you can see the fair on the north bank with the Ferris wheel standing out like a catherine wheel...although the view of the NCP car park behind the Hexagon in Reading still resonates!!!
We leave Sydney omorrow but this will stay in the memory for a long time. Ta ta Sydney....
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