Tuesday 30th January

Lee -

Hi all just got back to Kalbarri, its on route back to Perth and it’s so nice we thought we’d stop here again, covered over 650klm’s today so bit bushed! lol.

I’m never gonna say the A12 or A14 is boring again, these roads are just sooo striaght for sooo long it funny cause you can see the horizon ie the crest of a hill and every time we think gonna be something over that hill, but no another stretch of road as far as your eys can see, the only thing that keeps us paying attention is the occasional wildlife, ie this morning we was doing the usaul 100kmph (66mph ish) and had a large emu sprint accross the road in front of us, this was very close as one wheel locked up at one point, nearly another huge lump for the side of the road.

Also the other day on our way up to Coral beach, we noticed a road train gaining on us which is strange as again we were doing 100 kph, he only over took me, all three trailers of him. When these pass us in the other direction they create a huge wall of air which is quite dawnting (video to follow soon)

Today on route back down we had one pass us and the wind gust bust two of the brackets holding down the roof of the campervan there you have it! us travelling at 100 k with the pop top popped! lol,

anyway hazzards on, pulled over and checked the damage, luckily the mounts were held on by self tapping screws ’sweet i thought!’ wrong… no tools, so after ten minutes trying to screw them with a knife and a bottle open we thought we’d stop a car, the fist youte we stopped had all the tools required so i fixed the roof in ten mins, these people we stopped were on their way to work which was to check the water levels in the rivers??? ok we thought maybe they were running late helping tourists or somthing, see picture of river

  

well i must say i’m loving all this nature i’m seeing even if some of it scares the beejeezers out of me,

The other day i was doing a stint of driving when on the horizon we noticed another road kill type shape appearing in view, when it got closer it looked more unusual then ‘WTF’ it was a massive fresh dead red roo, red roos being the biggest, but perched ontop was the biggest eagle i have ever seen it didnt even flinch when we drove passed it just look at us as if “Impessive hey”, i know i keep emphasising the size of every thing here but i must admit for a minute i thought maybe the roo wasn”t road kill? LOL.

here is some pictures and vid (hopefully) of the road trip=     

Monday 29th January

Liz -

We’re still at Coral Bay, I’m afraid no pictures until we move on.  I’ll tell you what we’ve been up too….

We stayed at Monkey Mia for two nights which is within the World Heritage site known as Shark Bay though thankfully it’s not called Shark Bay because of the Sharks although they are present in the shores.  Monkey Mia isn’t a town but a holiday resort that grew popular back in the 1960’s when the visiting dolphins began to regularly visit the bay.  Twelve members of the same family still visit the bay daily and five of which accept food from the rangers.  Within the school of dolphins were three calves one of which was only two weeks old and was adorable.  We were lucky to see the calves as the mothers only have calves once in every four years.  So as to not interfere with their hunting and socialising skills, the rangers only feed them small amounts and are careful not to touch them.  At feeding time they came within just metres of where we were standing and I got to hand feed one of them.  This wasn’t our first encounter with the bottlenose dolphins as we saw them playfully jumping out of the water in the horizon on the afternoon we first stepped on the beach.  We were also just as pleased to see a large turtle swim up close to the shore and poke his head out of the water before disappearing again. 

Later that day Lee and I ventured over to the communial BBQ to cook our burgers we spotted two emus strolling through the park.  As were were sitting there munching on our food, the two emu’s confidentally strolled over eye balling lee’s burger.  It was a battle of the wills for a while which ended in Lee and I grabbing our food and bottle of beer and running to hide in our camper-van, much of the amusement of the other campers!  The emu’s continued to eye ball us eating through the windews but eventually gave up.

The following night was spent further up the coast in a town called Carnarvon.  The holiday brochure claims the town will provide a wonderful holiday experience.  The only highlight we encountered was walking the rickety 100 year old 1 mile jetty and being accompanied back by four manta rays swimming beside us.  Lee was particularly excited at seeing them.    Although we arrived at the town on a Saturday afternoon, it was like a ghost town.  The only places open were the caravan park, the supermarket, the cop shop and the bottle shop.  Needless to say we stayed just one night before moving on to the lovely town of Coral Bay.

Coral Bay is at the southern gateway to the Nigaloo Marine Park and has absolutely gorgeous beaches and a Coral Bay.  We didn’t expect to see beaches like these in Australia.  They’re the sort of beaches you’d expect to see in the Caribbean or the Maldives.  Lee hired snorkel gear this afternoon whilst I preferred to get some shade and read my book.

Tomorrow morning we are getting an early start to start travelling back down the coast to Perth.  This should give us two days with the van in Perth so we can drive round the city suberbs to do our reccie and see where we could afford to live.

p.s. Matty – we knew they were galas really, we were just checking your’e paying attention!  ten out of ten

Sunday 28th January

Again sorry guys but we are in a place called Coral Bay and we’ve found the only cafe that offers internet but it’s on dial up!  We’ll try again on our next stop off and add some cool pictures too.  Apologies again.

This is a link to Coral bays website=  http://www.coralbay.org/

Wednesday 24th January 07

We’re  still working our way up the coast.  Each day we try to make good progress but only manage a couple of hours driving because they’re are so many nice places to stop off.  We’ve had the camper-van for 6 days now but looking at the map, we’ve hardly scratched the surface of the west coast.  Unfortunately we are not going to be able to get to Broome as planned.  We’ve been advised by a number of people that it is still the wet season up there and the rain comes down so heavy that the roads are not passable for weeks.  It’s also uncomfortably humid.  Our new destination is Exmouth and then we’ll turn the van round and travel either back down the coast or inland and will get a chance to stop off in the places we didn’t see on the way up.  Fortunately the camper-van company are quite flexible so we can keep the van a bit longer if we want a bit of extra time. 

We’ve been staying in a lovely sleepy town called Kalbarri which reminds us of a town called Olu Deniz in Turkey.   Lee and I entered the town at the top of the hill and we’re just bowled over.  We stopped right there on a little viewing point and took some pictures.  We found a campsite easily and got the best pitch going.  Our little van has an ocean front view right next to the bbq.  Funnily enough a couple we’ve seen twice on our travels, turned up with their van a bit later and parked it on the pitch right next to ours. About five o’clock the local pink and grey cockatoos come flying in by the dozens and sit right on the grass next to us. 

This is the link to Kalbarri’s website = http://www.kalbarriwa.info/ 

This morning we got up very early and went on an canoeing trip up the river.  I personally didn’t find it easy and I reckon my arms and shoulders will ache tomorrow.  We’re moving on again tomorrow to a new destination.  Most evenings we get out the map and the brochures we’ve collected, and pin point where we want to go and places we want to stop off at on the way there.  We’ve got into a nice little routine!  We always stop for our morning cup of tea and then stop again for some lunch.  We’ll get the fold out chairs out the back and pop the roof of the camper and always manage to do this at the best possible spot.  The West Coast is blessed with about 8 hours of sunshine every day.  Lee and I will make the effort each evening to take a walk and watch the sunset, often with beer in hand! These sights and sunsets are something we’ll never get bored of.

Lee still hasn’t had the opportunity to do his dune surfing yet but we hope to have a go on the way back down the coast. 

We’ve been really excited to read everyone’s comments.  It’s so nice to know that you’re following our journey.  Many thanks for all your well wishes.

Have a look at our new pictures!  More coming soon, sorry for the delay but we’ve been having problems with our camera and been experiencing slow p.c’s/Internet connections.

Lots of love Liz and Lee

Pictures Road trip

Here’s some piccies for you…   

     

     

Sunday 21st January 07

Liz -

We picked up the camper van on Friday and once we filled up the fridge full of food and drink, we set off on our road trip up the West Coast. With no plans made for the trip we drove a few hours out of Perth and found a lovely little seaside town called Guilderton. Unfortunately the campsite was full but we managed to find another in a town called Ginn Ginn. Our first meal in the camper-van was hot-dogs and salad and only one beer between us! You see out here the supermarkets don’t sell alcohol so you have to go to a liquor store which we overlooked. I’ve never savoured a beer so much in my live! Our first night wasn’t so pleasurable. The days may be hot here but it gets quite cool at night and on this particular evening it was uncomfortably cold. I slept fully clothed. I also woke to hear a dog growling next to the van, at what I wonder? Anyway, Lee was very excited to awake to the sound of a Kooka-Burra as that to him was realisation that we really were in Australia.

Lee -

Next day we drove to another seaside town called Lancelin and this one had a pulse big time. It possesses the biggest sand dunes you ever did see and the locals are complete nutters as they beef up v8 jeeps with phat tyres and race over them. We were gonna book a trip were we would be passengers on a converted school bus just like the yellow American type, but this one has monster truck tyres on. Unfortunately it was booked so we plan to crash in there on the way back. One thing I’ve noticed about these different towns is that they all seem to revolve around different types of activities. Scarborough was big on kite surfing and wind surfing, Guilderton was set up for kayaking up the river, Lancelin was dune surfing and dune racing and where we are now which is Cervantes, they’re into deep sea fishing especially lobster and cray fish which we’re still to try. Also at Cervantes, is a pukka tourist spot, the Pinnacles Dessert which we viewed by sunset last night. On our way there, I almost totalled the camper-van cause a 5ft kangaroo decided to cross the road whist I was driving up it. It was a scary moment. Lizzy is getting into the swing of the camper-van, she’s helping me with the driving which is good cause these roads are dead straight and can go on for miles and miles.

Tuesday 16th January 07

Liz - 

Yesterday we visited Perth city again.  We visited Westpac Bank to set up our Australian Bank Account which confirmed our funds had been sucessfully transferred from the UK – phew!  We should receive our debit cards in a week or so which will make things a bit easier.  We also visited the Medicare offices to register ourselves.  As UK migrants we’re entitled to free healthcare, similar to the National Health Service at home.  We had a relaxed browse round the many faboulous shops did a bit of touristy stuff.  Hey Jo, if you’re reading this, I buckled to my whim and bought myself some pink hair straighteners and a hair dryer.   The frizzy hair was just too much!  LOL.  Both items only came to 27 English pounds (result).  I also got myself a summer beach dress for about 5 pounds.  

Over the last few days we’ve been hanging out with some lovely girls from Coventry.  They’ve moved on now but we’ve kept hold of their numbers as one of the girls invited us to stay at her Aunties house whilst her Aunty and family are away.   We’re not sure what our plans are yet though.

As a beach town, Scarborough has a pretty limited night life so we’ve been getting takeaways and beers in where possible and hanging out back at the hostel for now.  Our room has a veranda with a sea view so it’s nice to sit out of an evening and playing cards.

We’ve been at the beach again today which is a lot quieter in the week.  It’s very true that the Aussies make the most of the outdoor life.  The wind has been up today so a lot of blokes came down to the beach after work to windsurf and kitsurf.  This place couldn’t be more far attached from the UK at times.  We took a walk down to a bar earlier to see what time it opens tonight but they only bother opening four days a week.  They are soooo laid back. 

Tonight we’re catching the bus up to Wanaloo, that really is it’s name, to find somewhere to eat as the restaurants at this town are quite limited too.   Bye for now…

Lee -

Been good day today we have finally booked the camper van (sweet), unfortunatly its not the classic vw split screen I wanted but we need the a/c man!  Tts gonna be a mercedes deisel with a pop top, which seems ok, we pick it up on friday and plan to trundle from Perth up the west coast to Broome or maybe further? We’ve been told it gets  hotter the further up the coast you go…cant wait we hope to post some pics and vids of that little trip, keep you posted.

Whilst writing this the news is on and there is a big debate on the fact that Aussies are being ripped off on the price of fuel, (sounds familular) however the fuel is only $1.15 per ltr bere in mind its 2.5$ to our gb pound…lol

When I say its been a good day today I mean I’ve had some good luck! A seagull done a lowlevel driveby over my face and SHAT right on my left cheek! lol.

Anyways I jumped in the sea afterwards to clean up and had to learn a thing or two on this thing called THE RIP! The rip is the current that pulls the raisons out to sea (thought I’d treat you to a pun), trick is to swim sideways rather than your natural instinct to swim back in.

Good to know people are checking the blog, it makes it worthwhile and thanks for the comments.  Laters

Pictures so far

Lizzy on Scarborough Beach

Both on Scarborough Beach

 

Lee at Hostel enjoying take away!

More sunbathing

Guilderton Beach Front

Arrived in Perth

Wow this place is amazing!  
Perth is everything we dreamed it would be and more.  We spent our first night in one of the city’s backpackers which wasn’t planned as we - arrived in the middle of the night (don’t ask!)  Luckily there was someone manning the desk at 3.00am and let us have a room for the night.  We slept through till 3.30pm the following day.   The youth hostels have certainly been quite an eye opener and will take a bit of time to get used to them.   We had a quick glimpse of Perth city and first appearances were good.  It’s very cosmopolitan, young, clean, un-congested and surprisingly slow paced.  We tried out the trains and buses that operate to take us to our new destination which is Scarborough
Beach.  The locals boast it’s one of the best beaches in Western Australia.  We have been at the beach all day relaxing, reading listening to music and checking out the talent!  hee hee we can look can’t we?  The beach stretches for miles and is full with hundreds of young australians and visitors enjoying the hot weather.  I was so certain I’d be careful with the sun but hey-ho Lizzy got herself sunburnt. We’re heading off out for a meal tonight and some celebratory drinks since we haven’t had any since we got here.  The guys here in the hostel didn’t stop their drinking till 6am this morning so we thought if we can’t beat em we may as well join em!  Liz