Another Road Trip?! You know it!

I know I’m posting rapid fire today but I figured it was better than doing just one and having it be the longest post ever.  I had two full days on the train with no reading material so I had plenty of time on my hands to regale you with tales from our most recent travels.  Alex got a new IT book that he can’t stop reading (I’m proud of him for doing something constructive while we’re here, but seriously, I don’t think I could handle hearing one more ‘interesting’ fact about subnetworking) and there’s only so many hands of cards we can play (esp. since Alex is an ungracious winner, to put it nicely, and lately it seems like he always wins) so I was able to get caught up on everything.

After Perth, we still had ten days to kill before Mr. & Mrs. Styche arrived for their visit so, rather than go back east, we decided to rent a campervan and head up the west coast.  It was a spur of the moment decision we made after hearing yet another rave review about Ningaloo Marine Park.  We knew we probably wouldn’t make it back over to Western Australia so we figured we’d better check it out while we were here.

Our campervan rental was actually a campervan this time and it was quite spacious.  It was a little bit harder to drive (and, shockingly, Alex actually let me drive a bit this trip) but at night it was great not to be smushed into the back of a cramped truck.  Here’s Alex, caught snacking before dinner, in our accommodations for the week.

 

We’d read several west coast itineraries so we had a fairly good idea of everything we wanted to see on our road trip.  Our first stop was Kalbarri National Park, where we planned to check out a rock formation they call ‘nature’s window’ but first we made our way along the coastal cliffs, which were quite scenic.

The flies were insane, there were so many and they all seemed to hover around our face, so we made a hasty stop along the coast before cruising through town on our way to the national park.  Nothing we’d read mentioned anything about the actual town so we were surprised at how idyllic it was.  This is the view across from main street in downtown. 

When we got out to the national park we were surprised to learn that the road to everything we’d come to see was an unpaved dirt track, not unlike the one we barely survived on our way to Kings Canyon.  Now I promised you last time we took a road trip that we weren’t going off roading anymore and you’ll be proud to know that we did not.  Seriously, we took our 100+ km detour in stride and kept on driving!

Shell Beach was next up, though it was quite a bit farther north so we didn’t make it there until the following afternoon.  It looks like just another gorgeous Australian beach but the entire beach is made up of small shells not sand.  It was very cool (though not so nice to walk on).

 

From there we continued on to Monkey Mia in Shark Bay.  Shark Bay and Monkey Mia are deceptively named since we didn’t see sharks or monkeys and the place is home to a dolphin resort.  And it was awesome!  We got there just before sunset and ran down to the beach with a bottle of wine to unwind from our two non-stop days of driving (well, riding mostly for me but you know what I mean). 

While we were sitting off, I spotted these wild dolphins swimming around the harbor just off the beach.

The next morning we got up to experience the dolphins first hand.  Every day, the resort (I say resort but it was more like a campground with a pool and a few cabins) has several wild dolphin feedings and you can go into the water and they swim right up to you (though, like a strip club, no touching is allowed). 

They know all the dolphins by the marks on their fins and they feed them each a specifically limited amount of fish to ensure they still hunt naturally. 

 

 

The dolphins seem to be as keen on this ritual as all the people who flock to the beach everyday to participate.

After enjoying our time with the dolphins, we got back in the car and continued on to Coral Bay, in the Ningaloo Marine Park.  We drove north for a few hours before turning off and spending another hour on a narrow paved road, in what looked like the middle of the desert, then we went over a hill and boom, there it was.  The town was small, consisting of only a beach, two campgrounds, one small resort and an even smaller shopping center; it was immediately clear what the main attraction was.  Our campground was right across the road from the beach so, excited to finally have reached our destination, we went there straightaway and were amazed by how clear the water was.

What makes Ningaloo so special is that you can just walk into the water from the beach with a mask and snorkel and see gorgeous fields of coral.  The color was more muted than the Great Barrier Reef but the coral was much, much larger and more intact.  The water was cold and we got there too late to rent equipment so we decided to go on a kayak/snorkel tour out to the edge of the coral reef the next morning.

Our guide, Corey, was cool and he led us, along with two other couples, on our outing. 

Visibility was 40 meters so it was like being in a giant fish bowl and we saw colorful fish, a reef shark and a cute turtle.  (These are stock photos of Ningaloo from the disc we bought, but they capture what it looked like and what we saw.  Did you notice the shark in the first photo?  Once I figure out how to turn GoPro video into a still photo - which our guide assured me was possible - I'll put up a few more photos from our snorkel).

My favorite part was just the vastness of the coral.  In the GBR, you have bommies of coral sprouting out of the sand that you can swim around and, in some places there are a bunch of them together, but here the ocean floor was just covered in coral, everywhere you looked, for a depth of three to five meters in some places.  The stag horn coral was massive compared to anything we’d seen on the east coast and they had these big pieces of coral that looked like lettuce that grew to more than six feet in diameter.

After our tour, we had a quick lunch then jumped back in the water to see more coral.  We were like little kids swimming around pointing things out to each other excitedly.  I saw a black tip reef shark but it swam off into the distance before I could swim over to Alex to get his attention.  We’d been out there nearly an hour, drifting with the current back to the beach, when Alex pointed out that we had one zebra fish that had been following us the whole time.  I’m not sure what the little guy expected from us but he tailed us the entire way to the other end of the beach until we got out of the water.

The next morning we went out one last time before we had to get in the campervan for the drive back to Perth.  We stayed out there until we were shivering and I couldn’t take it anymore; both of us sad to have to leave such a wonderous place. 

On our way back we passed over this massive, dry riverbed.  It was totally dry on our way up so it must have rained a bit while we were in Coral Bay.  (I will add that this is what most riverbeds looked like in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.)

 

I’ve mentioned road trains in the past and WA was no exception.  Except this time we passed the biggest road train we’d ever seen, it took up both lanes and had its own police escort!

Another sight I am excited to share with you is the famous horizontal trees in Greenlough.   The constant strong southerly winds ‘burn off’ the growth on one side and the weak trunk is unable to support the tree so they tip over and then continue growing sideways.  All the trees in the area had a distinct lean, though only the gum trees appeared to actually tip over and grow horizontally. 

Our trip was wearing on at this point and Alex had had enough (maybe if he’d have shared the driving more evenly – I drove 2 km, literally just 2 km, that day – he wouldn’t have been so cranky).  As you can see here, by this point he was less than impressed with me asking him to stop so I could take photos.

After stopping at our favorite local wineries along the way to pick up a few bottles, we spent our last night in the campervan in Swan Valley.  It was a good end to another good trip and we made it back to Perth safely the following afternoon.  We then had the evening to relax before we got on the train the next morning for our last train trip, the fun two-day ride back to Adelaide.  This train ride was more sociable with lots of fun people to chat with as we rode along and the time went by quickly with Alex studying and me catching up on posts. 

We’re now back in Adelaide for three nights before flying to Melbourne on Monday to meet the Styches at the airport.  Mrs. Styche has a rigorous itinerary planned for the next three weeks (with stops in Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Frazer Island, Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and Sydney) so I am not sure when I’ll be able to update you guys on all the fun we’re having but I’m going to try not to get so far behind again. 

More Random Tidbits About Aussie Life

First observation – there is no paying for gas at the pump here.  We’ve literally driven over 9,000 km and have not encountered one gas station with the option to pay with your card outside.  Not a big deal right?  Well no, not unless you’re on empty and you pull into the nearest town only to discover the only gas station is closed for the night (at 6pm!) and the next station is another 37km away (yes we made it but we were on pins and needles those last 10km).  

Women here play netball (which is basically basketball without a backboard and no dribbling, who knew?!) and they do it wearing skirts.  Maybe to those of you with European roots this isn’t so weird but for me, it’s crazy.  I’ve never even heard of netball and didn’t know it was such a big deal as it is over here (they have a professional league and air the games on TV).

Speaking of TV, Australians probably live more active, friend and family-centric lives because there is absolutely nothing to watch on TV, even if you were so inclined to be a couch potato.  There are only a handful of channels and they air old US shows or the Aus rip-off version of US shows.  And the original shows they do have, they air five to six days a week for months on end (seriously, I became addicted to The Block, a renovation show, and we watched it non-stop back in Cairns for over two months when I wasn’t working at night).  There is one bright spot though and that is Adults Only Cops.  It’s all the stuff that you really want to see on regular Cops back home but don’t because they have to cut it out to make it airable.  In the Adults Only version they show it aaaaaalllll – prostitutes, drunks, police literally beating the you know what out of uncooperative perps, check, check, and check.  It’s sad but, like a train wreck, you can’t tear your eyes away. 

Moving on to a little bit classier subject; I love all the public artwork on display everywhere in Australia.  There is such a wealth and diversity of public art - there are statues and monuments and art pieces and huge TV screens with public lounge seating playing free art house movies and more.  You can’t walk two blocks without seeing at least one fun installation, and oftentimes there are more than that.  Amazingly, none of them ever seem to be vandalized either.  It’s sad to admit but back in the US, some jerk would tag these wonderful works of art with graffiti and ruin them for everyone else.

I’ve said before that things are called different names here and I have some new examples for you.  Jack Daniels, called JD at home, is known as Jaxon here (that one never failed to confuse me at the bar) and Southern Comfort, aka SoCo, is just Southern.  The letter Z is Zed.  ANZ, the bank we use, is called A, N, Zed and people look at us weird when we ask for directions to any nearby A, N, Z.  Burger King is called Hungry Jacks and cereals here ALL have different names (Rice Krispies are Rice Bubbles, weird?!).  And it’s not referred to as ‘drunk driving’ or ‘driving under the influence, it’s ‘drink driving’. 

Drink driving is apparently not as big of a deal here as driving tired though because there are signs all across Australian highways warning of the dangers of tired driving but none about drink driving.  They are often quite blunt – ‘Tired Drivers Die’ is one of my personal faves – and encourage you to pull over to any of the numerous rest stops for a cat nap or cup of coffee (free to the driver in many places) rather than continuing on.

Believe it or not, the police of the numerous small towns dotting the highway up the west coast are kind enough to let law breakers know what bad behavior they are currently monitoring.  They had huge signs as you entered many of the towns that said ‘Local Police are Targeting’, with a huge yellow stripe in the middle that told you whether police were on the lookout for drink driving, speeding or some other infraction.  I found it a bit weird and wondered what was the point… like, if you’re speeding but police are targeting drink driving, are they not going to pull you over??

Something else I find super funny is the terrible team mascots they have over here.  The poor guys on the Rabbitohs; a) what is a rabbitoh (I googled it and there are conflicting opinions - the old rugby team used to have rabbits on their field so it either stems from them yelling ‘rabbit oh’ when they tried to catch them or yelling ‘rabbit oh’ as they sold the meat from the rabbits they caught on the streets to fund their club) and b) their uniforms are hot pink!  Then there are other teams like the Pigeons – really?  Where is the intimidation factor of a pigeon?   I think back to my days of high school and how we used to make fun of kids on teams with bad mascots (Geneseo Cogs for example) and I wonder if these guys take abuse on the field.  There are so many more bad mascots but sadly I can’t think of any right now.

See if you can figure this out; you don't mail things at the post office here.  You can buy a stamp or collectible coins or a menagerie of other things at the post office (if you’re British it’s where you HAVE to go to get a new passport, as Alex can attest) but if you want to mail anything, you have to go to a post box and drop your letter in.  It’s so weird, and often frustrating after waiting in line for 15 mins just to buy a stamp, that the post office won’t take your mail.

Another thing that kills me here is that addresses don’t line up.  There is no grid system; so it might be 300 N Lake on one street and a block over it is only 120 N River St.  Plus, it is different on each side of the street.  You can be at 300 N Lake on one side of the street and 101 N Lake on the other side.  It makes it impossible to know how far it is to where you’re going if you’re not a local and can be especially annoying when lugging around a 50lb backpack!

Lastly, eggs are not in the refrigerator section of the grocery store here.  I find this really weird.  Do eggs need to be refrigerated or not?  At home I always assumed so but here they are not so now I’m confused.  Perhaps eggs do not need to be refrigerated…  Discuss & let me know what you guys think.

Visiting Perth in Western Australia

It was bright and early when we got to town on the train and we couldn’t check into our hotel room so we set out exploring straight away.  Our first attraction was the Bell Tower, a spaceship looking building right on the water downtown.  Aptly named, it is a fully functioning bell tower and considered the world’s largest musical instrument, housing the Swan Bells.

While out and about, we stumbled on the Fire Fighter Heritage Museum so we popped in for a look.  Upon hearing that my brother and stepdad are firemen, the docent, a retired firefighter named Jim, insisted that I don some firefighter gear for a photo.  I was having a good hair day and really didn’t want to but Jim wasn’t taking no for an answer so here I am with Jim, looking ridiculous, wearing the newest in firefighter helmet fashions (after already having modeled the historic hat and coat much to Alex’s amusement, so of course he got a photo of that too). 

The museum was in a historic firehouse and was really cool.  They had the fire pole, all the old gear and even an antique fire truck.   

One block after the museum we ran across St. Mary’s Cathedral. 

The neat thing about this huge church in the middle of the downtown area was that half of it is historic and old and the other half is brand new and modern.  Yet it all works and the final product is a massive, gorgeous structure. 

The next day we hopped on the train (Perth had the most amazingly convenient, and cheap, public transit) and headed down to Fremantle.  Freo, as the locals call it, is a cute historic town on the Indian Ocean 30 mins south west of Perth.  Alex said parts of it reminded him of Bermuda and I loved everything about this quaint seaside paradise (seriously, if I was going to live anywhere in Australia, Freo would be it).

We started our day by wandering around the famous markets for a few hours.

The Fremantle Prison is one of the largest tourist attractions in town, and the only World Heritage listed building in Western Australia, so we went to check it out too.  Built entirely by the prisoners who were shipped there to serve their sentences, it was in use as Western Australia’s maximum security prison until the 1990s. 

After finishing the Prison, the prisoners were set to work building up the rest of the area and I have to say they did a mighty fine job.  Many of the original buildings from the late 1800s are still standing and in use today.  Look at the gorgeous architecture and stonework of this historic church…

Australia, surprisingly, has very few good beers so we were delighted to learn that Little Creatures, one of Alex’s preferred brews, was made in Freo (Fosters and Coopers pretty much control the beer market over here with Castamere Perkins, the brewery behind XXXX, coming in a close third –none of them are bad per se, it’d just be like having ONLY Bud or Miller products to choose from back home with dark or amber ales being really hard to come by and no craft brews whatsoever).  The brewery was right on the water, sadly we missed the last tour, but we had fun sitting off an enjoying a cold beer before we headed back to the city.

For those of you AC/DC fans, Bonn Scott (the original lead singer – though if you’re a fan I don’t have to tell you that) was from Freo and they have a rockin’ statue of him near the harbor.

The following morning Alex was geeked out to go to SciTech, an interactive learning zone (read: adult play area) that he’d read about in one of the guidebooks.  It sounded cool; there were race car simulators where you could test your reflexes and all sorts of other similar fun toys Alex was looking forward to playing with.  I should stop right now and tell you that it was school holidays in Western Australia for the two weeks we were here.  That being said, SciTech was probably not the best idea but when we arrived there were only a few kids in line.  We later found out why – because all the other children in Perth were already in SciTech.  It was a zoo; there were kids everywhere, underfoot, screaming, jumping in front of you to try out the experiments and we were probably the only two adults there not being dragged around by at least one child.  Yeah, it was a fail and I felt terrible because it was another one of Alex’s activities that didn’t go as planned.  And, just when I thought Alex could take it no more, we entered the dinosaur area and saw this life size replica of a Muttaburrasaurus (please tell me you all remember Alex’s muttaburrasaurus haiku from our first road trip – I originally called it a muttabuttasaurus in my post but we were mistaken, it is a muttaburrasaurus).  That was the final straw for Alex, who was still bitterly disappointed by our trip to Winton (where Arno’s Wall was the highlight because didn’t get to see any dinosaur fossils) and couldn’t believe he’d written a haiku for such a lame dinosaur, so we left SciTech after that exhibit.

From there we headed to Kings Park, the world’s largest city park (larger than Central Park) perched on a hill overlooking downtown.  The views of the city were gorgeous. 

The park also had a wonderful tree top walk that looped around with views of the river.

A little further in there was a nature walk where you felt like you were in the middle of nowhere despite being minutes from the city.

I was moved by the park’s war memorial.  Australia honors its fallen soldiers, and those who have served in wartime, with monuments in every major city and I think it is awesome the respect they show for those who have sacrificed for their country.

Poor Alex.  He was burnt out our experience at SciTech so he laid down to relax while I ran off to pet yet another dog (I still really miss my golden retriever Penny and, since petting strangers’ dogs is the next best thing, I stop to say hello pretty much any time we see a dog).

Up next on our adventure list; Joondalup.  We’d seen beautiful pictures of the Joondalup coastal walk and were keen to get north to experience it ourselves.  As it turned out, Alex’s Dad’s old roommate from back in his early days in England, lives with his family in Joondalup and we’d been invited to join them for a family BBQ while we were in Perth.  So we headed there to meet them and check out all Joondalup had to offer.  It was a calm, crisp spring day so we grabbed some lunch and headed for the coast.  The walk was just like it was in the photos we’d seen, beautiful.

After a few hours of wandering around, we were picked up by the Blake’s and quickly chauffeured to the local crematorium (yep, really) where all the kangaroos hang out.  It was SO cool; there were wild kangaroos just chilling amongst the tombstones eating all the funeral flowers (well that part wasn’t cool, but it was neat to see them so up close).

The Blake’s were the nicest people and we were made to feel so at home in their house.  Their three sons, and daughter-in-law, all came by for dinner and it was wonderful to be in a family atmosphere again, even if just for a night.  They had the cutest blonde cocker spaniel, Tilly, who I immediately smothered with cuddles but, by far the best part was the delicious home cooked meal that Mrs. Blake prepared for everyone.  There was so much food and it was all sooooo good (if we’re lucky Mrs. Blake will share her potato recipe with us so I can make them for you when I get home); we won’t eat that well again until Alex’s parents get here (fortunately that’s only a few days away).  Here is Alex with our gracious hosts.

Sadly we weren’t able to make it down to Margaret River (a famous Australian wine region) while we were in WA so we hit the next best thing, Swan Valley, just outside of Perth.  We decided to go there on a tour and we got quite a bang for our buck; five wineries, all with generous tastings, lunch and brewery!  The Waters Edge winery is the oldest in the region and was our first stop.  I thought the old brick building was neat and the terrace, complete with multiple rose beds, looked out over the Swan River.

Charlie’s Winery was one of our last stops and they had this cool old pick-up truck with old wine barrels in the front yard where we stopped for a photo.  (To my family, yes of course it made me think of Grandpa.  I just wish they’d have had t-shirts so I could have gotten one for him).

On our last day in Perth we went to the Zoo before meeting some friends for dinner.  It wasn’t nearly as big as the Taronga Zoo in Sydney but they had a beautiful Bengal Tiger and huge Galapagos Tortoise and we spent the better part of a day wandering around checking out all the animals.  

We had originally wanted to make it out to Rottnest Island, off the coast, but it was nearly $200 for the ferry for both of us and, in truth, there isn’t really anything to do on the island but chill on the beach and hit the water (which we weren’t doing for two reasons: 1) it was still fairly cool in Perth and the water was downright cold and 2) five people have already gotten bitten by great white sharks this year) so we decided against making the trip.  I was pretty disappointed because the island is one of the rare natural habitats for quokkas, an animal that I had been told was ‘a mix between a bunny and a rat… in a good way’.  Naturally my curiosity was peaked and I had been really looking forward to seeing one.  Fortunately the Zoo came through for me (and you guys); here’s a quokka (a Mama quokka apparently, see the baby in its pouch).