Ptown (Perth)

How we roll

 Before we arrived in Perth we spent a night in a free, side of the road type of camp. We met a nice older NZ couple who had a drink with us and we cooked sausage casserole to match our wine. The good free camps are safe and there ended up being about 6 other cars in this particular camp. There is safety in numbers and it gives you a real sense of camaraderie.

BIG SCRABBLE!

Perth is a small city that is very diverse. The outer suburbs seem boganesk but the CBD is very cosmopolitan. The CBD is a big Asian district with the red light district attached to it. We had Yum Cha and Singapore cuisine which was good and I enjoyed looking in the Chinese book stores.







It seems that sex as an industry is big in WA and very acceptable to advertise and partake in. The CBD has art galleries and the Museum of WA which were free and pretty good. There was a family fun day and big scrabble to delight.

The little vintage shops are cute in the CBD and as with most cities it was fun just to walk around and soak up the atmosphere.

  

Dresses!

Kings Park

 Kings Park is a huge park in the middle of the city and is beautiful in its flora, landscaping and location as it looks out over the Swan River. Fantastic.

Town Hall in Freemantle

We paid a visit to Freemantle and enjoyed fish and chips and marveled at the old buildings. It is very touristy though, but then we are tourists so there you go.

We attempted to book our wonderful wedding present from the Townsends which was a sunset catamaran ride but alas we missed the last boat for April and it does not start running again until November. Dont worry Mandy we will use it for somethings else amazing along the way.

Perth has been enjoyable and reminds us of being back in the early 90's. Mark even found a time zone!

We are off tomorrow along the coast heading North. We purchased some snorkle gear and I am very excited about A) wearing it and B) actually snorkling!

Margarete River Images

Our wine and food haul

Climbing the Diamond Tree Fire Lookout.

Leuwin Winery

Busy making silk at the Silk Road.

Margarette River and its wines.

I have been learning some Cantonese as we have been traveling. I can order coffee, wine and beer now and I am sure that will help me win over my new parents in law well at least my father in law! In particular I have been concentrating on learning the words coffee and red wine as they are without a doubt some of my favorite things.

It is thanks to Mr Lee and my lovely husband that I have a taste for red wine at all. They have urged me to indulge in some of the best red wine that this country has to offer and it is with Mark and many of his friends that we have visited some of the best wine regions in Australia.

This blog post is written in the Margarette River while I sit in a cool little cafe called 'Blue Ginger' attempting to get over a wine and food glut of mass proportions. The Margarete River in WA is a very large wine Region that rivals the Hunter Valley. The vines and vinyards are old and this is reflected in the high quality of all of the wines that we have taisted.

The region is a little overcomercialisedbut that is to be expected. Despite this fact many if not most of the cellar doors are easy going and unpretentious. Many wineries have restaurants attached but they are mostly fine dining which is a bit much.

The town of Margarete River is busy and overflowing with people and I think this reflects WA and the mining boom it is experiencing.

BEST BITS:
Pierro Cellar Door - great service, great wine.
Fermoy Cellar Door - was a wine chosen for the Danish Royal Wedding and gave great value for money
Cullen Cellar Door - Great Cab Sav!
Leeuwin Cellar Door - Good service and great wine
Silk Road - where they make silk products from scratch as in they produce the silk from silk worms on their mulberry trees...very cool and well priced producs.
The Nut and Cerial Co. - Great honeyed macadamias
Learning more about the making of the wines from chatty sales people at the cellar doors.

NOT SO GREAT:
Vasse Felix - too expensive and overcomercialised. Very pretentious.
Coffee is not of the standard of Melbourne which is a shame.
You cant do every winery so you must just choose a few!
The chocolate shops have nothing on the one in the Mornington Peninsular.

Overall the region makes great Chardonnay and great Cab Sav. This will be our last food and wine indulgence for a while as I am getting fat! It has been amazing and we are now looking forward to Perth.

Hope you are enjoying the start of term 2 for all the teachers out there!
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Week 13: The Arbor

Week 13: The Arbor

We’ve entered forested areas now and it is quite the contrast to the Null-Arbor (no trees). The area is very pretty with some very tall “Tingle” trees that hollow out from the base. They are still alive though and get to over 50m tall.

From Albany, we have been in Denmark, Walpole, Pemberton and Manjimup. We stumbled into Denmark not knowing what it offered except for some exceptional wines. Walpole is home to some giant trees where you can do a tree top walk in the Valley of the Giants; there was also a place called Swarbrick that is a bit of artful memorial to the “battles” for forest conservation. Pemberton is a very cute wine region with an abundance of marron and trout. A local winery took pity on our financial strains and gave us a free bottle of wine! If you are ever in the area you need to visit Warren Winery, it is run by a very nice gentleman. You can also climb some of these huge 50m tall trees in some of the lookouts... but it’s not for the feint hearted. And Manjimup is a small town that offers some very nice truffle.

We also met some very nice doctors in the area, Hamish and Ariel, who were touring the region. Thanks very much for the company and making our day. Thanks for the recommendations in Perth. We were having some woes with the rain and the car was playing up. Our faithful steed may be suffering from some dirty fuel and blocked injectors. We’ll need to see a car doctor but the mines have stolen all the tradies and local mechanic is booked into May.

Also, who has heard of dehumidifiers?! These little awesome things hang anywhere and can absorb up to 500mL of water in an enclosed area. Great for tents and in cars to stop windows fogging up or the walls getting wet.

Km travelled this week: 1100km.

Places visited: Albany, Denmark, Walpole, Pemberton, Manjimup.

Plans: Slowly make our way up towards Perth

Highlights: dehumidifiers!!, truffles, local wineries and their hospitality, beautiful forests.

Tough moments: rain yet again...

Jars of peanut butters finished since the start of trip: 11. Yes I love peanut butter.

  

The dehumidifier!! See the water collected at the bottom!!

Manjimup and Pemberton

We have arrived in Munjimup which is close to the Pemberton Wine Region in the vast state of Western Australia.

Pemberton is a cooler climate region that does reds and whites. It is also known for it Marron ( a big version of a fresh water yabbie)

We decided to pay for 2 nights in a caravan park as the weather in Walpole had us damp and drippy not to mention muddy and a little sombre.  It is a marked difference to living in a house where you might take a glance at the weather. We plan our itinerary by it. If the forecast is rain or wind we tend to head inland as it is usually kinder. The weather decides where we will sleep and for how long until it is safe to move on. The weather does dictate our decisions in a very primal type of way.

We visited Hidden River Winery and Cafe for lunch yesterday and the food was absolutely outstanding. The menu was small and packed with variety and the owners, chefs and waiters are one and the same people. We started with chicken liver pate which I had not eaten before. It was very strong with a creamy smooth texture. Defiantly worth a try. 

Mains were Sea Food Laksa and Spaghetti Bolognaise Northern Italy style with freshly made pasta. The dishes were simple, big food done very very well. I think a food revolution is happening. I think and hope that we are moving away from small fiddley dishes to big hearty meals. Simple food done well. The GFC had made us re-evaluate our spending and I think we want more bang for our buck in terms of eating out.

Dessert was very indulgent and we ordered a 4 plate $25 taster which was really just 4 desserts to share. It consisted of sticky date, pavlova, stewed fruit and home grown rhubarb crumble. Yum!

We met another couple at the restaurant who were  very friendly. We travelled with them to the next winery to sample their vino and chatted about work, married life and travel. They were doctors so I am sure they retired back to their chalets as we retired back to our camper!

Warrens Winery was a stand out also and they gave us a free bottle of wine for our troubles which was very generous. The cellar door had a homely feel and was a little like Redmans in Penola for those of you reading this that have been there. Generally the service here has been of a good standard also.

So much yummy food!

We tried the Marron which was a little underwhelming but worth a try and enjoyed truffle oil and honey from a local truffle farm. I am in love with their hazelnuts in truffle honey as we purchased a jar from the Sydney Fish Markets a few years ago and were excited to find the company was here in Munjimup.

Our dinner last night was wine, cheese, fruit, and honey hazelnuts! Decadence! We keep saying to each other how lucky we are to be doing all these things and the freedom that Australia offers in terms of allowing us to indulge in extended travel like this. We do feel very lucky.

On that note the ute is playing up a little and more rain is forecast!

Marron!

Hope you are all well at home. Sending lots of Love

Krystal

The vast landscape of WA and the amazing contrasts of this state continue to amaze me.

In a matter of days we have gone from the beach to national parks to eucalypt forests. We have been through wine regions we did not know were there and been to little towns that are so far from anywhere else you wonder how people got there in the first place!

Albany is the oldest town in WA and this is reflected in the beautiful buildings. It has the oldest consecrated Anglican Church in WA which has beautiful stain glass windows and you can also find funky little coffee shops that make you feel like you could be in Europe (if you squint and tilt your head a little). The standard of coffee is good is surprisingly good in most places which is a blessing as I hate to pay good money for bad coffee.

From Albany we ventured to Denmark and found that there were some very good wineries in the area. We visited Forest Hill Winery which provided super excellent service that was not pretentious at all. Howard Park winery was also a stand out with good solid wines for reasonable prices. The region was known for its Riesling and cool climate Shiraz which is less peppery than the warm climate Shiraz of the Margarete River.

Esperance

We made our way to Walpole and found a suitable caravan park. We are paying about $24 a night in the caravan parks which is annoying when we know how good the free camps can be. It is however, raining, and it is difficult to camp at free camps in the rain. To get our monies worth we make full use of the camp kitchen and facilities available.

Walpole is situated 5 mins from National Parks. The beaches are mostly NP land and it also stretches to cover the amazing Tingle Tree Forests. The Tingle Trees are so big and the base is often hollowed out. The hollows are so big you can drive a car through it!

The Valley of the Giants Forrest Walk and the Ancient Empire Walk cost $12.50 each and was well worth the cash. It is a tree top walk over 40m off the ground and gives a spectacular view of the Tingle Tree Forrests.

WA has so far been very interesting and it is great to talk to people who are experiencing this state mining boom and its effects; good and bad.

More to come!

Bowden: a little town that was deserted so we camped at the footie oval. Well it was deserted until footie training time! We cooked our diner while watching the AFL boys train.

The Forrest Walk in Walpole. Well worth doing.

The tingle trees

Art installation at Walpole that commemorated the protestors that saved the Tingle Forrests from logging in the 1990's.

Sometimes it is poo.

We have travelled from the beachside town of Esperance to Albany in WA. Along the way we camped in Sterling Range National Park. Wa has a diverse range of national parks; mostly along the coastline but many inland that protect mountain ranges and wildlife from being raped by mining companies.

In sterling national park there is a rare white tailed black cockatoo. Recently they had a census and counted 52 in the park. They are big birds that like to peck at the gum nuts and consequently the nuts fall from the trees.

Late at night I had to go to the loo...which is an ordeal in itself as you do not want to get out of your warm bed. You know the argument you have with yourself. "just get out of bed and go to the loo" says sensible self. "no" says warm child self. "I'll go in 5 mins!" "get up!" says sensible self and eventually you must get up. So up I got, put a jacket on, found a head torch, found some things and squished my sock clad feet in them. Finally outside to pee and I think to myself. "it's too far to the loo, I'll just go behind a tree." Don't frown upon me I'm sure you have all done it once.

So half way through my business a loud BANG in the black night, right next to me head. "Ahhhh", I yell and leap frog to the left! Looking around like a frightened frog I realise I almost got brained by a bloody gumnut! My hammering heart begins to slow and I realise I have woken the whole camp ground and now they can all hear me finishing my business. Should I hum??

Every now and then during the night, after the peeing incident, we would hear a bang on the roof of the camper. Stupid gum nuts I would think and happily...obliviously... Go back to sleep. The next morning...on climbing out of the camper the truth was revealed. The stupid big black cockies had pooed ALL OVER the camper! Yuck!

We boiled water and scrubbed and scrubbed. In the end we packed up, drove to Albany, found a car wash and opened the camper up in the car wash. It had to be pressure hosed down. We then found a caravan park and washed all our sheets and all our bird poo clothes. Yuck.

Lesson learnt: check for poo on the ground before setting up the camper.

Quote from Mark. "I'll count the birds and then I will murder them."

Getting closer to the Margarette River!

Love Krystal.

Week 12: Suffix -up

It's week 12!! That's 3 months on the road!!! We had a small change of plan and we are staying in Albany instead of being in a National Park. This is all thanks to a flock of rare white tailed black cockatoos turning our camper trailer white with poo.

We made it across the Nullabor Plains (about 500km) to the border where there is an inspection bay. And then, there is another 700km to Norseman, which is the first town of any substance. From Norseman it's another 200km to the seaside town of Esperance and then another 400km to Stirling National Park. From Stirling NP, it's another 100km to Albany. It is a vast vast country and WA is a big state.

So why the suffix -up? The South West of WA is Noongar country and the local places are named with respect to Aboriginal meanings. Most of these meanings end with up! We have come across plenty of these places so far and we are not even close to seeing all of the South West. Just to mention a few there is: Dalyup, Munglinup, Cheadanup, Lake Chidnup, Jerdacuttup Ck; Lake Pallarup, Jerramngup, Ongerup, Gnowangerup, Pallinup Ck, Amelup, Porongurug.... and more!

Km traveled: about another 2000km!! Taking us to 14000km!!

Places visited: from Ceduna; passed the small roadhouses on the Nullarbor, stopped in Border Village for an inspection; stopped in Norseman for some fuel, got to Esperance for some rest and then traveled onwards to Stirling National Park. We stayed overnight at a little town called Borden, judging from first impressions, the locals are super friendly.

Highlights: beaches around Esperance; the cliffs on the Bight; Stirling NP for its nice walks; sighting an ostrich in the middle of the road on the Nullabor; and getting to see some rare white tailed black cockies.

Lowlights: black cockies pooing on our tent; the wind and dust on the Nullabor and struggling to find a shower (again).

Plans: we are aiming to get into Perth in about a weeks time. We will make our way along the coast and the National Parks, visit the Margaret River and head into Perth.

Keep On Truckin'

Check out the reflection.

We have survived the crossing of the Nullarbor. It was a part of the adventure that we were looking forward to. It is really no turning back time as we make our way across this land that is ‘null’ or nil of any trees.

The country has had some rain and is quite green, like Broken Hill at the moment but there are no trees at all. Just flat unforgiving country.

So we just go straight right?

 We were well prepared with a Jerry of fuel and 50L of water. Fuel was $2 a liter on the Nullarbor and we only filled up once, at the beginning. We had found out from other travelers where the cheapest fuel was and this proved to be good advice.

The truck stops along the Nullarbor are well equipped but WILL NOT give you water. There are signs that state:

                                           Please do not ask for water as refusal often offends!

It pays to respect the harshness of the land you are traveling through and carry more than enough water for your journey.

We stopped at ’Head of Bight’ this is on Traditional Aboriginal Land and the Land council charges $5 per adult to go on the walk way and view the ‘Head of Bight.’ 

 

We drove 1 hr up the road and saw it for free. The coast line along this stretch of the country is beautiful but harsh. The blue of the ocean is unmatched and the sand so white it looks like snow.

The Bight

We camped at a rest stop and decided to be safe and sleep in our trusty stead, Mendoza.

The next day we drove for 9 hrs! Luckily we gained 1 and a half hours in time as we moved across WA. 

 That just gives you an idea of how big this country is. That you can be in the same country and go through so many time zones speaks volumes.

A well earned bath. Thank you Mark!

 We made it to Esperance which is a very pretty little town and finally gave Mendoza a much needed clean up.

Settling in to enjoy swimming and laying on the beach as the last of summer glimmers in Western Australia.

Then we will Keep On Truckin’

Love Krystal

The Beauty of Ceduna

We were told that Ceduna was bandit country. The kind of lock your door, secret tunnel from your motel to the pub and back so the locals dont get you kind of country. While there is a K9 Police Unit here and we ALWAYS lock up and Mark would not let me run by myself today, it is not to bad at all.


We were told Ceduna was beautiful also and when you get here it just looks a bit run down and dusty. You are left thinking...well I guess it is cute. Cute as in a little ugly but interesting.

We have, however, stayed 2 nights here and the longer we stay the further we unlock the secrets this town has to offer. Its simply beauty, the wildlife, the locals.

The jetty is long and lit at night like a stairway to a magic place as the sun sets. The colours change from orange to pink and provide a backdrop for fishermen and cargo ships in stark contrast to one another.

We met some other travelers who were very kind and lent us their crab nets and gave us fish heads for bait today. We caught 3 blue swimmer crabs that were delicious in an omelet that Mark made. His cooking skills continue to impress me as he makes a beautiful meal with the most basic ingredients. The joy of catching and then cooking your own dinner is just fantastic.

As we were fishing today we saw 3 dolphins playing in the clear blue green water. Locals say you don't really get the beauty of the place until you have been here a little while and I tend to agree with them.

We visited a crazy little house that claims to be a wildlife sanctuary but really it is a home with lots of native pets. They do a great job of rescuing animals that are injured or orphaned and they only ask a donation for a tour. This house has an emu called Gillatd in the front yard that the owners daughters cuddle like a teddy and it has wombats, kangaroos and a snake. I finally got to see a wombat and they are quite big and a lot like pigs!

All in all Ceduna has been great. I can honestly say that I am really loving this traveling holiday of ours. Some days are difficult and there is always work to do but I love the rawness of it, the really basic living, the fact we get to see something new every day and the fact we get to spend all day together.

Wish you were here Dion.

Love Krystal

Week 11: Fish and Chips

Total km travelled: 10600km! (in the last week: 1600km!) A lot of driving this week as we left Adelaide on Good Friday and headed towards the seafood trail.

Places we went through: Snowtown (yes, the body in the barrels Snowtown), Pt Augusta, Whyalla, Cowell, Cleve, Tumby Bay, Pt Lincoln, Streaky Bay, Ceduna.

Highlights: the seafood!! fish and chips for lunch almost every day, $1 oysters, freshest fish, camping by the beach, and the beautiful coastline.

Lowlights: mice running up my leg, traveling on the Easter long weekend - not fun, and people with noisy and smelly generators.

Fish and Chips at: Cowell, Pt Lincoln, Streaky Bay and Ceduna. I recommend Turner's and the Fish Kiosk (the owner even gave us some of his crab catch!) at Cowell; King Neptune's at Pt Lincoln (not Degiorno's); Clearwater Cafe and the Fresh Seafood shop at Streaky Bay (not mOcean); and Bill's Seafood at Ceduna.

Non carp fish caught: three!! we finally caught something that was sort after. Some king george whiting.. all be it being too small to keep tho.

I leave you with photos of Ceduna and Perlubie Beach. A shame you couldn't meet up with us Noidy.

Reflection of the sunset on my car at Perlubie Beach SA

Sunset at Perlubie Beach SA

Welcome to Ceduna from the East side.

Ceduna Jetty

Ceduna Grain silos

Lighthouse monument at Pinky Point, Ceduna

St Nick's Greek Orthodox Church at Ceduna

On the church at St Nick's

Round about at Ceduna.