Monday, November 26 – continued….

We left early to go to Bunbury to catch the train to Perth. We had a few hours to wait until the train departure so we drove around the area. Bunbury has some very beautiful beaches on the Indian Ocean. The sea is turquoise, the sand is white and the skies were blue. We stopped at Wyalup Bay Park and checked out the gas barbecue –they are found at most of the parks and beach areas and are, most of the time, free to use. They are set to turn off after about 7 minutes so you can’t walk away and leave it burning all day.

Bunbury also has a different looking lighthouse – it’s painted like a black and white checkerboard. We drove further up the beach road until we were headed away from the water and then decided to find some cold water (for on the train) and a Subway for John to get a sandwich (Ham and Swiss with guacamole and olives for those who want to know *s*). After that, we wandered around a mall and discovered one unique store – it was a wine store and it had a “wine tasting station”. Bottles of wine were topped with spiggots so the wine could be poured out. Karen and I thought about taking a photo but it seemed a little strange in a mall.

Karen and Les left us at the train station and Les got his first taste of driving the car on the wrong side on this trip. I’m sure he did well on the way back to the condo because he has driven in Australia before.

The train ride was enjoyable – the attendant greeted everyone by doing some relaxation exercises and then smiled and said he was ready for us to board. There was assigned seating – we were in the first car (there were 3) in the second set of seats. The front row of seats had a view of the wall and not much legroom. After the train got going, the attendant came and told everyone who had an empty seat beside them that someone would be “jumping into” them at a future stop. Then he asked the people in the front row of seats if they wanted to “shift” seats. Needless to say, they all felt that was a good idea. We passed through a lot of different country – there were some areas that could have fooled us into thinking we were in the Alberta foothills except for the trees. There were also areas that looked so different that we knew we were not in Canada. At one stop, there was a railroad museum on a siding. The old passenger cars looked really neat. 2 ½ hours later and we were at the Perth Train Station right at rush time. Wouldn’t you know it – there was construction outside the train station so we were completely confused about where to go so we crossed the street and found a place to hail a taxi. It didn’t take too long to find one and the driver knew exactly where the condo was.

Check in at The Outram was completed smoothly although we felt a little under dressed in our shorts and summer tops. A lot of people in Perth dress in “nice clothes” – the women wear a lot of skirts and dresses and not too many were in dress pants. We were amazed when we got to the room – we knew it was a hotel room rather than an apartment but it was quite different. There is a deep Jacuzzi tub in one corner, the toilet in another corner and between them a glass shower with a cabinet on the front facing the bed. The tv was behind the upper set of doors and a mini fridge was behind the lower set. In the middle was the coffee making area – a kettle and packets of instant coffee and sugar. Luckily, John discovered that they had really good coffee for sale in the lobby *s* The balcony is a little bigger than a postage stamp and the door out to it is only “window” in the room. Different, but completely adequate for the 4 nights.

First priority was to walk down to a grocery store and get a few things to eat (making sure, of course, that everything would fit in the mini fridge). That done, the next priority was to figure out where we needed to meet our tour guide at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Tuesday, November 27

Up bright and early to meet Marielle from Aussie Wanderer tours for a 12 hour day of fun. When I looked around at our tour companions, I was a little worried – they were all younger than our kids. The kids were from the Philippines, Sweden, Korea, South Korea and Japan and I kind of felt like the parent on a school outing *g* Our first stop was Caversham Wildlife Park, a privately owned and funded wildlife centre. The park was about 45 minutes from Perth on a normal day. On Tuesday, the traffic was light and we made it in 35 minutes. The park offers private guided tours (before the park opens to the public) to the tour companies.

Only the favourite Aussie animals are included (kangaroos, koalas and wombats are the primary attractions). Our guide was Kevin and he loved his job – our first stop was to the koalas. We weren’t allowed to hold them but we could touch them with the back of our hands on their lower backs. Kevin invited us to get close to the koalas and touch them and no one moved so, of course, I led the way. Wish I could have a real koala for a pet!

We had about 15 minutes with them and then were taken to the kangaroo and wallaby enclosure where we were given food to feed them. All the girls on the tour were not too happy with walking through kangaroo poo but soon were forgetting about what they were stepping in when they saw a mama kangaroo with a joey.

After feeding the mob for a while, we had to move on to meet a wombat. We weren’t too sure of what we were going to be able to do but found the wombat in the arms of one of the park employees. We were each allowed to sit with her and pat the wombat (who weighs about 26 kg) while we had our photos taken (with our own cameras so no extra cost). She was so cute – in a wombat kind of way.

While moving between enclosures, we also saw some birds and other animals. One of the birds was a Barking Owl and it really does make a barking sound!

Morning tea was served after we finished our tour at the park – scones, lamingtons, water and juice (or you could buy tea and coffee from the concession stand). John and I had a coffee and it was good (the last time we were in Australia, we found the coffee weak and bitter). Back to the bus for the main attraction – a trip to the Pinnacles, 2 hours further north. Western Australia is still a developing state and there are long stretches where there is nothing other than bush. John and I were fascinated but most of the kids were sleeping. We finally reached Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles and everyone was in awe – there are so many formations (limestone) of all shapes and sizes.

 

The tallest is 4 metres tall and the shortest ones are about 10 cm. We wandered around taking photos before jumping back into the bus and driving to another viewpoint. At this one, there was a viewing platform and you could see pinnacles in every direction. Further out, was a huge pile of white sand which Marielle told us was “mobile sand dunes” – the winds are so strong that the dunes move. An hour later, we drove out of the Pinnacles Desert and headed to Hangover Bay for a sausage sizzle lunch.

Marielle told us that she needed help with getting the lunch ready – she had the girls cutting up the veggies and the boys cooking the sausages and onions on one of the free gas bbqs. While we were getting the food ready, I noticed we had a visitor. A skink (common slender blue-tongue) had come to check out the food and to wait for anything to drop. One of the girls screamed as soon as she saw it and they were all a little wary with it around. It didn’t leave and at one point, was trying to figure out a way from the wall to the table – luckily it didn’t manage that. After eating, we all went to check out the beach before piling on the bus for our next adventure – sandboarding! While we were at the beach, the skink was busy cleaning up the veggies that had dropped on the ground.

After lunch was over, the next stop was Lancelin where the activity was sandboarding – using boards that looked like snowboards and going down the high sand dunes. I opted out of the activity but enjoyed watching all the kids and John try it. John didn’t get much speed up but some of the kids flew down the hill. The wind had really picked up and we were all getting sandblasted legs so no one was too interested in staying very long.

Marielle decided to pack up the sandboards and take us to a viewpoint overlooking the Moore River estuary that had fantastic views. She picked the right day to go there – some of the local people told us that the river and ocean are usually separated by a sand bar but twice a year a storm will come in and open the channel. It had happened the night before we got there so we were viewing a rare occurrence.

We got back to Perth at 5:45 p.m., got some groceries and jumped on the CAT bus (a free bus service in Perth – there are three different routes and you can get on and off wherever you want) and headed back to the condo to shake the sand out of our clothes, shoes and backpacks.

Wednesday, November 28

Woke up to heavy winds and periodic heavy rain showers. We decided to explore the city of Perth so we put on our rain jackets and wore long pants and set off. First stop was the Perth Mint – we were there for the first tour of the day.

After we paid, we were looking around the display rooms when I turned around and found a girl waving at me. It was Melody, one of the girls from the tour on Monday. She is from the Philippines and was at the Mint on her own so she wandered around with us. Our tour guide, Bryn, first explained the finding of gold in the area and then showed us what a typical gold miner’s camp would have looked like – complete with models of the largest nuggets found in Western Australia. After that, we watched a “gold pour” which was done in the old-fashioned way (except with new safety equipment). No photos were allowed in the mint but we did get a couple of them outside. It was fascinating so we spent a few hours there – and missed the largest rain shower of the morning – and then walked down towards the Barracks Jetty and the Swan River.

We spent our time ducking flying palm fronds and jumping into stores when the wind and rain got too strong. At one store, the wind was blowing so hard, that the store owner had to shut her door (which was like a garage door) to stop the merchandise from blowing around and getting wet. Once that squall was over, we booked a return trip “cruise” with Captain Cook Cruises between Perth and Fremantle for Thursday. It was still really blowing, and we had heard from a few shop owners that a brand new hotel about 4 blocks away had just had its roof blown off and the chimney crumbled, so we decided to head further into town and find something to eat. We hopped on a CAT bus and watched as the driver ran over a dried palm frond that was in the middle of the road – the next thing we heard was the whoosh of air. The driver stopped in the approach to a roundabout and then couldn’t get the bus going again. When he ran over the frond, he punctured the airbrake line. He had to call for a backup bus and have all of us transfer to it. The new bus already had passengers and was standing room only. Definitely an experience! We finally made it to the central part of town and it wasn’t easy finding a place that had things they could guarantee were egg-free (and products are not completely helpful because a lot of them have may contain egg statements – including the wine that we loved so much the last time we were in Aus) but we finally found nachos at Miss Maud’s. After that it was still blowing and we had walked or taken a bus over much of the downtown area (and spent lots of money) so we headed back to the condo and a nice soak in the Jacuzzi.

We’re now in Tasmania and having lots of fun – not going to see as much as we had hoped but what we’ve seen is beautiful.

Ok – enough for this post. I will continue when I can – there is no internet access at the condo in Tasmania unless I go and sit in the lobby (and the internet there is not very reliable) so posts will be less frequent while we are here.