Perth, wine, Bum Burners and a hell of a drive..........

Seems like a million days ago we where in Perth now but hopefully the memories are still fresh enough so I can get them on here!

We were lucky in Perth that our good mate Steph from Shags in Darwin (who had recently moved there) had said we could park our chubby van on her drive for the time we where there. New circle of friends ready and waiting, 30 minutes from the city, and no rent! Boom.

Our new home with Will and Eric!

Perth is a really cool place. Really pretty, fab beaches, good city centre, great weather. Kind of reminded me of Sydney but on a smaller scale.
It's Coffee and Sushi central too so was a good place for me!

A purpose built old London looking street in Perth though I thought it was more like York

Perth from the Botanic Gardens

 We spent a week in Perth seeing the sights and one of my favourites was going to Fremantle Prison.

"Fremantle Prison was built as a convict barracks in the 19th century and remained in continual use until 1991. The Prison was a place of hangings, floggings, dramatic convict escapes and prisoner riots. Inmates included imperial convicts, colonial prisoners, enemy aliens, prisoners of war and maximum-security detainees." 

It was a a pretty eerie place although Wal said he thought he would be quite comfortable as he would be fed, have a bed and could just be left alone in his room to draw all day. Hmmmm.......

Wal happy in his new home.

Psycho Nazi Dawnie

After our day in Prison we then went on a Ale Trail around Fremantle, lovely but extra sore head the next day!

Little Creatures Brewery

Over the weekend in Perth about 15 of us headed an hour up the coast to Lancelin where you can go sand boarding. It's really weird to see all the massive white sand dunes that seem endless. We arrived a bit late in the day to get straight on it so instead went to the pub. Always a good alternative option! Then it was back to the 2 man tent (which we managed to squeeze everyone into!) for more beer and dancing with Steph near the beach.

Tent Booze!

We did manage to get to do some sand boarding the next day which was pretty awesome even through the endless fight with the sand blowing at you and the mighty dunes you have to climb up!
I was finding sand everywhere for weeks after!

Wal managed to stand up longer than anyone!

We also got the camper stuck in the car park which amused me no end. As sand was everywhere it was hard to judge when it got thick and we just got completely stuck. We ended up getting pushed out by about 15 Chinese people (all of which came from 1 van??) along with the help of a tow. Luckily as its quite a busy place most people had 4x4's and where well prepared for things like this!

Oh dear......

On the way back from Lancelin we visited a spot called Moore River which was cool. The river ran almost into the see but a small sand dune separated them. Very pretty.

Moore River

So after a fab week in Perth we headed back on the road and started by going to Penguin Island.
It's a tiny island that you can walk around in about 20 minutes and it's really pretty. You can actually walk over a dune that's about half a km to get to the island but as I'm such a lame swimmer I didn't want to so we got the ferry instead. We saw the mini penguins getting fed and swimming around and we had a bit of a snorkel over the reefs, sat in some caves and had a pretty nice little Wednesday!

Mini Penguins.

Where's Wally????

You can see the sand dune you can walk across........but I was too much of a wuss.

After Penguin Island we headed down to Esperance which was a bout a 10 hour drive. It's pretty much a place on its own in the middle of absolutely nowhere but has really amazing beaches and blue blue sea. It was too cold to get in the water but was just worth it to see them.

One of the many lovely beaches in Esperance

The beaches in the National Park are known for their Kangaroo's that laze about on them. I think it was maybe a little too cold for them but they did come nosying around the campsite and one joined me whilst I was cooking in the camp kitchen.
We also did a trek up Frenchman's peak. A massive mountain. I'm the worlds worse climber but I did pretty well I think! By the time I got to the top though as well as being knackered I was dying for a pee! Luckily no one else was around so I can claim 'I peed at the top of Frenchman's peak!.....and it was good'.

I peed at the top of there! Ha!

After Esperance we had to drive the longest most boring roads ever.......about 10 hours a day and for 3 days solid! The only interesting thing I have to say about that is we got a puncture and had to change the tire. Woop Woo.

Hmmm.....right laugh this road was!

So after the longest drive in the world......EVER! We arrived at Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Home of Jacobs Creek and many other good wines! Me and WalWal seemed to enjoy the wine!

Wal enjoying the vino!

Next stop Adelaide. We never actually planned on really visiting Adelaide but I'm so glad we did as it was a really lovely place. Good atmosphere and just quite a cool city. We only spent an afternoon there as we wanted to get to the little town of Handorf on the outskirts.

Wally and the biggest Santa in the world in Adelaide

 Handorf was formed by German settlers around 1839 and it's till got a real German feel to it.......meaning lots of good beer and sausages!
We had a good day drinking lots of beer and eating lots of nice food and got to try Handorfs famous 'Bavarian Bum Burner' Sausage. Very tasty.

Tasty at night, ouch in the morning..........

Wally found his special place.

So it was a time well spent around Adelaide and it was time to set off on the last leg of our Aussie tour. Driving down to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road.

It was pretty amazing, the first part was where you saw a lot of the rock formations like the 12 Apostles, and London Bridge. All very cool but for me the driving part was much more exciting.

Me and the 12 Apostles

Wally drove us through a really great National Park, lots of tall trees, really green, and amazing winding roads. Lots of wildlife too and we even had to stop on a hill as a Koala and its baby were taking their time crossing the road.
The countryside in Victoria is very English looking and sometimes it was like being in Yorkshire (but without the rain). Really pretty.

Gotta look closely but that's the Koala and its Baby crossing the road!

Victoria or Yorkshire??

I took over the driving from Apollo Bay (mainly cos I was jealous of the fun Wal was having and bitter after having to drive the 90 mile straight road!) and the drive after then to Torquay was awesome. All winding coastal roads and along cliffs. Loved it.

Perfect Drive!

So over 10,000km and 5 weeks later we have arrived in Melbourne. It's been an amazing journey, I'm shocked that Bob Hoskins got us here in one piece, (truly amazed as he's shit!) we have seen some fantastic places, some weird places and come across some pretty weird people along the way.
So now it's time to try and get back to reality again in Melbourne.......................

A West Coast Story..........................

5 days after we planned to leave Darwin we finally escaped! Pretty disappointed we lost almost a week of our trip due to Travellers Auto Barn being disorganised but at least we where finally free to roam Aussie in our camper! (Which has been given the name Bob Hoskins as its small and chubby)

Me and Bob Hoskins on the road

First stop was to the Adelaide River to check out the jumping crocs.There was about 20 of us on a little boat that treks down the river to find the  crocs. They where pretty awesome, huge and just sneaked up behind you. Very sly. The guy who took us on the trip then dangles massive pork chops over the side off a stick and they jump up out of the water for a feed. We where told to keep our arms in the boat as they wouldn't think twice about jumping up and taking a swift bite of you. Scary shit. 

Sneaky Croc

Kept my arms well inside the boat!

Wal lost his head!

After the crocs we drove to Litchfield National Park and camped at Florence Falls. Really amazing waterfalls and rock pools that you can take a swim in. Perfect opportunity to test out the new "waterproof" camera. So one dip in the pool and we discovered it wasn't waterproof! Only had it 1 day and being in the middle of nowhere not a thing we could do about it. Driving back to Darwin wasn't an option and the next place we could take it back was over 2000km away in Broome. Bloody Aussie and it's space of nothingness! Luckily we still had the old camera but just meant we couldn't take any cool underwater shots.
We camped at Litchfield for 2 nights then had to move on to make up for the lost time. It was probably good though as Wal was about to burst a blood vessel from the constant fight and teeth gritting with flies and mozzies.

Florence Falls

Wal in Buley Rock pool

Wal being at one with nature...........

Next stop was Katherine, we had planned to stay there for a night but pretty much stayed an hour and left. Weird weird place. Very small and to be honest, it smelt really bad. Huge aboriginal community lived there and not one to judge how people live and raise their kids but sat on the grass verge in the middle of two roads doesn't seem like the best place to let your kids have the run around whilst you get pissed. Anyway........

So on the road again, we had a little celebration when we hit the signs for Western Australia. Freedom form the NT!!! You get stopped as you pass the border where your asked 'Got any fruit?' Never mind that we could have been harboring criminals in the back or carrying nuclear weapons.......they just want to know about the fruit. Very funny. After they made me throw away my lettuce we where finally in WA!

No Banana's here clobber!

2 days driving later (Aussie is MASSIVE in case you didn't know) we arrived at Kununurra. Nice little town with not a lot happening but it was a good place to stop to get supplies so we could spend the night at Lake Argyle. The campsite was awesome with an infinity pool that overlooked the lake and the surrounding hills and mountains. Very scenic place to get away from it all. 

One of the many, many, MANY times I've filled the van up so far!

What a crap view............

Our next destination was Broome but again, it was going to take us about 2 days to drive there. So foot to the floor again, unfortunately this stint of the journey was corrupted by the fact we broke down not too far from a bush fire! The engine had totally overheated, and we had no signal on the phone to call for help. (Not that it mattered as we later found out that our breakdown policy didn't cover us for 'remote' areas and unless we payed a few hundred dolla$ they wouldn't come rescue us........one of the MANY things Travellers Auto Barn failed to tell us when we bought the van from them)
Luckily I managed to flag down some help and they guy who stopped was mechanically minded and after checking out the radiator told us our radiator cap was knackered which is why it over heated. We managed to get to the nearest campsite for the night and amazingly, even though we where in the middle of nowhere, the local garage (and only garage within about 1000km) had a cap that fit. Mega Boon......

We arrived in Broome about a week after we had left Darwin which is pretty good going. Again, Aussie is HUGE and it takes FOREVER to get anywhere.  For anyone that ever comes here be very cautious when an Aussie uses the term 'It's just down the road'....it never is.......NEVER!

Broome is a very pretty sleepy town with an amazing beach called Cable Beach. 22km long, white sand and the sea is so blue and warm. Lovely. It was a bit too salty to snorkel in but great just to swim and have a bit of fun.
We stayed on a great campsite with an awesome pool which give us the chance to test out the replacement waterproof camera......it's waterproof! Yey!

Erm.....am I allowed to have fun on the beach or is that against the rules too officer???

Looking Good on Cable Beach!

Looking even better in the pool!!

One of the main tourist attractions at Broome is the Camel rides on Cabel Beach. We went on the sunset ride which made it even better as the view was fantastic.
We also went to Broome's famous outdoor cinema, the film wasn't much to shout about (Real Steel) but the experience of being in the worlds oldest garden cinema was pretty awesome.

The Broome Sunset. We are 7th camel from the front!

High on a camel!

All lonely in the cinema!

So after experiencing all Broome had to offer (including some very good mango beer!) we got back in the passion wagon and on the road to Exmouth. It was quite a trek to get there but what an amazing place to see. Sandy Beach was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. White sand with the clearest sea water I have ever seen. As me and Wal had got our arses out of bed early we where the only ones there too so felt like our own private little paradise!

Sandy Beach. Amazing.

We stayed in the National Park on a campsite that was behind some sand dunes that overlooked the beach.....beautiful and only $7 each a night! Bonus!
 

Snorkeling was amazing on Turquoise Bay and Oyster stacks as it's part of the Ningaloo Reef with so many different fishes and sea creatures. Loved it.

You can find a Wally on the Ningaloo Reef!

Next was a short trip further down the coast to Coral Bay. Small beach resort and again as its part of the Ningaloo Reef so the snorkeling was amazing. We hired some Quad Bikes and went speeding along the beach and up and down big sand dunes to get to a good snorkeling spot. Great day. 

Wally definitely did not enjoy this day.

Huge sand Dune we sped down.

Back on the road again for a 7 hour drive to Monkey Mia. Again it's a lovely small beach resort where every morning at 7.45am (pretty much on the dot!) a group of wild dolphins swim up to shore for breakfast! About 6 turned up the morning we where there along with a baby dolphin. We weren't lucky enough to be picked to feed them but didn't mind as later in the day when we hired a kayak for the afternoon the mother and baby dolphin found us and swam all around and under us so we got good and close to them!

Kayaking was a good laugh (although very tiring!) so some well earned beers and cocktails were on the menu for later on.

Very happy for breakfast!

Nice tan leg lines!

I'm not sure the fish will appreciate yellow water Wal!

Last stop before Perth was at Kalbarri where we went to the parrot breeding centre and met some very cheeky Brazilian birds who liked to play. There is a huge national Park here but we needed to get to to Perth so unfortunately we didn't have time to explore it.

So finally after over 5000km of driving we are in Perth.......................(to be continued!)

U Turn.........

So day 1 of the new adventure and as we are woken by the biggest storm. thunder, lightening, rain. Typical. But being the optimist I'm guessing it will pass soon enough, so grab my brolly and head on down to Travellers Auto Barn to pick up our campervan as planned. I was hoping to  be on our jolly little way to see some jumping crocs by lunch time but no. The van was not sorted properly. It still had to be taken into the garage to get registered (MOT) and 'it should be ready this afternoon' I was told. So after an aggressive snooze back home and a trip to the post office I get a call, "erm the van started shuddering when it reached 80km, it needs to be fixed, it will be ready tomorrow afternoon!"

Agghhhh......I feel like Sean Penn in the movie 'U Turn'. Hopefully we WILL leave tomorrow and my day doesn't get quite as bad as his.

Bye Bye Darwin.......It's been emotional

So considering we only planned on staying in Darwin a short while we have actually been here about 5 months. No idea where the time went, it's seems like a frenzy of work, beer and more work. 

 I wouldn't say Darwin is my favourite place of where we have been so far in Oz but It's definitely not the worst. The weather has been awesome and we have made some great friends here who I will miss so much. Hopefully we will be catching up with many of them in Melbourne which will be great.

Darwin.......definitely not the worst place to be!

So both me and Wal finished up our jobs at Shags at the weekend which seems a bit weird after being there so long and then we finished up our other jobs a few days after. Complete freedom, feels weird. Exciting though. 

I had some good nights out with everybody and the awesome treat of the fishing trip I won a spot on. I caught two little tiddlers all day which I was so very proud of then as nothing else was biting I decided to just take advantage of the free beer instead! Only way to fish I reckon. 

Me and Ruth taking advantage of the free beer!

The Shags team

Caught us a Dave...........

We also had a staff party which again consisted of lots of free beer (note. Most things in Darwin consist of some kind of beer intake), dancing and general carnage. I'd been sick for a few days before so was drugged up on many cold and flu caps so it took little over 2 Canadian Clubs to get me drunk. Good times. 

Shags Laydees looking all respectable...........

..........but then it all got a bit messy after 2 Canadian Clubs.

Happy Times

 

I was also weak from losing blood the day before through getting my AWESOME tattoo. I love it. The guy who did it (called Blue from Darwin City Tattoo's) is an amazing artist and I'm so happy that it actually looks like Marilyn as I've seen a lot of dodgy ones! Blue has also done Wal's sleeve and chest piece which again, is awesome.

Darwin City Tattoo's (Blue is first on the left)

Maz

Wal's arm art

 Ive been trying to pack a few bits on bobs in the week so I'm not rush packing before we leave and I came to realise what a lot of crap I have! I do not make a light traveller, too much mascara and lip gloss going on. So I'm trying to be ruthless and get rid of a lot of stuff, to be honest its not hard as I'm sick of seeing most of my clothes as I have been lugging them around with me for over a year now. But hopefully the camper wont be too cluttered and I've bought plenty of fabreze and air fresheners as I cant stand the crusty traveller smell!

Mine and Wal's final Darwin day was spent at the cinema watching Warrior (which was awesome) and then having our final supper at the all you can eat steak and seafood place on the waterfront. Perfect.

So bye bye Darwin, it's been a blast but now for the new adventure.................

Bye Bye Darwin.................hello West Coast!