Note it is Day Zero. We haven’t left yet, but in a few hours we are. The Navigator has been packing for weeks, and trying to decide how little, how much, how hot, what coat do I need, do I need these tablets, and on and on and on. It’s draining.
Anyway, tomorrow us Day 1, tomorrow night we’ll be dining in Bangkok.
This trip is semi adventure.
The travellers are;
Pauolo – that’s me, aka Paul
The Navigator – thats Genelle
Al – that would Dave
H – that’s Helen
I’ll try and come up with more disparaging creative names as true characters reveal themselves under pressure.
The Plan
Train to Sydney
Fly to Bangkok for short orientation of big SE Asian city things
Fly to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand
Drive via Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong on the Mekong River
Cross into Laos and 2 Days on a slow boat on the Mekong via Pak Beng to Luang Prabang.
The trip is coming to an end, tonight we’ll be home in our own bed. 7.30am we set Google Maps to T4 Perth airport, drop The Navigator and Wally, then Don & I return the Prado to the car hire return.
The GX Prado has been excellent, averaging under 10 ltr per 100km. Plenty of space, maybe not as much in the back seat as a Kluger but close. Tax invoice says we did 2104 km, no dings detected, which is correct.
The women have the bags tagged when we return, then We get taken as visitors to the Qantas Club for breakfast. It’s been 17 years since I’ve been in Qantas Club when it was paid for as part of my job. It’s too expensive now for the amount I travel, I think?
We’re told earlier we don’t have the seat between us empty, would have been $70 well invested if it came off. However, the plane is full, not a seat spare, and a lot bring huge carry on cases, don’t get me started on that!
It’s raining and cold in Sydney when we arrive 4 hours later, a few whiskeys in Qantas Club (compliments of the Anderson) fixes that.
Dubbo is freezing, The Mechanic delivers us home to unpack, for the final time on this trip.
A drive around Jurien Bay, fly the drone briefly, then a coffee and a drive around Cervantes before heading back to Perth. We like Jurien Bay, its clear waters, and its easy relaxed vibe. And Cervantes looks a but bigger and s fair bit older.
We decided to come to Kings Park in Perth for a walk around before going to our hotel near the airport.
The Botanical Gardens are excellent, the walks wind around different botantic areas of WA, there are lots of varieties of native plants by region. It’s Sunday, so there are lots of people in the park, Sunday loungers, hipsters, fathers with sons (on scooters), bikers on their Triumphs and Harleys trying to look cool in jeans and leather. The view over the city is terrific.
Only a week ago, The Don crashed on to a Hop On Hop Off bus floor in the rain at Kings Park. He’s recovering now, but the scene of the crime must bring back the memory of an event that he has no memory of.
Dinner at the motel is interesting, the Sanno Maracoonda is a base for fly in fly out operators, so it feels a bit like a mine canteen (I don’t know what one looks like, so it’s in my imagination)
Tomorrow we fly home. We left Dubbo 3 weeks and one day ago, it seems longer. The trip has been terrific, great company on both legs of the trip and we’ve seen a lot of places we’ve never seen before.
A relaxed start to the day, a cup of tea then The Navigator and Wally go power walking around the water. The area we are staying is pretty ritzy, and all the pretty young things walk in their skin tight tights, leading fluffy dogs, men with manscaped five o’clock shadows at 8am and the odd pensioner in baggy shorts and a sloppy Joe with holes in it. The boats are heading out fishing on the change of tide, dodging the kayakers.
We get under way dead on ten am, Pauolo has the reins of the stagecoach today. It’s not a long way to Perth, we refuel, then head into the banked up traffic on Highway 2 only for Pauolo to take an unplanned detour into an industrial area. Corrections made we’re back into the traffic heading north. This is a reflection of Pauolos card playing later that night.
Woodbridge and the Verge 301 Cafe sign catch our attention but The Don navigates past it requiring an about turn. Two highway patrol coppers in a pretty car arrive for coffee, a young blonde and a solid older bloke,arrest any of Nomad 2 crew and instead look at their phones and chat. Clearly unaware of my future crimes against the card game of ” Kings”
The Pinnacles is busy busy busy, bus loads of tourists from Asia mainly, everywhere taking selfies, flying a drone (illegal in the park), digging holes. But away from the tourists it’s spectacular. They are quite dramatic.
We move on to Jurien Bay where we’re booked tonight. Nice place, I imagine it was a fishing shack village once upon a time, but not now.
Dinner is at a Cafe at the beach near the jetty. Fish and chips is great, fresh Spanish Mackerel, and nice green salad.
Cards tonight is all Don, Pauolo f…d up and kept a Joker and threw a King so a record maximum score sees Pauolo finish last by a mile. The Navigator comes in second, Wally a close third.
We’re breakfasted and packed early, and get away on time at 9am
Cowaramup is a funky little place, cafes, eclectic looking shops. “Up” means place of, so it’s the place of cows. The local Aussie rules team are the Cowaramup Bulls, go figure how they came up with that name. This area is big dairy farms, friesian cows everywhere and green green grass.
Oh and lots of grapes vines. And sheep with black faces, dorpers I guess. And Angus cattle, not much off anything of any other colour except the black and white friesians.
Busselton Jetty is 1.9km long. We walk half way so that means we walked about 2km before a coffee.
The Don and Sharron have arranged to meet some friends from 30+ years ago from when they all lived in Jabiru in the NT. The Kakadu men and women catch up over coffee at a nice Cafe.
The final leg is up the freeway to Mandurah, a bustling city of 100,000 or so. Our apartment is nice, a bit of chipped paint to be fixed and sugar soap could clean some walls but beautiful views over the water. Mandurah has a large estuary area behind a narrow entrance to the Indian Ocean.
We meet The Don’s cousin Kelvin for a few beers at The Peninsular Hotel. He has lived over here for many years because it’s warmer than Crookwell and he’s got a wing of children and grandchildren in the area now. I don’t think Crookwell is going to win him back.
Cards Report ;
Kings is under way as soon as we get through the door. The Don feels his luck from the last few nights might continue. But, he’s disappointed, Wally and Pauolo steam ahead and Wally wins with a last a round crusher of a hand. We offer Don a box of tissues, but he’s busy plotting revenge for tomorrow.
Today was a slower day, a bit of catch up on rest.
Three of us head south to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin light house. Its really hard to get the compassion in my head right, what is actually south feels like north, and vice versa. My head has it sorted by lunch time
It’s a pleasant drive south, not hot, a few scuds of rain, sunshine, cold wind. Four seasons in an hour weather.
Tge lighthouse is the tallest on mainland Australiaz built in 1895 and still a working lighthouse. It’s made of local linstone quarried not far away. It’s not been manned for many years but I think the stat’s show its effective, up until 1895 30+ ships are known to have perish on the 13km stretch of rocky islands off Cape Leeuwin, and since 1895 only one has perished. A navy destroy ( not the ship that perished) was hit by a freak wave in 1945 and ten sailors died. Its a hard remote beautiful bit of coast line. The wind is howling from the south and white top waves are everywhere, I can’t tell where the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean visually but a line on a board shows me where it is. Apparently some days you can pick the line where the twon oceans meet, but not today.
We drive back and have a nice lunch at the bakery at Witchcliffe.
The Navigator is keen to have a look at a craft glass place, its only the edge of Margaret River. It’s called Melting Pot Glass, and it’s an interesting place. Nice Glass work, ramble tamble property, and very relaxed proprietors. She buys a couple of very nice glasses for our “places we’ve been cabinet”
The afternoon is spent shopping, looking in windows, checking out the condensed Margaret River shopping precinct. A few books are the purchases of the day.
A few drinks are procured and we watch Melbourne Storm steal the NRL game from Penrith. Tonight we eat in.
Kings cards tonight is won by a gloating smirking Don, he averaged 6-7 a hand and won by a mile. His day has come, hopefully tomorrow it will be gone.
Ciao from Margaret River. Tomorrow we head to Mandurah.
An early start this morning, the air con only just kept the apartment warm. It’s a lovely spot near the water, views over the bay through the trees and the sun is out.
After breakfast, a tour ofctown and a refuel ($123 for Perth- Hyden- Albany) we find Middleton Beach for a coffee at Three Anchors Cafe – I rate it ☕️☕️☕️☕️ the coffee and the beach vibe is great.
On the way to Denmark we see a sign – ” Jesus is Wauting for You” . Please tell him I’m not ready, he can wait a while.
First stop is Denmark where we all agree its a really nice looking place, the further we go the more cattle we see, no crops, and the trees are getting bigger. Ocean Beach has a few surfers out in the break, past the brown line of tanin coloured water hitting the blue Great Souther Ocean. A few surfers say its cold ( no shit Sherlock!), and the swell isn’t big enough.
Next stop is the Valley of the Giants. Brilliant engineering to build the walkway amongst the huge trees. It is spectacular walking through the tops of these enormous trees. Some facts;
The treetop walk opened in 1996 and has attracted about 4.2m visitors ( till 2024)
We get to about 40 m high but the tree canopy gets to about 80m in height.
The walk is 650m long
Timber used in the structure and offices is Jarrah, Hoop Pine, Karridale and Red Tingle
The Tingle Forest is unique to south east WA and some plants can be traced back 65m years.
Lunch in Pemberton is nice, the honey pumpkin fetts frittata is especially nice. It’s another nice clean tidy town. In 2015 they shot the Jasper Jones movie in this town. It’s based in the fictional town of Corragin which is actually based on Corrigin.
As we driving into Margaret River the rain that The Navigator forecast starts (5 minutes early) and it buckets down on and off until late.
We have a lively unit close to the town centre, it will be nice to slow down for 2 nights.
Dinner at the pub then cards. It’s a close game but The Don gets the money right on the post.
The Don is battling through the pain barrier, teeth gritted but I think as time goes by the back and ribs hurt more. A short look at some albino kangaroos before we leave the Wave Rock precinct and head towards Albany.
We see crops and mallee type country, much the same as yesterday but more salt lakes, mostly in between timber refuge strip’s and croppping.
We take the back roads via Pingaring towards Lake Grace.
“Rosie’s Cafe – Lake Grace” is on a sign. It’s like a sign from God, we’ve had a few of them, so we stop, and hallelujah the coffee was good and so were the melting moments and GF strawberry tart. Wonder if there is a correlation between coffee strength and quality and the further south you are in WA?
Lake Grace has both Nutrien and Elders Branches, CBA and Rabo Bank offices. That usually means it’s a strong money area. Nice looking town, a quick flick through the local paper shows evidence of an active community.
South we head again, with bellies full and caffeine levels elevated. The Navigator sees wild flowers beside the road, Wally sees weeds, weeds – flowers, flowers – weeds, who knows? Pink Lakes everywhere, I’m taking their word for it.
Lots of road trains with grain bins are on the road, emptying silos and grain bunkers getting ready for this year’s harvest. And by the look of it it’s going to a big harvest this year.
On the road through Borden we see the Sterling Ranges in background, very pretty and a dramatic backdrop to the patchwork of canola, wheat, chicken peas, and lupins. We stop for photos near a Dutch type windmill, apparently it’s a B & B.
Wild flowers are starting to bloom in the ranges, we drive though middle of the Sterling Ranges, no climbing or twisting roads. I see huge areas of planted eucalypt forests, I wonder if these are some of the ones that nearly brough Elders undone in 2008.
Albany is close, and we see sheep, cattle, horses, coastal streams, it sort of looks like NSW coastal hinterland.
We check into Lilac Waterfront cottages, leave Don resting and head out to check out the whaling station. It’s a gruesome reminder of the barbaric harvesting of thousands of whales over many years. It’s on a beautiful piece of the bay.
We explore Albany, find a fish and chips place, a few cans of beer at Dan’s and then cards to finish the night. Pauolo is the King of Kings by a long shot tonight. An attempt to teach The Navigator eucha has her eyes shining, and for once she’s speechless. But she still manages to handle the game and successfully partnering Don. L plates on tonight, P’s tomorrow, then she’s fair game.
The crew of Nomad 1 leave early, the Uber gets them away before Wally and The Navigator can get a stash of snake lollies legally procured from the hotels concierges jar to Captain Kirk as his performance bonus. To bad Kirk, we’ve eaten them all now.
Nomad 1 crew of Kirk, Smurfette, Harve and Jenzy are returning home on leave from the Nullabor Nomad mission.
Nomad 2 pick up a new rocketship at the Thrifty booth at Perth airport. A nice newish Prado, we can’t find the scratch they say is on it, so we keep that one up our sleeve, just in case. Pauolo is the pilot today. The Don is struggling with back and ribs damage from a hop on hop off bus incident two days ago so he’s in the navigation chair but heavy painkillers see him lose concentration occasionally.
First stop is a Brookton for coffee. The cafe is tidy and clean, like the town, but the nice Irish waitress is on bariata L plates, pleasant girl but clearly not a coffee drinker. The flat white coffees are milky dish water weak, no crema, so we suck it up, smile, leave gracefully and do a little shopping at the IGA next door.
The crops are healthy, water from recent rains still seeping out of furrows on slopes. Canola is brilliant yellow, blending with deep dark green wheat and chicken peas. The crops are endless and its looking like a great season.
As we near Corrigin, instructions from the rear seat are to pull into the dog cemetery. Its an interesting place where people bring their deceased canine pets for burial. There is one cat buried there, interesting, who allowed this to happen?
A sign is spotted, also from the rear seat ” Wildflower Drive 4.1km – One Way”. Needless to say, we are instructed to take it, although somebody thought it was 41km. There are about 3 little bunches of flowers spotted, then we drive around confusing tracks ending up at a lookout. The lookout has a tower that Wally tackles, leaning forward, bending into her work. We never find out if it was worth the effort. My guess is…. no, don’t say it Pauolo.
After the rally cross track leads us back to the main road, we eventually find Corrigin township for lunch. The cafe is in a one way street, in Corrigin, hard to believe they need a one way street but there it is. We are served by a cheeky waiter, its a nice lunch but the coffee is just OK, good crema but not quite strong enough. The toilet light is an issue for The Don, he nearly hits his head on the wall trying to find the switch, just so he doesn’t miss the bowl, poor bugger, he’s injured enough so luckily he’s OK.
Next stop is Hyden and Wave Rock. It’s spectacular. A really interesting geological formation in the middle of wheat fields and salt water swampy flats. I put the drone up for a fly, I don’t crash it and it returns to me, so that’s good news. We walk to the Hippos Yawn, a cave formation just like a hippo yawning, on the way The Navigator has a fall, sorry a trip – she didn’t fall and cut her hand and skin her knee, same as she didn’t fall off the bike 6 months ago. Her Iphone watch asks her if she needs 000, but as she mumbling about dropping her phone she cancels it. Good news, she’s OK, shaken but still able to give clear directions and instructions – lucky me!
Dinner is at the pub at Hyden, not a bad feed. More Irish girls behind the bar. This part of the world seems to have a lot of young Irish women backpackers working in pubs, cafes, etc.
A four handed game of Kings sees Wally go past The Navigator at the post. The Don was out of the blocks quickly but pulled up lame early in the game.
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