September 15
Got to Perth soon after breakfast, Saturday. Gathered our bags, said our goodbyes, and boarded a tour bus. We had also arranged for the bus to deliver us to the Britz campervan rental after the tour.
Cold, windy day in Perth. Bus driver said they’re predicting a week of more of the same. Hope not. As we drove around city, bus driver primarily pointed out fast-rising real estate prices – these people bought for $400,000, sold a year later for $900,000. That sort of thing. Perth is booming; more jobs than they have people.
The only place we got out of the bus was King’s Park, very large park adjoining downtown Perth. Got a couple wildflower shots in case we strike out later (which we mostly did -- a few weeks early for the part of west Oz we went to).
Got to Perth soon after breakfast, Saturday. Gathered our bags, said our goodbyes, and boarded a tour bus. We had also arranged for the bus to deliver us to the Britz campervan rental after the tour.
Cold, windy day in Perth. Bus driver said they’re predicting a week of more of the same. Hope not. As we drove around city, bus driver primarily pointed out fast-rising real estate prices – these people bought for $400,000, sold a year later for $900,000. That sort of thing. Perth is booming; more jobs than they have people.
The only place we got out of the bus was King’s Park, very large park adjoining downtown Perth. Got a couple wildflower shots in case we strike out later (which we mostly did -- a few weeks early for the part of west Oz we went to).
Got to the campervan rental place and got signed in and checked out by about 230pm. Fortunately, for getting accustomed to driving on the left, we were on edge of town and had two easy left turns to get on the road toward Albany, our S coast destination, about 250 miles away. Four lanes to start out with. I got in the left lane and stayed in it until we stopped for lunch. Spotted a Subway in a shopping Center. Made a right turn into parking lot OK, but in wandering around to find a place to park managed to hit two curbs with left rear tire.
On the highway I sort of drove by feel. You/I have a tendency to drive too far to the left when the steering wheel is on the right, so, too frequently, I’d drift left onto the rumble strips adjacent to the left shoulder. Particularly when meeting vehicles on a fairly narrow road. Never caused Dick to scream, however, (as I did when Susie took a practice drive down a country road in New Zealand) so it could have been worse.
After 150 miles or so, it was getting dark, so we decided to stop at “caravan park” in a little country town called Kojonup. A lot of place names in this area end in “up.” Need to lookup why. Made a grocery run to the local Cal-Tex service station and mini-mart, had dinner at a hamburger joint called the Hard Work Café, and got the camper set up for sleeping. Had a momentary panic because we couldn’t find electrical outlet at first, but night went well.
Next morning, blessed by clear skies, we drove on to Albany (pronounced OWL-bun-nee). Stopped for pictures of sheep pastures and canola fields – yellow flowers at this stage. Need to find out about canola farming, because it’s big here. A sign entering the shire(county) claimed one million sheep for the region.
In Albany we spent some frustrating time on the internet: couldn’t do a reply or forward with e-mail; couldn’t do any blog-posting because the Blogger website came up in Chinese and I couldn’t find the way to change it. Assuaged the hurt, though, with a nice fishandchips lunch.Albany is historically important because in 1826 the governor of New South Wales – Sydney and its surroundings – sent a ship over there to claim the region and hence the whole continent for England – keeping the pesky French out. The ship that landed there, the Amity, has been restored and is available for touring. A load of convicts settled here to launch the occupation.
A long arm of land extends south of Albany and we drove out there to see the rugged coast and the wave action on it. Very awesome!
Now you see him. Now you don’t.
Another stop was Whale World, a whaling station converted into a museum. The Albany Whaling Station was Australia’s last, closing in 1978. Our guide told us, though, and this was surprising to me, that whale-watching is a bigger business than whale-killing and processing ever was.
Getting to be late afternoon, now; we drove west to the next town, Denmark, found a caravan park (see below), had dinner, and called it a day. It was one of the best dinners I’ve had on the trip. Chef was grilling on the barbie. Pick your meat and he’d fix it. It wasn’t on the menu, but when I requested it he did me some shrimp on the barbie. Outstanding. Dick chose a seafood platter that had a large helping of squid – like chewing a bicycle inner tube.
Tomorrow the big trees and forest walk in the sky.
Cheers,
Rob
Getting to be late afternoon, now; we drove west to the next town, Denmark, found a caravan park (see below), had dinner, and called it a day. It was one of the best dinners I’ve had on the trip. Chef was grilling on the barbie. Pick your meat and he’d fix it. It wasn’t on the menu, but when I requested it he did me some shrimp on the barbie. Outstanding. Dick chose a seafood platter that had a large helping of squid – like chewing a bicycle inner tube.
Tomorrow the big trees and forest walk in the sky.Cheers,
Rob
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