Australian adventure. October 2010 (continued)

Diary Date Friday Oct 8th

A VERY early start today, as we had a long journey up the cost with various sights to see on the way. Had to be up at 6am latest to be at the bus stop for the 6.38 bus into Perth. I duly set the alarm on my mobile for 5.45 and woke up at 5.40. Just lie here a bit longer I thought, and decided to get up at 6.am, which I did, wondering if I had cancelled the alarm when I woke at 5.40. NOPE - then it dawned on me - I had set the alarm on my HOME mobile, not my Oz mobile and of course the home one is seven hours slower! Good job someone up there loves me! Anyway I had time for a shower, a short walk to the station and a short wait for the bus. Pete caught the bus from a couple of stops further on and we confessed to feeling a bit tired, but looking forward to the day. Pete also told me that although we had carefully planned our joint trips to avoid weekends, so the family could take Peter out if they wanted to, his aunt had planned a 'Meet the family' barbie for next Tues and we are on a whale watching trip in the arvo! Picking up the lingo, you see

The bus ride into Perth was very pleasant, and considering the time of morning very busy. Just goes to show, if you provide a decent service at a reasonable price, people will use it! It was lovely to ride alongside the Swan river and look over the water in the stillness of the morning. Arriving in Perth we found we had about 100 yards to walk to get to the meeting point and it was early enough for us to grab some breakfast. There was a 'Cheerful Croissant' shop on the corner so we went in for coffee and croissants. I had an almond one and Pete a plain one and we both agreed we hadn't tasted any so nice since we had last been in France. The coffee was very good too (lattes for both of us!).

Buses were appearing at the designated point, so we went over to claim our places, only to find that our bus hadn't yet arrived. It finally did, 5 minutes after our appointed departure time and 50 minutes after Pete and I arrived. I am very rarely early for anything and the one time I was the bus was late! The excuse was that an owl had flown into the windscreen of the original bus so we had to have a substitute and it took time to organise. However as the owl incident had taken place the previous night apparently, it didn't sound quite 'kosher' (l)

We began with a ride out to the Swan Valley and a wildlife park, to meet Kangaroos, Wallabies and Koalas. It was a whistle stop tour around there and we had barely any time to see the animals properly, but I did manage to feed a roo, who held my hand. Unfortunately Peter cut my head off in the photo! I could hardly tell the difference between the Roos and wallabies, but the wombat was different, and I recognised the koalas. They are so cute and there was a family there with mum holding tight to the little one.

After that we all visited the loo (and I must say I am VERY impressed with Oz loos - every one I have been in has been clean and litter free, as are the streets. No chewing gum on the pavement!) then regained our seats for a long drive to Cataby roadhouse, for a coffee stop. During the drive the coach driver gave a commentary about the land we were passing through, but the early start had taken its toll on most of us and many heads were nodding. Reaching the roadhouse, all on its own, miles from anywhere, like the petrol stations you see in american movies, (you wonder where the staff live/come from) we all piled out very happily to stretch our legs and buy ice creams as it was getting very hot. We were also given the opportunity to walk into the bush a little to look for wildflowers. However, this being the driest spring WA has had since about 1977 there were very few flowers to be seen and those that were visible were not next to the path. Most of us were very wary about going off the path because of the snake danger, and it turned out we were right to be wary, as when we regrouped we saw a notice saying look out for snakes!

We were all far more interested in the road train that pulled on to the forecourt than the non-existent wildflowers and many of us took the opportunity to be photographed by it. It was a real stunner. Coffee break over we re-entered the bus and continued north to our lunch time stop. On this part of the journey the driver decided to give us a lecture about fossil fuels and balancing out the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I'm afraid he went on too long, especially about bio-char and we were thoroughly glad when the lunch stop came into view. It was an incredibly long journey to those of us used to British distances on a day out and we were flagging somewhat. Before lunch however we were taken to the beach for the chance to see/paddle in the Indian Ocean. I took the opportunity to paddle and found the water colder than I expected, especially when a rogue wave broke behind me and soaked my trousers. However it was NOT as cold as the English Channel. We were then taken to what looked like another roadhouse for lunch. Expecting a normal British packed lunch of a couple of manky sandwiches, a packet of crisps and a piece of bruised fruit, we were were delighted to be led inside to some picnic tables and presented with a veritable feast: Fresh buns,pasta salad, rice salad, mixed salad, lobster pieces, chicken drumsticks, beef slices, salami slices, cheese slices, hardboiled eggs, marinated olives, melon slices and a fruit basket full of pears, apples and bananas and not a bruise in sight! It was absolutely delicious and we tucked in with gusto.

After lunch we continued to the Pinnacles desert. This is a really weird place, but fascinating to see. All these sort of stalagmites (except they aren't ) of rock standing up above the sandy desert floor. We had 3/4 hour to wander around and it was long enough, as it was very hot walking out in the desert. Fortunately we had water with us and a waymarked path, so we couldn't get lost. What we didn't have to start with was effective fly screening, but after seeing some people wearing nets over their heads and learning they had bought them from the souvenir shop we backtracked rapidly and bought a couple. Best $8 I ever spent. I could cope with flies buzzing around, but not crawling up my nose and in my mouth! Having spent our time here we turned back towards home, down the new part of the Indian Ocean Highway to Lancelin. There are some beautiful white sand dunes there and it was there that we would have the 4wd experience and the opportunity for sandboarding.

It was somewhat disappointing to be taken over the sand dunes in a 4wd coach instead of the landrover/utility type vehicle we were expecting, as it meant we couldn't motor up very steep slopes. However the trip was still exhilarating, especially for me, as I sat beside the driver for this part of the trip. All our party enjoyed themselves and we then went off to have our turn at sandboarding. The walk up to the top of the dune was exhausting for me, but I was looking forward to my turn. Those of the party who were fitter than me had already had a couple of goes each and done very well by the time my turn came round. I seated myself on the board as instructed, held my fingertips in teh sand behind me to stop the board slewing side ways and pushed off. Five feet later I fell off and managed a world record beating roll down the slope (a heavy object rolls really fast). I saw the funny side immediately and as I naturally adopt a position to minimise injury when something like that happens to me I was enjoying myself until I realised my trousers and knickers were coming down! Fortunately a brave member of our party stood in front of me to stop me, just before I revealed all to the world! She was brave, too, as she was very slight and I wouldn't like to stand in front of an object weighing 16 1/2 stone, moving at speed!!!! The only downside of the event was that no-one had captured my splendid fall from grace on film. That's twice this year I have made a total idiot of myself and not been caught on camera (the first time was sitting on a deckchair and falling though it!)

After this it was time to return home. The sun was setting as we headed south for our 194km return to Perth. However, we managed to see both Emus and Kangaroos in the wild as dusk fell, so that made a fitting end to what had been a very pleasant, if tiring, day.