Western Australia

Finally I have some time to update our movements in Australia, a journey that has covered a lot of miles in two months. The first part of our adventure involved a long flight from Auckland to Perth on March 20th where we arrived to the same blue skies and warm weather we'd come to expect in New Zealand's excellent 2007-08 summer (note: the weather is so good here I'll mention only when we don't get blue skies and warm temps!). The first few days in East Perth were dedicated to the World Interhash, a gathering of Hash House Harrier groups to run and drink beer... so we were soon drinking beer and getting a look at some of the countryside around the city.

Friday 21st March – East Perth is deserted on Good Friday, with a four day weekend I'm sure many of Perth's inhabitants are on the beach. We take a wander round the area between our hotel, the Swan River and our venue for the weekend, the Gloucester Park horse racing track (next door to the WACA -Western Australia Cricket Association – ground), discover the town is shut and retire to a dusty pitch nearby to watch a bunch of hashers (most old enough to know better) play a northern vs southern hemisphere rugby game. Not sure who we should support now! The evening is very pleasant temperature wise and we spend it at Gloucester park catching up with friends old and new.

Saturday 22nd March – Time to get out of the city and run. There are an extensive selection of runs to choose from and while Tim has opted for the longest (the ballbuster) Tracy also goes for a “bush” option out in the scrub and forest inland. Tim's run begins at a dam in the hills above the city and zig-zags vaguely downhill (except the many uphills) towards Perth for about 25km (15 miles) through a lot of dry eucalyptus scrub. Tracy gets similar surroundings but a shorter dose of much steeper countryside where scrambling up and down takes the place of running. Once again the evening is spent enjoying the party at Gloucester Park.

Sunday 23rd March – Another day, another run and this time we both opt for a beach run, which does end at a beach but features more bush, a huge building site where the west coast's over development boom is in full swing, a lot of new housing estates close to the beach, up and down a few sand dunes and finally a last km or so on the sand. At least we spend a fun afternoon partying on the beach in glorious weather (again!). We party longer at Gloucester Park tonight as the bands are good, and only leave when the security is evicting us.

Monday 24th March – Back to the reality of organizing our trip after the preordained section... and we have not made more than sketchy plans with our friends Carie and Joan to head south. Rental cars are hard to come by today with the holiday and 4000 hashers heading in various directions but we eventually secure a good deal on an SUV which is an ideal size for us. Rolling south we pass the southern beaches of the city, stop in the pretty town of Bunbury for a snack and make it to Margaret River, a winemaking area with great coastline and sandstone caves. We get a feel for driving in Australia: long stretches of not much other than scrub!

Getting a place in a backpackers in this town can be difficult with popular surfing beaches and temporary jobs aplenty at the wineries, but we book into a modern place which will not look new for long unless the managers enforce some cleanliness/ tidyness rules with the slacker inhabitants.

Tuesday 25th March – A leisurely day of wine touring with Tracy, Carie and Joan on drinking duty and Tim driving and taking the photos. Generally a good quality of wine and attractive surroundings (this area is mostly eucalyptus forest and more attractive than the standard scrub) make it a great place to tour. We grab snacks and wine late afternoon for the obligatory perfect west coast sunset where the River meets the sea (actually it doesn't quite, the fresh water seeps below a sandbar).

Wednesday 26th March – We begin by visiting Calgardup Cave, run by the Dept of Conservation and Land Management. They give you a torch (flashlight), helmet and send you off to take your time looking at some spectacular formations of flowstone, stalactites and stalagmites. From here we head through the Karri forest, a remnant of the ancient eucalyptus forests that once covered much of the continent. Here in the relative cool and damp of the far southwest the forest is dominated by huge trees, in this area they are Karris, huge yellowish eucalypts which we are told are the third biggest hardwoods on earth.

Next stop is the southwest point of the continent, Cape Leeuwin where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. Tim visits the lighthouse while the others check out the shore, then we head east, stopping for the night at Walpole where the backpackers is very much recommended, despite us having to carry out emergency plumbing repairs for the warden (who is only helping out his friend the owner while the friend is away). Amazing what a bit of knowledge and a roll of duct tape can do!

Thursday 27th March – One of the highlights of our time in WA is the Red Tingle forest, another area with unique large eucalypts. One of the reasons the eucalypts dominate the continent is their fire resistance, in fact many depend on fire to stimulate their seeds to germinate. The trees can be partially destroyed by fire and still continue to thrive, a point made by healthy tingles with hollow trunks that four people can easily stand in. The experience in this forest is enhanced by a suspended walkway that allows you to wander at the level of the forest canopy while swaying gently with the trees.

We are behind schedule at this point and have decided we'd better stay near Perth to make catching flights tomorrow stress free, so a long drive is ahead of us. We make an obligatory stop in Albany (Tim, Tracy and Carie all lived around Albany New York) where Tim took a few photographs of this very attractive and historic town while the others enjoyed a good pub lunch. From here we had 450km (280 miles) of straight and generally monotonous but good quality road so Tim settled in for a long drive while the girls partied with a few beers. We soon noticed that the few small towns we passed through all had one amenity... the hotel and bottle store. Useful for replenishing supplies.

Our initial plan was to find accommodation in Fremantle, little realising that a) it is a popular spot and b) there was a surfing event on. After trying all the options and drawing a blank we finally headed back to Perth and found a 4 person suite at our original hotel, the Goodearth.

Friday 28th March – Time to say goodbye to Joan and our other remaining New Zealand friends and fly with Carie to Melbourne. Tim got up early and returned to Fremantle for pictures, dropped the hire car and we called a cab. And waited. And waited. Luckily the delay didn't make us late for the flight though it did raise stress levels and we were soon en route to Melbourne. Once there we met up with our friend Don who Tracy got to know in Australia 20 years ago and Tim met when he passed through Syracuse NY in 1997. We shoehorned into a little Mazda and drove past the city lights and onward for 21/2 hours to Sale, where we met Don's “significant other” Ada at whose house we'd pick up our camper.