Back to Perth

Returning to Perth I signed up for another safari tour.  Went to the nearby town of Freemantle and stayed in a Youth Hostel.  I enjoyed this town and the Hostel so much I could have stayed a long time.  The people were from all over the world and the kitchen smelled wonderful.  We ate outside and spent all our relaxing time outside in the patio. 

 It was a short walk to marvelous markets and the streets were always full of music and entertainment.

I joined my safari tour group (this time 23 people) and we took off for the north part out of Perth. We rode in a 4-wheel drive “tank.” And there is so much  d r i v i n g  to get anywhere.  It was worth it to see such spectacular things.  This was a camping trip and our first camp was a “Bush Camp” and buddy, do I mean Bush.  A zillion miles (or K’s) from civilization and absolutely NO amenities!  We just threw our swag on the ground in the dark – used the nearest bush with some degree of privacy to ‘irrigate’ the terrain.  If you had more serious business, you brought the shovel.  As soon as I found this out, I took a pill that puts a ‘stopper’ in it – no shovel for me please…

The rest of our camps were more civilized caravan parks with toilets that flushed and HOT SHOWERS.  Some even had electric lights.  The evening meal was a joint preparation thing, and of course, you have your ‘workers' and your ”where in the hell did they go people.”  Nevermind the dishwashing and clean up; if any of you saw the cleaning methods and particularly the looks of the ‘tea towels’ we used for drying utensils, you’d puke.  We seemed to fare well, and if you’re hungry and miles from anywhere it’s amazing what you can overlook.

Our guide/driver was great….nice guy and a good sense of humor.  The people in the group were young backpackers from England, Switzerland, Japan, Ireland, Denmark and Germany.

We saw “Pinnacles” –  sandstone formations sticking out of the desert ground.  Eerie and interesting.  Sand dunes that are enormous and we drove over them in that tank vehicle (that was always having mysterious problems when we were in the middle of nowhere, but kept getting started after a fashion, so..)  We went to a secluded beach with icy cold water;  some went right in.  When I asked Phil (the guide) about putting on a bathing suit, he said “good idea.”  I hoped for a little privacy, but I donned my ‘swimming costume’ without privacy and enjoyed the water.

While in this area, we went to Monkey Mia where dolphin come right up to the beach and interact with the people.  All their actions are “food instigated” and not because they care that much for people, but it is facinating to watch.

So many wonderful beaches and our guide in his very Aussie way would say, “amazing, brilliant” – so proud of his Western Australia wondrers.

One stop was a highlight for me.  It was a caravan park with a naturalist explaining the wildflowers.  He had a magnification set-up so we could view on a monitor as he explained and pointed out parts of the flowers and discussed pollination and methods of seeding.  The entire area is usually brown scrub, but at this time of year it was just miles and miles of wildflowers—unbelievable .

After this safari I will leave Perth and go to Melbourne to take the ship “Spirit of Tasmania” for an overnight trip to Tasmania.

Perth and Western Australia

From Adelaide I took The Indian Pacific Railway (2 nights and 3 days journey.)  I am making this trip with “Ruth”  from Warrenbool.   I met her in the Barrier Reef area, and taking this train was something she always wanted to do.  {I was ‘leaving Ruth out of this blog’ until I reread my emails; so she’s in and you’ll see why soon.}

I read this about the Railway.  “The beginnings of this great rail journey started in October of 1917.  A remarkable feat of engineering since two construction teams met from opposite directions, exactly as planned.

“The Indian Pacific is one of the last coast to coast rail journeys in the World.  This amazing train links the mighty Pacific Ocean on one side of Australia with the Indian Ocean on the other, a distance of 4352 kilometres.

“No other journey in the world crosses so many different terrains in one country, from the spectacular Blue Mountains, through the famous green and gold Sun Belt of Australia, past outposts and mining towns, through the red outback and across the world’s longest length of straight railway track through the stark and desolate Nullabor Plan.”

Our room accommodations were very nice; the food was good; and if you wanted to socialize, you had the lounge.  I got to enjoy the room and scenery through the window while Ruth spent most of her time in the lounge. 

Even tho it was desolate and only a few towns, the scenery was wonderful.  We stopped long enough once to go see a working gold mine.  This town had a brothel, complete with the ‘ladies’ sitting in front of their ‘cribs.’  One town had all homes built underground because of the heat—it was difficult to even see the homes.

I was delighted and surprised when we got off the train in Perth—it is a shiny city with tall buildings and a spectacular sight.  Ruth and I went to an outfitter and booked a safari to the south of Perth.  Before that trip, she and I went to Rottenest Island by train and stayed at a Youth Hostel.  We toured the island on bicycles and saw Walloby and so many beautiful birds and wildlife.  She got us lost so many times….that’s when I realized she could get lost in a shoebox!

Now anyone who thinks I am travelling in perfect harmony with Ruth—please stand up.  She’s a teacher, and  “bloody well knows everything!”  Also, she’s a “ditz” and resents any input.  Tell me you’re surprised….

The plans for the Safari include her, but there will be other people and the tour people will take over.  Anyway, she has to return to Adelaide when we get back…ahhh  The safari is in a 4 wheel vehicle and we will be ‘roughing it’ for four days.  The first night out we are staying in a large room in a caravan park (campground).  I asked to drag my swag out on the porch so I didn’t have to sleep with all those people.  The driver joined me on the porch.  On our trip, we saw and experienced so many wonders, I can’t relate them all.  Hope my pictures will tell about it.

  Another night we stayed in a farm cabin in the wilderness.  It had one bedroom and one (1) bathroom and toilet for all 8 people.  I slept on the porch again.  Ruth endeared herself to all by taking her shower in the morning when folks were getting up and couldn't use the bathroom!  She did so many rude, hurtful and inconsiderate things.  The driver/tour guide would tell her to “bugger off” when she had complaints.  By this time we all would have traded her for a dead cat!

I kinda hate to tell you about the flies, but one place they were so BAD, well I would only eat bread out of an unopened loaf....this garment was my "all purpose drape."

We went on a bush tucker tour and were served some of the Aboriginal food . There were nuts and fruit that contained vitamin C, and were very good.  One nut was used to grind up to make a sort of  bread called “damper.”  They had no grain until the Europeans came.
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I was amazed when some of the little Aborigine children as part of the tour, spread mashed grubs on bread, sprinkled it with herbs and stuff and ate it.   Unfortunately the settlers drove the Aboriginals off, shot at them and drove them into the sea to drown.  After our ‘fine meal’ we toured an undeveloped cave.  We all carried torches (flashlights) because it was not lit and the path was wet, rocky and unstable.  I asked to wait outside, and after slipping and landing on my head, my request was granted.  Who wants to tour a dark cave dragging Lydia…

This was one of our
camps and the inside
of our bus.

We were traveling along in this 4 wheel vehicle and rode through a raging river—the driver/tour guide said he knew where to cross and he did.  It was exciting and scary at the same time. 

One evening we loaded in the vehicle, took a searchlight and went looking for kangaroo.  We found lots (or heaps as they say here).  They cared little that we looked on as they grazed.  These were the largest kangaroo I’d seen.  It gets cold at night and we never have heat, unless there’s a bonfire. Cooking was done outside most of the time and pretty good given the circumstances.  I usually helped out with preparation and the night he fixed Tacos, he turned it all over to me.  They didn’t know the first thing about a taco since they were from places all over the world.

An area we drove through returning to Perth is in the midst of much development.  Filling in wetlands, scraping the land of trees and growth for housing; especially with water access for boats….sound familiar?  This whole area looks new and upscale and doesn’t even seem like Australia.

While in the Margaret River area, we canoed to an erie island that used to be where Aboriginals went to “get rid of evil spirits.”  They believed the small holes in the trees held evil spirits, so they sat with their body next to a hole in one of these strange trees and meditated on what they did wrong and waited for the evil spirit in their body to move into the tree cavity.

Our driver/guide was “an old hippi” as he called himself.  He made a trip to the US years ago, bought an old van and drove from California to New York.  Spent 6 months driving and enjoying the US.

Another thing we saw was the Kerri Forest.  Giant trees that were being trampled at the roots, so they built a marvelous walkway up in the sky.  We stopped in many quaint little villages and had time to wander around.

Back to Perth