Road Trip

21st of April

As from today, I am traveling along the West coast of Australia, from Perth in the Southwest to Broome in the Northwest. Yep, this is indeed a road trip which is to last for about 1 month. This morning, I checked out of the YHA in Perth and will catch a plane from Broome to Brisbane on the 19th of May. The period between these dates will be marked by making slow progress up North in my new temporary home, my wicked campervan!

From Road trip Per...

I went down to the depot this morning to collect my vehicle. As you can see, it is paint-brushed on all sides and in this case the name of the van is ‘Metallica’, after the metal rock band. And this is a type of music which I absolutely don’t like, so I am not sure if it will be a bad relationship between me and the car, but we’ll see. I almost forgot my groceries from the hostel, as I had done in Sydney (yes Bren, I did, including the bottle of wine…), but obviously I could turn around and collect them after all.

The drive today was very relaxing, through the suburbs of Perth, along the coast. I am now in the small town of Lancelin (population 800 according to Lonely Planet), where I have found a spot at the local caravan park. Luckily, it is still dry after strong rainfall the past 2 days. Hopefully it will stay this way, so I can enjoy a relaxed, although a bit chilly, evening outside of the van. The park is really close to the sea and I can smell it in the air. Its good to be staying outside for a while, as I had enough of the city by now. Especially last night was not a good one, with people heavily snoring in my room. Apart from the train tracks running along the YHA building, even my ear plugs could not prevent me hearing that ‘tree-cutting’ sound. I believe a whole forest was timbered last night. Anyway, apart from that, it feels good to have a bit of privacy again, all may it be a very small space and sleep calmly with the sound of rolling waves in the background.

Right now, I have to start cooking on a single fire, truly like camping which I have not done since the age of 10 or so. It’s going to be some nice pasta with cucumber salad, so not too bad!

22nd of April

My journey continued to the area of the town of Cervantes, close to the Nambung National Park with the famous Pinnacles. These are limestone rocks, shaped by nature over a very long time. The area where the Pinnacles are, is actually a desert. It is possible to travel through the park by car or you can go by foot, as the path is only 3 km longs. The site of the Pinnacles is amazing. Seeing just a bunch of rocks together might not mean much, but the combination of shaping, the yellow/ red sand, the plants who are trying to survive in such a harsh environment and the quietness, make it a very nice place to visit.


The crowds were thin, so I could really absorb the landscape and its magnificent natural sculpturing. In that respect, having left Perth behind now for only a few hundred kilometers, the vastness and ‘emptiness’ of this continent is enormous. I am traveling along the coastal area which is supposed to be the more densely populated region, but already long stretches of land as far as the eye can see are in view. Also roads have become quieter as well, making it easy to cruise in a relaxed pace along my route.


I have not determined the route in detail, but will do so as I move along. As said, I only need to be in Broome by the 19th of May, so plenty of time to cover the 2200+ kilometers from Perth. I am considering making a detour to the East and see some of the mining area. However, I have been warned today that this region (Mount Franklin) might be dangerous due to Aboriginal upheaval. Unfortunately, such issues still occur in Australia. I will try to find out more when I get to Geralton, the town where I will be traveling to tomorrow.

For now, I have made camp at the local caravan of Cervantes and had a nice diner with cray fish, fresh from the sea.

23rd of April

I packed up this morning, after a relaxing night of sleeping. I did wake up of the heavy rainfall, which was good. Good, as it is such for the land after a dry summer and also because it is during the night, so I won’t have any rain during the day!

Fortunately, there was little rain during my drive up to Geraldton WA, where I am now. It is a town of about 44,000 when including a close-by village, so a decent size for this region. They also have internet, so am now able to upload this post and some more pictures. It has been really worthwhile driving at a moderate pace, so I could really take in the stunning countryside. The pictures only do it partially justice.

It already seems quite a while ago that I left Perth, but it has only been 2 days. Being out here in nature and relaxed areas really is really nice. It is still a long way to Broome, but I have got so much time, that I don’t need to worry about getting there in time. I will have plenty of opportunity to fully enjoy Australia’s natural parks and wonders. Not going to Mount Franklin has given me some extra days. I might see some of the mining region further up North, south of the towns of Karratha and Port Hedland, half-way Exmouth to Broome.

But for now, there is still plenty of beautiful stuff to see ahead; Kalbarri National Park, Stromatolites and wild dolphins and more at Shark Bay Marine Park and off course hopefully, whale sharks, manta rays, dugongs and beautiful fish and reefs at Exmouth/ Ningaloo Marine Park. I will also see my friend Jacqui just South of Exmouth, where she is enjoying her working holiday at Warroora station.

So, plenty of more posts and pictures to follow!

See’ya, maties!

Perth WA, Australia

I am currently in Perth, Western Australia and checked in the local hostel yesterday. As Perth is currently very busy, I was unable to find some cheap accommodation the day before. In the end, the next cheapest, believe it our not, was at the 5-star Hilton hotel, which was offering a Friday night special at a very low rate on a very good website www.wotif.com. So quite a big change yesterday - from 5-star hotel to budget hostel. It is fine, although I must say that I very much enjoyed my stay at the Hilton in terms of sleeping. On the other hand, the YHA (youth hostel australia) is much more down to earth and there is much more interaction with other people, but the sleeping is much less with several people in one room. Anyway, this is going to be my home for just over a week, as I am waiting for my campervan to become available, and a special van it is! Check out www.wickedcampers.com.au on the web. It comes with everything included, so should be good. Will tell you all about it when I am on the road. I have never done such a road trip before, so am excited about it. Should be okay though, another new experience!

I rented a bicycle as another means of transportation for checking out the city. They have an excellent city center bus system which is free to use. You can just hop on and off where you like along the route, e.g. to Northbridge, an area just north of the Perth City train station where you can find lots of bars and restaurants. I used that system for going out and having some diner. But today I went on a cycle tour, from the city to the City Beach to be exact. As only a few Ozzies cycle, there are few dedicated bicycle pathways. To overcome that, you are allowed to bike on the street, these dedicated pathways, on shared pedestrian & bicycle pathways and even just on the pedestrian footpath. Can you imagine that being able to do in Amsterdam? People would go crazy and very angry. Another thing you need to do down here is where a helmet, or risk a AU$ 50 fine. With the strong sunshine, it is actually comfortable to wear one, so no complaints there.

Today I went on a suggested cycling tour, the so-called City to Beach tour. It would take me from the Perth City train station all the way to the west, to the City Beach. There are various beaches, but this one is the closest. As it was another lovely day with lots of sunshine and temperature around 30 C, it was great to do this tour. Soon after departure, I found myself in some lovely suburbs of western Perth, with low traffic and lots of green and beautiful houses. There are good markings for the route and the Ozzies are very cautious about traffic, e.g. everywhere there are signs like “end” for end of the pathway when you cross a road, with another sign marking the beginning of it. Another example are the stickers on the traffic lights for pedestrians. They state that you should not cross when the light is red, cross with green but be very cautious and do not start to cross when the red light is blinking. I must say, there is quite a bit of traffic, but not as aggressive as it sometimes can be in NL.

The beach itself was very nice with a nice breeze coming from the sea. I decided not to stay too long and go back, probably jumping on the bus or train if I did not want to cycle all the way back. Not having cycled for 6 months much, does have an impact on my cycle fitness! ;-) I rode the same route back and came through the suburb of Subiaco. It is also the location of the local Australian Football teams. Apparently, this day a big game was on were Freemantle (port of Perth) was playing Richmond.

I decided to grasp this unique opportunity to see this typical Australia-only sport and bought a ticket. I found myself surrounded by season ticket holders of Freemantle. Luckily I was wearing a purple T-shirt, the same colours as their team. Seriously, they were quite fanatic, but without any verbal abuse. Actually, one of them was spoken to when he used the ‘b$st$rd’ word when shouting at a player, not to use strong language and he apologized! Can you imagine that happening in the football stadium back in Europe? However, I could appreciate his frustration as his team lost almost with double figures, even though there had been considered to be favorite for this game. I am not going to explain the rules, as I hardly know them myself, but enough to understand the scoring.

On Monday, I went fun diving at Rottnest Island, ‘Rotto’ as it is called locally, just off the coast. I had booked 2 fun dives and had a great time. There were few people on the boat and the water was a bit warmer again, around 24 C. I made all sorts of pictures which you can check out by clicking the picture below.

Fun diving @ Rottnest Island, WA

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I had rented the bike for another day and decided to take a tour around the Swan river, going from the city center, along the south bank, all the way around to the west side of the city center. As it was again a lovely day, it was a really relaxing ride along the banks of the river Swan. The river was named by the Dutch, William de Vlamingh, who were one of the first westerners to arrive here when crossing from ‘Kaap de Goede Hoop’ (South Africa) due West to short-cut the route the East-Indies (Indonesia). That is why you find some Dutch name around, like Cape Leeuwin and the river Swan. One of the parks on the South bank is an heritage park, with all sorts of historical items, such as a statue of William - revealed by Willem-Alexander van Oranje, back in 1997.


I also went to the Mint of Perth, one of the leading Mints in the world regarding processing precious metals. They have all sorts of jewelry there, but I was much more interested in seeing the gold nuggets and the story behind them. These guys in the old days really suffered some hardship in search of fortune and only a few succeeded. There was also a demonstration of gold melting and pouring with explanation of the unique characteristics of gold, e.g. the gold bar being poured was the same one for over 10 years, every day being melted, poured and cooled down without the gold loosing any of its uniqueness. This is unlike e.g. metal which can only be processed as such a couple of times before changing its characteristics.

Last night and today it is raining since a long while in Perth. The Southwest already had lots of rain showers and still have, but Perth had been dry until last night. I am just chillin’ out and waiting for my camper van to become avaiable! So for now, relax, don’t stress and enjoy the start of Spring in the Northern hemisphere! ;-)

see’ya, mates!

Southwest Western Australia

I flew down from Sydney to Perth to see another friend of mine, Nicole. She lives down there with her Ozzie boyfriend and her newly-born baby girl, Annabella. I had not seen her for over 8 months, so was quite excited to see her again.

The journey by plane was a bit cumbersome as my initial direct flight was changed into a stop-over in Melbourne. It meant a very early start of the day as well. We left with quite a delay due to high winds and arrived in Melbourne right on the moment my connecting flight left. Luckily, there was another flight later that day, so we all (all passengers connecting to Perth) got transfered onto that one. While waiting at the airport, I wanted something to eat and went down to the Boost Juice bar store. They have some excellent fruit juices and smoothies, but don’t take the Mediterranean pasta salad! It was absolutely tasteless and I ended up getting my money back for it.

Anyway, the flight to Perth was smooth and easy although quite long. I truly experienced the vastness of this country which is huge! Perth was nice warm and sunny and I got a taxi into town for picking up my rental car. I had decided to rent a car, so it would be easy to get to Nicole’s town and also for mobility the following days and checking out the region. After all, it is wine country were she lives. The rent is quite low (only AU$ 30 = appr. E 18) with unlimited milage and a good car too; new Toyota Corolla automatic, really good! Should you be in Oz and want to rent a car, check out www.nobirds.com.au. They are really good and cheap! (No I don’t get any commission…)

I made my way to the village of Dunsborough, all the way in the southwest corner of Western Australia and as such Australia. The countryside looks a bit like country side in some states of the USA, should you have been there, for comparison. Long roads, with hilly countryside, life stock grazing, trees here and there, quite nice.

I arrived early evening at their home and got a warm welcome. It was really good to see her again and obviously the little ‘kabouter’, who is absolutely adorable. Nicole is really happy with her ‘little one’ and discovered that she really loves motherhood. More on that can be found on her own blog.

Autumn has arrived to this part of the world - weird to move straight from spring (okay, only limited on a tropical island as Koh Tao) to autumn. This part of Oz has got very much like a Mediterranean climate. Very enjoyable, with only few days really hot or cold, also due to its closeness to the Ocean. The beach is within walking distance of where they live and we went to check it out. There are no dunes, just hills running into a rocky or beach area. As it is low season, very few people are there, although I am told that even during the high season it does not get a lot of crowds. The water is around 20 C, so too cold to really swim in it. I did book a dive trip to a local wreck which is the biggest wreck of the Southern hemisphere with a length over 112 meters and height of over 20 meters. It is a former naval ship and sunk purposely to form an artificial reef. It is also a marine-protected area, so I am keen to see that too. Luckily the dive shop rents out 7 mm wetsuits, so I should be less cold than during the dives in Sydney. Unfortunately, my initial booking was cancelled due to insufficient number of customers. I am now booked for Wednesday. I saw that 3 other people have booked as well, so the number of people is fine (minimum of 3 required). However, the wind has picked up and that could prevent us going out, e.g. tomorrow will have the strongest winds, so it would not have been possible then. Let’s hope for the best and see.

I am planning to go back to Perth on Thursday. I want to check out the city, see Freemantle as well, and possibly do some diving at Rottnest Island right off the coast. More on that hopefully later.

The last couple of days, I chilled out down here and we went to the beach and forest, both magnificent places. Places are virtually empty with no man-made sounds to be heard. If you want to wind down and enjoy some great nature, this is definitively an interesting area to go to, should you be in the area. They also have Spas around, so you could take the more intense relaxation option as well. ;-)

Today I did a tour of the region by car. I drove down all the way to the south-side, the absolute Southwestern Side of Oz, Cape Leeuwin. The whole region is an absolute heaven for wine and other produce lovers. Numerous vineyards with daily free tastings can be found all over the region. And some of these wines are truly superb! I can now understand why the French have been worried about competition and this region is not the only wine producing region of Oz… They also have cheese (was okay) and chocolate factories and also some olive oil producers, which is very tasty too. All in all, a very nice, but tiring day!

As said, soon I will be heading north and I am thinking of driving all the way up, using a rental van. More on that later!

See’ya!

Sydney

Leaving Thailand (for now)

I left Samui with now only 2 bags, but some very heavy bags. I did not want to leave anything behind as I had not made any definitive plans what to do after Oz. So I had to take everything with me, especially my dive gear and related materials, e.g. some instructor manuals weighing over 2 kgs in total! Luckily, I had pre-booked some extra weight allowance on the flight from Phuket to Sydney with Jetstar, so only had to pay a bid extra at the check-in desk after flying from Samui to Phuket. But still, it was in total quite a bit of money for stuff I absolutely need to take with me. I was hoping to scan my documents as much as possible in Sydney and get rid of the paper manuals, as I was unable to do that on Samui.

The flight to Sydney was quite comfortable with very friendly staff on board, especially, considering the price I paid. Getting into Oz - yes they let me in! - was painless as well and quickly I made my way with the train to the hostal, the YHA @ Central station. Brenda, my friend from Amsterdam, had made reservations there earlier, so it was the most convenient - and not too expensive - thing to get a room there as well. I had reserved a bed over the internet in Thailand, so check was easy as well, as most of the Ozzies are too. I have been staying in a shared room with 3 other guys which was a bit getting used to, after having my own home back in Amsterdam and my rooms in Thailand. But we get along quite fine, with 2 other guys staying for a longer period as well. As it is a hostel, I am sleeping on a bunk beds, so that is funny of staying there as well, although I definitively would prefer more privacy, e.g. now I need to put everything in a safe locker all the time.

I had 2 days before Brenda would arrive in Sydney, so took some time to check out the city and get some chores done. Sydney is quite a nice city, although truly a large city. It is very funny to see all those office people running towards their jobs in suits and ties, some quite stressed out. Also, like many other locations, few people smile in the street and seemed to be focused on the superficial things in life, like buying loads of stuff and worried a lot how they look like. I am only guessing this from looking at people in the street, but I think that it won’t much differ down here from anywhere else in the world. I am glad that I am not currently in an office job, fighting for my career and be as such highly competitive and superficial in life. Well, I don’t know what the future beholds, so might need to return to a corporate life somewhere down the line, but for now, not in the near foreseeable future!

Sydney sights

Yes, I did see a lot of the typical Sydney sights, so here in random order:

Sydney Opera House; this exquisite building and Unesco world heritage site, is as beautiful as it looks on pictures. I took a tour of the inside on the 1st of April which revealed a lot more details on its conception and development and obviously shows the inside. The main concert hall is awesome and I decided to get tickets for a performance. It is the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing together with Martin Balton , creating a fusion of classical music and authentic Aboriginal digiridoo sounds. That should be exciting! I am going to the concert with a Scottish girl I met today at the tour, as Brenda left yesterday for Amsterdam, snif, snif...

Harbour Bridge; I saw this landmark inside-out, from the Opera House, along the harbour, from the ferry, walked over it and did a bridge climb to the summit at 134 meters. This last part is an expensive tour, but very much worth it. We did it during the twilight hours, so were able to watch a beautiful sunset and see dusk fall over Sydney.
The Rocks; this area around the south-side of the Harbour Bridge is one of the old parts of Sydney. It is completely renovated - maybe a bit too much, as there are no ‘rough edges’ anymore - with some very nice views and nice bars and restaurants. Brenda and I had a very nice diner on our last night together in one of them.
Royal Botanical Gardens; this big park is located right next to the Opera House and is a beautiful location with nice plants and trees and lawns to lounge on in the warm sun. Apparently, it is also a very popular wedding locations as many parts of the park were reserved for wedding parties or newly weds running around the park for having pictures taken. The park also houses a large population of ‘flying dogs’ bats (?) which hunts all over the place for fruits to eat.
Queen Victoria Building; a grand-old shopping building with very nice architecture with a letter of Queen Elizabeth II on display, only to be opened in the year 2085.
Paddington Market; we went to this market on Saturday and is located outside of the city centre. It is a bit of an ‘alternative’ market with typical clothing, eco-products, tarrot card reading etc, a bit of a ‘Noordermarkt’ as Amsterdam people might know. Mainly aimed at women, so Brenda had a great time checking everything out, while I had a coffee and a typical Ozzie breakfast of raisin toast with butter.
Manly & Bondi beach; these beaches are located to the East and especially Bondi is quite known. It was very relaxing to stay there for a few hours and enjoy the sight - including Oz ‘fitties’. ;-)


On the Sunday I went to do a less typical Sydney tourist activity and went for diving. There are quite a number of dive sites around Sydney and I was very much interested in how the diving would be. My first impression is: COLD!!! Being used to water of 29 C and wearing a 3 mm long wetsuit, a local water temperature of only 21 C is very cold, despite the 5 mm long wetsuit I was wearing. I was already shivering after 5 minutes, but continued the dive and felt a bit less uncomfortable on the second dive. Obviously, Sydney is not a tropical region, so I was not expecting to see lots of choral and tropical fish.
The dive was great, seeing a leopard shark (quite unusual in the Sydney waters) and 2 reef nurse sharks. Also some other nice sea creatures were in the area, like a big blue grouper, slugs and a sea dragon which I had never seen before. After all, 2 very nice dives!

Salsa

I finally got to dance salsa again! It had been months since the last time I went dancing in Amsterdam, as there weren’t any venues to do that on Samui or Koh Tao. The salsa calendar on the internet stated two locations in Sydney. Not having been here before, I found it quite difficult to decide which one to go to. Luckily, when having diner, I overheard some people on another table talk about salsa, so I went over to them and asked there advice. It seemed that the one uptown was the best choice, and indeed it was. The Entertainment Bar (what’s in a name?) was big, very nice atmosphere, full of people, an excellent live band and beautiful women to dance with! After a bid of a rusty start, I got really back into it and had a great evening, meeting some nice people too! I am very glad I went and danced again to some great tunes with some great dancers as well - so another ‘tick in the box’, salsa dancing in Sydney!

Tomorrow I will fly off to Perth, Western Australia, and rent a car to drive down to the little town of Dunsborough, south of Perth. I will stay there with Nicole and her little family, so that should be really great to do!

See’ya, maties!