Bunbury in a Day

So we think it will be a good idea to go into Town by bus as there is a stop right outside the campsite, saves parking a big van in the center.  We look for a timetable, no such luck, look on line, no such luck, ask in reception, no luck so there I am looking for bus company telephone number to ring them whilst walking to corner of road, when a huge shriek goes up next to me and I get pushed in order I don't step onto a snake the same colour now as my underpants.....
The Bus will be along in 50 minutes, back to camp and ten minutes later we park the van down at the beach where within 5 minutes we are watching a Dolphin doing what some would call tricks but in reality it was hunting for fish in shallow water.  Well after half hour or so we walk to a coffee shop......... Now as I may have mentioned before the Australians whilst appearing to be good natured, will put  up with anything, they are a bit basic, so should I really be surprised when my coffee arrives with the remnants of the last twenty people to use the mug, stuck in the crack around the top....... Do I make a scene? If I do I may get free antibiotics for anything I succumb to....... Having left said Coffee shop, I stop a couple in the street and ask them the way to the Hospital, No not really, I asked where a certain store was, we start talking and I realise I have become one of those irritating persons who stand in the middle of the pavement as a group talking and everyone else has to walk around you.  After 10 minutes of talking to this couple, I adjust my position so as to allow free access to the footpath, David the guy we are talking to, says don't bother walking, we will give you a lift........ and so we arrive at the store, refreshed and some good advice about touring New Zealand, the Australian v Expat culture, The South West of Australia and where to find bloody Fairy Wrens......
The store we wanted is useless but we go into Bunnings, a DIY store next to it, looking for a screw to replace the one in my belt buckle that had fallen out.  There we are down an aisle, looking through boxes of screws, removing one and trying it in the buckle of the belt which is now in a bag, surprise, surprise two Bunnings Staff are suddenly next to us giving us the once over, so best form of defence is attack, I confront them by asking if they could help, best service we have ever had in Australia.........
Now the problem with a lot of Australian Towns on the Coast is that they obviously started off some time ago due to some form of industry, so whenever you see a lookout advertising a stunning view of the coastline and town, you also know you are going to get in the background some form of industry which is simply ugly, Bunbury is no different with grain silos etc, so once again we get that disappointed feeling about the things to do and see according to the Bunbury Tourist Guide.  I drive around, we do the Mangrove Boardwalk, the Leschenault Inlet, the Big Swamp Reserve and see basically nothing, certainly nothing new.  So on impulse I drive out of town, following my nose and  hopefully a sense of direction towards the sea and end up on a new housing estate which has obviously been built on land that was previously a wood/forest and that has had to have retained a lake, some natural woodland and dunes left to regenerate.  Wow Christmas has come early for someone next to me, she is having a whale of a time with the Birds we see, one a Nankeen just dropped out of the sky about 25ft in front of us and invited a young magpie to lunch with him..... There were Eagles, Parrots, White Eyes, Kookaburra's, and loads of water birds, so much so, she was not amused when her camera battery died on her......  That's enough nature for one day, let's go get some diesel, well blow me down with a feather if we don't get to the garage and find a 5inch long Wood Moth, thank heavens for camera phones.  Now the Wood Moth, having spent two years as a grub has no means to eat, it just does what male and female wood moths do and dies, something that brown snakes can easily cause humans to do, so from now on, we are playing follow the leader, with me bringing up the rear............

    Dolphin in the middle of Town

    Contagious Coffee

    Nankeen looking for dessert.......

    Pretty Polly

    Kookaburra

    5inches of Wood Moth on the pull.......

Just, No pleasing some people......

As we pull away from all our new friends in Rocking-Ham with crystal clear vision we think, will we miss them, ha ha ha ho, no way........  Off to Bunbury but whilst en-route I get an urge and we take a detour to Serpentine National Park, where the water falls are at an angle of 45 degrees.  Now the problem of being back in civilisation is that you have to share whatever with whoever and so even though we are early at the falls, others have beaten us to it and no way are we going to get a photo without the so called civilised also being in it.   There is also no way, when the Blue Fairy Wren hunter is standing quietly in a spot where they are known to frequent, that the so called civilised are not going to be walking past, talking loudly, dragging eski's on wheels, shouting at the little civilised who are running all over the place banging sticks on the undergrowth and totally ignoring the Blue Fairy Wren Hunter who's blood is beginning to boil and it's not because of the heat........ Let's walk away, somewhere quiet I say, whilst prising her fingers away from little Bruce's neck...... and we find ourselves in a little rest area away from everyone looking up into the trees.  After 5 minutes, I'm bored and look down at my feet to find a Blue Tongue Skink lying in the shadows of a bench seat looking up at me, thinking, 'oh how observant you are, you Pink Tongue Stinker'. Psst I say with a nod and a wink to BFW hunter and say, there's something here with smaller legs than you, ouch! How about a BTS instead....... It's the first time we have ever seen one outside of captivity so start clicking away trying to catch his blue tongue when it comes out.  He is playing with us, I alone took over 70 photos which resulted in 4 tongue shots whilst BFW hunter managed 3 and so we watch as he skilfully climbs a rock, looks around, judges where he wants to go, makes sure it safe and clear and then falls 18ins head over tail off it............  Onward and upward we go and whilst we see the elusive BFW amongst trees and shrubs, we are denied the opportunity of taking decent photos.  We get back to the car park and it is chocker, this causes me some concern so I say lets go for coffee, I need to make plans etc.  We go to Serpentine itself, what's happened, has our van become a time machine, we are back in the basic 70's again, we take a look inside both so called 'Dining establishments' and walk out.  Off to Mandurah where we park up near the beach, I grab a table with shade over looking the beach with a gentle warm sea breeze simply tickling my warm bits, whilst someone else is preparing Tea and Sandwiches.  Then having glared at anyone who remotely even looked my way never mind thought about sitting down, just as the van door opens and two mugs of tea exit it, a nun and three children ask if they can sit down and use the table so as the children can eat their McDonalds meal......... As the scream subsides inside my head I hear myself saying "Of course" and so we share our Lunch time with little shy Joshua and our nun from Somalia......... After lunch I make the phone call necessary which I hope will allay my concerns but I am told, "Sorry, we have No Vacancies" just what I thought, all these civilised people are on their summer vacation, I phone more camp sites, all of whom say the same. Finally we find one 5.5kms outside of Bunbury that can accommodate us.  This is the first time this holiday we have experienced this and so I contact every camp site in our next port of call, Busselton and no one can put us up this weekend.  We get to our camp site and the receptionist explains it will be like this until February, so we now reverse our intended route and are now going the way we expected to be coming.......
I find a country campsite that has vacancies so no problem up to the weekend, what a difference from just being able to walk in and choose your own site, not sure civilisation is so good now........

    Serpentine falls, with people.  National Geographic never have this problem....

    Blue Toungue Little Legs

    Why I'm called what I am.......

    A Stinker!

Rockingham Revelations

We start our day by actually eating again for the first time since yesterday's breakfast, only today it was a much more normal portion, we then go to meet our host who appears a little disgruntled with his life, 69 yrs, 46 of which have been in Oz but has just sold camp site to Government to build housing on for American Navy, stationed here.  Reading between the lines he would have got more had someone bought it as a going concern....... Next stop, the ferry to Penguin Island, where, what do we see, you got it, Pelicans........ It appears that once they have charged ($16 each) for the ferry to get across to the island, they tell you that you are unlikely to see any penguins as they go off during the day feeding, are very shy and hide in burrows but if you pay more, you can see the captive ones........  No thanks, we will take our chances and within five minutes of landing are looking at a group of three Little Penguins, the smallest penguins in the world in the process of moulting, so are unable to go fishing........Then we find more hidden under the Boardwalk we are on.  There are thousands of other birds and where ever you kneel or place your hat, it's over bird poo.......  We then find a Kings Skink out hunting for birds eggs and are excited until we find out the Island is almost overrun with them, they are everywhere and we eventually stop taking pictures of them and change to Pelicans.  The island is also a Pelican Rookery and it was amazing to see possibly 20 Pelicans flying at the same time, almost in formation, we now understand where a 'Squadron' of Pelicans comes from.  3 hours later we are in the shopping centre getting provisions and still being amazed at just how normal life here appears, compared to where we have been for the past two months.  We go to a deli for lunch and can hardly believe we get asked so many questions concerning the sandwich and coffee we want making and we get it brought to our table, all without the aid of a flashing buzzer.........
Onto Cape Peron to see Sea Lions and or Dolphins, it's too overcast to see clearly so inland to Lake Richmond, here we find some Black Swans who lead us to the local crazy woman........ She is on the waters edge and explains to me, that there is a serpent in the water by the rocks 18 inches out........ Now whilst my mind wants me to say one thing my mouth actually says the opposite and we start a discussion where she eventually concedes that it could be an eel she has seen..... There are splashes now around the rocks, which she confirms is what she has been referring to as 'El Serpente'.  I then decide to take a life into my own hands and push Julie out to have a look....... It's a fish, who in order to feed on the tadpoles and small fish, darts across the shallow water over the rocks, snaps one up and then darts back to the deeper water.  We go to explain but too late she is now in full flow of telling us about her husband, her divorce, her son being in prison, her home being New Zealand, that she lives over the other side of the lake, that she's a swinger and that there are Tiger Snakes and King Brown Snakes in the undergrowth she has just got us to walk through......... Now obviously, I am interested in one of the subjects and ask her about being chased, yes she says, they will chase after you..... Tiger Snakes that is.........  Oh look, is that an observation tower I say, yes, you get a good view of the lake from up there, she replies.  I then ask if she is going that way, she replies No and off we go, after I ask her to stamp a path in front of us to get back to the proper path, which she agrees to and does....... Quackers or what!
Now back at camp and whilst returning from bathroom get asked by neighbour if he is annoying us with him and his mates guitar playing, No I say, mainly because we had not heard him above the air con.  Now both are almost very near the falling down stage, when he asks me what do I think of Australia, I start to answer but before I can finish I am offered a smoke from his bong, some weed to smoke, am told he used to be in a biker gang, his brother committed suicide, that he has served 3 yrs in prison and that he is not allowed a passport so can never leave Australia.
He also told me why Biker Gangs never ever have Japanese bikes, will save that for a quiz night and that if he is annoying us to let him know.............. I just replied, if you annoy or upset us, you will be the first to know, we will not tolerate any of your bad ways, just remember that, then I got in the van and changed camp sites........

    I'm trying to hide from you.........

    Be glad when we can go fishing again

    More fish for us to eat

    I wonder why Biker Gangs don't allow Japanese Bikes.......

    Embarrassed because I caught them kissing.......

    Hiss off, mad lady........

The Return to Civilisation...........

The stars start to diminish as the daylight starts to overtake night, when I say from my shower refuge " Can you let me out now please" nothing untoward has occurred during our night in the bush and so we are off at 6.30pm, on a 654kms journey with hopefully a breakfast destination, just around the corner.  Just after 8am we arrive in Northampton, it's Sunday, it's early, it's closed....... We stop at the BP Service Station come shop, come take away, come fine dining, this is good I say, we can be on the road again in half hour....... We order what we want with the guy on the desk and take a seat at one of the two tables and wait and wait and then after ten minutes  the chef comes out from the kitchen and asks what do we want, we repeat the order, which as before included drinks and sit back and watch a woman come in, walk to the freezer compartments, open it up, take something purple out and then walk out of the shop, leaving the man at the till looking bemused....... I look in the freezer and see the only thing purple is a plastic spoon for the ice cream tubs, I go over and advise man at till and as we both look out and see said woman sitting in the front passenger seat of a red dust covered 4x4 eating something with the aid of a purple spoon........ So now we have been here some considerable time when a man walks in, you may have guessed we are slightly bored by now, this man I notice is not wearing a shirt but looks like he has a bikini sun tan line, I just up and take a second look, report back to her who thinks she is in charge that I want to go and get my camera to record this event....... I am told "NO, please just have breakfast and then let's go without any trouble".  I submit to the wishes of my breakfast partner but walk over to get a better look at said man with iPhone at he ready....... It's not a chest bikini line it's white chest hair, shaped like a bikini top, I laugh to myself until he turns around and then there is so much bum cleavage, I turn excitedly to her who is sitting composed at the table, indicating towards what she is missing before it departs the store, it is then that I notice a female customer paying for something at the till looking at me as if I'm the local town looney...... I dismiss this, until I see her get into the same car as hairy bikini man, at which point I hide behind the hat stand.........
So now 25 minutes after entering said BP store we get two cups of tea.  That's it, just two cups of tea which obviously we start to sip, slurp and drink, just as we finish 10 mins later, up comes the chef with a Christmas Dinner sized breakfast......... OMG, thank goodness we never ordered mushrooms.......  It's so much I order a coffee to help it on its way down but needless to say our quick bit of brekkie took an hour.......
Back on the road and we are nearing Perth when before long I realise I am having to drive, there are other vehicles on the road, there are traffic lights, roundabouts, crossings, Filter lanes and best of all right and left turns........ For the first time in 12000 kms my life has a purpose........
So having researched where to stay several nights ago we are approaching our destination in Rockingham, as we do so Tom Tom is telling me to turn left off the beach road, whilst I distinctly remember the advert saying "idyllic oceanfront location"  but that means there's a main road between you, the camp site and the ocean......... Feeling conned, especially when I realise it's next to a noisy grain terminal....... Let's look elsewhere and so we find the Palm Beach Caravan Park, no worries here, it is what it is, a dilapidated, run down and in fact closing down when we talked to Tony the manager on the phone who at that moment was in a pool somewhere and simply said, " Steve, choose somewhere and we will sort it tomorrow" Yes, some of the sites need some weed killer but the bathroom block was spotlessly clean and so the Monkey Mia clenched buttocks were released..........
AND THEN we walked down to the front and realised we had re-joined humanity, that a civilised society still existed, that there were people, I won't say normal, but they were similar to ourselves, there were European cars, there was service at the table, there were fashionable women, there were NO men with great big flowing beards and shaved heads and certainly no men with white chest hair looking like a bikini line.....  We were back in a civilised society as we knew it and so sat at a beach front bar and ordered drinks........ Now you might think, what a happy ending but remember the only thing we have eaten in the last twelve hours was breakfast, we are still not hungry but have had a litre of sparkling Italian, yes Italian, water and two pints of 'Fat Yak' and so as the sun is setting I ask for a glass of red wine, I also ask is it chilled, "Yes" I am told, "All our wine comes out of the chiller" Perfecto, I reply and await for the perfect accompaniment to  assist in making the final moments of our re-unification with civilisation and the setting sun a moment to remember when they serve me a Luke warm glass of red stuff, I am sorry to say but I actually spat if back out into the glass much to the horror of the lady with those small things under her torso and discreetly stormed off back to the bar shouting this is disgusting....... A brief discussion was held where the barman, said nothing, looked embarrassed and did exactly what the waitress told him to do....... 5 minutes later we ended the perfect day not only with a large  glass of chilled red wine but with a tear in our eyes, do t worry it's not from the emotional Reunion we had undertaken but from the dazzle of the setting sun.......

    Out of focus Sea Snake

A Long Dugong Day

We are up but have basically nothing to do until 1pm when we hope to go on the postponed Catamaran Wildlife Experience.  We are fast becoming under the impression that 'Experience' and 'Project' are the in words for Australians, last year....... The wind has dropped so as we have breakfast looking at every wave on the ocean so as to ensure they are smaller than yesterday's, we start thinking positively.  Still bored so go watch the Dolphin Experience again, only from the naughty boys stair on the jetty...... The Australian girls whiney voice is fast becoming irritating so I go back to the van and wait for the cleaner to finish in the toilet block, first in, result.......

Pack up van and comply with jobsworths instructions of vacating site by 10am, park up outside and walk back in to site........ You can only drink so much Coffee, Tea and Pepsi Max, so off we go on the Monkey Mia Nature Trail walk, first stop the Bird Hide over looking a watering hole.  We read the information board which makes this hide sound just the place to kill half hour when you have nothing to do, but wait, Terrific.  Two minutes later we are back on the trail, the hide has no real seats, just upturned logs to sit on and the watering hole is just a depression in the ground, not a drop of water, not a bird, not an emu, not a thorny devil ( thank god the t came out then, otherwise God knows what you would be thinking ) in sight.  Carry on walking on the dark red sand, in sports sandals and feet start to burn and burn a bit more........ With absolutely nothing but tracks to look at we go back to the camp site and collapse in the bar/restaurant and apart from lunch of flathead and chips, we drink more Pepsi Max and watch as the sea becomes rougher and rougher, the palm trees start bending, the Australian version of the wooden spoon with a number on it, starts being blown off tables, waiters are chasing napkins across the lawn and one gets a round of applause when he manages successfully to carry a cocktail with cream etc above the rim of the glass walking sideways to a Liverpudlian female out the front, using his body as a shield from the wind....

We walk over to the Catamaran and Yes we are going, so on board we get and go a different way to the others, we go to the rear under a sail shade and they go up front.   We set off and within 5 minutes are having to scrunch up as the folks up front that do not like getting wet, want to share our space........ 

We are 6/7 kms out on the sandbanks and sea grass fields when we see what we came to see our very first Dugong, but there are two of them together which is unusual as they are solitary and very shy creatures, but hey, we are happy and smiling..... Over the next hour or so we see more Dugong's, Turtles, Dolphins and Sea Snakes whilst enjoying an afternoons sailing in the wind.  When we get back, even the skipper has a smile on his face and says "That was fun".

So now it's 4pm, little lady sea legs is feeling fine but we have nowhere booked to stay tonight and I want to get a few hundred K under my belt due to also wanting to reach Fremantle (600kms) tomorrow.  So we set off and drive until just before sunset and pull into a free camping spot on the side of the road.  We have never done this before but it looks okay, there are a couple of other caravans/campers here already.  Of course we don't get power at these sites, so it's our first real taste of basic camping, now if you screw you eyes shut tight, what you can see on the this side of you eyelids is brighter than what we can see outside at the moment.......  We know there are people out there but cannot see them, we know there are animals out there but cannot see them, we know there are creepy crawlers that can climb into the van out there but cannot see them.  Hence the delay in publishing this post, it's really difficult when you are  standing up in the sealed shower unit we have on the van, wrapped up inside the quilt cover with a can of fly spray at the ready.....

    Dugong.

    The middle bit

    The far end, the bit we saw most.......

    A Tiger Sharks Dinner

   Little Sea Legs, sitting upright at sea.  A First!

A Day of High's and Low's. NYD

It starts on a low, someone who has not drunk alcohol is kept awake by those that have consumed too much.

It's back on a high when the other one of us awakes without a hangover.

It takes a dip again when someone is standing outside in the wind that has sprung up at 07.15am.

It soars when at 08.07am she gets picked to feed the Dolphins.

It plummets when we visit the bathrooms, I refuse to say anymore!

It picks up as we look at photographs taken earlier, have breakfast, numerous cups of tea and realise we are still talking to each other whereas our neighbours are not...... Neither of us blame her!

It sinks below the deepest depths as the Marine Wildlife Cruise we had booked is cancelled due to the wind.

It picks up when we manage to get on tomorrow's afternoon cruise and come up with a plan to avoid staying here an extra night due to the cancellation.

It plummets again when a jobsworth refuses any leeway in our departure time, even though the site will be empty for the hour.

It picks up after lunch and a couple of beers.

It's low again after checking weather forecast for tomorrow.

We end on a high again, she has had a doze and we have just come back from the bar after a New Years Day drink with the neighbours........

    Happy New Year!

Dolphin Feeding NYD

Now just as the majority of you were celebrating the coming of 2016, we were standing on the Beach at Monkey Mia to witness the Dolphin 'Experience'. This time with me on a short leash so as not to upset anyone..... Julie's idea......  Which as it happens was an extremely fortunate one, as one of the people who had been on our Manta Ray cruise that I told was a "F'ing nuisance" was one of today's wearer's of the Blue Dolphin Experience volunteer jacket......... Even more fortunate, so was his, 'she that we got along with on the cruise' sister!  

So little lady legs wants to go on the jetty, I say No (cos I'm in charge really) and go to the waters edge......... We line up with all the other anorak's, I mean, interested participants in the Marine life of Shark Bay, Dolphin Experience and start to take photos.  All the little bright eyed sweet goody goody, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths children are initially chosen, when suddenly we hear the 'ever so nice sister' say, "The lady in the blue top with the blonde hair" indicating to the little woman next to me......... Suddenly the person who had previously said to me, "I'm not bothered about actually feeding them, just as long as I see them and get a nice photograph" has moved faster than Superman, giving me her camera and and is 6ft out at sea with a smile on her face bigger than the dolphin's......

I join her whilst performing juggling tricks with two cameras and hear the volunteer say, Oh! I thought you were a small child........

Our ever so happy 'elderly' small child holds a fish on the waters surface and the Dolphin named 'Surprise' nudged our little lady's fingers, took the fish and left with a similar smile to that of her feeder..... 

    Any chance of breakfast

    I'm ready

     It looks bigger in your small hands........

    The Second Biggest smile on the Beach