The Second Summer

So during our early morning jolly jaunt where one of us proves he is no Chris Packham as he, so he believes, stealthily approaches a group of Pelicans, only to have them scatter down stream, we decide to try the Pelican Feeding sequel.  Two Pelicans, forty odd people and one large arse woman giving a talk on Pelicans, try as we may, someone/kid would always get in the frame of a semi decent photo, so off I go to the waters edge to await, The Return of the Pelicans.  
After that it's off to the Murchison River Gorges we go...... Now it's been 30-33 degrees at the coast with a breeze, as we go inland it's 37 degrees at the top of the gorge and 45 degrees at the bottom, phew! Summer has returned.......... We think, time for lunch but where, there is no shade, so we drive looking for some shade and only find it when we return to the campsite. 
We now realise why they call the bush, the bush......... 
After a shaded lunch we go in search of some bread similar to Granary and meet a delightful lady in the Kalbarri bakery, we talk for close onto 10 minutes and end up not only with Linseed & Grains homemade bread but some typical Australian fodder home made meat pies, of which I can now testify, were one of the best I have ever had! She also advised us that this weeks temperatures are not normally like this until the middle of December.........
Next we are back on site when Mr Camper decides time for his first real bit of camping maintenance, re fill the vans water supply, now I do believe it is possible to complete this task without soaking the outside table and chairs, washing down one side of the van and basically flooding site 18, but we will not know until this task has to be undergone again........

Up with the Galahs.....

LToday's 6am brisk walk went without incident apart from the rant and rage of yours truly when he should look up and see he is being watched by a bird of prey, (tonight I must eat more) But there I am, with new sports socks (forgot to bring some) but NO bloody camera ........... So we later attend the Pelican feeding, guaranteed Pelicans, every day, even when they have daylight changing time, lo and behold we had to watch some tourists kids pretending to be Pelicans throwing fish into the sea for the sea gulls to eat.........apparently first time there were No Pelicans..........
So off to see the dramatic coast line but, big BUT here we find a group of fledgling Australian Hobbys.......... One of us totally disregards the Danger Cliff Erosion signs whilst the other shouts out "..... don't be stupid" Having survived the danger of Cliff eroding we retreat to a bar where we meet Mr Neanderthal, we want to sit outside, so we do but one of us does his usual thing of removing the ash tray from our table, OMG, Mr N starts up, advising us of where the non smoking section is and then telling everyone within ear shot it was Un F......... believable that non smokers have all the inside and part of the outside to sit but they still have to sit in the smokers section, it was at this point that one of us restrained the other from trying to wind up Mr N further and then later said, if he had started I would have given him a right mouthful....... and so we endear ourselves to the locals once more........ And now whilst I sit here with my feet on a portable table sitting outside in camping chairs with a glass of red wine awaiting some culinary delight as the sun sets over the Indian Ocean, breathing in air that has not touched land for thousands of miles,  I think, if those Galahs roost in the eucalyptus tree above me I'm going to get covered in bird sh*t.........

Girlie Pink Day

Starting to live the Australian life, up at 5am, out by half past to join in with the walkers, runners, dog walkers and anybody else who has just sobered up........ So there I am briskly walking along a remote costal path when I see a figure in front of me, not so much as staggering but walking from side to side wearing a hoodie, pulled up over their head, so I am unable to gage the type of occupant, needless to say, I decide this is a mugger waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting victim, Ho Ho Ho I thought, as I approach the hooded miscreant, I'm not so unsuspecting, you are going to have one hell of a surprise when you pounce on me............ I approach with confidence, my heart beating slightly faster with the adrenalin surge the anticipation/excitement is causing when suddenly I am along side hoodie and they turn to face me, SURPRISE, I'm stunned and my reactions are slower than I expected them to be as I say, "Morning" to a little old oriental woman with a bad leg/limp, Good Morning she replies as the tension in my body is released and I continue on my way with a smile on my face thinking, 'Steve you Plonker'.
350kms further up the road we go past a Pink Lagoon, a huge salt lake which gets it's colour from a beta-carotene producing algae, it's at this point when the fuel reserve light comes on and we still had 70kms before the next petrol station that I fell for and admired the attributes of my other female companion, namely TomTom Sheila, she has two buttons, Sound off, Voice Instructions off, If only............
Now at Kalbarri with the constant twittering of the Galah's flying around and roosting above us, I have a feeling we will be awake at 5am, again tomorrow morning........

Pink Lake

No photo enhancement to this picture

Wakes Wakey

See you at 5am

Police and Emu's

Well the party crowd from last night had a small surprise awaiting for them this morning, of which we also had to participate in, a random police stop check at which every driver leaving town was breathalysed, fortunately I failed to register on PC Wayne's device and was allowed to continue on our way to the Pinnacles Desert Park, several kilometres in land in the days before I even new what baldness was, millions of sea creatures, shells and the like died and went to heaven but turned into a Tosca like substance which was then buried by sand, preserved and then revealed again by the winds blowing away the sand.  A huge area, so can you imagine the state of my underpants when whilst walking through the bush on the edge of the desert, I suddenly come across emu......... How can such a large bird walk so quietly through these buses and shrubs when we can hear a little Johnny about 100 yards away asking, no telling mummy he wants a drink.........
So we return to do some washing and then fall into a different hostelry to find they do Guinness at the same price as all the other drinks, I do hope Pc Wayne has better things to do tomorrow morning.....

Pc Wayne wants me to blow 4 him

What the ....

Poms on the Road

And we are off, picked up van and drove out of civilisation (Perth) to become what the Aussies call 'Poms on the Road' where during the next 93 days we will meet and see the 'Australians' Australia........ 
First overnight stay is in Jurien Bay, where after the initial two food / beer shops and getting the van sorted in relation to the storage of every thing, we go for dinner.  Walk into one of the friendliest greetings imaginable to find out the owners were new and had only taken over the establishment last Wednesday........ They could not do enough for us, partly because it's like a Spanish fiesta weekend but without the religion, celebrating something to do with fishing, with live music and quick food stalls down on the white sand beach, so we are almost their only customers.  After getting this happy couple to disagree over what is the best house ale, I order dinner and notice the 'Wifi' sign, our phones, one of which is not receiving any telephone signal,  detects a secure wifi signal on a network with the same name as the Bar,  so naturally I ask for the wifi code, "We don't know" they reply.  Shut up Steve, don't go there, I smile and think of the similarities to those that come to Spain and live their dream by running a bar........
We chose Jurien Bay because I had read about it having a solar powered lit jetty that takes you out into the crystal clear Turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, so after dinner walk down expecting to stand a quarter of a mile out at sea and watch the sun slip gently down beneath the horizon turning the orang sky to a deep Crimson red whilst at the same time the sea reflects the same, only to be greeted by a sign, 'Jetty closed - Explosives on site' 
It's for a 7 minute firework display, not in the same league as their Spanish equivalents but according to one parent walking back with his young son, it was 'Awesome' at which point it being dark and almost 9pm, we will do what the locals do and retire for the night, as no way are we going to get reported for breaking the 10pm is 'Quiet' time rule......... Not on our first night.....

Congratulations Champ

10.5 hours beat her own record today, she managed 13 hours of sleep...... All whilst I was Whats apping the mother of my new grand daughter at 5am because I was awake, still even I managed 5 hours sleep at 7am, much to the hotel cleaners surprise........ Not sure if 'flashing' to a hotel cleaner is an offence in Australia.........

So this afternoon taken up by a wild life hunt on a Island in the middle of the Swan river, which we can see from bedroom window and no sooner did we find four wild kangaroos, did we find 'Mr Boring can't get a good looking Thai bride so this one will have to do' apparently he used to be in foot ware and told the Spanish, the Chinese are coming etc etc......... O M G look the kangaroo is yawning I reply and dart off to take some photos I know I will delete later on, along with the photo of his mother's behind whilst she was crawling on all fours in the undergrowth trying to creep up on a baby roo, she did ask later that I do not publish it as it could not be a good view....... Amazing! I thought later when I viewed it, she must be psychic, she was so right......... Then off to become one of the six million visitors to Kings Park, where for some reason a mother Duck got the hots for me and started Duck foreplay by snapping at my ankles........ Before a walk amongst the tree tops on a walk way that whilst it should have been closed, one of us thought if the other end is closed and we do get stuck up here, perhaps we could play the scene from Rapunzel in reverse......... A case of been here two days and already thinking like a typical Australian male in that I'm alright Bruce....... 

Day One an easy relaxing day to get over the travelling.......

Well someone slept for 10.5 hours whilst someone else got 4.5 hours sleep in two sessions during which time they completely messed up their internet banking log on and password, so ended up having to phone the UK within a few hours of being here.  The good thing about that was that it was 2am UK time so Bank able to sort it in double quick time, result....... 

After more Australian Weet-Bix, which is nowhere near as sophisticated as our own Weetabix, it was off for phone SIM cards, Cash and electric plug adaptors with a detour of a five mile stroll, via Jacobs ladder a 242 step access to Frasers Ave lookout point, this is where the locals use it as a resource in fitness training, and where 10.5 hours sleep failed miserably in assisting someone to ascend without at least 5 stops, which enabled the fitness trainers to lap one of us...........  However lunch at the top involved the view in photo below, along with 4.5 hours celebrating their first Australian pie and a pint...........

4.5 hours now in dog house after referring to 10.5 hours, who was trying on sun hats, that she reminded him of Benny from Crossroads............

New Aussie Telno's are: 10.5 hours sleep = 0061 488459175 and 4.5 hours sleep = 0061 488459061.