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

Revelation Day

So continuing on from the revelation that we are not really camping type people, it continues today with one revelation after another.......

Revelation 1. There are jobsworths all over the world, today one of us goes to the Dolphin 'Experience' only to get told off for standing still with a camera but being where they don't want him to be as allegedly, it will disturb and be off putting for the Dolphins.  So I move without question but two minutes later three workmen wearing hi vi jackets turn up and start to bang crash and wobble the stanchions on the jetty, but that's okay.....
Revelation 2. So the cross your legs toilet avoidance method breaks down at half nine, and I  have to give in and venture to the toilet block to find the cleaner just leaving, my fairy godmother is looking after me...... In I go, sparkling, so with out going into too much detail I am in a cubicle, when Harry, Luca and Louise come in and start to play.... It is when one of them starts to bang continuously on my closed door that I realise I am turning into someone close to me as I shout out 'BUGGER OFF'  a well know phrase used by said close person.........
Revelation 3.  Some local people have the right attitude.  We are out at Little lagoon a Bright Turquoise almost circular lagoon fed from a creek that leads to the sea, when a male Emu leads eleven baby emus across the creek.  We have just finished taking photos when a Land Rover type vehicle roars up to us and two Fisheries and Maritime officers jump out and captures the female member of the duo
whilst talking about a serious legal matter....... My ears prick up and if you saw the size of them you'd realise that's not difficult and so I'm on my way to defend/represent my partner, in demanding they do not keep her in custody for any longer than 60 days....... BUT they really only want to know if we managed to get a photo of the Emus crossing the creek as it could possibly be a prize winning photo that they could use in advertising Western Australia....... Their attitude is perfect, their demeanour spot on, their personalities bright and cheerful and so I ask for their email address and promise to send all the pictures onto them.
Revelation 4. Some local people have no idea......  We enter a Bakery/Cafe in Denham, I wait for, I do not feel at ease by referring to this person as a woman/lady as I feel it would be an insult to said persons, so shall we say a female human being...... To serve me but she has so much more important things to moan about to Mr String Vest with a big tummy who looks like he started his New Years celebrations several days ago along with said human being who obviously did not want to be open and working..... So as I placed my order whilst she was leaning all over the food display cabinet and she told me gruffly to go a fetch a bottle of orange juice from the glass fronted fridge on the other side of this 'Cafe' I also asked for a glass for it, OMG, Independence Day part Two...... We get a ceramic cup without a handle, instead and decide to sit at an unclean table as its the only one of the four left.  We leave half of what we ordered and walk out as female human being is coming back down to planet earth but still ranting on and on.....
Revelation 5.  There are some really dipstick parents in this world.  We go to Ocean Park Aquarium where they have lots of the local marine life, including Sharks, Rays and Sea Snakes in huge aquariums/lakes..... One of the displays is entitled Poisonous Fish, it contains Puffer Fish and Lion Fish, the puffer fish have a strong sharp beak and are deadly should you eat them, the Lion Fish are aggressive and have sharp spines that contain poison, the guide tells us all to avoid them, do not aggravate them and should you catch one whilst fishing, just to cut the line.....  So what does Moron Dad do when the guide moves on, he sticks his fingers in the tank, in front of the Lion fish teasing it, whilst his children are looking on..... What a great example of Parenting!
Sorry for the delay, just been off crabbing on the beach with family next door.
Revelation 6.  There are some really stupid people in this world.  We are again in the Ocean Park Aquarium when we approach a four foot marine rank with the usual fish and anemones in, the guide asks the children if they can spot Nemo the clown fish, some do and the guide says that this Clown Fish is exactly the same that stared in the film.  At this a woman pushed forward taking photos of the tank saying at the same time OMG are you kidding me, the real one. Click, click....
The tour guide found it extremely difficult to reply when he realised she was serious and everyone else just thought, Are you for real?
Revelation 7. It's news years eve, 3 hours left of 2015, so to you all a "Happy New Year" from us both.

Amendment to Revelation 1, Jobsworth 2, Just been asked to wear a 'Age Verification' wrist band in the bar, so bar staff do not have to ask how old we are in order to purchase alcohol........ Think I'll go to bed.........

    Whose a naughty boy then.......

    Western Australia's 2016 publicity shot.......

   

    Nemo, from cartoon to real life

    For Jackson and Luciano

Carnarvon to Council Estate

We are on the road by 7.30am saying goodbye to Carnarvon and Commiserations to those that are staying......  Heading South and three hours later we are in the catchment area of Shark Bay, I think it's time for a coffee, so instead of heading straight to the Stromatolites, we go to the 'Tea Room'. Now I just know you have a picture of a pretty oak beamed cottage in deepest Kent or Devon and are thinking, oh aren't they lucky to find such a lovely place miles from anywhere, in Australia.  Yes had it been that image, we would have been BUT we are here where a run down broken homestead/caravan park is trying to survive with a hillbilly sitting out on the porch of a dilapidated building that resembled the house that Steptoe and Son lived in......... Bill Bryson had been there and commented on the place, they had extracts on the wall, only I'm not sure that they have quite understood that he was not overly complimentary......... Still the Coffee and Tea was okay but the cages outside with nothing living in was slightly off putting........ However under one of the many leaking water pipes we saw our first Budgerigar that was not flying, together with wrens and a collard parrot all drinking al fresco, it was what we didn't see but heard under the tree next to it, that kept us from getting too close......
So there we are standing in the shell quarry, thinking this looks a lot like the beach between El Arenal and the Port at Javea, only whiter, only where here they cut out blocks of shells that have been compressed and use them as building blocks. Not that impressed so onward to the Stromatolites, which for those of you that don't know are things that grow....... They are alledged to be the oldest living known organism on this planet, basically they are a micro bacterial mat, made up from microbes which react with other organisms and make my brain hurt.......... Needless to say we took a photo and moved on to Shell Beach, where as you can see we took another photo......  Shell Beach is made up from not just millions but trillions/zillions of a certain type of cockle shell, this beach is 30ft deep and 110kms long, it's one of only two beaches in the world made entirely from shells with apparently 40,000 shells in a sq meter and one in my sandal, ouch!
Almost time for lunch, so we stop at Eagle Bluff, unfortunately the tide is out, so we drink tea and eat cucumber and cheese sandwiches with our little fingers sticking out, whilst the sea comes in and attempts to join us.  Out again and see sharks, shovel nose rays, sting rays all now coming in underneath us to feed, oh if you could have heard the squeals of delight, obviously not from me as I'm much to macho but needless to say we both want to return........
Now in February I booked up to stay in Monkey Mia resort for the new Year period, I booked it because of the festive season, the Australian School holidays and it looked nice.  Good job as it happens as when we get there it is obviously busy, only after checking in as we drive to our site, it looks like we are on some grotty council estate, it's a tip, with cars, trailers, boats, vans, tents parked all over the place and in our little bit, the men from 29 sites to use, 1 urinal, 2 toilets and 3 showers, OMG what have I done, I have now got to sit crossed legged until we go out tomorrow.......... Of course it's also got nothing to do with photo no 5, which is two feet from our front door......
This is depressing me I say, let's go for a walk, it's hot, it's sandy, and it's not the Côte d'Azur so into the bar, where after talking to two women travelling on their own and three pints of "Fat Yak" pale ale, we return to listen to the child telling his mother in the site in front of us, to shut up as she is being too bossy.......... Bite lip, turn TV on and listen to static and wait for 'Camp Quiet Time' as obviously they will all obey the rules........  We have decided, we are not real campers, we are playing at it and using it for a purpose, as I listen to the children screaming outside now as I type and watch people walk through our site to get to wherever,  we decide we have been spoilt so far by having the campsites almost to ourselves, long may it continue...........

    Stromatolites 

    Shell Beach

    Shells and only Shells 

    This is actually called a 'Nervous Shark'

   Come outside, come outside............

    First Budgy