Gareth and Alice's travel blog

Penned 24^th September

Gareth: Here I am again, in a new campsite on another day. I’m plugged in with a cup of tea and tomato pasta supper resting nicely on the belly. Don’t want to take too long today so may be a bit briefer (which may come as a stroke of serendipity to some people reading)

21^st Sept

Left the free camp at 7:00 am, back on the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again.

Had a massive 6 hour drive with a couple of breaks to a place called Kalbarri. Here we wanted to do a walk called “The Loop” by Murchison River. We were a bit cagey when we realized we had to off-road 27km to get there, but Gareth enjoyed being a rally driver. Walked the loop which was about 7 miles, admired the red rocks, and took the tourist pictures at natures window. There were some lovely wild flowers to admire. As we climbed down to river we saw a cool lizard that we have yet to identify. Then we saw a kangroo all up close like, top banana. It didn’t seem to mind us snapping away at it for a bit. Not sure why this one was timid, all the others hopped off as soon as they caught sight of us. Alice also liked some funny caterpillars that hide away in what looks like grass seeds.

Another grand adventure. You're probably thinking, “come on, no day goes that smoothly in Gareth and Alice’s travels”. This post is boring. Well, roll your socks up you’re in for a treat. As we tried to pitch the tent at Wagoe Campsite in Kalbarri, Gareth broke the pole. This was a disaster as it was starting to get late and dark. Gareth ran around trying to use his brain to come up with an idea worthy of his engineer status. Friction Welding, Electro Discharge Machining, maybe some sort of super freezing strengthening process that can only be done in space. All these ideas were excellent except they all shared the same problem. They were all ideas produced by someone who was far too intelligent for this particular situation! Alice then quietly chipped in like a little mouse, “maybe we can use one of them circle things that you can screw and they tighten to hold things together, like they use to hold pipes onto taps”. Not sure what she meant by that, but she does make me laugh.  I told her not to worry her pretty little head and that I was working on a solution, I then tapped her on the bum, in a way that was sophisticated like James Bond…. That’s when the solution hit me like a bolt from the blue.  I suddenly remembered that there was a “jubilee clip” in the laundry room. BINGO!  And this is the clever bit, we could use this to barter with at a shop to try and get a new pole. Just before we were about to set off on the journey, Alice must have slipped and the jubilee clip fell onto the tent was tightened with a screwdriver and it fixed the pole. What an unbelievable stroke of luck. And that’s exactly how it happened, don’t let Alice tell you otherwise. The tent was fixed and I somehow pulled us through this moment of despair, like an engineering beacon of hope.

That night we slept well in a tent that was even sturdier than it was designed to be!

22^nd September

Gareth: Staying at Wagoe again today because we were a bit tired of driving and it has a washing machine (minus a jubilee clip, we had to hold the pipe to the tap (that was my idea)).

Went down to the beach after a long relaxing breakfast and a clothes wash. Some big waves were happening on the shore and this is where the moment illustrated below was created. "By the Power of Burnley.. I have the POWER!"

Even this picture wasn’t good enough to get rid of the swarm of flies encircling us. And I’m not suggesting that Burnley are s*!t….. I’m just saying what the flies are telling me. Also, I now realize why the Aussies wear corks in their arses. To keep the flies out!

We walked through and enjoyed the Kalbarri town centre where upon the frequent smell of fish and chips filled our nose and took Gareth back to his Friday school nights when the family would get fish and chips 4 times and a fish. And all was good. Decided to eat the egg sarnies that we had prepared for ourselves to try and resolve Gareth of his cravings. This was not enough so we bought 4 healthy ice creams in the local IGA.  Alice:  Gareth is convinced that it's more economical to buy a four pack of ice creams than 2 separate one's, however this means we have to eat 2 each as we have no fridge to store them in.  On this occasion it wasn't cheaper either but never mind!

Gareth: After this we took a walk along the windy cliffs of red bluff and mushroom rock where we became one with the whales again. Not only that, but saw millions of dolphins riding the waves…. Well not millions, but about ten. Pretty awesome.  

This reminded Gareth of the talk of that the preachy women gave at Monkey Mia dolphin show that a dolphin can get gang raped for 42 days. Alice then cut her hand on rock when producing this picture below. But she said it was worth it as it is now her desktop and facebook profile picture.

Alice took pictures of a shingle back lizard, which seems to be a regular occurrance these days.

Alice: It was another grand day in Western Australia and to top it off we were adopted by an elderly Aussie couple who took petty on our noodle dinner and offered us some lovely fillets of silver cobbler that we could have for breakfast.  They made a lovely (if a little unconventional) breakkie fried in bread crumbs and tasted a bit like chicken.

23^rd September

Alice: After the lovely fish we headed into Geraldton. Today was a pretty unusual day. Not really traveling at all. If I told you we spent 5 hours in Macdonalds… Some people would say that is Ronald Heaven, others would see it as hamburgler hell, but this is where we spent most of our time in Geraldton. You see McDonalds in its corporate wisdom gives out free wifi internet with any paying customer, so, 2 teas, 1 large McAngus meal, 1 large Cheeseburger meal, 2 apple pies, 2 ice creams and 5 hours later we had sorted out our travel plans, car hire, cycle hire, flights, a bit of email and a bit of facebook, and posted the last two blog installments, and had eventually departed geraldton.

We spent the night at Lake Indoon which was very picturesque but swarming with mozzies!  This made Gareth panick and talk to himself a bit so Alice decided it would be better to spend the evening inside the tent instead of sitting outside like we usually do.  Thankfully both of us escaped un bitten.

24^th September

After leaving lake Indoon very early (we were told by other campers that if we left before 7am we wouldn’t get a chance to pay, we left guiltless as the toilets and showers were awful!)  we headed down to the Pinnacles at Nambung National Park which were pretty spectacular.  We also sampled our first lamingtons!  Which are lovely chocolaty, coconutty, spongy, creamy cakey treats that Gareth allowed Alice to buy because they were in the reduced section of the local IGA supermarket. 

Alice: We now find ourselves in a Christian campsite just outside Perth. Not sure how we got here, maybe God was directing us, or maybe this is the place Mr Satan wants me to do his laundry.  We have already been preached at, and I’m half expecting to be forced into a camp fire rendition of kumbayah mi lord. If I am, the words “I was cold I was naked” will be taken literally.  We have also been offered Christian reading materials to peruse over dinner and so far have been to scared to come clean about our atheism and sit smiling nicely and changing to subject at any chance we get!

Facilities are good, we have a big kitchen to cook and sit in.  It gets dark about 7pm so it’s good to have a place to chill out in.  As a result we are now up to date with the blog and you are reading in real time! As I type Gareth is sat watching the T.V. in the God Common Room eating the fruit from the forbidden tree (Apple). Tomorrow we are heading off down south to Margaret River and Bunburry then on to Albany and Esperance and back to Perth.

Missing you all and hope you’re enjoying the blog.

Blog out!

A and G xxxxx