Gorgeous gorges

Kalbarri.

Truth, Beauty and Pictures of Us

As far as looks go I'm personally afflicted with the more rugged variety of beauty. Age lines criss-crossing my forehead compete with a kind of zig-zag set of opposing lines embossed there each morning – possibly due to the way I press my head into my pillow or more likely the result of some Harry Potter meets Zorro action that occurred during my dream state. In any case I've noticed that those aprés sleep wrinkles no longer pop out with the morning's first splash of cold water – they seem able to endure all day.

For this reason I have an affection for the coast immediately north of Perth. Heading north after a prolonged period in the south is like divorcing Liv Tyler to shack up with Bette Midler. Ladies, I know you refuse to get that metaphor so for you it's like divorcing Johnny Depp to – well to do just about anything that involves divorcing Johnny Depp. This time of year in particular, the swell and the currents change to bring an immense amount of weed on to the beaches and the prevailing winds change to bring an equally copious amount of flies from the east. Interestingly the flies are keen on the weed – they like to lay their eggs in there and when the weeds get dragged back out to sea the herring love to feast on the maggots. So it's not all bad – right?

One of the great things about herring is their complete lack of discrimination. Throw anything more appetising than the dirty washing into the ocean and they will bite. (I've tried doing my washing in the ocean – they didn't bite.) That day (see earlier posts) when we hooked up with a sea gull I'm pretty sure if I hadn't pulled it in to perform open hook surgery whilst Jean held its head (girl's job) if I had instead just left it out there with a hook in it I would have no doubt pulled in a swag of herring. Especially if I had left it out there long enough to attract the flies and their kin.

Yes, the flies, the flies, the flies. So far we have scorned our fellow travellers who wear fly nets all day every day but I can see where they are coming from. (Not really, I think they look ridiculous – as far as seeing where these people are coming from though it appears to be Germany. Someone should tell the German embassy that real Australians wear corks from their hats – not those namby pamby nets on their heads that look like a fishing trip gone wrong.) Apologies for the racial slurs Rene or any other Germans if you are still reading our blog - I advise you to write a comment along the lines of "who won the football?"

Ok, now that I've built it up I should mention that I really do like all the little fishing towns between Perth and here where here equals Kalbarri. We've spent a night or an hour or so in Yanchep, Guilderton, Sea Bird (awesome name), Ledge Point, Lancelin, Cervantes, Jurien Bay, Leeman, Green Head, Port Denison and Horrocks. It is true they won't light up a tourist brochure like their Margaret River siblings but sometimes it is the more rugged kind of beauty that endures. Bette Midler has her charms after all – she can um sing and um act. By that standard these towns and their weedy beaches are positively charming. 

By the way Jean has said that she would never divorce me for Johnny Depp – not unless he offered.

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Quarterly Report

We've been on the road for 3 months now. In the interests of continuous improvement, budget planning and other effective habits, it's time for us to review the last quarter.

Distance travelled 

The odometer tells us we've driven 5285 kilometres since leaving Perth. However, we're currently enjoying sunsets at Cottesloe beach, so we don't appear to have gone very far at all.  It's been a round-about path through the WA's south-west, southern coast and then up to Kalgoorlie and back to where we started in Perth.

Dollars spent.

We've been averaging $75 dollars per day, which happily means we are living within our planned budget.

24% is spent on camp fees, which can range from $0 to $38. Our favourite campsites are in the National Parks like Fitzgerald River. Once you've paid $14 campfees there's nowhere to go to spend money at all.

24% of our budget is spent on groceries, even though Cameron is able to sometimes supplement our larder with fish.

12% of our budget is being spent on petrol. Our most expensive to date was $1.56/l from a little coastal town, Hopetoun. But at least beaches, like this one in Esperance, are free entertainment. 

And the rest of the budget? Well, Cameron has developed an expensive fishing lure habit. And the other day he lost his shoes whilst fishing. 

Proximity to towns causes major budget blowouts. Kalgoorlie has lots of pubs and opportunities to pay for entertainment. 

Major achievements.

Number of birds species identified: 29

Number of fish species identified: 26

(Yes, we have bird spotting and fish spotting field guides.We're looking up real books and keeping a list in a notebook. This is what people people did to while away their hours, before the internet was invented and you could just google “rock parrot” or “southern fiddler ray".)

Future plans.

We've decided it's time to head north.

We found southern coast and beaches east of Esperance to be too cold (even though the scenery was beautiful, there was a lot a rain and wind).

Kalgoorlie was too hot (and once you've seen the Superpit and visited all the pubs there's not much else to do.) 

So now we're in Perth where it seems to be just right (so why did we leave?), and we'll start going north from here. Northern WA, here we come!

The Salmon of Mass Destruction - Bremer Bay

The Engel rod cost $14 including reel when we bought the fridge - maximum 3 kg line so it's good for herring and whiting and as it turns out - big salmon. I had to do a kind of a weird salmon soccer thing in sync with the surf to get it up the beach out of the shallows without breaking the line. Ironically it was too big for the Engel fridge so we let it go. Herring tastes better even if it takes less impressive photographs.

Waychinicup

Everything old is new again

My Dad is not only famous for parenting Yours Truly, he is also father of the Croc sandal wearing revolution. The many young toes clad these days in rubber are maybe not a direct copy of Don McWatters's tootsies but he was the first person I saw wearing them - his boatie's eye for function over form in water resistant shoes unfazed by my Mum's disdain for frankly ugly footwear. Possibly he is not even aware the esteem he holds for those funny sandals is shared by so many youngsters. 

My own five dollars a foot imitation Crocs recently gave out just as Cyclone Bianca and the following dreary weather halted our eastward march (previously detailed in not so recent posts - apologies for the lack of updates, we seem to be either always out of coverage or despite studious attempts, just not organised enough.) 

Note the time in the photo - Irony, thy name is Jean.

Instead we turned westward, revisiting old haunts around Margaret River – not so far from Perth. Amazing what extra nooks and crannies we have found in areas we had visited many times before. Of course, exploring nooks and especially crannies requires adequate footwear and as you can see when I switched from Croc clones to my backup I underwent a simultaneous wardrobe failure of both thongs that would have made Janet blush.

Yeah, I fell over. 

Luckily this was not going down the to the beach at Torndirrup National Park near Albany Wind Farm. Cameron's estimate: 500 stairs. Jean's disbelieving count: 508 stairs. I assume the error is in the counting.

Luckily also my foot fault did not occur on the longish walk from Hamelin Bay to Cosy Corner near Augusta.

Everything old is new again. Busselton Jetty has been under refurbishment for as long as I can remember so it was with fresh eyes indeed that we went for a snorkel along the first part of its immense length.

Not to mention I'd never before seen so may blue manna crabs just beckoning from the ocean floor. In my youth in Queensland I spent many hours messing with dillies and crab pots which are illegal in WA. It had never occurred to me I could just don a face mask and swoop down and pick them up. (If you have a disbelieving look on your face right now then you probably look a bit like Jean looked when I unveiled this plan – especially when I said I would not wear fins to give the crabs a sporting chance.) For the record, those little suckers really hurt when they grab hold of your thumb – and yes, hanging upside-down at three metres depth holding your breath and fighting with a crab you can still hear your wife laughing through her snorkel up on the surface. Also for the record I estimate that Jean has eaten about eighteen fish and one blue manna crab in comparison without having cleaned and gutted an estimated total of zero of any species since we've been on this trip - but I am not bitter.

Speaking of bitter - Augusta Lighthouse is well known to us from previous trips down south but the new discovery for me was the Augusta ale house and its similarly excellent views.

There are of course two impressive lighthouses in the area and another well worn path for us has been between Dunsborough and the lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste. Somehow we never previously visited Sugarloaf Rock and its impressive Harry Potter scape guarded by the lion, the rabbit, the horse and the eagle.

And we had never snorkelled in the miraculously clear waters of Point Picquet. 

But now we are almost back to new is new again – well at least for this trip. We did do a lot of this 10 years ago come to think of it. In any case we are happily back in the land of marron and heading east once more.

As for footwear I could do worse than follow in my father's footsteps. Check out my new six dollars a foot Sharx for the latest in rubber feet wearing technology. Sorry Mum.

See ya on the eastern front.