Fishing Frenzie!

It's been a while since we've had a successful fishing trip, but after arriving in a town like Carnarvon, where there's nothing much else going on, we decided to try our luck again and took our rods down to the local jetty.

Now I've caught a few fish in my day (most tiny brim or flathead and a few too many toad fish or puffers from the wharf at Ceduna...) but fishing at Carnarvon was like nothing I'd ever experienced before! We walked to the end of the jetty where there were a bunch of locals and tourists all jumping around, looking very excited and then we saw them... the fish these guys were pulling in were huge!

We started chatting to a couple of local ladies in their eighties, who had set themselves up at the end of the wharf and were hooking some massive fish. They decided to call it a day and gave us their left over bait and a vital fishing tip - just one peeled prawn with a small hook on heavy line, and hey presto! We were in business!!

I caught two Golden Trevally and Luke caught three! Simo and Jenna were fishing with us too and had some good luck as well, except Simo kept hooking onto a couple of snake-like Longtoms, with huge sharp teeth!

The excitement of hooking onto these fish was crazy and they fought all the way into the jetty. We had so much fun! And let me tell you, the fish and chips we ate that night was delicious!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Snakes And Modems

Whilst we were staying in Denham, Luke (accidentally!) put his knee on our internet modem (which is a little sticky-outty thingy which connects into the side of our laptop. The thing pretty much snapped in half. This posed quite the problem considering Luke uses the net each day for work, and I need it too for important things like keeping you updated on our blog and replying to friends on Facebook.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we found a business card for a technical repair man in this very small town with a population of 1000 and thought we'd give him a go instead of forking out another $500 for a new Telstra modem (the fact that we wouldn't see a Telstra shop for another 3000km is beside the point). We rang the guy and he said to come over to his house and he'd have a look out our broken modem.

I waited in the car while Luke explained the sito and the next thing you know, the computer guy comes strolling out of his place with an endangered Woma Python around his neck. He and his wife do some wildlife regeneration work so were keeping the snake at home after they found it badly attacked by an eagle. Yikes!!! Snakes give me the creeps but this slithery fellow was surprisingly soft and silky and very placid. I asked if I could get a photo and the computer dude grabbed the thing off his shoulder and started putting it around Luke's neck, much to Luke's shock (note the smiling/ terrified expression below)!

It's not everyday that your computer guy gives you an education rundown on endangered snakes but we are in Denham, W.A and things happen a little differently around here. After the guy fiddled with our modem for about three hours (and we became more skeptical that he had no idea what he was doing), it was fixed and worked even better than before! But jeepas, three hours work at what we thought would be around $70 an hour was going to be expensive... Um, no... Guess what the guy charged us? $25. Bargain.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Dolphin Time At Monkey Mia

Since arriving in Western Australia, one place that all the tourist brochures have talked up, is Monkey Mia, some 11 hours from Perth. A pretty solid detour off the main highway, you have to be pretty keen to see the place, as it's adds a good 3 hours onto your trip up north. We thought the Nullarbor was remote, but I swear up this end of W.A, there's more roadhouses then actual towns and most places are a good 300 or 400km apart.

So after taking the turn to Denham (Monkey Mia isn't actually a town, but a resort and caravan park, where the famous wild dolphins swim right up to the beach, so most people stay at the town of Denham, 23km away), our first stop on the drive along the World Heritage listed Shark Bay peninsula was the amazing Shell Beach. No prizes for guessing why this place is called Shell Beach (well, duh!) but seeing all the tiny little shells covering some 13km of coastline was beautiful. Walking in bare feet on them was even better! Apparently they mine these shells for all sorts of reasons including to feed to chickens to harden the shells of their eggs (weird, I know!) and to crush and make cement blocks to build houses out of (I wonder if you can hear the ocean from inside these places?). But I think they're best left where they are, as there's nothing quite like seeing the waves lapping a shell covered shore.

Looking out from Eagle Bluff over Shark Bay was our next turn off and was pretty spectacular. There are 23 different breeds of shark living in these protected waters and apparently you can usually see a few cruisin' in the shallows from this lookout. We saw a couple of rays, but that was about it, which was probably a good thing because it might have been a hard task getting me in the water otherwise.


Denham is a friendly little ocean town but there's not a whole lot there so you really do need to be pretty self-sufficient and bring your own water and food with you. We got up early the next morning to try and beat the rest of the touro's out to Monkey Mia for the first dolphin feeding (how wrong were we!) and ending up lining up along the shores with the swarms of other campers waiting for the dolphins to arrive. Everyone thinks it's really crazy how these wild animals swim right into the beach and interact with humans, but truth be told, the dolphins were encouraged and fed by local fisher people waaay back in the 1960's and after enjoying a bit of a free feed, they have simply kept coming back. Hardly a natural phenomenon.

Now the Monkey Mia dolphins are big business but luckily National Parks have taken strict control of the tourist attraction and don't allow people to touch or swim with the dolphins and only feed each animal a few tiny fish each day, so they are encouraged to still fend for themselves in the wild. There's something about dolphins that send most people a little batty (I coped a few elbows as fellow campers fought to get as close to the dolphins as they could) but I must agree, they are pretty magical creatures. They look you in the eye like they're trying to tell you something and seem to radiate relaxation and calm. Seeing them play around our feet was definitely worth the extra kilometres.






To top off a great day, we took some advice from a local lady we met wearing bike pants and a tie dye singlet and sporting a face that looked like she'd seen so much sun that you could easily whip together a nice little leather handbag from each of her cheeks, to hit the local jetty that night for a guaranteed catch of squid. True to her word, there she was at 6pm with her rod in hand, pulling in squid left, right and centre. And minutes later, we were too! Salt and pepper calamari for dinner...mmm. All our new friend could say was "Told ya they'd be on, Love! We're the winners! We're the winners!" while delicately balancing a ciggie in her lips. Classic.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Many Faces Of Kalbarri

Kalbarri is about a seven hour drive from Perth and a 100km detour off the main highway up the north coast of Western Australia. But it's really worth pulling off and spending the extra cash on petty because Kalbarri is just beautiful. A favourite with Perthites for holidays (as we found out first hand by arriving in the second week of the school break - I'm sorry but it should be illegal to take kids camping... do you know how much stuff you need for a simple weekend away? Phew!), this gorgeous town has a bit of everything for everyone.

There's an inlet where the river meets the sea - the fishing is really good anywhere along the rocks and the waterway is full of all sorts of different things from paddle boats to canoes and cruise boats that head up and down the river, showing off the town's sights.


There are surf beaches with good waves, if you can brave the rocky entry points and the ever-present fear of what's lurking beneath on these largely untouched coastlines. But if surfing is not your thing, there's plenty of lookouts and bush walks along the cliff tops where the red earth rocks meet the aqua ocean - it's quite an amazing sight.

But it was Kalbarri's gorges that really impressed us. 30km from the main town centre (along a stretch of dirt road that we thought was going to shake loose whatever nuts and bolts are holding the kombi together) you'll find a bunch of lookouts and walks that you can do to explore the amazing Kalbarri National Park. There's a $10 entry fee but it's worth every penny with the view over the colourful country breath taking. We even had a burst of extra excitement when we almost stepped on a baby brown snake, while walking to one of the lookouts. Far out, those things move quickly! Ewww! I hate snakes!

A few words of warning before you book your bus ticket from Perth to this lovely spot though - pack your credit cards if you expect to stay in town for long. We spotted Capsicums at $17 a kilo at the local IGA (and this was the ONLY supermarket in town and for a radius of 300km in any direction) and petrol is up around the $1.70 per litre mark. But as they say, some of the most beautiful places in the world are miles away from anything, so the amazing National Parks and waterways made up for our $5 coffees.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Blown Away At Geraldton

As we headed up the north coast away from Perth, we noticed that two things started to blow out. The cost of petrol was the first. Bloody hell. I wish the kombi came in a hybrid model. The other thing that was blown out was the weather. We had wondered why towns surrounding and including Geraldton kept raving on and on about the great wind surfing and kite surfing that they offered. That's because it's so windy that you can't do much else outdoors. Just have a look at what the trees looked like on the way into Geraldton.

Get my drift? But that's not to say that you shouldn't visit the region. Hold onto your hat and enjoy the great fishing, stock up on supplies at real supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths (because trust me, you won't be seeing one of these for a while if you continue up the coast...) and make sure you visit the HMAS Sydney memorial, that will undoubtedly be changed in the coming months in light of the discovery of the actual Sydney wreck off the Geraldton coast.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Kombi Door Breakdown!

Oh no! Just when we thought everything was going smoothly with ol' boy Jefro the kombi, his sliding door goes and slides right off! Well, not exactly but the little roller in the door has warn all the way through (it happens after 30 years of use), meaning the door won't close without a hideous scrapping sound, that sends a shiver up my spine.

After a fellow kombi dweller at Geraldton caravan park told us the story of how he bought a roller door slider from Bunnings to replace HIS broken door, we thought we could do the same (as kombi mechanics and spares are few and far between in northern WA). But after Luke and Simo worked for a few hours trying to fit the thing, it was clear that either the VW guy with no teeth was telling porkies or we'd lucked out with the size of the slider we'd bought from the hardware shop. Never mind. A phone call to a kombi parts supplier who said they'd send the necessary part to meet us at Exmouth post office and we're back in sliding business. Phew!

Yours climbing through the front seat,

Odette

The Pinnacles

We've hit the road and left the big smoke, um, I mean Perth, behind! Teamed up with our new travelling buddies Jenna and Simo, we stocked up on groceries and water and are now on the upward straight, travelling north in Western Australia. We loved Perth and hanging out in the city for over two weeks was great, but it's weird how quickly the feeling of getting back on the road and heading off to discover more new places with waaaay less people caught up with us. Oh and I think Luke was looking for any excuse to not work another full day in an office again. 500km of road is a pretty good reason!

First stop was Cervantes, about three hours from Perth. There's not a lot in the town itself (and this is why we chose to drive the extra 20minutes up the road and set up camp in the pretty Jurien Bay, instead) but the main reason why tourists add this place to their touring map, are the Pinnacles.

These things are random. But so awesome! Nestled away in the Nambung National Park, the Pinnacles are a series of eerie limestone formations sporadically scattered over vast yellow, rippled sand dunes. They really are a sight. And we couldn't believe how close we could get to these unusual natural structures. After passing through the National Park office, the pamphlet maps out a 3km drive that takes you up and through the actual Pinnacles. Driving on sand, you can stop along the way and walk around the formations. But what are these things? Rocks? Termite nests? An artists sculpture that got a little out of control? Nope, nope and nope. The Pinnacles were actually formed from lime leaching from the sand and by rain cementing the lower levels of the dune into a soft limestone. Hmm... interesting, huh?

Jefro loves a bit of off road action - notice the new additions on top too? Our kombi is so loaded up with gear, I'm surprised we didn't get bogged!

Seeing emus wandering around amongst the Pinnacles was like a post card moment. But you should have heard the noise coming out of this thing when some guy thought it would be a great photo to get a close up of Mr Emu. Not happy, Jan!

As if seeing the cool Pinnacles wasn't enough excitement for one day, a walk out onto the wharf at Jurien Bay that afternoon revealed this little guy, playing in the water at the end. The cheeky seal had the local fisherman sussed as well, eating the bait right off their hooks!

Yours loving Western Australia more each day,

Odette

VW Mechanic in Perth

We've been trying to keep our van Jefro well serviced to avoid any little breakdowns in the middle of nowhere - these are never fun... So even though our kombi has been running really well, we thought we better book him in for a service before we attempt the upward journey into Northern W.A.

A lot of forums had recommended VDub Repairs and Spares and seeing as though we were staying just up the road in Fremantle, we left Jefro there for a check up and spent the day hanging around Freo. Again. We feel like locals!

The mechanics at VDub Repairs and Spares were really thorough, if not a little pricey in comparison to the other VW mechanics we had been to in Melbourne and Adelaide. No major problems (thank goodness!) but with four new light truck tyres (I know! Random!) and a clean bill of health, we felt confident to brave a few more isolated roads!

Check them out if you need a good VW guy in the Perth area. Nice guys.

VDub Repairs and Spares
125 South Terrace
Fremantle WA 6160
Phone: 08 9430 4180
Email:vdubrepairs@optusnet.com.au

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Perth's Delights

I thought after travelling through most of Australia's biggest cities, I would inevitably come across a few that I just couldn't wait to get out of. But, nope. So far I've loved them all! And Perth was no exception. But I do feel for poor ol' Perth. I guess it could get a little lonely for W.A's capital city, standing tall and trying to contribute a few sky scrappers to the city scape, in a state where long stretches of empty highway edged with red dirt out number the escalators and lifts in office buildings 20 to 1.

Perth has sooooo much going for it. And the best thing about the place, is that everything is within a 20-30 minute radius, so you can see a lot in just a few days. Here's a few touristy bits we thought were rave worthy.

The Swan Bell

Okay, not quite sure what the purpose of building this thing was, but I tell ya, when tourists pay $10 to climb the thing and ring the famous Swan Bells again and again... and again, I'd be taking ear plugs to work. It's down on the Swan River and there's a bunch of lovely little cafes overlooking the water close by for a lunch break or coffee stop. And word in the local news over here, is that the Swan Bell could be joined by a London Eye-type Ferris Wheel some time in the near future...

City Sights
The city of Perth kinda reminds me of Adelaide with its country charm and heritage churches and court houses squeezed in amongst new additions to the city business district. You can walk the shopping strip in an hour but there's plenty of quirky and fun art pieces and alleyways to discover that could see you easily spend a day or more exploring. One day when we caught the train into the city, what seemed like the whole of the Western Australian University were out in force, dressed up as anything from bumble bees to pirates, selling their Prosh newspaper (check out the website at http://www.prosh.guild.uwa.edu.au/) which is a satirical and hilarious report on current news events. Luke and I laughed out loud whilst reading it on the train back to Freo. This must be a common occurance though, as the suits and business-types, didn't look twice when passed by a hot pink bikepant wearing 21-year-old guy selling papers for charity.

Kings Park

This beautiful park and botanical gardens is the best place for amazing views across Perth, over the Swan River and surrounding waterfront suburbs. The gardens are gorgeous, the tree top walkway is excellent (and free!) and the water features, lush lawn and BBQ areas see this place resemble Sydney's Pitt Street Mall on weekends.

Perth Zoo

Not as impressive as Taronga in Sydney or Dubbo, but still full to the brim with interesting animals and great exhibits. The Orangutan enclosure is world class, with two new baby monkeys getting up to all sorts of trouble. Luke even managed to find himself a super-dooper sized numbat to ride - you don't see those in the wild!!

Hillary's Boat Harbour
You're best off heading back to Margaret River if you're after a wave in Perth, but the beaches are great for swimming and Hillary's Boat Harbour is a perfect little spot on the coast to kill a few hours. Marvel at the million dollar boats, swim in the protected beach, dine at one of the many restaurants or cafes or check out the markets. There's something for everyone.

We could have spent another few weeks in Perth, just checking out the laid back vibe of the city and we will definitely be back, maybe down the line when we have kids of our own because it's a great spot for little ones with so much to do.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Jamie Oliver Eat Your Heart Out... Again!

First it was pizza that husband Luke was whipping up on our kombi gas stove, and now its gourmet, mouth watering, lip smacking, can-hardly-get-your-mouth-around Aussie burgers. Get a load of this thing. (Please pay special attention to the super-cute kombi plates!)





If you want to try making this little baby in the privacy of your own home, you'll need BBQ burger patties or rissoles, onion, egg, bacon, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, capsicum and BBQ sauce, all placed gently on a lightly toasted hamburger bun with melted cheese. Wow.



Who said camping meant eating two minute noodles and baked beans for dinner?

Yours seriously full and in need of a napkin,

Odette

Filling In The Days In Fremantle

There are so many ways to fill in time and enjoy the sights in beautiful Fremantle, just 25 minutes from the city of Perth. I managed to entertain myself on the streets of Freo for an entire week, while Luke worked to pay for all my purchases! Okay, not exactly true... I found tons of things to do for free, don't worry Luke!

1. Hit the Esplanade

First stop for any Fremantle first-timer should be the wharf or Esplanade. There are tons of fish and chip shops right on the water, that all claim to sell "The Best Fish and Chips in Western Australia!" Why not sample them all and let your taste buds be the real judge? Then check out the cool brass statues on the water and walk to the nearby swimming beach.

2. Head Along To The Markets

There are more markets in Freo, then AFL fans in Perth. Okay, that would be impossible because AFL is like a religion over here. But you know what I mean! The weekend markets are on each...ah... weekend? Duh! Funny thing is, they actually run from Friday to Sunday at the old council building in the main street and have everything from fresh fruit and veges (get there late Sunday arvo where everything gets reduced to next to nothing), clothes, art, craft and food. The Art Markets are held every Thursday right near the info centre and actually were a little disappointing with not a lot of stores set up the day I chekced them out and you can find the eMarkets down at the old wool sheds near the train station every Saturday and Sunday - these are more like permanent Sydney-style Paddies Markets i.e there's a lot of junk like stuffed kangaroos and fake 'Crocs' for sale.

3. Sample An Ale At A Brewery

We managed to drag ourselves along to two local drinking spots that each had their own micro-brewery out back. Little Creatures is a Fremantle institution and a must for any visitor, regardless if you like beer or not. Ooooo but you really must sample the beer. It's really, really good. Sail and Anchor is another place we sipped a coldie at. Nice drop and a great place to people watch from the pub balcony but we almost had to put our drinks on layby with two beers setting us back $17.50.

4. Check Out The Local Boutiques

There are so many cool little shops to discover. In these cool shops, the shop assistants are cool. The things they sell are cool. The background music heard playing is cool. In fact, the only thing not so cool in these shops was Luke and I, both starting to resemble disheveled travellers in great need of a hair cut, sporting funny looking short and thong tans.

5. Admire The Locals In Their Native Environment

I don't know if it was a special weekend where a whole bunch of strange characters came out to play on the cappuccino strip of Fremantle, but in the space of two days we saw a Mohawk wearing, bagpipe tooting punk doing pelvic thrusts in the middle of a circle of quite a few people, all holding cameras to capture the moment....

...and a drunken Fremantie (I've coined this term to describe a person who resides in Fremantle permanently) who thought it would be hilarious to take off his shirt and pants, give himself a front wedgie and dance around in his undies in front of his drunk mates on the main street while we all watched on from the Mexican restaurant across the road (it was about 7:45pm at the time - click on the image to enlarge and laugh like we did). I've practiced a bit of self-censorship here and chose NOT to include the next pic which was taken about 5 seconds later, when this intoxicated fellow took his risky behaviour one step further and ripped off his undies as well. Yes, a dancing naked drunk man. And all his friends could do to save any last sceric of this guy's dignity was to take photos of him on their phones. Coming soon to Facebook, no doubt. The police arrived in record time.

So as you can see, Fremantle has something for the entire family to enjoy! Who knew?!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette