Canberra – Australian Capital Territory

From northeast Victoria, we travel through New South Wales to the Australian Capital Territory.

Australian Capital Territory
Nice scenery, but watch out for echidnas

We call ahead to several caravan parks in Canberra. They have no vacancies. Probably because many people are in town for the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. We find a place near Yass, NSW on Lake Burrinjuck for the night.

Australian Capital Territory
Top of the lake

It’s pretty idyllic. We have the place to ourselves. Except for a very friendly dog that adopts us. (We assume she belongs to the proprietors.) She behaves perfectly and doesn’t make a sound. She sleeps outside the van and is still there in the morning. We name her Molly.

Australian Capital Territory
Hills near Yass

As the sun sets, the surrounding hills turn red.

Australian Capital Territory
Hills near Yass

The only sound is sheep bleating in the hills.

Some jolly jumbucks

Our first stop in Canberra is the Australian War Memorial. Essentially a war museum. It is extremely well done.

Australian Capital Territory
Poppies at the AWM

The scene of lots of activity the day before we arrive, November 11, but now quiet and uncrowded.

Australian Capital Territory
AWM entrance

It contains lots of nifty hardware, including a Japanese midget submarine that attacked Sydney Harbour, a WWI tank, and a Lancaster bomber.

Australian Capital Territory
Australian War Memorial courtyard

We spend four nights in Canberra. Like most planned-from-scratch cities, it features sweeping boulevards that look great. As long as you’re not a pedestrian.

Australian Capital Territory
Looking down ANZAC Parade to the new parliament house.

Being the national capital, Canberra has some great museums. We see a special exhibit about Rome at the National Museum of Australia.

Australian Capital Territory
Cool architecture of the NMA

We visit the superb National Portrait Gallery. Ottawa has been dithering over creating a national portrait gallery for decades. Jeeze, just friggin’ build it, already.

I like this portrait of Nick Cave.

Nick Cave portrait by Howard Arkley

We visit the Museum of Australian Democracy, housed in the former Parliament House.

Australian Capital Territory
You can still feel the hot air

Australia and Canada are similar in being burdened with less-than-impressive, mediocre, self-serving politicians, yet both countries manage to be great places to live.

We visit the new Parliament House.

 Australian Capital Territory
Just visiting

By design, it is a delightfully open place. After a security check, people are welcome to poke around its interesting features. A pleasant change from the Iron Fortress isolation from the public found in most other western countries’ government buildings.

Still, there are enough men and women around toting machine guns to discourage any would-be jihadis yearning for martyrdom.

Australian Capital Territory
Looking down Federation Mall back to the Australian War Memorial, with the old Parliament House in the foreground

Sight or Insight of the Day

You can see the fields of red in the photos of Parliament House above.

This is an ocean of poppies.

Australian Capital Territory
Remembrance

Each handcrafted poppy has been created by a volunteer and represents an Australian life lost in the First World War. There are 62,000 of them.

Victoria – In Kelly Country

Our interest in the Ned Kelly story continues. From Melbourne we drive north east to Kelly Country.

First stop is the village of Beveridge. This is the house Kelly’s father built in the 1850s. His brother and fellow gang member, Dan, was born here.

Kelly Country
House of ill fame

Next to the town of Avenel. As a boy, Ned saves a seven-year-old Richard Shelton from drowning near this spot on Hughes Creek. Shelton’s grateful parents present Ned with a green silk sash.

Kelly Country
In the background is the Avenel Bridge, a minor marvel of Victorian engineering

‘I do not pretend that I have led a blameless life, or that one fault justified another, but the public, judging a case like mine, should remember that the darkest life may have
a bright side …’ – Ned Kelly

The Kelly name still means something in these parts.

Kelly Country
Australian graffiti

After an excellent pizza in town, we go to Euroa. The Kelly gang robs a bank here, takes hostages, and treats the locals to daring feats of horsemanship.

Our next stop is Benalla. They have a lot of Kelly memorabilia here, including Ned’s famous sash, which he wears at the siege of Glenrowan.

Kelly Country
The green sash of courage

The Benalla Gallery also has a tapestry based on one of Sydney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series.

Kelly Country
The siege at Glenrowan

Benalla cemetery contains several Kelly-related graves, including that of gang member Joe Byrne.

Kelly Country
Joe Byrne’s grave

We like the stylized Ned Kellys that indicate Kelly-related graves.

Kelly Country
Kelly in profile

It’s based on a contemporary etching that appears in the press.

Kelly Country
Ned Kelly at bay

Further down the road is Glenrowan, site of Kelly’s last stand.

This is Glenrowan train station. A train full of policemen arrives from Melbourne to take down the Kelly gang.

Kelly country
People get ready, there’s a train a’comin…

This pony paddock is the site of the Glenrowan Inn. Police besiege the inn and eventually burn it to the ground.

Kelly country
Such is life
Kelly country
Kelly country

This is the spot where the police capture Ned after his collapse.

Kelly country
Man down
Among all the tourist tat in Glenrowan is a well-presented collection of Kelly memorabilia in the shop ‘Kate’s Cottage’.
Kelly Country
Replica settler’s homestead

We move on to Beechworth, a pretty town now, once a centre of lawlessness in the gold rush days.

Many of the Kelly family spend a lot of time here, um, doing time.

Kelly Country
Jailhouse Rock

Or otherwise appearing before a magistrate.

In the basement of the Beechworth courthouse is a cell regularly occupied by Harry Power. Ned Kelly is ‘apprenticed’ to this bushranger at the age of fourteen.

Kelly Country
Your usual cell awaits, Harry

Murdering thug or avenging friend of the oppressed? Probably just a flawed individual like the rest of us. But so iconic is the Kelly story that the opening ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 featured a troop of Nolanesque Kelly figures.

Heroes and villains

Sight or Insight of the Day  – Kelly Country

On our way north of Yass, NSW, we see another echidna.

Kelly Country
Spining for the fjords

Tradition says if you see an echidna, you’ll have good luck for the next three days. (I just made that up. We simply like them.)

 

Melbourne – horseracing and more

From the relative calm of Geelong, we arrive in the urban maelstrom that is  Melbourne.

(This entry is brief and at least a week out of date. As usual, finding reliable WiFi in Australia is always difficult. At the moment, we’re reduced to sitting in a McDonald’s in Canberra to leech off of their one hour of free WiFi.)

Melbourne
City by the Bay

To navigate these streets is enervating. We are more accustomed to driving in conditions like this:

Melbourne
Heavy traffic in the MacDonnell Ranges

By accident, we arrive on the day of the Melbourne Cup. This is a big deal here. We toy with the idea of attending, but a deluge of rain on the day puts us off.

Instead, we head for Heide.

Melbourne
‘Heide’ is short for ‘Heidelberg’ – a local neighbourhood

This is the former home of John and Sunday Reed, patrons of the arts in the 30s, 40s, and beyond. Probably most well-known for bringing the talents of Sydney Nolan to the world.

Most of Nolan’s famed Ned Kelly series (which we were fortunate enough to see in Perth) were painted at the kitchen table as the Heide circle thrashed out artistic solutions to the world’s problems.

Melbourne
Table of discontents

The Reeds and Nolan were engaged in a ménage à trois that was unconventional and, um, interesting, to say the least.

There’s also a wonderful library.

Melbourne
Bookish
The rear windows are painted by Mirka Mora, another Heide

habitué.

Melbourne
Clearly creative
We like the tiles over the stove in the kitchen.
Melbourne
Tiles

The surrounding grounds are now a sculpture park. Signs warn to beware of snakes, especially at this time of year.

Melbourne
Serpents in the garden

We visit the impressive State Library of Victoria.

Melbourne
More than just a library

In keeping with our interest in the Ned Kelly story, we seek out Ned’s famous armour.

Melbourne
Iron Man

The SLV also has the original Jerilderie letter on display.

Melbourne
Ned’s sort-of manifesto
Melbourne
A word to the wise
There’s an interesting video about the construction of this armour out of stolen ploughs.
Melbourne
Bush blacksmithery explained

The weather in Melbourne continues to be cool and wet. Good weather for visiting the State Gallery of Victoria.

Our luck continues, as the Gallery has an exhibit co-featuring Brett Whiteley, whom we first learned about in Sydney.

Melbourne
Melbourne

The other artist is George Baldessin.

But we prefer Brett.

Melbourne
More words to live by
Melbourne
Whiteleys on show

Sight or Insight of the Day – Melbourne

We never free-camp. Often, when people speak of traveling around Australia by camper-van, visions spring up of overnighting on a deserted beach or under the stars alone in the bush. We thought like this as well.

As it turns out, we prefer the luxury of having electricity and proximity to a hot shower. Worth the AUD30 or so, in our opinion.

Livin’ large in the caravan parks of Oz

 

Adelaide & the Great Ocean Road

From the Barossa Valley, we arrive in nearby Adelaide

Adelaide
Adelaide GPO, where we pick up some mail

Poor South Australia often gets missed by overseas visitors – people with time restrictions usually limit themselves to the east coast. This state has so much going for it.

We take a tram out to Glenelg, where there is a beach.

Adelaide
Glenelg foreshore

The water is a beautiful blue, but cold at this time of the year.

Adelaide
Glenelg coastline

Yep, South Australia has it all; great seafood, rich wheat-belts, mineral wealth, superb wineries, opals, former nuclear weapon test sites, and a classy state capital.

We visit the National Wine Centre. Explains the history of the ever-more-successful Australian wine industry.

Adelaide
38,000 bottles and counting

We take a city bus from our caravan park into town every day. Beside the bus stop is a palm tree that doubles as a sort of bird condominium.

Adelaide
Rainbow lorikeet and pigeon share quarters

We depart for the Victoria border. But not before visiting one last South Australian wine-producing area: McLaren Vale.

Adelaide
McLaren Vale vista

We restrict ourselves to a single vineyard, d’Arenberg. We already carry as many bottles of wine as we can reasonably transport. (But we make room for a few more.) The proprietor, Chester Osborn, is quite a character.

This is the visitor centre. It’s ‘different’, as my mother would say. It’s her polite code-word for ‘weird’.

Adelaide
The Cube

Among its oddities is a smell-o-rama room, where you squeeze bulb horns (mounted on bicycle handlebars) to get a whiff of the distinct aromas to look for in wine.

Adelaide
‘Fruity’ scents for reds…
Adelaide
…’Floral’ scents for whites. Get it?

The urinals in the gents are, um, unique.

Adelaide
Not something you see every day

It’s wonderfully warm in this part of South Australia.

Adelaide
The layers start to come off

We arrive in the state of Victoria and follow the Great Ocean Road.

It has pretty coastal scenery, of course.

Adelaide
Canola fields

Parts of the GOR pass though forests that look like Canada.

Adelaide
Forest

There are grand views over the white-capped Southern Ocean.

Adelaide
Lone ship offshore

Many remote rock formations.

Adelaide
Bay of Islands
The grotto

We stop at the Twelve Apostles. (Spoiler alert – there aren’t actually twelve.) It is very popular, attracting the busloads of visitors that make us uncomfortable.

We hike to the beach below and try to keep warm in the cool drizzle by performing some interpretive dance.

Adelaide
‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’
Adelaide
‘La Mort du cygne’

The landscape in Victoria is a far cry from the parched rocks of central Australia in which we’ve spent so much time.

Verdant hills

We arrive in Geelong and visit the engaging National Wool Museum.

Sight or Insight of the Day – Adelaide & the Great Ocean Road

Until a few weeks ago. Beginning on the road to Norseman in WA, we start to see snakes both alive and flattened.

Adelaide
Snake in the grass

This bad boy is a death adder. We can tell by the worm-like tail appendage (hard to see in this photo) that they use to lure their prey.

We hear snakes are appearing now after a winter spent semi-hibernating. Still doesn’t explain why we didn’t see any in the always-steaming North.

 

South Australia – Barossa Valley

From Ceduna, we drive through South Australia down the seafood-rich Eyre Peninsula to Port Lincoln.

Barossa Valley
Sundowner on Boston Bay

By the way, these locations have nothing to do with ‘Abraham Lincoln’ or ‘Boston, Massachusetts’: they’re named after places in Lincolnshire in the UK.

On the way up the peninsula to Port Augusta, we stop for lunch in village of Cowell, on Franklin Harbour.

Barossa Valley
Main street, Cowell, South Australia

According to local info:

‘This area was first seen by Captain Matthew Flinders in HMS ‘Investigator’ in 1802. In 1840, Governor Gawler visited the area from Port Lincoln, and named Franklin Harbour after a midshipman on Mathew Flinders’ vessel – John (later Sir John) Franklin.’

Yes, it’s that Sir John Franklin, so prominent in Canadian history.

At a seaside kiosk, we enjoy tasty fish and chips, with calamari for Maria.

Barossa Valley
‘I’m on a seafood diet. I see food, I eat it.’ – ancient joke

In Port Augusta, Matilda gets a long-awaited bath.

Barossa Valley
Bubble bath

From Port Augusta south, the landscape is more hilly.

Barossa Valley
South Australia landscape

We like to stop in small towns and check out the frontier architecture from pioneer days.

Barossa Valley
Redhill, South Australia
Barossa Valley
South Australia landscape

North of Adelaide, we spend three nights in the Barossa Valley.

Barossa Valley
Sea of vines

We visit many wineries. Some are international giants, like Jacob’s Creek, Penfolds, and Wolf Blass.

Barossa Valley
Barossa Valley

Incidentally, there really is a body of water called ‘Jacob’s Creek’. It’s tiny.

Water sign

Some are large and well-known in Australia, such as Yalumba, Seppeltsfield, and Kellermeister.

Barossa Valley
Best cellar?
Palm trees abound, giving the area a tropical feel.
Barossa Valley
On the road to Seppeltsfield

And some are smaller boutique wineries that we find online, such as Two Hands,  Yelland & Papps, Tscharke, and Lou Miranda. These are probably the most fun.

Barossa Valley
Maria cradles a rosé

Largely because we’re less likely to find ourselves elbow to elbow with other avid wine-slurpers than at the big-name cellars.

Barossa Valley
Wine-slurper-in-chief

We don’t think we’ve ever seen grapevines this early in the season. Our caravan park has vines growing and we observe how the grapes-to-be are at this point like tiny dewdrops.

Barossa Valley
Embryonic chardonnay

Sight or Insight of the Day – Barossa Valley

Well, Adelaide actually. We check into a caravan park near Adelaide and discover there is a koala living nearby.

Barossa Valley
I dream of eucalyptus

We’re lucky enough to spot him. He’s darker than his East Coast brothers.

Pemberton to the Nullarbor

From Pemberton, we make our way to the Nullarbor and points east.

While in Pemberton, we take the Karri Forest Explorer drive.

Nullarbor
If you go out in the woods today…

The woods are full of clematis in bloom.

Nullarbor
Clematis

It’s all very environmentally friendly.

Nullarbor
Tree hugger

The southwest of Western Australia gets a lot of rainfall. It’s very green. Parts of it even look like England.

Nullarbor
Why does England call?

We continue down to Albany.

Nullarbor
Albany outskirts

Albany is pleasant city. It was the first capital of Western Australia, briefly.

Due to its location, it was the departure point for the fleets of ANZACs sailing off to the First World War. So their last sight of home for years.

Nullarbor
ANZAC centre

This is detailed in the National ANZAC Centre, an exceptionally brilliant interactive museum. Tells the stories of those who left and came back, or came back greatly changed, or never came back at all.

Among the exhibits is this touching sculpture of an ANZAC sharing a hatful of water with his horse.

Nullarbor
Some water for me mate

Like many places of interest that we’ve been to relating to 20th-century wars, it’s full of old people. Apparently, younger people are not interested in past conflicts and assume our present era of peace and plenty lasts forever. Hope they’re right.

There are other things to see on the hill.

Nullarbor
Gun emplacement with great view of King George Sound

For example, the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial. This was originally in Egypt.

Nullarbor
Safer at home

The Lonely Planet guide euphemistically says:

‘The memorial was originally erected in Port Said, Egypt. However, it
was irreparably damaged during the Suez crisis in 1956, and this copy was made from masonry salvaged from the original. ‘

When I read this, I immediately imagine by ‘irreparably damaged’, they mean ‘mindlessly torn to pieces in an orgy of destruction by a rabid mob of felaheen whipped into an anti-Western frenzy by Nasser’.

Of course, a bit of digging and it turns to be the case, as stated here.

Albany is also the home of Australia’s last whaling factory. The site is now the Historic Whaling Station.

Nullarbor
Skeleton of a Pygmy (!) Blue Whale

Silos on the harbourfront sport a cool seadragon mural.

Nullarbor
Seadragon rampant
There is also a local branch of the WA Museum, with a replica of brig Amity,

the first ship sent from Sydney to establish Albany.

Nullarbor
The Amity

From Albany we drive to Esperance. When I was here in 1980, the local museum featured chunks of Skylab. They’re still here.

At the time, I stayed in the local hostel. It’s still here too.

Nullarbor
None the worse for wear. The hostel’s in good shape, too.

We begin our drive across the Nullarbor.

Nullarbor
Camels and wombats and ‘roos, Oh My!

We have three stopovers along the way; Balladonia, Eucla, and Ceduna.

Nullarbor

It’s famed for being very desolate, but we’ve been through a lot of desolate places on this trip.

Nullarbor
Far – a long, long way to run
Nullarbor
What does this red light flashing on the fuel gauge mean?

We come to the Great Australian Bight.

Nullarbor
The Great Australian Bight, looking east
The Great Australian Bight, looking west
Nullarbor
We’re on the road to nowhere

Sight or Insight of the Day – Pemberton to the Nullarbor

Matilda needs a new battery as we approach Albany. At the battery shop, the owner’s vintage wheels are outside. I try to convince Maria that our next car should be something similar.

Nullarbor
They say it’s the Rolls Royce of automobiles

Perth to Pemberton – via Margaret River

Before moving on to Margaret River – our next destination – we enjoy an extended stay in Perth. We do big-city things; renew prescriptions, I get a haircut and new lenses for my glasses, pick up mail, buy new shoes.

We revisit Fremantle to see the Shipwrecks Museum.

Below is the surviving timbers from the Batavia, shipwrecked in 1629 off the coast of Western Australia. This is only a small portion of the original hull.

In the background is a stone portico that was carried as ballast and meant for the walls of the Dutch city Batavia (now Jakarta) in present-day Indonesia.

Margaret River
Photo courtesy of the WA Maritime Museum

If you like shipwrecks – and who doesn’t? – you can spend hours here.

We eventually set off for Margaret River. In case you don’t know, MR is a well-known wine-producing area.

Margaret River
Let the tastings begin

We visit, hmmm, let’s see, Robert Oatley, Credaro, Pierro, Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle, Leeuwin Estate, and Voyager Estate.

Margaret River
A glass of wine, a few scallops – and thou

There are over 200 wineries in the region.

Margaret River
Barbarian at the gates

Vasse Felix is the oldest estate in Margaret River.

Margaret River
Vines at Vasse Felix
As usual in wine regions, there is lots of good food, beautiful gardens, and impressive architecture. Voyager Estate bears a startling resemblance to a South African Cape Dutch winery, of which we have seen many.
Margaret River
Under the wisteria

Another winery has an interesting chandelier made from wine glasses.

Margaret River
Let’s raise a glass

Back in our caravan park, there are many ringneck parrots strutting around .

Margaret River
Margaret River

There’s something uplifting and heartwarming about seeing parrots everywhere. It’s like being in a sort of primeval Eden. This effect is helped by the lush bottle-brush trees surrounding our campsite.

Margaret River
Bottle-brush trees. I think.

We drive south into forests of enormous karri trees and arrive in Pemberton.

Margaret River
Keep Calm and Karri On

We pass a bucolic scene of sheep feeding placidly among some olive trees.

Sheep May Safely Graze

Sight or Insight of the Day – Margaret River

One of the wineries has a cool fountain with lifelike statues of cockatoos.

Margaret River
Cockatoo Hunter

It is actually a memorial to Steve Irwin. He was killed by the same kind of creature that stung Maria in Flores.

Down the West Coast to Perth

From Carnarvon, we continue to travel down the west coast to Perth.

On the road to Kalbarri, we come across an echidna – the first we’ve seen in the wild.

West coast to Pert
Echidna crossing

He waddles into his burrow to escape Maria’s photographic harassment.

West coast to Perth
Echidna’s arf of you – probably the only piece of music with the word ‘echidna’ in its title since the dawn of time

Kalbarri looks wonderful, but there is no place to be had in any caravan park. It turns out to be a school holiday of some kind. We carry on to the next town, Port Gregory, with its strikingly pink lake.

West coast to Perth
Tickled pink

As we get further south, we see broad fields of wheat. This is a welcome surprise, after seeing little but rocks, dry scrubby bush, and spinifex grasses for a few thousand kilometers.

West coast to Perth
Amber waves of grain

We wonder how they keep the kangaroos out.

Geraldton is a pleasant small city. It has a port from which a lot of the surrounding grain gets exported.

West coast to Perth
Port of Geraldton

Geraldton has a moving monument to the men of the HMAS Sydney II, a warship lost with all hands in 1941.

West coast to Perth
Each seagull in the dome represents a sailor

Geraldton is also the home of the Museum of Geraldton. Like most of the museums we visit here, it is nearly new and excellent. Among the exhibits is a 3D film about the discovery of the Sydney II on the ocean floor in 2008, as well as the German ship HSK Kormoran; both ships sank in the engagement. The wrecks lie in 2,500 metres of water, 20km apart, about 200km west of Shark Bay.

The soundtrack is Arvo Pärt’s Für Alina, which is so achingly apt for the film it almost hurts.

We stay on Sunset Beach.

West coast to Perth
Sunset Beach

It’s nice.

West coast to Perth
I get soaked while posing for a photo

We walk around town, but the streets are nearly deserted. The National Rugby League Grand Finals are on, and a large part of the Australian population is glued to a TV screen. This phenomenon always puts me in mind of Lynn Miles’s ‘Hockey Night in Canada‘. If you don’t share the mania for the national sport, prepare to feel a little alienated.

We head down the scenic ocean route to Perth.

West coast to Perth
Approaching Lancelin

Near the town of Lancelin are enormous white sand dunes that look like snow.

West coast to Perth
White dunes

Or sugar.

West coast to Perth
♫ Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain…♪

We arrive in the bright lights of Perth. Similar to our trip to Sydney, it takes some adjusting to be back in urban Australia again.

West coast to Perth
Drinking kangaroo sculpture on St, George’s Terrace
West coast to Perth
I check the water for myself

We make a day trip to nearby Rottnest Island.

West coast to Perth
Thompson Bay, Rottnest Island

Rottnest is the home of thousands of quokkas, which are as cute as all get-out.

West coast to Perth
Momma quokka and young

It’s also the home of large King’s skinks.

West coast to Perth
Egernia kingii

Here, a skink and a quokka meet face to face.

West coast to Perth
‘I am the Lizard King, I can do anything.’

Quokkas are endearingly unafraid of people. They browse contentedly on the grass and tend to ignore humans.

West coast to Perth
Marsupial meets mammal

We rent bicycles and tour the island.

West coast to Perth
Wadjemup lighthouse
West coast to Perth
Henrietta Rocks, Rottnest Island
West coast to Perth
Bay, Rottnest Island
West coast to Perth
Tidal pools, Rottnest Island

There are signs that say ‘Don’t touch or feed the wildlife’. However, I can’t resist a quick illicit petting.

I can cross ‘pet a quokka’ off my bucket list
West coast to Perth
Cape Vlamingh, Rottnest Island
West coast to Perth
Cape Vlamingh, Rottnest Island
West coast to Perth
Beach, Rottnest Island
West coast to Perth
Wadjemup lighthouse, closer up

Another day, we visit nearby Fremantle.

West coast to Perth
Known affectionately as ‘Freo’ to the locals

Our main destination is the wonderful Western Australia Maritime Museum.

West coast to Perth
Fremantle harbour

A star attraction of the museum is its submarine tour.

West coast to Perth
HMAS Ovens

Our guide, Keith, is a retired submariner. He served on this very boat (a sub is always a ‘boat’, and not a ‘ship’ apparently), HMAS Ovens, for 11 months, during his career.

West coast to Perth
Permission to come aboard

There’s a world of difference between listening to a barely-motivated guide and one that has actually served in submarines for 20 years. Especially one with an Australian sense of humour and typical Aussie casualness to authority.

West coast to Perth
Plenty of horsepower. Or is that seahorsepower?

We learn that everyone on board is familiar with all the sub’s systems. To the point where many tasks can be done in complete darkness.

West coast to Perth
What happens when you pull this handle?

We also visit the Art Gallery of Western Australia. In another manifestation of serendipity, there is an exhibit of Sydney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series.

West coast to Perth
Folk hero? Or terrorist?

I recently finish Peter Carey’s ‘True History of the Kelly Gang‘, so coming across this is timely.

I react to one painting in particular much as I did to the Elioth Gruner work in Sydney.

It’s ‘The Butterfly’, by Freda Robertshaw.

The Butterfly

There’s just something about this one that grabs me.

Sight or  Insight of the Day  – West coast to Perth

A few days ago was October 3. It’s our one-year anniversary of leaving Ottawa.

October 3, 2017 – Our friends Hector and Delfina drop us off at Ottawa Airport

In one of those odd coincidences, the day we realized it was the third of October, I was wearing exactly the same clothes as in this photo.

Who knows what adventures lie ahead?

Exmouth to Carnarvon

We continue our northwestern journey from Exmouth to Carnarvon.

We like Exmouth and the surrounding area a lot. From atop Vlamingh Head, we watch whales spouting offshore.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Vlamingh Head lighthouse

Exmouth’s most famous feature is its array of antennae,  originally built to communicate with submarines and ships in the Indian Ocean.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Towers

Apparently this is done by satellites now, but this array is still in use by the Australian navy.

At the entrance to the Harold E. Holt base is the prow of a submarine with the hump on the front where the sonar equipment resides.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Reading the sub text

Virtually nothing existed here before the sixties. The United States built the town from scratch to support the base.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Roos among the array

Exmouth is also famous for its whale sharks.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

In the season – March to August – you can swim with them, if you’re so inclined. It’s gonna cost you, though.

Instead of defense folks, Exmouth is now a popular place for retired Aussies to move to.

In front of the impressive Ningaloo Visitors Centre are these interesting planters. In its military heyday, armour-piercing rounds are fired at centimeters-thick steel plate in nearby training grounds. These are now recycled into civic furniture.

Swords into ploughshares, sort of

Nearby are the stunning Ningaloo Coast and Cape Range National Park.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Strolling to Turquoise Bay

This is the kind of snorkeling we like: step off the beach into the bay and you are immediately surrounded by coral and thousands of insanely colourful fish.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Turquoise Bay

There are shipwrecks galore along this coast.

Wreck of the cattle ship Mildura

You don’t have to go far to get away from it all.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Exmouth to Carnarvon

We go to the end of Cape Range National Park and hike the Yardie Creek gorge.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
View from Yardie Creek gorge
Exmouth to Carnarvon
Yardie Creek gorge
We go further down the coast to Coral Bay.
Exmouth to Carnarvon
Coral Bay

It’s OK, but too crowded for us.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Coral Bay caravan park

Driving down to Carnarvon, we come across a mamma emu and her young one crossing the highway.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Why did the emu cross the road?

We stop for lunch at the Overlander roadhouse.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Four-trailer road train

Maria likes these flowers against the dusty red dirt.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Exmouth to Carnarvon

Our first stop in Carnarvon is the Space and Technology Museum.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Carnarvon satellite dish

Carnarvon is a long-time space tracking station.

Sight ot Insight of the Day – Exmouth to Carnarvon

At the Yardie Creek gorge parking lot, we see this cool world-traveling van from Switzerland.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Camper envy

If we didn’t have Matilda, it would be the perfect size vehicle for us.

As they often are, an itinerary is displayed. These people take a very interesting route to get here.

Exmouth to Carnarvon
Route envy

There are a lot of places with heart-attack-inducing driving conditions on this map. Our hats go off to the travelers.

 

Beyond the Black Stump and Back o’Bourke: Back in the Outback

After the fleshpots of Sydney, we are happy to be back in the outback again.

back in the outback
Iconic bottle trees

The northwest of Australia is known for its picturesque bottle trees. Essentially  baobabs, like in Africa.

The endless vistas and empty roads suit us down to the ground.

The wide, brown land for me

After returning from Sydney, we spend a last evening with Lauretta at Darwin’s  Deck Chair Cinema. While lounging on beanbags at the front, one of the DCC’s famous possums casually strolls over Lauretta’s pillow and finishes off her dish of Middle Eastern salad – mere centimetres away – with the aplomb and casualness of a house cat.

We stop at Victoria River, NT overnight before arriving in the state of Western Australia the next day. One of the first roadhouses we come to has a chute for disposing of live cane toads, a real pest here.

back in the outback
Toad in the hole

We flee Hall’s Creek early in the morning of my birthday after – barely – escaping the predations of larcenous locals around the caravan park. We stop for breakfast at a roadside halt that is covered with corella parrots.

back in the outback
Carpet of corellas

We never tire of seeing parrots everywhere here; we’re such tourists. There’s something uplifting about parrots.

We arrive in Broome, WA, a relaxed sort of town.

back in the outback
Breakfast on the Bay, Broome

After learning about local history at the Broome Museum – the pearl industry, dinosaur footprints, and aircraft relics from WWII Japanese air raids – we head to Cable Beach.

back in the outback
Seaside park at Cable Beach
back in the outback
Cable Beach

The next day, we spend an unexpected night at the Roebuck Plains roadhouse caravan park when the road south to Port Hedland is closed because of a bushfire.

Beyond the black stump

Eventually, we carry on to Eighty Mile Beach.

back in the outback
The road to Eighty Mile Beach

Like the beaches of Broome, the waters of Eighty Mile Beach are a lovely turquoise.

back in the outback
Eighty Mile Beach caravan park
back in the outback
Sundown on Eighty Mile Beach
On the way south again. We stop for coffee at the Whim Creek Pub.
back in the outback
Whim Creek pub

I recall stopping at this pub my previous time in Australia. I got a multi-day lift with someone named Risto (a Finnish name). He worked at the Goldsworthy iron ore mine. He drove a green VW 1600 fastback. It never ceases to amaze how the brain retains such trivia when sometimes I can’t remember which day of the week it is.

back in the outback
Peacocks at the Whim Creek Pub

Sight or Insight of the Day – Back in the Outback

We see a shark. Close up.

While at Eighty-Mile Beach, Maria wants to go swimming. The caravan park management suggests she does not. A few hours later, we watch the sun go down and see a shark not ten metres away in the improbably shallow water offshore. He must be at least two metres long – his dorsal fin and tail fin stick out of the water as he cruises up and down the beach. That was really cool!
Maria manages to get this fuzzy photo of me in the foreground and the shark nearby. It’s quite dark by this time, so the performance of our little camera is impressive.
back in the outback
Cue the theme music from ‘Jaws’