ive made it into something close to civilisation again now. its a bit of
a shock after our few days driving thru the desert.
ive been travelling with ross from america (who owns 'sheila', our
trusty wagon) and alec from the UK.
we left from adelaide on tuesday (i think) and promptly got lost trying
to find our way out of the city!
after detouring thru some of the lovely suburbs on the hills around the
city, we finally found our way out and really got on the way.
we ended up doing something like 700km that day, which got us to some
little town called something like 'widduna'? it was a big town compared
to what we were going to encounter in the following days tho - it had a
pub/motel and a couple of other little shops.
the following 2 days were just lots & lots of driving - about 700km and
900km! how many trips from auckland to wellington is that!!
we found a couple of nice places to stop off on the way - one place
called streaky bay, on the western side of the eyre penninsula was a
cool little seaside town & the sea was perfectly calm while we were
there too :)
further west we stopped at the head of the australian bight (where the
southern ocean reaches furthest north). there were a whole lot of whales
there too - within about 50m of the cliffs. it was the calving season
too, so there were a couple of little calves swimming round too and one
of them was almost completely white - really stood out against the deep
blue sea. much better spot for whalewatching than that bay we went to
in southern victoria :) feels like that was weeks ago now!
we were lucky enuf on our trip that there were gas stations dotted
across the desert every 200-300km too. seems like a pretty lonely place
to work & live tho, out in the desert like that. plenty of roos for
company i guess? ;)
i think that was about the most road-kill ive seen out there. so many
roos thatd been hit by the big trucks. we definitely had to slow down in
our wagon tho, the roos would just make too much of a mess of us!!
we didnt see any wild camels tho, despite all the warning signs. but
maybe thats just as well, they'd be even harder to dodge than a
kangaroo!
the last few days we've been taking it alot easier, exploring round the
southern coast & some of the decent size towns here. right now im in
albany, which is definitely the biggest town since adelaide, but its
still pretty rural :)
we had a couple of days in esperance too - very nice spot to chill out
after our mission across the desert. we went out to cape le grand too -
not far from town & found a track to walk around thru the national parl,
then decided to make our own track up to the top of mt le grand :)
pretty spectacular views from up there - beautiful little sheltered bays
with glistening white sand and crystal clear blue/green water. back
inland was almost entirely the dark green of the native vegetation, just
with a brown streak of the dirt road winding its way thru. there were
also a few other small mountains within view, scattered pretty randomly
around.
I'd say thats one of my favourite spots so far in Oz :)
We're planning on doing a wee trip around some of the sights in this
area, then heading to margaret river tomorrow - who knows how long we'll
have to spend there?? have to stop drinking wine before we can leave!!
so i guesss it mite be another week til we get to perth?
than il just have to find another adventure!! further up the coast
maybe??
maybe even find a bit of work somewhere?? aarrrghhhhhh ;)
hope you're all suitably jealous now??
:)
