Hey lovely people..
How ya goin'?
Thought it was about time for a hello and an update on the adventures of us and Doris in Aus so far...
Having arrived in perth and being put up by our lovely friends Al and Rob we very quickly landed ourselves with jobs, a campervan (AKA Doris) and a room in a shared flat with a lovely colombian guy named Camilo....
We spent our Aussie Christmas and New Year on the South West Coast with Al, Rob and friends.. it was very much what you'd expect from an Aussie xmas - in that BBQ's, beaches and many stubbies were involved (along with some sightseeing and a wine tour thrown in for good measure) but sadly christmas day itself was drizzly and pretty cool compared to what we hoped for ....but some wine, cheese, beer, brownies, whisky and a few heats of xmas olympics (including the bawble and sppon race no less!) made it all the better....
Despite the fact we slogged our guts out working crazy hours for the 5 months we had in Perth, we had a great time - made by the fab bunch of friends we met, numerous good nights out, weekly sessions of touch rugby, surfing, the few journeys south for more surfing and sightseeing, Jo learning to row and competing in a reggatta dressed as a member of flashdance (complete with full on massive 80's hair!), a great week sightseeing around Perth itself with Jo's mum and husband John who popped in for a week on their way up the coast and finally a day at Coffee School to earn our Barista certificate!! By the time our 5 months was up we were definetely ready to leave behind the grind...
We thought we'd break in Doris easily - so our 1st stop was Yanchep National Park (only a 40 minute drive from Perth!!) Had an amazing evening meal shared with numerous guests including parrots, kookaburra's, roos and purple swamphen's (pretty blue birds with ugly red beaks)!! was quite an introduction to the outdoor life... Managed to fit in a bit of surfing and then headed on up to Lancelin (only another 40 minutes up the coast!) where surfing and sanboarding were all the rage.. got to share a surf with a very friendly and inquisitive dolphin.. (seeing the fin was relieved it wasn't a shark!!)...amazing..
Carried on very slowly up the coast to leap frog over the pinnacles of Cervantes and shared our easter with a few friends from Perth - a french chick Charlene and brummy dude Chris (who has an apparent talent for making Welsh Cakes much to our pleasure!!). They forced us (with loaded gun against head) to drink non stop... maybe we needed the alchohol to get through the experience of camping with so many bogans!! Van roof dancing over we then carried on our slow ascent Northwards...
Thus followed a whirlwind tour of the gorges of Kalbarri, the beautiful heritage coast of shark bay and a quick view of the dolphins of Monkey Mia, the stromatolites of hamelin pool and to Matts excitement viewing of the NASA tracking sateliete in Canarvon..
Having stocked up with water supplies and enough food to feed an army for a few years (or so it seemed!!) ..we began our jouney to Gnaraloo with a fully loaded and very heavy Doris!!...49kms sealed road and about 30kms of very holey, corrugated unsealed roads later... we hit a massive pot hole and blew a tyre..still with 45kms to go to the station and due to start wwoofing that day.. and there the experience began!! A very confused and frustrating few hours followed with spanners that wouldn't fit the tyre and a few fellow passers by stopping and trying to assit but matt and everyone who'd tried to help were convinced the nuts had been done up so tight they'd need to be cut off.. in the meantime Jo got a lift up to the station - to meet the boss to ask him to help us (not the best 1st impression me thinks!!) .. having been introduced to the grumpy mechanic Feral (the name says it all!) and armed with a spanner that would fit and the advice that maybe the nuts were left hand thread .. Jo arrived back to Doris and Matt with advice in hand .. and to our relief (and very much to Matts frustration!) turns out they were left hand thread (oddly only the one wheel matt would like to add!!) and so once again Doris was on her way... 7 Hours from leaving Carnarvon later (which should have been 2-3!) we arrived at 3mile camp and managed to get Fully loaded Doris bogged in some very deep sand .. ha ha .. a challenging 1st day.. but a few beers later all was good :)..
So our 6 weeks at Gnaraloo followed... a step up in getting down and dirty with nature occurred.. mice in the van, deadly snakes running about under our feet, red back spiders everywhere, grasshoppers and moths attacking like bullets, surfing with tiger sharks, sand in the ears, eyes, nose and dinner!!
..we became masters at cleaning toilets and acting bin men (no less with Jo signing my old mans a dustman numerous times!!), Matt became an expert at lighting fires and Jo at serving the customers of the small shop with Icy Poles (ice creams!), Lollies (sweets), Stubbies (Beers!!) and even got to use her newly acquired Barista skills ...
but then there was: the amazing surf breaks we woke up to view every morning, which soothed us to sleep at night and gave Matt the waves of his life; the Joey kangaroos we got to feed pat, hug and laugh at enetring the shop; the absoultely stunning snorkelling with turtles, rays, sharks, huge blue starfish with what looked liked sequins on them, an incredible array of fish of all sizes, colours and species; the most colourful diverse collection of shells any Joey (of the roberts variety!) could wish for; the stunning scenery of the unbelieveably contrasting landscape of the 91,000 ha of the station including huge rolling white sand dunes, sheer cliff edges of rock rolling into the sea, serene deserted never ending white sand beaches with crystal clear turqouise waters, the beautiful lush green pastoral land and then the contrast of them all meeting and rollng into one; the free roaming roos, huge bung arrow Lizards, the flocks of parrots swooping overhead, the lambs, the goats and kids; the incredible sunsets; the amazing starscapes viewed from the comfort of the roof of Doris; the Four wheel drive that we were so lucky to borrow to have free reign to explore the restricted part of the station (closed and under lock and key to all but workers) where the scenery and snorkelling got even more stunning and theree was absolutely no one there but us; the amazing generosity of Marnie who we worked for (and her husband Andy) who showed us around, took us night fishing, got us involved with Catching foxes, Helping to treat injured kanagroos, fed us some amazing dinners ; the great bunch of people who we shared numerous beers with; the amazing beach fishing we did with great success and amazing dinners; the peace and quiet; what else can we say .. it was such an amazing experience...
We left with relief to not have to clean any more toilets or empty any more bins but with heavy hearts to say goodbye to what was an amzing home for 6 weeks...
So we are now in Coral Bay due to head up the coast towards Broome within the next few weeks, then hoping to see part of the Kimberleys before getting to Darwin- perhaps taking a weeks stop to WWOOF again somewhere in the Northern territory, then making our way across to Cairns to start our jaunt down the east coast before we fly out of Melbourne on 6th November...
We have been grouping together more photos to update the blog imminently so internet connection permitting it should be able to bring some more of our adventures so far to life...
We will send another update sometime soon... in the meantime hope this finds you well.. we miss everyone lots and would love to hear what you've been up to
Much Love and Cwtches
Jo and Matt xxx
The next few stops near green head, Jurien Bay, Dongara and Port Denison consisted of some beautiful free camping spots, more surf and Jo's 1st fish catch.. a very small bream.. but a fish none the less!! Having arrived in Geraldton we decided to have a review of the Wwoofing oppourtunities up the coast..one email and a phone call later and we were signed up to start a 6 week stint at a remote sheep station called Gnaraloo just south of Coral Bay .... only problem was we only had 5 days to get there and there were many stops we wanted to make along the way!! 