Thursday 8th May
We left the beautiful surroundings of Denmark at about 08.00, again happy with how things had worked out there. We could even have done with a few extra days to take in more of the scenery that we had enjoyed during our time there.
We drove back via Mount Barker, north of Albany, and covered a distance of about 300km, once again along the straight, often monotonous roads. Mum & Dad were due to catch a flight at 15.00 and were going to drop me off in Perth before I headed north (I still wasn't sure what I was going to do, or how I was going to do it, but I planned to figure that out as soon as I got to Perth). We arrived into central Perth at 13.00 and I said goodbye to my folks, at least for a few weeks but I would see them again over on the east coast, this time at my aunt Marie-Therese's near Brisbane.
I grabbed my bag and set off once again on my own, back to life as a backpacker and all that entails having lived in relative luxury for the previous nine days. I checked into a dorm room at the 'Governor Robinson' hostel on Robinson Avenue, a nice clean place with friendly staff (a bed cost $28 per night). It was actually only the second hostel I had stayed in in the six months that I had been travelling, so I was going to have to get used this aspect of travel for the next few months.
After getting my stuff in order, I set out on a mission to finally sort out my onward journey. In the end, after speaking to a few tour agents and a lady at the information centre, I decided to go with the 'Easy Rider' tour bus all the way to Darwin. There were no good reports about using the Greyhound bus service which seemed to be less convenient than it was worth. Although considerably more expensive, the 'Easy Rider' tour would allow me to hop off at places of interest along the way, stay there for a few days, then hop on again when the next bus came along. It would also provide a better opportunity to meet fellow backpackers so it would be better craic generally.
I spent the next couple of hours in the library where I had found out that there was free wi-fi access available to all, and this turned out to be a stroke of luck. Later in the evening, I got some food and went to see 'Iron Man' at the cinema, and really enjoyed it (quite different from the usual action hero movie and also very funny in parts). I got back to the hostel and got some sleep, but it felt strange to be sleeping in the same room as a bunch of other people, but something I was just going to have to get used to.
