You gotta go there to come back

My first Ozzie road trip

roscoejenkins — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:01:00 GMT

During my stay down in Bussleton Beach Resort (my Uncle's timeshare) I also had a loan of their Subaru Forrester for the week, so what else could I do but 'Road Trip'. Over the course of the week I did a series of day trips down to locations in the South West corner including Margaret River and Augusta. My favorite of the lot being Margaret river and the Caves Road which runs from Cape Naturalista, in the North, and Cape Leeuwin in the South. There are, as the name suggests a series of caves along the caves road, I went to two of them; the Ngiligi Cave and the Jewel cave - the Geologist within me getting the better of me both times, with over 300 pics in total!

At the end of the week, when my time at the beach resort had ended I deceided to go on a rather longer road trip to Albany, where I would stay for the weekend. Albany was roughly 400KM from Bussleton, or the route I took was anyway! and included a drive down through the ancient forrests of the South West - including the so-called 'valley of the giants' - this was a lovely drive but unfortunatly the rolloing hills and trees made it impossible to get a radio signal, so roughly a 5 hours drive in silence - not ideal!

I liked Albany, first significant civilization I had seen since leaving Bunbury!, a coastal town with a bit of history, the backpaker's I stayed in was right down on the shorefront, close to a supermarket and visitor centre and very friendly. There I met my first Germans and Dutch, a very friendly bunch, drunk copious amounts of alcohol and went to the "worst nightclub in the Southern Hemisphere" - as voted somewhere 3 years on the trot! As for he nightclub, I didn't actually find it all that bad you know, reminded me of a night out in Aberdare, Wales. Over the weekend I had a BBQ on the beach - the Australians have these fantastic free gas BBQs dotted around the place that you can use (just bring the meat) - went to see local attractions such as the Bridge and gap, rock formations, and the blowholes which weren't blowing on that day (they need a big swell from the sea) and went to the afore mentioned nightclub.

The couple of Dutch guys I met, Baretk and Goep, had just finished on a strawberry farm, after one morning, and were looking for work, I offered them a lift to Bunbury as they might have more luck further north for hospitality jobs, so I had a bit of company on the way back. on the way 'home' we stopped off in the valley of the giants, which is in between Walpole and Denmark, here you can go on a tree-top walk some 50 foot up amoungst the giant Kirri trees, which was nice.

The Gateway to the SouthWest

roscoejenkins — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 18:45:00 GMT

Following my galavant around WA's state capital, I thought I'd travel down to Bunbury (2 hours South of Perth by train). Here I have a bit of distant family and an offer of a bed, having been here before (back in 2003) I liked the place and was excited to be going back. I caught the Australind service (transWA) from Perth, which funnily enough does not stop at Australind (a suburb of Bunbury). The trip was on time and a nice one, passing through areas such as Harvey.

Bunbury is the biggest City / settlement South of Perth in WA, and a fast developing one at that. The city centre has not changed much since the last time I was here, there is one new high-rise hotel, the Mantra, but the city 'sprall' has spread exponentially. The main tourist draw, the Dolphin Discovery Centre is in need of serious development and the fact that the city is so spread out does not lend itself well to tourists (at least not ones without cars). That said however, Bunbury does not rely on tourism, it is a working city with a considerable amount of Heavy industry still in place.

Since being here I have been doing a little work on my Great Uncle's farm,and helping him move offices in the city centre whilst staying with my Cousin and her family in Australind. After a few weeks here I was given the opportunity to go and stay in Bussleton, about 45 mins down the coast, in my Uncle's Timeshare in the Bussleton Beach Resort - which was very nice indeed. Whilst on my staty in Bussleton I also had use of a car so I used this as a base to explore the SW corner of Western Australia on day trips.

Like Ibiza, only warmer

roscoejenkins — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:45:00 GMT

My first 9 days in Australia were in Perth, where I flew into, and I think it’s fair to say the temperature in Perth was considerably warmer than I am used to. The day I arrived in Perth the temperature was a chilly 32˚C, let’s just say I was glad the following day that I arrived a day earlier as although 32˚ was warm and I sweated cobs lugging my bergen around, the 45˚ the following day was simply impossible. Never have I been so warm that it was an effort to sit in the shade and drink!

Fortunatly over the following days it steadied to around 32˚. Perth was a very nice place – last time I was in Oz I only had a day in Perth and was determined to see a bit more of the place this time around. I was staying in a suburb called Northbridge, which was a 10 minute walk north of the City Centre, or the CBD (Central Business District – for those who don’t remeber their Geography school leasons)as they like to call in around here. A little like Roath in Cardiff I thought, before I come across the multitute of pubs and clubs that immediately drew comparisons in my mind with San Antonio, Ibiza – only I couldn’t ever remember Ibiza feeling as hot as this! I stayed in a hostel called the Witch’s Hat – which I kept calling the Witch’s Tit – which was a very nice, air-conditioned hostel well worth the $32 a night, if not slightly a bit further out than I would have liked. As for Perth itself (the CBD) it was quite nice, not what I was expecting, not as big I guess but it was surrounded by water, green spaces are abundant and it is basked in more sunshine per year than any other capital city in Australia. There’s a free bus service called the CAT which operates three services on a loop, the red, yellow and the blue CAT – which serviced Northbridge – not of course that the other forms of public transport was expensive. A day pass on the Transperth train service was only $8 or to get to Cottesloe Beach it was $3.50 each way, the service was very good and reliable and operated a normal service and a high speed one (every half hour I think) and went as far as Freemantle, I used this service to go out to Cottesloe and Freemantle.

One thing I did find quite odd about most of the pubs in Northbridge was that you had to be smartly dressed to go into in the evenings, no filp flops or thongs as they call them and only a shirt with a collar! I mean come on this area I full of backpacker hostels and ergo, travellers - how many travellers do you think pack for temperatures of 30+ with the dress code of Australian pubs in mind? little bit silly and a little bit similar of now defunkt nazi-like dress policies of British Pubs and clubs in the 90's. I have since found that this is quite wide-spread in Ozzy pubs / clubs and a rule I am not a fan of.

Photos: WA

roscoejenkins — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:01:00 GMT

We jump at dawn!

roscoejenkins — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 17:30:00 GMT

I experienced a very strange sensation when I was flying into Perth, just about a month ago, we were due to land around 6am local time and as flying safety guidlines demand, all window shutters to the plane were fully open. There was a very strong tail wind, and as such the engines were not needed so much - so much so in fact it seemed the engines were off - it was dead quiet on the plane, we seemed to be gliding into Perth. A bright sun, just peeping over the horizon, filled the plane with a reddy-gold light and probably due to the fact everyone on the plane was knackard, there wasn't a word being said. There was a strange sense of euphoria on the plane as it remained calm and silent, despite very strong turbulence and - although I had never done any parachute training in the army - it seemed any minute a demented Colour sergeant would shout out "4 minutes" and we would all then start to line up at the escape hatch to jump to the landing zone. A very strange feeling to experience, I promise you, but also a weirdly serene and calming one.

Well on that bombshell, may I welcome you to my travel blog. As I have said I have been in Australia, Western Australia to be exact since January 12, 2010. After stopping off in Singapore en'route I started the first part of my working holiday to the antipodes. It will be my 30th bithday later this year and as such the last time I would be eleigible for the working holiday visa in both Australia and New Zealand - my next stop(a year in each). I gave up a lot, perhaps a bit too much, to come out here and do this but hey, this is something I have wanted to do for years and you only live once, life's too short, etc, etc, etc. I'm not much of a writer, had a B in English GCSE, but if you want to read I will continue to write. I also try to note bits of my travels on my facebook page and document the places I go visually with photos on my Flickr site. I'm not looking for any acclaim just documenting my thoughts for me to laugh at when I'm old enough to say "in my day, we had to walk to school".