Australia - Week Nine

Well, the pace certainly changed this week! After spending six weeks up the East Coast, in and out of hostels like a yo-yo stuck in a revolving door, I had the luxury of staying in a real house with real facilities! Yes, I know I talk about it a lot, but I did laundry (it's important when you're backpacking!: I got to hang it out on a real washing line with real pegs in a real garden, with real sunshine and a real breeze to dry it!! I also got to sleep in a real bed with a real duvet and had several real lie-ins, for the first time in months and months and months... As a result, there isn't a lot of note to tell you all about, regarding my first few days in York, apart from the fact that I actually had a chance to begin to wind down.

The pace was all set to change again though, and on Tuesday morning, Mark and I loaded up the Ute, and set off on our camping tour of southern Western Australia, with dog Kaiya in tow on the backseat! The previous night, I printed out a swathe of Geocaches and logged all their co-ordinates into my GPS and we found our first one but a few kilometres outside of York! Off we continued until the yellowy landscape of the Wheat Belt became progressively more reddish, and the tarmacked roads more and more bumpy, until we were no longer travelling on asphalt, but gravel for miles and miles on end! We stopped midway through the day to visit Wave Rock, which I'd been terribly excited about as I can still remember reading about it as a child; indeed, I'm constantly surprised by how much I can still remember from Usborne's "Earth Facts and Lists" that I received for Christmas in 1985!!! Anyway, it was very impressive, although at that time of day, it cast a shadow upon itself that I thought would spoil my photos. I was pleasantly surprised when I uploaded them.

Wave Rock, Western Australia

It was then time to head further east, picking up a few more caches along the way. I should really warn you that should you ever wish to become a Geocacher, and have the good fortune to be able to participate in Oz, then you should be prepared for the terrain: quite a few times I've wondered what I may find lurking under rocks, be it spiders or snakes, and I was bitten by a bull ant that morning, and by gum, it bloody hurt! It was like a hot needle, coated with acid, had been stuck into my finger! Luckily, I slapped on some tea tree oil and that sorted it out after a few minutes. Once I'd calmed down, I was actually rather proud of my injury and was even more chuffed that I'd used some Australian Bodycare (from the UK, incidentally!) to treat the wound!

That evening, we arrived at our fifth cache site of the day - McDermid Rock. This was similar to, yet smaller than, Wave Rock, but just as interesting. In fact, we decided to camp there for the night, so we could see it in the morning light. After setting up our stuff and cooking on the little gas stove, we sat out under the stars with a bottle of sparkling wine... lovely, until a huge golden orb spider did a "Little Miss Muffet" but a few feet away from my chair... and that was just seconds after I'd moved out of its descending trajectory! "Yes Mark, it's not going to come anywhere near us, is it Mark?" I retorted in reply to his earlier reassurances!

On Wednesday, we continued further east to Norseman, from where we then turned south towards Esperance. From here on in, our days became quite similar: breakfast, strike camp, drive a bloody long way for hours in the Ute, set up camp, look at stars, go to sleep. I won't detail every movement with my usual vigour, so I'll keep it snappy! We camped that night at Starvation Boat Harbour, by a lovely little beach, although I was a little worried that the tent might blow away in the night, the wind was that strong! It was here that I had my first encounter with march flies since the Whitsundays and I can honestly say that they are just as annoying in WA too!

Then on Thursday, we headed along the coast towards Cheynes Beach. Unfortunately, although I had the map, I didn't know where we were heading: it was only after quite some time on the road did Mark say "I think we've gone too far!" We pulled over and checked the map and we realised that we'd missed a turn to the south and had headed inland, which meant a detour of approximately 100-150 kilometres was required!!! We eventually made it to our final destination and pitched the tent before dusk at Cheynes Beach Caravan Park, and after having a shower for the first time in three days, I felt human again!

On Friday, we headed north again and a little inland, via Denmark and Walpole, to the Karri Forests. Karries are the largest Eucalyptus trees in Australia, which can only be found in this region. We camped that night at Fernhook Falls, a lovely little spot. Not so lovely the following morning when I realised that a huntsman had been peeping at me all night through the tent window... at least it was on the outside of the mesh!! After that, we went to Augusta, where the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean meet. We visited Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park and, as with the Great Ocean Road weeks earlier, the rugged coastline reminded me of Britain.

Scotland? Cornwall? No, Cape Leeuwin!

That night, we camped at Westbay Retreat Caravan Park, where Mark found "the best amenities I've ever seen! It's like a tropical atrium over there!" I can certainly vouch for that! Apparently, the urinal had a limestone rock wall that "curves up and around it, providing the necessary privacy." I can certainly NOT vouch for that! Later, after dark, an almighty thunderstorm made its way towards us, but stopped just far enough away to give us a spectacular light and sound show, with none of the rain. I saw lightning shoot upwards for the first time ever (just as my physics teacher assured me it always does). Hmmm, still don't believe that one...