Kalbarri to Margaret River

Friday 23rd October

Lorraine: Kalbarri is a lovely coastal town tailor made for holiday makers. I bet this place quadruples in population during school holidays. We’ve seen a lot of this Western Coast lately so we headed a little inland to Kalbarri National Park. We were keen to stretch our legs and take a couple of walks to view some of the gorges and valleys in this park but as soon as we alighted from the vehicle we were set up on by swarms of pesky flies. And I’m talking swarms. In fact, I would estimate that at any one time outside of the car, we were both engulfed by at least 50 of our new mates. A lot perched on our backs happy for a rest but most persistently tried again and again to enter our ears, nose, eyes and mouths which left conversation a bit dry and saw us walking along dirt tracks with mouths tightly clenched shut and our arms wildly waving around our heads looking I’m sure like a couple of extras from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. We quickly realised that we were rookies at this whole fly thing when we passed local after local who were wearing fly nets over their heads. The fly net is definitely a fashion statement but one that we’re prepared to make for the sake of our sanity.

Gary: I had an interesting run this morning where having paused to catch my breath and watch the Pelican feeding for a while I was set upon by a pair of magpies dive bombing my head, thank god it wasn’t the pelicans!

Saturday 24th October

Gary: From the laidback normality of Kalbarri we ventured southwest into oddity.

We were off to visit the second largest country in Australia, no, not New Zealand but the Principality of Hutt River. Somewhere between the Holy-See and Lichtenstein in size the principality consists of just one large wheat farm under the rule of Prince Leonard. Hutt River seceded from the Commonwealth in April of 1970 following the mishandled introduction of quotas for wheat production by the less than learned West Australian government.

We by chance were in luck as our arrival coincided with the royal wedding of HRH Prince Leonard’s granddaughter, the place was busy with a large number of royals preparing the church, tending the flowerbeds and generally smartening the place up. Prince Leonard himself took time out to personally give us a tour, explain the history, deal with immigration procedures, answer questions and then run the philatelic and foreign exchange at the administration centre/gift shop.

(If you think I have had a little too much to drink please check www.huttriver.net)

From Hutt River we headed south via Northampton to Geraldton, aside from the music on our MP3 player and the radio, we listen to audio books to help with the long distances. At the moment we are halfway through ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy, and it was in this bleak post nuclear apocalyptic mood we entered Geraldton through a line of grey concrete grain silos and shipping terminals. We actually stopped outside the campsite and considered the road out of town as the most interesting option; thankfully we didn’t as Geraldton turned out to be far more interesting than first thought. This evening we enjoyed ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ at the cinema, a stroll around town and then a Guinness at the Irish pub.

Lorraine: Geraldton’s “Irish” pub is an affront to all Irish people. Firstly, the barman poured Gary’s Guinness in one motion! Unheard of. Then we spotted a chalk sketch on the wall of Mel Gibson in full blue faced Braveheart mode with a pint of Guinness beside him. What the? Had the decorators not seen the movie and realised that William Wallace was a hero of Scottish not Irish legend? Oh the shame, the shame.

Sunday 25th October

Gary: After consulting the sign in the campground reception that proudly listed the best 150 things to visit in Geraldton, we set off to do just a handful of them, would anyone want to visit the old skate board park which came in at 149? Our first visit was wonderful, number 83 the huge concrete grain store; just kidding we did number 5 the excellent Museum of Western Australia, first. From there it was on to the impressive memorial to the HMAS Sydney II, the catholic cathedral, a load of other old buildings and spotted some strange mannequins including a rather racy outfit being modelled in the St Vincent d Paul op shop. Having ticked off our top ten we left Geraldton and headed south to the small coastal town of Cervantes, which acts as the service town for visits to Nambung National Park.

It was while setting up camp this evening our poor tent ripped giving up under the strain of constant use. So it was out with the sewing kit as we are three days out of Perth and a decent camping store. One other odd thing about this town were the vintage tractors, don’t get me wrong I’m not a great fan but Ferguson Majors, Massy Harris’, old Fords scattered round the place? It reminded me of Kununurra in northern WA that had a thing for vintage motorbikes (they were hung up in bars, in the chemists, over the fresh produce in the IGA supermarket) I was mentioning this to Lorraine, but before I had pointed out the second tractor Lorraine was yawning, then frowning, one more could have induced either; ridicule, a coma or Duran Duran being played… I went quiet.

Monday 26th October

Lorraine: Today’s activities were dictated by the weather. As it was overcast with intermittent showers we stayed close to the campsite catching up on laundry, the blog, emails and other chores. Later in the afternoon the clouds cleared enough to encourage us to get in the car and visit Nambung National Park, home to the Pinnacles. The Pinnacles are vertical limestone formations that arise out of the golden sand in the park. This time we came prepared and walked around with our heads fully enclosed in our very own fly nets. Bring it on pesky flies!!

Gary: This evening we went out for a drink but were soon back in camp as we were two of only six in the pub and by the time we had gone in search of life at the nearby club, it had closed. The Pinnacles were good, not great but kind of interesting; the main draw for people to visit Cervantes is crayfish fishing, sadly the season does not open until mid November.

Tuesday 27th October

Lorraine: We left the coast at Cervantes today and headed inland a bit to a town which is a bit of an oddity in Australia. The town is New Norcia and according to the Lonely Planet its population is 51, five of whom are Benedictine Monks. What makes New Norcia an oddity is that it’s Australia’s only monastic town. The Benedictines are a Spanish Order of the Catholic faith and the cluster of buildings in town reflect this in their style of building. The place was settled in 1846 when the then colonial government of Western Australia gave the Order a parcel of land which the monks chose and then set about evangelising the aborigines of the area. The mission today holds prayer services and retreats alongside a multimillion dollar business producing boutique breads and gourmet goodies. We spent the afternoon on a guided tour of the monastery and former colleges most of which have been kept in splendid condition. The various chapels were all built and decorated by the founding monks who it turns out were dab hands at woodwork, painting and stonemasonry. The interiors were very ornate, like the ward room from a Spanish Galleon. The former colleges were closed around the late 1970s, there were four in total, one for white boys, one for white girls, one for aboriginal boys and one for aboriginal girls. In a sign of the times, the white boys were taught all the finer subjects – literature, history, maths & science, the white girls were taught the same up to a point but more emphasis was placed on homemaking skills. The aboriginal boys were taught the basics of reading and writing and then were trained in a trade and the aboriginal girls were taught domestic duties. Thankfully, times changed in the late 60s and all four colleges were taught the same curriculum until their eventual closure. We ended the day participating in the evening prayer of the monks in their chapel, Vespers it’s called and it consisted of listening to the monks sing some of the Psalms. Gary enjoys a Gregorian chant as much as the next man but I could see he was getting a bit fidgety. Thankfully it only went for half an hour but it was a very peaceful way to end the day.

Gary: How wonderfully archaic, a faded monastery town with beautiful buildings, a pleasant sense of order, beautiful gardens, a fine museum and a gorgeous hotel that was built for the possible arrival of the Spanish Royal family. As with many monasteries the brothers here brew a fine ‘Abbey Ale’ that is 8% alcohol and very comforting on a cool evening. Sadly the Spanish royal family never did visit, but we were thankful for the monasteries legacy.

Wednesday 28th October

Gary: From New Norcia we drove to Perth, bought a new tent and then drove onto Fremantle. That was about all really, there was nice countryside until we reached the endless sprawl of Perth, where we seemed to just wait at a sentence of traffic lights.

Ten or more traffic lights within a two kilometre distance deserves the collective noun, I truly felt like I had been sentenced.

Thursday 29th October

Gary: It’s strange to be back in a city, so after yesterday’s congestion and parking problems we left the car and took the train into central Perth. After collecting our post (Thank you Selina) and trying to sort out my new Western Australian driver’s licence it was off for a stroll around the city. Nice enough if you like Westfield centres but not overly interesting, all a bit modern, grey and lacking individuality.

Having said that there was one Tudor styled street that was a little freaky, either way we headed back to Fremantle for a little culture and a few drinks at the wonderful Sail and Anchor pub/brewery in which our good friend Gordon Rattray spent 3 happy months behind the bar.

Friday 30th October

Lorraine: I love Fremantle! What a fabulous place. A sea port with buildings that are a whole mish-mash of architectural styles reflecting no doubt the different cultures that have made their way to Australia and disembarked from their long sea journeys here. In fact today was the first time since we left Sydney that I thought we could have been in a different country. On one street there were Georgian buildings akin to those in Bath in the UK, turn the corner and there are buildings with wrought iron lacework on their balconies like Bourbon St in New Orleans. Having spent so long admiring and travelling through the harsh Australian outback, it has been wonderful to walk through a pocket of the country rich in history, architecture, multi-culturalism and café society. Oh and there are really nice pubs here too.

Saturday 31st October

Lorraine: Today was mostly a driving day from Fremantle to Pemberton and we traversed some absolutely gorgeous countryside. Everything is so green, a result of the very wet (wetter than usual) winter that Perth and the South West region of Western Australia have endured over the last few months. So it’s nice to have arrived to see the end result which is a landscape lush with growth. Pemberton is a timber town in the middle of forest country. Forests of Karri, Marri and Jarrah trees which are hugely tall and very straight, in fact, driving through these incredible stands of trees made me think that this place must be a lumberjack’s idea of heaven. Luckily logging has been regulated since the turn of the century so there are still trees to admire, they haven’t all been chopped down.

Gary: There is something very pleasing about this area, other than the enormous trees and the colourful wildlife it could be the UK, it’s certainly green enough.

Our campground in Pemberton is set on the edge of town backing into the forest, as I write this we have ring neck parrots, red tailed black cockatoos, ducks and bandicoots to entertain us.

Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd November

Lorraine: What a beautiful part of the world this is. This is my second visit to Pemberton, my first being last millennium on a driving tour with my very good mates Selina and Miriam. This area caught my attention then and continues to enthral today. We undertook the Karri Explorer Route on Sunday which is a looping drive that takes in three National Parks, all jam packed with glorious forests of the tallest, straightest trees you’ll see outside of America’s Redwoods. We stopped in Beedleup National Park for a 10km return bushwalk to Beedleup Falls. This short section is part of one of the world’s great walking tracks, the Bibbulmun Track. Our good friend Janet Oldham has walked all 965km of this track from the outskirts of Perth to the southern coast at Albany. Tonight we raised a glass to her and all other people strong/crazy enough to undertake such a mammoth trek. On our way back to camp we stopped at the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree which is 63 metres tall and was used as a fire look out tree. There are steel rods inserted into the trunk of the tree in an ascending fashion all the way to the top where there is a platform from which (they tell me) you can see across the canopy of the forest and of course, see if any bush fires are coming your way, something very difficult to do from the ground when one is surrounded by trees over 60m in height. I managed to climb to about 10m before my guts departed and I slowly descended back to terra firma.

Gary: Not much to say that hasn’t been said above; other than I was attacked by parrots, we walked a long way through the woods, a duck bit me, we had Spam sandwiches and we climbed trees, I feel like one of the Famous Five.

Tuesday 3rd November

Gary: From Pemberton we headed north to the town of Margaret River, arriving in good time to have a drink, get into the mood and watch the Melbourne Cup at the very busy Settlers Tavern. Sadly we had no luck with the horses, but with the sun out and a band in the beer garden it wasn’t all bad.

Lorraine: I still recall with fondness the look on Gary’s face the first time he entered an Australian pub and saw that you could place a bet on just about anything from the comfort of your bar stool. Thankfully it is with the knowledge that every pub in Australia is linked to a central betting agency that one can turn up, shortly before the horse race that stops the nation, get a bet on and then stand shoulder to shoulder with a complete bunch of drunken strangers and discuss the form guide like you’ve been reading it since you were young enough for bedtime stories. Not that anything from the form guide or any tips from our new found mates did the trick. Sadly we went out of pocket but that is part of the annual fun on the first Tuesday in November that is Melbourne Cup Day in Australia.

Nov 3, 2009

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