TIME ELAPSED SINCE DEPARTURE : 40 WEEKS
DISTANCE TRAVELLED : 21,920 KMS
BREMER BAY
The small and quiet fishing & tourist town of BREMER BAY is rather ramshackle in layout but nonetheless set in a beautiful area. (Sooz: Calling it a town is generous…A pub, a general store/petrol station and a brewery.) It’s set on a sizeable inlet that has an entrance that is often closed over but has been open and flowing for the last few months. There is the most gorgeous beach near the entrance and if I can arrange for an artist to paint a photo I took onto canvas, I will happily hang it in our new home in Forster. Just gorgeous. (Sooz: He is not exaggerating… The entry to the inlet is stunning!) Not far away are a number of other lovely beaches: Fishery Beach, Short Beach, Native Dog Beach amongst others. They all have this soft, white, powdery sand and turquoise water and are so inviting. And there’s plenty of fish! We spent an hour at Short Beach where I broke out the surf rod for the first time on the trip and landed a good 66cm Aust Salmon. Around the corner at Fishery Beach is a small harbour with a jetty and as I said to Susan after spending a couple of hours there one afternoon, a person who does not know which end of a fishing rod to hold could catch fish there. Thus, for 50% of the nights we spent here, we feasted on piscatorial delights that we caught. And the local caravan park is lovely. It’s like camping in a big-city park – lovely established trees and lots of green grass. The only downside to our experience here was the electrical issue we have with the caravan oven. One night we had flickering lights and spluttering radio which was linked to opening and closing of the oven door! Really? We discovered that there was an electrical wire getting jammed in the oven door hinge and we watched it spark when the door opened. Uh oh. I am not an electrician’s bootlace and these sorts of issues stress me out. Further, we know from previous experience that tradies are in very short supply and given that we are in transit, it makes getting a repair job done more difficult. I poked around and pushed the wire away from the hinge as best I could but for sure, that is a very temporary measure. Bugger. This is a problem.
ALBANY
I have wanted to visit ALBANY for a long time. I have gazed at maps and wondered about the place, and now I am here. And I am not disappointed. Actually, it’s nicer than I imagined!
Firstly, it has a wonderful, large natural harbour that is guarded by islands. There are so many offshore islands in this part of the world (at the bottom of W.A.) and they provide a glorious backdrop to any vista and Albany is no exception. The town itself is historic and attractive. It was settled prior to Perth and actually had mostly whaling ships visiting before Australia was officially discovered by Cook. It was settled in the 1820’s and has a number of buildings preserved from that era and a couple of ‘inner suburbs’ that have similar characteristics to a Darlinghurst in Sydney or a Fitzroy in Melb. Character. Workers cottages. We enjoyed a happy hour drink at a gorgeous little British style pub that was nestled amongst cottages from the 1800’s. And it served a selection of English beer, on tap! Their Earl & Windsor bitter was lip-smacking 😊 (Sooz: Albany really has a good “vibe”. In addition to the history, it feels like it is prosperous and on the way up.)
There are two prominent hills and the town is settled in the valley between them although houses now creep up the sides of the hills and they get excellent views across the harbour. Out on one of the headlands near the harbour entrance is the unfortunately named Misery Beach. I am yet to work out why it was christened with this name as it couldn’t be further from miserable. It was actually named Australia’s best beach in 2022. It’s lovely! Perhaps the person who decided on the name was having a bad day? Dropped a bowling ball on their toe that morning, or something similar.
The countryside around Albany is green – very green. This says that rain is not an issue and sure enough, we got a good sample of it. A local told me that Albany’s weather in winter is very fickle and has lots of light & misty rain/drizzle. Hmmm – all of a sudden it doesn’t sound so appealing but perhaps that’s the price you pay to live in a very engaging town (which is almost a city). Down at the waterfront is a quite a large and very striking modern building which is the Albany Entertainment Centre and there is a large area of sporting fields etc on the way out of town. Albany is a hamburger with the lot!
WARNING when buying a new car! I cannot believe I am writing this. So I arranged for our vehicle (christened ‘Eric’) to have his 30,000km service and when it was completed I was advised by Isuzu that there was significant wear on the inside of the tyres and that the alignment is probably out. (I have had my eye on them for a month – they were looking a bit dodgy). The long & short of it is that I thus replaced all 4 tyres (with chunky, high-end All Terrain types at $1300 thanks) and when seeking advice and quotes from different tyre dealers, all stated that new cars are delivered and often the wheel alignment is out. C’mon. Really? Apparently this is common. They advised that one of the first things you should do after taking delivery of a new car is to get a wheel alignment. That, to me, seems really dumb and rather insulting. ☹ Pissed off, to be honest. Surely vehicle manufacturers should supply a new car with the wheels pointing in the correct direction?
(Sooz: WARNING – disturbing content follows.)
For all of Albany’s upside as a town, and there is a lot, there is also a rather grim part of its history. In 1978, the Albany whaling station was closed and it was the last operating one in Aust. I had no idea that we were harvesting these wonderful animals into the late seventies. That’s a bit of a shocker, really. And I also learned that at its peak, this station supplied the world with 60% of its whale oil usage. 60%!! You can do a tour of the station and it is pretty well done, although there is some film footage that is pretty tough viewing. Sooz elected not to participate in that side of things. There is quite a large ship that you can clamour over and in and it still has the awful harpoon set up on the bow. Wandering around the ship is a volunteer who was once a crew member on the ship and you can chat with him about his life on the high seas and ask him the awkward questions (that he expects and is well versed in answering). The place is more extensive that I imagined, and afterwards for 2 or 3 hours you have a bit of a lead weight in your stomach due to the slaughter of the animals that often did not die immediately from the harpoon strike but you are also relieved that the industry is shut down for good. (Sooz: It was interesting to walk amongst the skeletons that have been donated to the museum. I would not think twice of looking at these if they were in any other museum, so I was happy to learn from their bones.) Coincidently, we spotted whales breaching in the lovely, wide King George Sound harbour during our time there so the animals themselves seem to have forgiven us for our sins. Our time in Albany aligned with the start of the whale watching season.
About 40km west of Albany is a small and lovely town called Denmark which is about 10km from the coast. This is an arty type of town with a feel-good vibe. The best part of this area however is the stunningly beautiful beaches and the natural, sheltered swimming lagoon called Green’s Pool. OMG it is gorgeous and I would LOVE to be there on a warm summers day to wallow and frolic in the water. What a spot!
Oh, and we got the loose wire that was getting trapped in the oven door fixed while here. It was a bigger job than I thought and glad I didn’t attempt it myself.
The day that we left Albany to head to Busselton was a watershed moment. It marked the time when we stopped travelling west and started heading north. We had not been on a northerly path since we left Sydney to start this adventure, back on August 8th 2022! And we left behind a very, very attractive corner of the country. We really needed a number of weeks down in the Great Southern area as it’s called and I would like to re-visit sometime. In summer! And I could quite easily live in Albany 😊 (Sooz: Me too!)
BUSSELTON
The 330 km drive from Albany to BUSSELTON is a pleasant one through green farmland and eucalyptus forests and it passes through the wine area of Mt Barker. Had heard of that region, was never quite sure where it was. Now I know.
Busselton is famous for its pier – all 1.8 kilometre’s of it! It’s a monster. The longest in the Southern Hemisphere. (Sooz: It even has a train people can take from one end to the other.) As one would expect, there are plenty of people out there trying their luck with their fishing rods. We didn’t – there was a bit of a chill wind blowing and it’s a long hike to get to the car and then back out all that way, with the likelihood of catching nothing, but a couple of guys had landed some squid.
The whole area around Busselton is nice. Just 15 km down the road is Margaret River. What a beautiful area it is and it would have to be the prettiest wine region in Australia. Throw in the beaches and world famous surfing spots and you can fully understand why it’s a holiday haven for Perth residents. Perth is about a 3 hour drive away, due north. The Margaret River Village is a bit upmarket but also has an alternate slant. (You know, plenty of shops selling candles and burning incense which is somehow meant to entice you through the door. I personally find the stuff about as pleasant as sniffing a bottle of pure ammonia). But it is a nicely presented town and the residential streets around it offer a pleasant lifestyle.
We checked out a couple of the surf breaks: ‘Southside’ near the river mouth and right next the spot where the annual Classic is staged was working with a 2 – 3 metre swell and a firm offshore breeze to hold it up. There were a few guys carving up the peak but most were taking the right-handers. Good to see. On the way back to Busselton we stopped at Vasse Felix vineyard for a bit of tasting. I liked their Cab Merlot which prompted a sideways look from the lady who was serving us as it is not a wine they promote and wasn’t on the official tasting selection. It had to come out from under the counter! Sooz bought me a bottle of it – what a gal. 😊
About 10 km west of Busselton is Dunsborough which is a very, very tasteful village with lovely properties (acreages) around it. Highly appealing. A man could live there. (Sooz: Yep…We really like south west WA. It is pretty, relaxed, full of character, etc.)
PERTH
Entering PERTH was almost daunting! We were back in a big city. Well, it has just over 2 million people so it’s not quite Sydney or Melb, but the freeway bustles along and in places it’s 5 lanes and the quantity of traffic is not something I have had to contend with since Melbourne in early January. I didn’t like it, especially when towing 3.1 tonnes. It made me think that perhaps our decision to abandon Sydney to live in Forster is the right one! We are going to find out in a few months! Nonetheless, we had only visited Perth once before to see the mighty Sydney Swans play West Coat about 15 years ago, and that was only for 3 – 4 days. This time we had 10 days booked to have a better look around and I was looking forward to that.
Perth looks ‘new’. Everything seems to be shiny and built within the last 10 years. That’s silly of course as there are historic buildings here and there but there is so much infrastructure and inner-city housing and commercial premises that seem new. (Sooz: There is also a huge amount of construction – housing, renovations, buildings in the CBD, everywhere you look.)
We were staying on the north side, in a suburb called Gwelup about 11 km from the city and about 3 km from the coast. On our first full day we checked out a couple of the beaches nearby: Scarborough & Trigg. My comments a couple of sentences ago regarding everything being new certainly applies to Scarborough. It’s the Perth version of Bondi …. too much concrete and bars and eateries targeting the 30-something social media addicted ‘influencer’ types in my opinion. I might have thought that it was the place to go to, if I was 30 years younger! It has a great swimming complex right by the beach and the beach itself is good. Trigg and some of the other beaches were more appealing in that they were less ‘commercial’ in appearance. (Sooz: I agree that it all looked new and a bit purpose built, but I thought it had a good vibe and quite liked Scarborough Beach.)
Had a good day in the city when we visited the Perth Mint. It’s a big player in global terms regarding gold bullion supply and we did the rather excellent tour which included witnessing a ‘gold pour’ where we see molten gold poured into a mould that when cool, becomes a 6kg bar. On display there is the world’s largest and most valuable gold coin. This thing weigh’s exactly one tonne and is stamped with official markings to make it legal tender. It has the Queens head on one side and a kangaroo stamped on the other and a serrated edge, just like a coin should. The problem is finding a purse big enough to carry it in. It’s about a meter in diameter and probably 10cm thick. Given its weight, that creates another issue. Carrying it to the local supermarket to pay for your shopping will raise a sweat, and perhaps some hesitancy from the check-out chick.
The face value of the coin is $1 million, but the actual value in gold is closer to $100 million. So if you were able to somehow swindle your way to taking possession of this monster and smuggling it out of the mint, taking it to a bank to exchange it for the value stamped on it would not be the best option. You would only get $1 million for a thing that has a gold value of 100 times that! You should melt the thing down on your stove at home and sell the actual pure gold to obtain the full $$ benefit. If you can conjure up some sort of nefarious plan to achieve this without creating suspicion from the authorities, give me a call! 😊
There was also a set of scales that you could step on and rather than your weight being shown (who wants to see that?) it instead displayed your weight in the price of gold as per current market rates. My darling wife was worth some A$6,254,755 at that moment in time, should she be made of solid gold. Bah humbug – I reckon she is worth more than that, so she is safe from being cashed in! 😊 (Sooz: And of course, we looked at the luxury jewellery the Perth Mint has for sale. The collection of Pink Diamond jewellery and loose pink diamonds is quite overwhelming. I dared to pick one out and try it on – it was hardly the largest or most lavish and only valued at $62,000!!! )
Perth has suffered it wettest start to winter on record! And bloody cold too. We spent 2 days hunkered down while it poured rain amidst high winds and temps of only 12 & 14 degrees during the day. Miserable. We went to see a movie (the John Farnham tribute ‘Finding the Voice’ – it was brilliant), did some shopping and spent a lot of time in the van.
I did a tour of Optus Oval – Perth’s glittering new football stadium. What a place. When the WA government started looking into developing it, they sent a crew to view various top-notch sporting complexes all over the planet and picked the best bits from them. In the end, the tour guide proudly announced that they were $200 million under budget and the stadium has won the ‘Worlds Best Stadium’ twice in the seven years that it has been operating. It was a really good tour and an impressive complex.
And an afternoon walking around the streets of Fremantle was richly rewarded. What a great place. So many beautiful historic buildings and some of the best old pubs I have ever been into, and plenty of them! The joint must be jumping on a warm summer’s night.
GERALDTON
Perth served us up a bit of ordinary weather – we had several days of cool & persistently wet conditions. Apparently winter is their wet season but getting a month of rain in two days was getting a bit carried away. So it was nice to push north to GERALDTON where it was sunny and mild. Good to sit around outside the caravan with the shirt off. The size of Geraldton surprised me – around 40,000. That makes it about the same as Albany but it just doesn’t seem as big, and it definitely doesn’t have the appeal or charm of Albany. Nonetheless, a lot of money has been spent beautifying the waterfront of Geraldton including parks, playgrounds, a marina, monuments etc.
There is a smallish but very excellent museum that has many good displays including detail of the sinking of the HMAS Sydney during WWII. In what was/is Australia’s greatest maritime tragedy in which 645 personnel lost their lives without trace, the warship was sunk in 1941 during a battle offshore from Shark Bay with a German mine-laying raider ship disguised as a Dutch merchant vessel. The German ship (the Kormoran) and our faster and better armed ship crossed paths where the Sydney sailed within a mile and challenged the ‘Dutch’ ship to prove her identity. After an hour of not being able to get proper identification, the Sydney raised her guns, took aim and demanded that the unidentified ship provide a secret code that it would have if it was an actual Dutch merchant vessel and thus an ally. However, the German vessel was specially equipped with all sorts of fast moving mechanical panels that would uncover guns and torpedo tubes and after the Sydney made its demand for the secret code, the Kormoran’s captain must have decided that it was now or never and thus unloaded a full barrage of armaments that severely damaged the Sydney. Sydney returned fire and hit the Kormoran but the Sydney was mortally wounded. It was then struck by a torpedo causing it to break up and sink. There was not one survivor and although there is no official account of the precise happenings, it is assumed that the initial barrage that the Sydney took was such that many crew were killed immediately and that lifeboats may also have been destroyed. The wreckage remained lost until 2008 when it was found at a depth of 2.5 km. The Kormoran also sank but quite a few crew managed to board lifeboats and get ashore where they were captured. It was these prisoners that supplied the background on what unfolded on that day and this is all we have to go on. The Kormoran’s wreckage has also been found but it is scattered over a wide area following what is believed was a massive explosion of her store of mines.
Quite a story and the museum has an excellent film of the wreckage that a deepwater submarine thingy took in 2015. The clarity is incredible and the combination of depth, darkness, stillness and cold has preserved much of what has settled on the bottom of the Indian Ocean about 100 km off the coast.
As an Aussie, I am not happy that we received a nasty uppercut from the Krauts on this occasion – it seems that we might have had our guard down. Too damn trusting perhaps – she’ll be right, mate. But from this tragedy a legend has been born that shall forever live and I am glad that I have learned about it in detail.
BREMER BAY CARAVAN PARK: 8.5/10
BIG 4 EMU BEACH CARAVAN PARK, ALBANY: 9.5/10
RAC BUSSLETON HOLIDAY PARK: 7/10
KARRINYUP WATERS RESORT, GWELUP, PERTH : 9/10
BIG 4 SUNSET BEACH HOLIDAY PARK, GERALDTON 6.5/10
Quite the adventure out west, guys! It certainly sounds like you’ve discovered some beautiful parts of Australia 😊 thanks for sharing & loved the pics on your photo-page 👍
Wow, Bremer Bay .. how did you not don the wetsuit and dive in .. so beautiful!
What a time you two are having ..
we’re enjoying the virtual journey .. where to next?
S&J xx
Spectacular scenery. You guys are living the dream. Thanks for the updates. . Travel well and keep an eye on the alignment…..😁
Susan, I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had sharing this adventure with you! Thank you, Leigh, for the lovely commentary; you are imparting more than words!
Perth has horrid weather this time of year and does get even worse in July. Always wet and cold. I’m glad you reminded me as we will be there soon – but up north should be good. Maybe we will see you in Broome depending on how long you take to get up there. Enjoy every minute. Looks like great fun. Awesome photos.