Travels with George and Marta

We have gotten a quick introduction to Aussie Rules Football or “footy”. Today was the Grand Final between the local team – the West coast Eagles and Sydney. We were on the road driving to Kalbarri and it was deserted. We pulled into Geraldton for lunch at the local pub, the Freemason’s Hotel. The town was like a ghost town but the bar was full of fans. We could barely place our order at the bar over the din of cheers. They were watching the game on three big screens. Everyone was decked out in blue and yellow – the Eagles colors.

Aussie football is like non-stop football without any padding and the players all wear tight little shorts. You can’t pass the ball as you do in US but you can kick it. Scoring is by kicking. Even if I didn’t understand it, I did enjoy watching the players. 🙂

We had to move on before the end of the game so we found it on the radio. It was a nailbitter ending. But the Eagles prevailed and won by one point. Every town we passed through had fans. We could tell from the balloons, streamers and flags. And they were still partying when we arrived in Kalbarri. But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

We picked up our car on Friday and it was a snap getting our of Perth. No traffic. We left on the Great Northern Highway which took us out through Swan Valley. We switched over to the Brand Hwy. I am surprsed at how easy it is to drive this time. I’m certain it is partly due to driving on the left last year in South Africa and partially due to having an automatic for once. But there is a unique item on the highway here – road trains. These are trucks with several trailers attached. They are very long and definitely a challeng to pass on a 2 lane highway.

Our destination was Jurien Bay about 200 km north of Perth. It should have been a 3 hour drive but we got distracted by the plants. All along the hwy is native bush – banksias, grevillas and other prickly bush plants the equivalent of the chapparel in California. We had heard good things about the flowers at Badgingara so we stopped at the road house for lunch and information. A roadhouse is like a freeway gas station minimarket with food to go or a small restaurant. We had a couple of sandwitches and picked up a brochure on a local walk at Phoebee’s reserve and went off to explore. Two hours latere we were still finding new things but we needed to head on so we could
make the Pinnacles at Cervantes before sundown.

We found our B&B, The Heights and we were welcomed by Alan, the owner. It is a very cozy and clean B&B – perfect for our quick stay. Alan gave us some information about the town and the Pinnacles and a warning about the Kangaroos. They come out in the evening and night and are similar to deer in the US. Very unpredictable so watch out. You don’t want to hit one.

The Pinnacles were about 40 minutes away and pretty interesting. Sandstone pillars in the bush created by wind. In the late afternoon light they turn golden. We stayed until sundown and slowly drove back. So far we have seen more dead kangaroos on the road than live ones. We have had more luck seeing emus. We even saw a baby.

We got an early start on Saturday and drove into Leseur National Park. We hit the mother lode of wildflowers. Everywhere we looked there was something new to see. I couldn’t keep George in the car. He’d wander ahead looking for plants and I had to drive up and pick him up. Hopefully on our wan back down to Albany we can stop and explore more of the park.

Today we plan to explore the parks and shores of Kalbarri. Time to slather on the sunscreen and find some more flowers.

Here we are in Fremantle on the shores of the Indian Ocean. We are on our second day here in Australia. We are here to see the wildflowers. It is the 5th Mediterranean area in the world and the only one we have not visited. Until now.

Our trip to Sydney went smoothly. The lines at Sea-Tac were long but went smoothly. Of course, I got caught with a banned item – a corkscrew! Fortunately it was just an extra one we had thrown in the pack a while back and I didn’t mind losing it.

The trip to Honolulu was fine. We arrived on time and had about an hour layover to change planes. We wanted a snack and ended up grabbing some trail mix before our second leg. We had tried to stay awake but the movies sucked so we did sleep a while.

Our arrival in Sydney was a breeze. Our bags were the first off for once and no time to go through customs. We found the shuttle and headed over to the Holiday Inn at the airport – functional and clean. A nice long hot shower and then to sleep. It was nice breaking up the long trip with the quick overnight.

The next morning we woke around 6am and had the expensive and boring breakfast buffet. We were hungry so it did the trick. We took the shuttle on to domestic for our next leg. We were surprised at how quick we checked in and got through security. No taking off shoes here. Our flight was on Virgin Blue the low-cost no frills airline of Australia. Nothing free on this flight. $2.00 for headsets and $2.50 for a Coke. We arrived on time around 1pm and caught the shuttle to the Sebel Residence.

The apartment is nice with a great view of a small inlet on the Swan River. The decor is modern in grey and greens. It is well equipped with a full kitchen and even a washer/dryer. I love the bathroom with the modern fixtures and large walk in shower. But it was time for a quick exploration of the CBD.

We walked into the CBD since we needed to stretch our legs. It was about 15 minutes. We noticed the birds right off – parrots and cockatoos. Lots of noise. George also noticed the plants in bloom including huge bottlebrushes.

Overall Perth is much smaller and quieter than we expected for a city of 1.4 million people. The CBD was pretty quiet especially since it was Monday. We made a stop at the Visitor’s information to get information about the flowers. It sounds they have finished blooming already in the North but we will see what we can find starting Friday.

Most of the restaurants are closed on Monday but we found a nice cafe No 44 King Street and had a late lunch. I had the spring risotto – peas, fava beans and aspargus with a nice scoop of goat cheese and George had the goat cheese pizza. The breads are made on site and both dishes were yummy. I had a local white semillon-Sauvignon Blanc wine and George had a local microbrew.

Next it was to the Woolworths for breakfast provisions. Wow! was that crowded at 5:00pm when everyone was picking up stuff after work. The line snaked through the store but moved very quickly. We caught the last free CAT bus back to the apartment and watched the sun set and lights come on the riverfront walk.

The travel finally caught up with us. I fell asleep at 7:30 with the TV going and the lights on. George said I snored! Of course, I say I didn’t. 🙂 He was asleep soon after and we both slept a full night.

Today, we walked a little bit more around Perth before catching a ferry to Fremantle. It was a lovely hour ride down the Swan River. The houses that line the river are gorgeous. It feels a lot like a cross between California and Miami. The weather had been fine with bright sunshine.

Tomorrow we hope to go to the Aquarium and on Thursday the wildflower show. The show will get us familiar with what we can see. We’ll pick up our car on Friday and head off in search of flowers.

Where did the time go? Here it is almost the end of August. And it is less than a month before our departure for OZ. I am getting so excited.

We have almost everything done except for one night in Dalwallinu and overnight at the Sydney airport. I also need to get a car.

This week we booked The Blacket for our stay in Sydney. They had a Cityscape Loft suite and we splurged and took it. We are thinking it might be a bit like the Metropole in Cape Town which we enjoyed. We also booked a motel in Narrogin.

We have booked a few more accommodations. For Perth, we will be staying 4 nights at the Sebel Perth East apartments. We went for a 1 bedroom river view apartment. I wanted a full kitchen even though we may not cook. A river view should be nice. Here is what Frommer’s says about the apartment.

On the way to Kalbarri, we have decided to stay in Jurien Bay instead of Cervantes. It just seemed as if there would be more facilities in Jurien Bay. Plus, the Best Western was booked. I’ve found a new B&B, The Heights in Jurien Bay. The Jurien Bay Hotel doesn’t seem to have any web presence so I decided not to call. I tried an email in the Lonely Planet and got no response. The Heights have been very responsive which is great. I think it will be good for the Turquoise Coast.

For Albany, we were trying a B&B between Albany and Porongurup. They have a botany focus and would have been great. But I haven’t gotten a response from email. So instead we have gone with what was our original first choice, Balneaire Seaside Resort. The owner has been great to work with and very responsive. It is a little bigger than we need since it is a two bedroom but it is near Middleton Beach which will be nice. I also considered the Foreshore Apartments. A Fodor’s member stayed there and had good things to say about the apartment. But the beach won out.

So we have almost all our accommodations. We only have to do the ‘Wheatland’ area between Kalbarri and Albany. That is a little bit harder because these are small hotel/motels with no email.

But I am starting to finally get excited. Just under two months!