be careful what you wish for

I had two dreams that I really wanted to become true. One was staying up all night- which I did twice now (not so fun). The other one was sleeping in the car. I thought we would be sleeping in the car at least one night on the journey across Canada. But no that didn't come true. Well at least not in Canada. On our first day driving we made it to wave rock.

We looked into accommodation there. It was crazy price. So we decided we would drive a little longer to grace lake. It was a big cost for staying at a gas station. So we decided to push a little longer into albany. When we rolled in my parents were looking all over for a motel. They couldn't find one. So they pulled into a street, turned of the lights and went to sleep.

When I woke up at 4:00 in the morning I realized my parents didn't bring me into a motel room. And that is when I realized we were sleeping in the car. And I fulfilled my dream. I did have a very very bad sleep, but still I slept in the car.

G'Bye Oz

Apologies (especially to Tegan) for slacking on the blog. Who knew that Wifi would be such a foreign concept to the northern part of Western Australia. I have been amazed at many things this trip, and one of them is that wifi was way more accessible (and free) in South America than in Australia.

Anyway, we had a fantastic last 10 days in WA. At final tally we had driven our little Mitsubishi rental over 3,100 km in the 10 days we had it. Thankfully we got more organized and only had to spend the one night sleeping in it.

After getting up close and personal with the dolphins in Bunbury we proceeded to head north. First stop was Penguin Island, which we though should be renamed Pelican Island after we finished exploring its rocky shore





We then continued up the coast to a community called Cervantes where we entered the weird desert world of the Pinnacles



We discovered once there that the environment provided us with some unique abilities. For example, Chloe was able to shrink herself down...



And I was able to leap tall rocks in a single bound......



Past the Pinnacles we came across numerous sand dunes. Finally I cracked and had to see what was on top of one.



Our second to last stop was Dongarra, where we chilled out, learned some music and watch the sunset





We ended up getting as far north as Kalbarri, where we experienced pink lakes, nature's window and blue hole before making our way back to Perth.







Just like that the Australian part (and 3rd continent) of our trip was done. Now it's onto Bali for some Christmas rest and relaxation

Some things I love about WA

The Rocks

Natural Bridge - Augusta

Elephant Rocks - Denmark

Wave Rock - Hyden

Jewel Cave

The Animals
(the first 2 were on a farm, the others we saw as we were driving, swimming or walking along)

Emu at the Pentland animal farm
We did see wild emus in a field but we were much too far away for a photo

Camel at Pentland animal farm near Denmark
we've been told there are wild camels in Australia but we haven't seen any

 Kangaroos near Augusta

A Dolphin that swam by me in Bunbury (could have touched it!)

A ray in Hamelin Bay

The People

What a Day

Here's a brief synopsis of our last 36 (give or take) hours:

9:00 AM - successfully pick up rental car. Chloe thrilled to have back seat to herself after having to be up front with us during the caravan era.

10:30 AM - navigate our way out of Perth to the horse ranch. Spend a proud parent hour watching Chloe do her horse lesson. Desperately try to avoid having local flies clog up various facial orifices



12:00 noon - hit the road for Hyden Australia, home of the Wave Rocks. Figured out how to hook up IPOD's with car stereo system. Chloe staged a music coup.

4:00 PM - checked out Wave Rock (very cool - no Wifi right now so you will have to take my word for it as can't upload photos). Checked out Hyden accomodation prices. Not cool. Hit the road for Lake Grace.



5:13 PM - saw wild kangaroos.





7:30 PM - got to Lake Grace. Accomodation prices there (roadhouse motel that is combined with gas station and "restaurant")really not cool. Decided to keep driving to Albany (250 km away). Fortified resolve with Red Bull.

7:42 PM - darkness settles across the land, combined with heavy rain and lightening. Good times.

11:00 PM - all of 6 vehicles passed us the other way over 250 km of road. Arrived in Albany intact.

11:15 PM - struck out on 4th attempt to get motel room for the nite. Parked compact Mitsubishi car on side street for the nite and decided to sleep in car.




4:00 AM - Chloe wakes up in backseat. Heather explains that we are sleeping in the car tonight. Chloe decides to score major brownie points and simply goes back to sleep.

5:15 AM - up and at'em before the locals realize we are there. Time to find a bathroom.

5:30 AM - found bathroom at Middleton beach. Heavy wind and very cold. Encountered two Aussie senior citizens who proudly declared that they were going swimming. Unfortunately used my outside voice to call them insane.

6:13 AM - breakfast of champions in Hungry Jacks (Australian Burger King)

8:32 AM - checked out the rock and the gap. Natural rock formations - not the names of professional wrestlers. Heather takes the wheel for her inaugural Australian driving experience. Confidence is high.



11:17 AM - arrived unscathed in Denmark Australia

12:47 PM - found Chocolate cafe in Denmark. Had awesome hot chocolate. Tried to ignore what it cost.

1:38 PM - arrived at local game farm. got up close and personal with some kangaroos and even a camel.

2:22 PM - found the elephants. more cool rocks. Lamented how crappy weather today was impacting beach time

3:40 PM - found ourselves 40 meters above the ground on a walkway looking at trees. tried to not look down or think about safety limits for number of people on platforms that one family was conveniently choosing to ignore.

4:40 PM - arrived at hostel in Walpole Australia. Population 400. Safe at last. Celebrated with white wine and Kraft dinner.

WA out there

We are now in Perth and have spent a couple of days exploring it , Fremantle (where the Olympic sailing qualifying race festival is happening) and taking a swim in the Indian Ocean (way colder than we thought it would be).

We have rented a car (no caravan this time) so that we can explore the coolness of western Australia for the next 10 days. Funky rocks, camel rides, dolphin swims, and maybe even a wine tour all await. But the first stop today will be Chloe's horse riding lesson.

camper van life

Day 12,13 & 14 were at Byron Bay walking around the town and taking a surf lesson.

Day 10 & 11 we were at Hervey Bay and took a day trip to Fraser Island. Not a great day weather wise but it was still really fun!

Day 8 & part of day 9 was into the Outback and back out again. We saw a family of kangaroos on the way.

Day 4 was a driving day to Airlie Beach. We spent day 5,6 & 7 taking tours to the Great Barrier Reef and going jet skiing.

Day 2 & 3 we were on Magnetic Island, spending the days going in the ocean and going on a walk to find some koalas in the trees.

For 15 days and 14 nights we were in the camper van. I of coarse was on top knocking my head every time I woke up.

Fraser Island

One of my travel regrets from 20 years ago was not making enough time (or trying harder to come up with the money) to enable me to experience the largest sand island in the world, Fraser island. So I was fairly excited (although I tried to keep my expectations low - thank you Matt) when we got to Hervey beach and booked our day tour. What followed was a day-long odyssey that featured:

The Good:

- amazing to walk around and think that at its base all around you it is just sand.
- 4 wheel driving on 75 mile beach and experiencing the shipwreck, hang around in Eli's creek and explore sand dunes









- seeing wild dingo's up close (and spending all day successfully resisting saying "a dingo ate my baby")



- swimming in Lake McKenzie.



- meeting a nice couple from the UK who years ago did what we are doing with their son.

The Not So Good:

- being in a 7 person tour that is crammed into a Toyota SUV with minimal leg room. And you are in the back seats experiencing every last sand-created bump in the trail
- the weather. Sunshine would have been nice, but at least it didn't pour rain
- being crammed in a 7-person SUV and fighting being car sick all day long
- that picture of me underwater in Lake McKenzie that Chloe shared in her post. At least I wasn't wearing a pink stinger suit this time,

We May Have Neglected to Mention....

Here's a sampling of some photos that for one reason or another didn't make the first cut for any of the Aussie posts so far:

I took a little timeout while we were in Sydney to go Melbourne for the day to watch the opening matches of the 2011 Presidents Cup. This is a golf competition that pits Team USA against an International Team made up of golfers from everywhere except Europe (sadly no Canadian representation this year).



It was very cool to enable my inner sports geek to follow this guy around and see him perform in person



On the flight from Sydney to Cairns the inevitable happened. One of our backpacks (mine) did not make it to Cairns with us. Thankfully the Cairns night markets were operating so I could pick up a bathing suit for the next morning trip to the Great Barrier Reef, and the hostel took pity on me and gave me a complimentary t-shirt. You can judge for yourself whether a fashion crime was committed



The Atherton Tablelands yielded a cool pop cultural tidbit. We saw the actual mountain that was the focus of Midnight Oil's "King of the Mountain" song.



We also were able to beat the heat by going swimming in a couple of places, one where Chloe proved yet again she is way braver than I was when I was ten.



In the other we attempted with little success to emulate famous shampoo commercial models. You can judge for yourself but we think Heather came closest







On the whole I think we adjusted well to being back on the road. But every once in a while we would come across something uniquely Australian that it took us a bit to figure out



We have seen a lot of "big" things on this trip, but I never expected to see something like this and not be in a museum setting.



When I was here before one of the ironic parts was that I never saw an alive wild kangaroo or koala. Thankfully we have rectified that this time around as you can see in Chloe's post

And speaking of my daughter, I can neither confirm nor deny that the reason she has such as pained expression in this photo may have something to do with an impromptu clothing optional swim that took place on our caravan tour.