Some more Perth Pics

Here are a few photos of Perth taken from the banks of the Swan river on Monday night.

Some Photographs from the Past Few Days

Here's just a few extra pics taken over the last few days. We'll update the Blog again soon, but for now................. see you later!

Love Ben and Clarie (and Digger) x x x x x

Boxing Day, down to Freo

Well that's it for another year, Christmas has come and gone, though I don't think will be forgetting this one for some time.

We took the Beetle down to Freemantle for the day on Boxing Day. We drove by the Swan River along Riverside Drive and pootled into Freo.

We parked up in a car park by the water front and walked up to the Little Creatures bar ready for our Christmas Aspall's Cider. Couldn't believe it, they'd only bloody sold out of the stuff! Rubbish! We had to make do with a Pip Squeak instead.

Sitting out by the water, in the sun, with an ice cold cider was pretty special, even if it wasn't the Aspall's we were after! We sat and watched the world go by while sipping our cider's and constantly topping up the world's smallest drinking glasses with water. It was a really hot day and we soon moved tables to find a cooler spot in the shade, we refused to give in and go inside to the air conditioning.

After enjoying our ciders we were feeling peckish so we walked back towards the car to Wagamama's. Wagamama's is a Thai/noodle restaurant. The food was nice, though we both struggled a bit with the chop sticks, Claire opted for the stab approach, which was pretty effective!

After lunch we decided to head back home, but not before sitting by the beach to get a few pics. We took the same route back, plus a minor detour around the city because I (Ben) missed the turning.

(Yes, that is a fly on Ben's Face)

We spent the afternoon at home and headed out with Digger to Burswood Park to give him a bit of a run.

So that was our Boxing Day, hope you all had a good Christmas time. Speak again soon.

Christmas Day in Perth

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

What a christmas morning it's been !! Well it all started last night actually when we got to talk to the gorgeous Noah and his mam and dad. Can't believe how much Noah can talk now, so cute! It was really nice speaking to Natalie and Jon, wish they were here to toast in Christmas with a ice cold Aspall's, but we'll save that thought for the summer (the British Summer, not the scorching Australia summer we're having right now!).

We woke up this morning and he'd been! Santa had dropped our presents under our twig, err, I mean tree! Lots of chocolate! Mmmmmmm chocolate. We'll be fat pigs next time you see us! Digger was also spoilt rotten with treats and things that squeak!

We went out this morning to meet the Calvin's. They're friends of Claire's Auntie Brenda and they really are the most lovely people. They invited us in and we got chatting straight away, there was lots of people there and I think every single one was from Whitehaven! It was strange hearing so many Cumbrian accents all this way away in Perth! (Nice though!) They were all interested in what we were doing and where we'd been. It came up in conversation that we didn't have a car anymore, next thing we know Mike jumps up and disappears for 10 minutes! He then returns with and calls me Claire out to the front of the house. As he hands us a set of keys and says "she's all yours, just return her before you leave for New Zealand!", we couldn't believe it when on the garden is an immaculate 1961 VW Beetle, completely original and in perfect condition.

I (Ben) thought he was joking, but oh no, he was deadly serious. "Just enjoy her and treat her as your own" were his words. We were speechless! Merry bloody Christmas indeed!

We're going to cruise down to Freemantle tomorrow in her and hang out on the Esplanade beach front looking cool ............... actually, looking super cool!

This afternoon will be spent mainly indulging in chocolate and Corona's, and probably popping out to the driveway to admire the Bug! Honestly, I'm still gob smacked!

Well, happy Christmas everyone, hope the big guy in the red suit brings you everything you wanted! Have a great day, especially you younger ones! Miss you all loads, lots of hugs and Christmas kisses coming to you from down under.

Love to you all, Ben and Claire x x x x

(Isn't she gorgeous!)

Merry Christmas to all from Down Under

Hello and Merry Christmas from Perth !! We write this at 7pm on Christmas Eve and whilst eating Milo and ice cream. Yippee, he's on his way guys and girls !! So exciting !!

Well, it's been a great short week for both of us this week !! We had our christmas dinner/tea on Tuesday night, as Emma was going away to her mam's for christmas. We bought everything in and I (Claire) started off the cooking until Ben was able to assist (I say

assist but I left him to it !!). Well I say I started off cooking, Emma did most of it cos I didn't

know what to do with the veg !! Thanks Emma .... It was a great dinner ... well done Ben !! His Yorkshires were delicious, as always .... taught by the good old boy Geoffrey Pops ! I would have had to ring my pops if Emma wasn't in, cos I didn't have a clue with the pumpkin !! We had a great night, exchanging our christmas gifts and even had some christmas crackers or bon bons (as Emma calls them). We were all at work the next day so we didn't enjoy too many festivities. Wednesday we all finished work until next year..... woo woo !

Emma left for the airport at 9pm on the Wendnesday ready for her flight home. Now it's just me, Ben and Digger ! Diggers even has his own christmas stocking to put out ready for

Santa coming. We're all very excited.

Today we took Emma's car (thanks again!) to Cottesloe Beach near Fremantle. GMTV were

filming there. We got there just after 2.30pm and the beach was filled with Poms all over the place, all wearing Christmassy things. It was awesome. We managed to squeeze into a place on the beach and got our sign all ready. The presenter guy said that they were starting off filming in the water and the best chance to be

seen would be there. We'd already put on our Boardies, so we set off to the water! Our first proper dip since we've been in Perth, it was bloody freezing ! We managed to find a good place down by the rocks and stood ...... and waited ......... and waited !! For ages, it was quite cold standing there after a while. The presenter kept giving us all updates, then it was the 5 minute countdown ! Then everybody just went crazy, massive signs popping up everywhere .... right in front of us .... great !! Move out of the way Dawn and Peter from Hull or whatever their crappy sign said !

We were jumping about and Ben was waving the sign all over the place. Then it panned away.

We decided to go onto the beach to see if we stood a chance there .... nope ! We just didn't seem to get to the right place for the camera, there was kids flying about everywhere. It was a great atmosphere, we just didn't expect all those people there !

We're just in for the evening now .. early night cos it's a big day tomorrow !! We've got the tree all sorted and even Digs wanted in the christmas spirit too .... ha ha sorry Emma !!

Merry Christmas to you all and we'll speak to you at some point and see if you've been good boys and girls this year !

Night then ! x

Christmas Carols by Candle Light

This week we've been trying to get ourselves into the Christmas spirit. Because it's so hot here it doesn't feel very festive, well, not to us anyway!

As Claire mentioned before, we started off by going out on Saturday night to look at the Christmas lights people have put up outside their houses. See the video at the bottom of this blog to see what we mean!

Then Claire and I decided to go down to the local park on Sunday night for the Carols by Candlelight.

Essentially, it's a little show put on by a local performing arts group. One of the local news readers narrates the story of Christmas and then throughout the show there's music by different groups and Carols which everyone sings along to. It was really good.

The park is situated on top of a hill and through the trees you can see the Perth city skyline, all the skyscrapers lit up at night. It had been a stonking hot day, about 40'C, so the evening was really warm. Felt strange sitting out at 9:30 at night in just shorts and T-Shirt singing Christmas Carols by candle light. Most people have a candle to hold throughout the night so it looks really cool when there's a few hundred candles flickering away. They even included some animals in the show, a horse, a donkey and a few camels, as well as some bagpipers who played Waltzing Matilda towards the end.

And finally, if we weren't feeling Christmassy enough, we put up some decorations on Monday night. We didn't have a tree so we all took Digger for a walk and managed to find a few branches to use as our tree. It's not a conventional tree but it looks pretty in the corner of our living room! (and it was free!)

After all that you'd think we'd be feeling pretty festive, but we're still not really. I think it just feels wrong because it's summer!?

So, that was last week. We're both doing fine, still going to work during the week. Enjoying ourselves here in Perth.

Thanks for reading, we'll blog again soon.

x x x

A little video of some of the Christmas lights in action!

Sunday 13th December ... nearly christmas !!

Morning everyone, I'm (Claire) just sitting typing this on a sunday morning. Just got up and sitting with a brew and decided to let you know how we are. We'll still busy with work, Ben's been all over the place .... although he can never remember where he's going or been .... "something beginning with a B", he said ...... it was Subiaco !! He's loving it though, which is awesome. Me on the other hand ... well it's a job !

We haven't really been anywhere much, Emma went away for 10 days to her mam's. It was her mam's 60th and they had a big party. We dropped her at Perth Airport which is about 10 mins drive away. Then it was just the 3 of us, Ben, me and Digger ! We loved it, he really is a star ! He just loves coming and sitting with you when your watching telly, he follows you everywhere. We're going to try and clone him before we go so we can have one exactly like him when we get home.

Last weekend we decided to go the pictures, so we went into the city and bought loads of sweets and then headed out to Osbourne Park. It was a mahoosive cinema with about 10 screens in. We decided on watching Paranormal Activity. It was ok, we weren't as scared as what everyone was saying it would be.

This week Ben was working on a street festival at Subiaco and he was working from 8.30 to 11pm. It was all street entertainers and stages with different stuff on and he loved it. Long day though, but they've given him monday off for it and payed him his hours so he's pleased ! Another boys days for him on monday !

Friday was an awesome day for us, I arrived in from work to find a massive box labelled to Claire and Ben. On opening said box it contained ...... Socks, XL Cheese Crisps, Milky Bar Button, Milky Bars, Galaxy Ripples, Curly Wurly's and Vinegar ...... what a package !! British chocolate ....... mmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm, it's been so long ! It was a hamper from my mam .... I love my Mam ! We immediately put them in the fridge cos they were a wee bit soggy but boy they tasted good that evening ! Although I much say that the Boosts over here in OZ are so much better than the ones in the UK .... sorry but it's true !

Saturday we went into the city, 37 degrees !! It was hot !! We didn't stay long really and unfortunately the trains were off so we had to catch the replacement bus back .... now that's an experience ! It was worse than any ride at Disney..... Oz drivers are nutters !

We decided to treat ourselves to a pizza for tea and Em new a nice little italian (Avanti) just down the road. We stuffed our faces with Pizza and I had Lasagne and lots of Lift to drink and then filled our pockets with loose change and hit the road looking for christmas lights. We even had a 'Christmas with the Stars' cd to listen to in the car. We headed to High Wycombe first and saw the house on Teddington Avenue. Wow, it's worth looking on You Tube at this house ..... loads of LED Lights that move to the music ..... awesome! Just opposite was another house all with loads of christmas ornaments and stuff kids could touch ... bubble machines. It was all for charity and they're both in the final for this years competition. We even got a lollie each ... a chubba chub. Next we went onto North Perth and there was another house, they were really awesome ... made us feel right christmassy ! Tonight (Sunday) we're going to the Carols by Candlelight service thats on in the park. We did something similar last time when we in Oz and it's lovely.

Just to let you's know GMTV are going to be at Cotterlsoe Beach 24th December and we're going to try and get there. I know I'm working but we're not sure about Ben .... if Ben's not then I'm not and Emma said that she's want us to have the car and to go there for the day. We'll keep you posted nearer the time but hopefully we'll be there to give you all a wave !

Hope everyone's ok at home ! Ben had some great news on Wednesday that he's a proud Uncle again. Little Rosie Anne made an appearance early morning weighing 4lb 14oz. A nice little sister for Charlie and Harry to look after. Congrats Em, Marc, Charlie and Harry ! ! We're going to have a British Chocolate Bar to celebrate !!

Merry Christmas everyone !! xx

Perth, Work and Carrot Cake

Well it's Saturday, we've both made it through our first week at work, though mine (Ben's) was only four days! I'm working for a company called MegaVision Sound & Lighting. So far so good. I'm mainly with the installations team, last week we installed a couple of Plasma screens and speakers in a few pubs/bars around Perth. The guys and girls there all seem really nice, think I'll fit in ok?! I'm not quite full time, but I work more than part time, last thing on Thursday they said not to come in on the Friday and have a long weekend. Apparently the time over New Years is hard work so they like to give you as much time off prior to that, they seem to really look after the staff. They've said they're going to purchase a couple of 'Cool Vests' for me and Scott (from Scotland) so we can cope with the heat better. It's basically a vest filled with cool gel that goes in the freezer over night and then you wear it all day to keep you cool. The other bonus is you get paid hourly, so I don't mind if I have to be in early or stay late, because you get paid for every hour you work, that's new for me!

Now my work (Claire). I'm working as a temp for Kelly's Recruitment in the City. It's for a 3-6 week contract for a company called ORS Group. It's something like Insurance for Jobseekers and stuff, don't quite understand. I'm working 9am - 5pm with half an hour lunch. I'm there to cover a girl thats going into hospital to have an operation. She's got to be off for 2 weeks and then see how she is, whether she can come back or not. So I could be finished in a couple of weeks or I could be kept on until after christmas ! Either way Kelly's will put me into another temp role. I've basically been watching Adriane all week, she's really nice and a good laugh. We work in an office with all women. It's alright, not quite what I was expecting to be doing in Oz. Was expecting more like fruit picking or McDonalds but the pay is good. It's not for long I keep telling myself. It's right in the city centre, which is handy but too handy. I just discovered an outlet village about 200 yards down from work and it's really cheap ! Unlike Ben I worked a full week .... ha ha ! On friday they had staff drinks and they all welcomed me in with a glass (or two) of wine. Got a massage booked in on tuesday aswell, another perk of the job .... really strange !

We've discovered Milo, we've been seeing it everywhere since we've been in oz but never tried it. Emma showed us how to drink it. 2 or 3 spoonfuls of Milo in a glass and pour ice cold milk over the top. Get a spoonful off the top of the glass, eat and then take a drink of the milk from underneath ..... lush !! I've joined a facebook group about Milo and they give different ways of eating/drinking it .... we're going to have some fun !

It's been a good week, Emma took us out to Feemantle Beach to walk Digger after work one night, watched the sunset, it was really nice. Emma left to go over to the East Coast on Wednesday so we now have the house to ourselves, she took the guitar though but left her uke!

Good thing about Ben being off on friday was I had my tea cooked for me which was nice but it didn't stop there !!! Oh No !!!! He'd only gone and made a carrot cake ....... a HUGE one at that too !! It was delicious, we had 3 slices of it each ........ very bad ! We're going to come back as fat as elephants ... we eat better here than at home.

Well it's saturday lunchtime that we're writing this. We're just going to have some lunch and then head off for a walk into Victoria Park. Get some shopping in cos the shops shut at 5pm tonight and don't open again until Monday .......... it's like going back in time ! Might even stop off at the pub that Ben was in the other day and have a pint (or two!).

New photos.... at last!

Hello everyone, just a very quick one to say I've just spent the morning uploading photographs to the old blogs.

If you scroll through the blogs from the last month or so you'll see all the new pics. Sorry it's taken so long!

We'll update the blog again soon, but for now I'll just let you know that we're both fine and the jobs are going ok. Feels strange going to work again, but it's nice to have a routine and earn a bit of money. Think we will both be shattered by the weekend!

Take care everyone, thanks for checking out the blog.

Freo !!

It's 7.20pm and we're just sitting with Digger with a can for a saturday night in ! We've been to Freo today (Fremantle). We caught the train from Victoria Park to Perth and then the train direct to Freo. Took about 40 mins in total and cost about 3 pounds each for the return journey. The public transport here is really good, it puts the UK to shame ! We got to Freo and had a walk around the shops. It reminded me of Brighton, the atmosphere and the little boutique shops. There was street entertainers and little indoor markets, really nice ! We had a walk down to the esplanade and stopped at a place called Little Creatures, it brewed it's own alcohol and it was rude not to pop in for one. We ended up having lunch there and it was really nice (expensive ! ... but nice!). We also had an Aspalls Cider, a Suffolk (UK) brewed cider, which they had in bottles ... 7 pounds a bottle mind !! Wowser ..... we were going to half a bottle but decided we could not eat for the rest of the week and get one each .... only joking!

We ended up trying the Pip Squeak Cider, which was the homebrew ... very nice but not as nice as the Aspalls obviously.

After that we had another walk around Freo and then made back for the train back to Perth.

I'm going to have a rant now about the shop opening times ........ so we gets back into Victoria Park at 5.20pm and make up to Woolworths (the supermarket) ...... it's closed !! It closes at 5pm on a saturday and doesn't open again until monday. Now this isn't just something that happens here, it happens all over WA and it makes me angry ! So we gets back on the train and heads back into the city to the supermarket there ... it's got to be open ???!!! Nope, it along with all the shops in the city closed at 5pm !! Have you heard such a thing ?! Crazy people !! Rant over .....

Anyways, we had a lovely day at Freo and will definitely go back. We passed a couple of nice beaches along the way on the train.

We're both fine, getting nervous about both starting work on monday !! Have to get the uniforms ironed tomorrow and get our pack lunches sorted ..... ha ha so weird ! Thanks everyone for reading the Blog and your messages.

Take care and speak soon

Ben, Claire & Digger

Perth and off the unemployment heap !!

Yey everyan .... we got work !! Ben got the news first on monday (we could have actually found out friday night if we'd checked our emails !!). We were so excited, we celebrated with some white chocolate Tim Tams .... very nice ! We moved out of the old place on wednesday and was waiting for the train when I got a call from the recruitment agency telling me I had a job and wanted me to start a week on friday !! Yippee .... we were starting to worry a bit ... well I was !

The new place is awesome ..... the landlady Emma is lovely jubbly and she's got a dog ("Digger"), he's also lovely jubbly. We're sharing her apartment just on the outskirts of Perth in Victoria Park. It's about a 30 min walk, which we found out yesterday. We're dogsitting for her while she visits home next week and then again over christmas. The place is right near the train line so we can easily get into the city.

Ben's work is doing his AV stuff he did at home and me pretty much Accounts and Admin which is what I did at home (sometimes!). We're looking forward to getting into a routine and start to get some money in. We worked out what we need for New Zealand so we've got a target. Ben's got to work for 3 months so we've got to change our flight that we originally had booked (again!). My work is a temp until christmas, possibly a month afterwards depending if they get there member of staff back from hospital (hopefully not eh !?)

We had a walk into the city yesterday afternoon, our first time we've been in and not had to look for work ... use the internet, it was really nice. They've got the christmas decorations up and they look lovely ... although doesn't feel like christmas ! We sorted out some clothes for our jobs, still got some bits to get but hopefully having a day out in Freo on saturday. We're looking forward to doing some sight seeing again.

Nothing much to report, everythings going great. We're both fine, the weathers been a bit weird the past fews days. Raining and cold (you'll be pleased to hear!).

Emma's learning to play the guitar so Ben's happy at the moment. He's playing it at every opportunity.

Hope alls good at yam.

Blog soon Ben & Claire (& Digger!)

Perth Friday 13th November 2009

Well hello peeps and peepetts,
Sorry for the delay in updating the Blog but the library internet won't let us access the Blog or Facebook and we've been job hunting too.
We've had loads going on and we've walked for miles and miles the past week since selling Gracie B. We've been applying for anything and everything job wise and not even had a walk around Perth yet sightseeing. We've managed to get another house sorted out which is closer to the city. It's in Victoria Park, a la'al apartment that we're sharing with a Sheila called Emma and her dog Digger (yey we get a dog !!). We move into the new place on Wednesday and we can't wait !! No more buses !! It's alot cheaper and because we won't need public transport we'll hopefully save a bit.
Ben's been for an interview this morning and it sounds really promising (although trying not to get our hopes up just yet!). I've been to Kellys to register for any temp roles coming up, fingers crossed something comes up soon. Met a girl in there who knows some people from Whitehaven (well weird!).
We've just had a dissapointing few minutes, as the Lindt chocolate bar we bought thinking was Milk Chocolate was infact fruit and nut ....... we were gutted !!
We have got loads of pics to put on and we'll do this when we move into the new place. We'll put loads on to bore you guys with ..... yey you say ?!

We're both fine and enjoying Perth loads. Hopefully we'll find some jobs soon and start getting into a routine a bit (and stop spending money!). Christmas light switch on in the City tonight, we had to come down early this morning so we're not staying down for them it's too hot. We're addicted to 7pm Project, Neighbours (I can't believe Susans dead!) , The Ghost Whisperer and Beauty and The Geek at the moment. Heard about Simon Cowell and the fixing on X Factor.

No more gossip really, hope everything is fine back in the UK (not too cold! ha ha).

Blog soon with the photos.

Finally updated !!!!! A new Blog !!

Well that was a first for us !! … we were sitting having a cuppa outside the tent and a bloody emu walked behind us !! Ben saw it walking behind me and didn’t know what to do. The look of terror in his eyes made me turn around and there it was ….. a 6 ft emu !!

Looking at us !! Ben managed to get a photo and then the guys in the tent next to us were shouting of it and whistling. Everytime they did this it looked at us. They are so massive and very ugly ….. (Emus not the guys in the tent!!) Eventually it walked away and up the campsite, you don’t get that in the UK!

Wow, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought I was a gonna (Claire). We were sitting by the tent and Ben went to wash the cups out. He left me on my own. All of a sudden, coming towards me …. A bloody emu !! Heading straight for the car. Luckily a guy came over to take some photos of it, so I ran around the tent behind him. The emu poked his head into Gracie, right into the boot !! The guy chased it away and off it trotted. I thanked the guy for saving my life … as you do !! Ben came back oblivious to what had just happened, I was traumatized. But the emu hadn’t gone, it came back. Luckily Ben was there and wanting to run around the front of the car to hide with me … he had to be macho though in front of the guys next to us. He eyeballed the emu, stood his ground, took off his hat and waved it. It worked the emu walked away !! The look of terror and relief in Ben’s eyes, was something I’ve never seen before !!

We left Exmouth at 12.00 and arrived at Coral Bay just after 2.30pm. It’s right on the beach and very windy. It’s such a small place with only 1 street of shops. We pitched the tent …. Eventually because of the wind and decided to take our snorkels down to the beach.

There weren’t many people in but we still decided to have a go. Stripping down, masking up and headed to the water. It was freezing, absolutely freezing!!! We got into our knees and got straight back out again. The beach was beautiful, your typical white sands and turquoise water. We decided to walk up the beach and see what was around. We walked towards where a load of people were standing at the edge of the water. There was a lady feeding some HUGE fish, there was loads of them. We then decided to carry on up the beach. We found a part of the ‘Paradise Beach’ that looked good. We again masked up and waded in. The water freezing, we walked slowly wincing at every wave. We must have got 100mtrs in and knee depth when we decided it was too cold, so we walked back towards the beach, still with our masks on !! We walked back to where we were at the start, where the other people were snorkelling and dumped our stuff. Right this was it, started walking in again. Didn’t get very far, when the big fish (who were being fed earlier) were there waiting for us. I (Claire) couldn’t go in, I couldn’t do it, they were looking at us with their big eyes. Ben decided to walk a bit further down the beach whilst I was psyching myself up. I knelt down and stuck my face in the 1t deep water trying to see some fish and reef but strangely enough all I could see was sand !! Ben says it was the funniest thing he’s ever seen, when he turned round and saw me. I was snorkelling (sort of !!).

After that I decided sunbathing would be a good thing and left Ben to it. Promising I would snorkel tomorrow !! Ben had a great time seeing a few fish and some of the coral. We made back to the tent and sorted tea out, even having 1 or our 2 beers we’ve got left!! It was windy all night but not too cold which we thought it would be.

Waking up this morning at 7.30am … what a first !! We got dressed and went for a walk along the beach before breakfast. Still it’s windy but the view was lovely. Didn’t get to see any wildlife from the lookout when we got to the top. We headed back for breakfast and then got sorted before going back down for some snorkelling. Got to the beach and found a nice sheltered place. We dumped our stuff, no messing around we got masked up and headed out (yet again!). Wahoo, we got in and snorkelled !!!!!! There were loads of fish and the coral was lovely and so close to shore. Ben failed finding Nemo but there were so many other fish it didn’t matter. We sat on the beach and read our books and had some lunch. The beach is beautiful and we reckon it’s the best beach we’ve seen. The reef snorkelling is awesome. After showering we took Gracie up to a place called Mauds Point. It’s where the Marine Turtles and Reef Sharks have they’re breeding grounds …… sure to see a shark !!?? Not a chance !! We saw one turtle …. Twice !! Think he felt sorry for us so swam back again !! We did have a nice walk along the beach though.We’re now nursing our sunburn and talking about out days driving tomorrow straight to Monkey Mia. We’re both so excited about the next part!!

We were off at 7.30am today heading south again. We stopped off at a place called Quobba (49kms West of Carnarvon). We parked up and had a look at the Blowholes. There was one big one and the blow was amazing. The waves were so big crashing into the sides.

A few hundred km’s later and we are approaching Monkey Mia. We stopped off at Shell Beach on the way. It’s one of the strangest things. There’s no sand or stones on the beach, just billions of shells. They’re tiny cockle shells that when the cockles die, the shells wash up on this beach, in some places it’s over 10 metres deep with shells …….. FACT !!

We decided to drive onto Monkey Mia and see the lookouts on our way out. We got there at about 4pm and pitched the tent. The Reserve is right on the beach. We decided to go for a walk along the beach before tea. It was stunning, really pretty. As we got closer we saw people snorkelling about 100 metres from the edge. Then all of a sudden, 3 or 4 dolphins there swimming with them. Excited we legged it back and changed into our boardies, grabbed our masks we went back. We were too late, they’d already swam off too far for us to go out. We waded in to knee height and stood there waiting. All of a sudden a turtle popped up to say hello … a loggerhead this time, it was massive. We watched it swim in front of us and then it decided to swim for Ben. Ben wasn’t sure what to do so he moved his legs, this was enough for the turtle to swim away. We stood there maybe 30 mins longer and decided to leave it and continue up the beach. The weather has changed a lot being here, it’s quite chilly. The Resort is small but has two restaurants, a café, small shop and the internet. It’s not too busy at the moment. We had a shower and tea and sat up for a while talking about the dolphins.

6am Claire awoke and started on Brekkie for Ben getting up. We dressed in our boardies again and sat and had a cuppa. At 7am we decided to head to the beach.

Loads of people were lined up at the waters edge already but we managed to get right at the front. We were standing right next to 4 pelicans that were obviously waiting for something to happen !! 8 or 9 dolphins swimming around about a metre in front of us, little baby ones playing around at the back having a great time !! It was amazing, wild dolphins turn up at the Resort every morning and have a feed, then swim off again/ We stood there watching for ages until ranger came out and started talking and introducing us to all of the dolphins.

At about 7am they brought out buckets of fish and stood in front of us all. Picking people out to go into the water (knee depth) and feeding a dolphin. She picked Ben !!! We were so chuffed out of all those people. He waded out and had to hold a fish by the tail and hold it in the water. The dolphin was just in front of him waiting with its mouth open. Ben released the fish and the dolphin ate it. It was so cool … got some pics !! After they had finished feeding them the fish, they said that they will keep coming back throughout the morning. Everybody went and we walked back down the beach. As we were walking back we saw a dolphin in the water! We decided to wade in (it was freezing, so we decided against snorkelling!).

We waded in knee depth and waited. The dolphin looked as if it was chasing fish, popping up every now and then. We stayed where we were and waited. It started getting closer, so we started tapping the water, it worked !! It came right by us, so close that we thought it was going to run into Ben’s legs. It didn’t stay for long though, just raced passed. We stood there for about 30 minutes longer, watching. It was racing around, it came closer again doing a lap around us and racing off again. Totally awesome ! We stayed for ages not wanting to move, but then it swam off into the distance. We walked out of the water and couldn’t believe there were just two of us and a wild dolphin racing around us. Happy honeymoon !! Later that morning we had a drive out to Denham, it’s about 20 kms south of Monkey Mia. It was a very small town on the waters edge. It was so windy and cold, we had to wear our hoodies. We had a look in the Tourist Information and picked up some leaflets about Perth. We then headed back for some lunch and then went back onto the beach. We sat for a while then Ben went off to take some photos. I read my book and waited for Ben to come back. He came back saying he’d been watching a turtle from the top of the jetty. He said it was massive and so clear under the water. He went for a paddle out to sea and not long after some dolphins came by him. It didn’t take much persuasion for me to go out there with him. Unfortunately they were just passing through and disappeared. We waited for ages but they didn’t come back. Ben did spot a Dugong, it had a funny head. We saw it twice after that but it then disappeared. We went back to shore and carried on reading, one eye on our books and one eye on the water. We had an afternoon on the beach, and then at 4pm we went for a drive. We got back just before 5pm and had tea. We didn’t last long outside as it was so cold, we had to sit in the car and play cards.

We woke up and the sun was already up and shining. We took down the tent and headed back down the beach to see the dolphins again. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky though it was windy, so the dolphins weren’t as easy to see through the ripply water. We sat up on the jetty watching for a while drinking our sups of tea. The road out of Monkey Mia passes by the Eagle Bluff Lookout. A cliff top lookout over the shallow waters below. The perfect spot to see stingrays, turtles, sharks and sea eagles. Great, we thought ! However, when we got there the tide was out so we didn’t see a single bit of wildlife. Nothing, not even a sausage !! Eagle Bluff, more like Eagle Guff …. Ha ha ! It was a nice view though!

We turned off the 1 and headed towards Kalbarri. It’s home to a National Park but the roads weren’t suitable for Gracie so we decided against it. We instead drove into the town and had some lunch. The town was lovely like a little seaside resort, with loads of apartments looking out over the cove. The water was the lovely blue and just a small band of sand around the edges. We then drove out along the Coast Road, passing Gregory and Horrocks. It looks just like home with the grass being so green and trees separating the field. Just the red dust at the side of the road reminds us of where we are. Even the cows look happy here, fat and happy……. Munching on the lovely green grass !! Better than the ones we have seen, skin and bones, head down and ears looking sad … wandering the outback. There just wasn’t enough room in Gracie for me (Claire) to help them !!

We got to Geraldton to the campsite. It was windy again here. It seemed a big city, loads of things to do, however it’s Sunday and nothing is open. We did think about looking for work here. So we might come back if we cannot find anything in Perth. The campsite is nice, right near the beach. After tea we went for a walk along the beach and waited for the sunset. There was a lady kite surfing and she was amazing. We watched her for ages with the sun going down behind her. We then went back to the tent. We had a little shelter by the ten so we put in our chairs and table and lit our candles for nearly the last time. We sat out enjoying tea and biscuits and watched the candles burn down to nothing. The wind never gave up all night, but the tent stood strong.

After putting the tent down and having breakfast we went to the local shopping centre, stocked up on some essentials and then hit the road again. We took the 1 but then took the coastal rod. We stopped off at a place called Green Head. A small coastal town. We drove to the beach and had a walk out. We then drove onto the next stop which was Jurien Bay. It’s a small fishing town and a National Park and also a Marine Park offshore. It’s home to sealions and we actually saw one. We went for a walk along the beach, it was really pretty.

We were watching expecting to see them everywhere. A la’al head popped up out of the water, then back in again. Only the one though. We then got into the car and pulled into Molar Hill lookout. It was a lookout over the ocean, Cervantes and Jurien Bay. It was full of flies too so we didn’t stay long!!

Next stop Cervantes where we pitched the tent. We then drove to the Nambung National Park. We chose to do the 1.5km walk through the Pinnacles, there was another 3.5km drive through them but we didn’t think Gracie would enjoy driving on the sand. They were really strange, quite eerie. They’re limestone structures originally from seashells and other sea remnants. Over time natural processes have removed the surroundings and left the Pinnacles. There are loads of them.

Whilst waiting for the sunset, a pair of motorcyclists pulled up in front of the Pinnacles. It just didn’t seem right. Ben offered to take a photo of them, both in front of the bike and the Pinnacles. The guy made his wife stand behind his bike so he could get all his bike in ….. who’s that remind you of ???? We decided to go for a drive before sunset and had a look at Hangover Bay. It was a 1km drive down a dirt track. It was a lovely little bay and had BBQ’s and picnic tables. It looked really nice with the sun on the water. We decided not to stay long though and got back into the car back to the Pinnacles. We sat in the car park and ate our tea …. Supernoodles !! We’re getting good at cooking our tea in Gracie. We ventured out into the Pinnacles at just after 6pm. The sun was setting and the shadows from the Pinnacles were amazing. Ben was off as usual, taking his photos. We’re glad we put our fly nets on again because we were covered. We stayed there for an hour and watched the sun going down and the moon coming up.

The moon was so white against the purple backdrop. The temperature dropped too. We had a lovely brew when we got back to the tent, celebrate our last night in the ten for a while and the fact we’ve drove 13,000kms!!

We woke up and decided to catch up on all our washing. We had breakfast and put down the tent. Whilst waiting for our washing, we took a drive up to Thirsty Point Lookout. It was 1km through the town and overlooked Cervante Beach. It was really pretty, just a small strip of white sand along the side. There was a couple of little islands but no wildlife, (well, not that we could see!). We drove back to the campsite, collected our bits and then set off to Perth, should be 2 hours and 30 minutes, we’re so excited! Hopefully we’ll find the house easy. We’re planning on cleaning Gracie when we get there, get her all ready for her new owners……….. sniff sniff!

We arrived at our humble abode just before 2pm. We found it ok, it does seem a bit far away from everything but we’ll have to see where we get some work.

We met Jenny and her friend Janet was there. They’re both really nice and friendly. We brought our bags into “our” room… wow, a bed! We were shown around our section of the house……wow, again! We’ve got our own lounge/bathroom/entertainment area, use of the kitchen and dining room, the bbq area, oh and forgot to mention, it’s got a pool! Amazing! Jenny took us for a walk around the town to show us where to catch the bus. It’s about 40 minutes into the Perth CBD so we’ll see what jobs we get before making any decisions about staying or moving on, but for now it’s great. We had walk after a brew and got some shopping in. It’s so nice knowing we’ve got a fridge and a freezer and even a shelf in a cupboard seems luxury! It’s a 15 minute walk, but it was so hot today, sweaty! We’ve got a busy day planned tomorrow, job hunting and car selling in Perth. Fingers crossed everyone!We made our tea and sat outside by the pool, this is the life! We then retreated to “our” lounge to watch a bit of telly! Brilliant! (Well actually, the telly is about 90 years old and the picture is crap, but hey, it’s a telly!)

Ahhhh, it was so nice to sleep in a bed! We actually didn’t sleep brilliantly, I think we’ve got used to sleeping on the floor in the tent, but we were comfy! After a nice breakfast and a cup of tea we walked down to the bus stop, luckily we remembered the way! Not long after getting to the stop the bus arrived. We got a couple of day passes to the city and took a seat. 50 minutes later we arrived at the Perth bus port, for future reference, you don’t need to stay on all the way to the bus port!

(Dolphins at Monkey Mia)

Broome to Exmouth

Another early start and we're off again! 6.30am and heading for Port Hedland. We had a lovely day yesterday at the beach. We took our Lonely Planet and our books and chilled out. Had a dip in the Indian Ocean and tried bodysurfing ..... alas it's not for us ! We just couldn't catch the waves. We will keep trying though. We sat and waited for the sunset and then walked down to see the Sunset Camel rides. They take people down the beach and then back up for the sunset. Ben was off like a whippet, getting photo's. He was legging it up and down the beach but looking at the photos he did a great job!

We made it back tpo the campsite and had tea and some beers and talked about our next journey. Next stop Port Hedland.

You'll be pleased to know we've had a nightmare of a day. First the car wouldn't start in the middle of nowhere (luckily it did after a lot of praying!). Second I (Claire) ran over a 2ft lizard, I was swerving and ended up squishing it. Worst of all it's the biggest lizard we've seen while we've been here ........ dead now! And C we got a stone chip in our windscreen by a roadtrain! Gutted !!!!!! More expense, we're hoping it'll be ok until Perth. We're going to get her fixed and then sell her ...... sniff, sniff !!

We're going to base ourselves in Perth for a few months and try and get some work. We've got a lot more sights to see before then,. which we're very excited about. Just a pitstop here in Port Hedland, it's an iron ore town and there's nothing much here. We did see the longest train ever on the way in, there must have been over 200 carriages being pulled ....... amazing. Set off back down again, next stop Freecamp for the night then onto Exmouth. Thats if there's no more diasters going on the way ! Think Gracies heard us talking about selling her and she's not happy! What a sunset, Ben got his clouds he's been asking for and they look lovely. We sat up with a few tinnies and just chilled, the site was ok. Full of people who obviously work at the Iron Ore mine and were happy it was friday and beer o'clock. We just happened to be right near the railway track and a train had to beep his horn every time he went passed. Though all that, we still woke at 5am. Same time as every morning. We had brekkie and then set off, we're just hoping a windscreen place will be open as it's now saturday and the cracks getting bigger. 2 and a bit hours drive to Karratha and we'll see how far we can get before stopping with a kip in Gracie.

We arrived at Karratha just before 10am. Ben drove most of the way. We checked at Tourist Info and they gave us the address of the windscreen place. We got there and the guy was lovely. He said he could fill the crack as there was no need to replace the screen...... Bonus ! $80 ...... Bigger Bonus ! We left Gracie with him and went for a look around the Shopping Centre. We bought snorkling masks ready for the reef tomorrow. We checked back in to see if Gracie was ready and she was. Ben went in to pay as the guy was closing up for the weekend. He took out his wallet and asked if we could pay cash, yes we could. "In that case make it $60", he said and pocketed the money ...... Bigger than Big Bonus.

We got to our Freecamp, it's about 200 kms to Exmouth from here. Too far to go there now as it's 4.30pm, so not much daylight left. The drive was fine, we didn't have to watch the crack in the windscreen moving. We saw 4 emus at the side of the road (alive aswell!), they trotted off before Ben could get his camera. Nothing run over by myself (Claire) today .... thankfully! We got the car sorted for bed and Ben put tea on. We got the Citreonellas out and sat and watched the stars. We decide to go to bed because it suddenly gets windy. We can hear cars pulling up and it's pitch black. They advise you not to drive when it's dark , as all the wildlife come out and wanders all over the roads.

Blimey!, we had a lie in this morning 6am! Saw the sunrise through the boot, it was lovely! Ben had sorted brekkie and I sorted out the car, we've got it down to a tee now. Had brekkie and we're on the road again for 6.45am. Just an hours drive for each of us and we should arrive at Exmouth (home of the Ningaloo Marine Park!). We tried our snorklling masks out sitting in the bush last night, so we're excited to use them.

Well ..... Claire's killings spree has started again. She hit a bird on the way to Exmouth, we turned around to check ..... yep it was definitely dead ! Claire says " it looked old anyway!", Ben says, "it didn't !!!!!".

We got to our campsite at about 9am, after seeing more emus on the way. The Campsite if so nice, the camp kitchen is huge and has a fridge ...... yey cold beer tonight ! We had a shower to freshen up and went for a walk. About 1km from the campsite was the Town Beach. It wasn't quite the white sand and blue water but it was nice walking along the beach. We made our way back to the site and couldn't believe it, we were less than 5mtrs away from an emu !! And with no camera ! We walked 'quickly!' away from it as we weren't really sure what we had to do. We got away safely though.

We're now heading north of exmouth to check out the snorklling. We drive to Bundegi Beach and had a walk along the jetty. We parked our butts looking out into the ocean, nobody was in the water which was strange. All of a sudden in the distance was some whales ! Humpback whales jumping and splashing in the water. We couldn't belive it as we weren't even looking for them. We sat for a while and decided to go for a walk. We then saw the reason noone was in the Ocean. A sign said that some Tiger Sharks had been spotted in the area and it advised not to go into the water...... good enough for us! We decided against the snorklling. However on the way back to the car, people were in the water....... not for us!

The we drove to Sufers Beach on the westside of the Bay. There wasn't much beach, so we sat on some rocks looking out. The water was rough and splashing beneath us. The reef wasn't that far from the edge of the water, then Ben spooted a head popping out of the water. As quick as it came up, it went back down again. Our first turtle !! Then after ages, I (Claire) then spotted another one. Popped up to say hello then went back in again! It's the season for the Marine and Loggerhead turtles to come onto shore and lay there eggs. Just up the beach about 4kms from us they have the Juarbai Turtle Centre, where you can learn about them. But we did a simialr thing at Bundaberg last time, so we gave it a miss. Instead we drove to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, to see if we could spot any sealife ....... we're usless we didn't see anything in the water. Only spotting 2 peregrin falcons on the side of the head.

What a night!!!! We thought we were going to get blew away! The tent was going like the clappers. Ben was awake before me (saying his prayers I thinK!). Unfortunately, I needed the loo so had to get up. I brought the chairs and table into the tent and walked to the toilets. Trying not to open my eyes fully so I would wake up and wondering if I would bump into an emu. We didn't really sleep much after that, worrying about if the tent was going to blow down. Not sure why it was so windy?

We made it through the night and decided to walk to the camping shop and buy some better tent pegs. Now the tent looks like nothing could move it, it's all pegged and ready for anything ! It's still windy this morning so we've done our washing ....... it's a good drying day!