2019 AU-NZ: Australia South to West Feb 6-13

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Our drive to Adelaide was about 750Kms, so we stayed in town instead of camping, so had a nice stroll into town along the Adelaide waterfront.

A last minute decision in the morning on February 6 resulted in our route around Australia being clockwise. Pros and cons balanced out to us going clockwise from Melbourne - Adelaide - the Southwest - Perth - the West Coast - Northwest - Darwin - East Coast - Port Fairy - Melbourne (by March 19, when we fly to New Zealand).

A morning off February 7 in Adelaide for image and text work on our BLog (travel diary, Web Log, blah, blah, "Blahg") put us up to date for the Jan 21 - Feb 4 period!

Gosh, in looking at photos from the January 21 - February 5 period, we've been very busy! In just 16 days, wow, we are getting around!

In the afternoon in lovely Adelaide, we re-organized the next three weeks Feb 8 - 28, clockwise to the edge of Queensland. We don't quite know our route after February 28 as many flooded access roads in Queensland are closed to ALL TRAFFIC (bold and upper case on the National highway road closure warning Website). The flooding is not only due to extraordinary rain, it is also due to uncommonly high tides, which are flooding and threatening wetland areas and coastal towns. The high tides and floodings are also bringing salt water crocodiles and snakes into wetlands, where the confused ducks are easy targets, and even into flooded neighborhoods (no camping says Bob!). We feel badly for those who are displaced, and we might need to avoid the areas under recovery.

We also picked up camp groceries (tin goods) for the next 5 camp days towards Perth, but only enough fresh fruits and fresh vegys for one camp day as they are forbidden to cross state borders and we needed to consider crossing from South Australia into West Australia two days later. At the State borders, those going east apparently trade with those going west, and visa versa, or cook things up on the spot!

In the late afternoon Yolanda wove a few hours (yeh, 1/3 done). Bob drove 30 min to a wetland that turned out to be entry by permit, so drove 20 min more to another and photographed 3 new-to-him bird species!

Aside: We are enjoying our new rental car, but often wish we had a 4x4 to access more remote areas ... next time. We think we were upgraded with the current car, our third, as we booked a Rav4 for each driving section and for Mainland AU were given a Subaru Forester, which is very comfy, and which has a surprisingly good 770+ Kms / 62 litre fill! That will be a significant savings for our petrol budget!

At mid-day February 8, we passed through the town of Kimba, which is the geographic centre of the highway drive across Southern Australia.

We arrived that evening at Perlubie Beach ($10), chatted with jovial Colin and watched the gorgeous sunset after putting up our tent at the beach and making a pumpkin soup dinner. Due to the wind off the ocean, Yolanda had to sit on the edge of the tent while Bob staked the corners and put our bags of tinned goods inside so it wouldn't blow away. The sounds of the stormy sea in the night seemed mighty close! Luckily, we had moved the tent up 2 meters from where we had originally pitched it to a new spot above the wiggly tideline of seaweed. We also moved the Subaru to the upper lot. In the night, the surf came up to 30cm beyond the edge of where the tent had been and had the car been by the tent it would have put the driver side car wheels and gunnell in the sea.

We started the day Feb 9 at the beach with our oatmeal, cinnamon, fresh apple and pumpkin seed breakfast with latte (Yolanda) and Long Espresso (Bob). We've rarely bought shop coffee, as the only type available are delicious whole bean machines espresso coffees, starting at $4.50 and for as much as $6.50. It is just as expensive or forbidden for hygiene reasons to use our own mugs. So, we are very glad we brought our trailer espresso pot.

After the Nullarbor Plain, where we saw more Emu and Kangaroo, we crossed from South Australia to Western Australia on Highway 1A at about 5pm. To comply with border rules, at lunch we finished off the fruit and vegys in our larder, but left the carrots and chopped up the dinner zucchini and red pepper. We had read on the internet that there were a few exceptions, such as carrots, and if the vegys were prepared. Cut up for stew was not good enough, so we set up the camp stove and cooked our dinner stew there at the border!

At Moodini Bluff camp ($0) we did another "boot camp" (slept in the car boot) as Aussie camp mate Craig, who seemed concerned about snakes, highly advised against the tent. Although, another couple at the picnic table (Bev & Tom) scoffed it off and said, "zip'er up, yow'll be foin!" We re-warmed the border crossing stew for dinner. It was a rustic spot in a wonderfully scented eucalyptus grove.We are happy we chose to drive the Melbourne to Perth stretch, instead of flying.

We would not have wanted to miss seeing Road Trains, Emu, the Great Australian Bight Marine Park cliffs, bouncy herds of Kangaroo, the Nullarbor (no tree) Plain, driving Australia's longest straight road (143.3K perfectly straight), dried up salt lakes, camping right on the beach, the aqua marine water at Cape Naturaliste, and meeting more super Aussie folks!

We arrived in Esparance on the Eyre Peninsula in the Southern part of Western Australia Feb 10 to find almost every camp full, including all the camp sites at the coveted Cape Le Grande NP, but we found a nice spot overlooking the ocean in a grassy area of the overflow parking of a well-appointed caravan park right in Esperance ($45, in an area of AU where motels are $155 in off-season). Our long days, with interesting stops is resulting in us arriving places just before dark, but so far things are working out, as Bob pitches the tent and Yolanda makes dinner. Then, ahhhhhh, relax.

An early start to the day Feb 11 was due to time zone differences in the West. The sun set the previous evening at 7pm, so sunrise started at 5:30am.

We didn't have far to go so took time to explore on a drive towards an estuary. We saw some new-to-us birds, including a few raptor, and some large, spiny lizards.

We saw more dry waterways, including quite a few dry river beds. However, after the town of Denmark, we entered Australia's Southern Giant rain forest, and saw gigantic eucalyptus trees called red tingle trees. There are hundreds of eucalyptus species (including a rainbow eucalyptus, which we saw, but did not photograph on Tasmania). We've seen quite a few species and they smell fantastic. The red tingle is unique to the forests near Walpole in the southern part of West Australia, and they get up to 20meter in circumference; the same size as Lonely Doug out past Sooke, BC. Ten people, with outstretched arms, hand-to-hand encircle a tree that large.

Just after leaving the estuary area, we saw a 5-part logging truck Road Train! In early January 2019, Little Francis Sandoz had asked Yolanda if she would see Road Trains in Australia, and then he showed her one in a truck book of his. We had not heard of them before. At mid- day we stopped for lunch in Ravensthorpe and then en route to Albany, we saw the same 5-part logging truck Road Train wobbling along the secondary highway to Albany.

We missed staying in or near Albany (a great birding area) and stayed further along in Walpole, so we'd arrive in Perth a day early, which would enable Bob to meet up with a colleague from when Bob was a dental technician (in his early 20's). The meandering, multi-stop day, resulted in our arriving too late to get as far as Crystal Springs camp, so we stayed at Big Tree Motel in Walpole. We made a commitment to each other to end our camp travel days an hour before sunset, so we have enough time to set up camp and make dinner before dark (this was not a consideration when the sun was setting later, and we could roll in at 8pm, but it is setting earlier as we head towards the AU autumn).

On our final day into Perth, we drove through the gorgeous forests and wine country of the Southwest. It was much like crossing from the Cowichan Valley to Tofino on Vancouver Island, but with Emu, Kangaroo, and grass trees. There were road-side farm eggs and organic produce stands (including avocado), and the land cleared for vineyards is extensive. Our relaxing Rocky Point picnic lunch stop was in Cape Naturaliste NP. At quite a depth into the bay, we could see rocks and sandbars below the crystal clear, turquoise to aquamarine to navy blue water.

Bob found a great deal for a suite in Perth with a washer/dryer. We can get through several loads, including our sleeping bags, cook some nice meals, weave/bird-watch, get caught up on our Blahg :-) :-), and Bob had a great visit with Bob's pal Jay. Jay had moved to Perth with his family from Vancouver about 13 years ago after selling his successful dental technology laboratory.

The 700Kms/day pace will slow now that we have re-positioned to the Australian West Coast, and we look forward to camping more than one night in spectacular spots we stumble into.