Around Australia in a Prius: Around Australia 08

Bunbury to Geraldton, via Perth, Fremantle and Jurien Bay

Day 35 - Tuesday, 04 May 2010

Today we drove direct from Bunbury to Perth, arriving at about 12:30 pm. We decided to use the WA Visitor Centre to find us a motel. That's when the fun started. First off, the road in front of the centre was closed for a block or more in either direction. So Joce dropped me off, and I walked around the block until I found a mall with access. That said, once I made it inside, the staff could not have been more helpful. Unfortunately, helpful though they were, they were unable to find us a motel anywhere in Perth!

They did not know why this was so. There were no big functions or conferences, and they were unaware of any explanation, but place after place was booked out. After an hour with no joy, I suggested perhaps the solution may be a satellite town. Of course, Fremantle is the closest, and the first half-dozen places she called there were booked out too. In the end, she booked us in to a refurbished guards' cottage at the old Fremantle Prison. Three nights cost $581.40!

We moved in there, and set out to find BJ's suggested lunch venue - The Little Creatures Brewery. What is it about Fremantle and ambiance? This is a converted brewery, which has become a very 'in' place to be seen, and to ruin a perfectly good set of ear drums. Thanks BJ.

Anyway, we are now back in the cottage, with a Vulcan gas heater trying valiantly to heat five rooms. I suspect that tonight I shall for the first time, use my electric blanket.

- B

Day 36 - Wednesday, 05 May 2010

Today we went to DCC Concepts at a WA town called Naval Base near Perth??? DCC Concepts are specialists in digital control of model trains. I have a couple of model locomotives which need chips installed to allow digital control, and I brought them with me especially to have DCC do the job. They will install the chips, then post them to Gai.

DCC Concepts: http://www.dccconcepts.com/

After that, we went shopping for a new shaver for me. All my shaving years, I have used a foil shaver (eg Braun), until the most recent purchase, when I made the mistake of buying a Philips, with the three rotating heads. First, the cleaning station stopped working, for no apparent reason, and it was replaced under warranty. Now, one of the three heads has stopped cutting, again for no apparent reason. Of course, my warranty papers are at home, so I am not set up for a warranty claim while travelling. So I have given up on the Phillips shaver, and have now bought a new Braun. I have found that online prices are nearly always better than those offered by bicks-and-mortar shops, but the b&m shops will usually match the best online price you find, and that is what happened this time.

I checked for the best price I could find online and it was $430. I went to Harvey's at O'Connor (somewhere between Fremantle and Perth) and they had my shaver priced at $549. I advised the shop assistant that I could get the shaver for $430 from OKMart, and she took two minutes to check Harvey's in house pricing on her computer, and replied "We can match that."

So, I have a nice new Braun. We then found ourselves a Dymocks to buy Joce a book light, which is a light-weight LED light which clips to the book you are reading. She can now read in the morning without waking me. Then we bought Subs for tea, and went home to our prison quarters.

- B

Day 37 - Thursday, 06 May 2010

Got up early today, after a better night than last night, had breakfast and phoned a couple of people. We have arranged to meet up for dinner tonight with Gai's friend, Dave, who lives in Perth. Dave has just driven his Mum and Dad, who were over here visiting from the US, around a lot of WA, so, has a lot of advice to give us.

First tho', we decided to visit Kings Park, in Perth. Kings Park turned out to be really lovely, except for a huge swathe of bushland that has been almost wiped out by a huge hail storm they had over here a while ago. The trees and bushes look like they have been poisoned, and the lady in the Info. Centre said they were hoping the bush would recover.

We had lunch there, checked out the Info Centre, then drove all around the park, stopping at places of interest.

After the park, we decided to visit the Perth Mint, which is a huge, beautiful old stone building, with rooms full of gold and silver jewelery and coins, etc. We watched while a bloke poured melted gold into a mould to make a large ingot of gold. I got onto some scales which told me I would be worth $4,400,000 approx, if I were made of gold! There is some benefit from being overweight!

While wandering around the Mint, there was a machine where you could put in $2 and you got your own personally punched coin, so we got two of those for the kids, then went completely mad and got them something for Christmas. Not telling now, that would spoil the surprise.

After that we decided to try and find where we were going to meet Dave for dinner. Using our wonderful GPS, we were driving along, stopped at a corner for the lights, and there was Dave, standing waving at us. After we picked him up, (after moving stuff around in the back seat, he managed to squeeze in), we then drove to the most unusual Indian restaurant we have ever been in. It is called Annalakshmi's. It is serve yourself, all you can eat, vegetarian Indian restaurant. You don't get a bill, you just pay what you think the meal is worth. We met Dave's very nice friend, Cindy, who is from Canada. A couple of the dishes were a bit hot for me, so B. scored those and went back and got what I could cope with. Dave has very kindly given us a whole lot of advice and maps for traveling on up the coast of WA. I must admit to being a little intimidated by the northern part of WA, as we have been told it is sometimes hard to get accommodation, but we will see how we go.

- J

Day 38 - Friday, 07 May 2010

Today we drove from Fremantle to Jurien Bay, with a stop at CU@Park in GinGin for lunch. This was a very pleasant cafe about 7km off the highway, but well worth the diversion. We are staying the night at Jurien Bay Hotel/Motel, which has the most comfortable bed, and very expensive alcohol. We decided to go and have a drink after unpacking, as our room is quite close to the lounge/bar. Jurien Bay is a fishing resort, with marvellous sea views. We also saw the biggest wind farm we have seen so far, over 60 turbines.

At one stage the road was lined for kilometres with beautiful bottle brushes.

While we were here, we used www.wotif.com for the first time, to book our next motel, in Geraldton. We had heard of some folk making huge savings by booking through wotif. We have booked a room at the Best Western Hospitality Inn for $125, which while not startlingly good, is certainly competitive for good motels half-way up the WA coast.

- B

Day 39 - Saturday, 08 May 2010

We drove to Geraldton today, without stopping for lunch. It was an easy leg, and we arrived at about noon, and booked into our motel. It is certainly up to the standard we have learned to expect of Best Western, so the wotif exercise was a success this time. We may try it again, for Broome, which, we are told will be at the height of the season when we arrive.

First thing, we went to Skeetas for lunch. http://www.skeetas.com.au/index.html

While it has a diverse menu, Skeetas is well known for its seafood. Ever since I missed out on a lobster meal by leaving Tasmania the day before the season opened, (that was 20-odd years ago) I have been promising myself I'd definitely take advantage of the next opportunity. Well today was the day, and I must say, I truly enjoyed my lunch of crayfish thermidor. Meanwhile, Joce has been complaining that she was tired of chips, which are part of almost all cafe meals. She has been crying out for mashed potato. Well, today her wish came true also. Skeetas' special of the day was bangers and mash! For desert, we both had a Skeetas specialty, Gelato costada - luscious.

After lunch, we set off to see the sights of Geraldton. At the beach, there is the most wonderful children's playground, in several formats. The one that really appealed was the water playground, where there are numbers of fountains, and buckets where the kids can just run about in the water enjoying themselves. Of course, the usual climbing frames of all sorts are there too.

Next we drove up to see the Memorial to HMAS Sydney II, which was lost at sea in World War I, and not found again until 2008.

http://www.hmassydneymemorial.com.au/memorial.html

The memorial consists of several different components. The dome consists of 645 stainless steel seagulls, commemorating the 645 seamen who lost their lives when the Sydney was lost.