This was a magnificent and unforgettable day.

We arrived at the resort at 07.45 as the initial pod of dolphins were close to the shore. There is no guarantee how many if any Dolphins will appear each day. In the last seven days it has been between two and fifteen daily. Today, we had nineteen! Quite emotional really being so close to these fine animals.

Each day the Dolphins are fed a small amount of fish on up to three visits that they may make up to mid day. Today the Dolphins come in twice. It’s up to the volunteers who gets chosen to feed a wild dolphin, today, Julie gets chosen!

The second feed is much quieter. The place isn’t busy but a few people had gone on a catamaran trip or went for breakfast. We hang around and quite quickly most of the Dolphins were back.

After the day’ special a A$3 Banana Mike shake was consumed (by us, not the dolphins) we went for a swim as the temperature climbed. Four or Five of the Dolphins returned for playtime and were joined by a pelican!

So there we are standing in the water with Dolphins swimming around us. Mind blowing!!

A sweltering afternoon is followed by our first home cooked meal of the trip. “We can’t eat out every night for 3 1/ 2 months Peter” Yet to break the beer every day habit tho!

We head back down South tomorrow with Geraldton as the next stop.

Pete & Jules 

  

Day four Kalbarri to Denham was a solid day’s driving, with the sight of a kangaroo crossing the road in the distance at one point. We stopped at the Billabong Roadhouse just before hitting the World Heritage trail to Denham. Even caught the post game Super Bowl show at the roadhouse!

Stops on the way were spectacular. First to Telegraph Station where the lady in the store gave us all the information for our visit to the nearby world famous Stromatolites which date back 3000 million years. A fly infested walk around the walkway was still astonishing, trying to take in the significance of what we were looking at.

Diving back into the car with the least intake of flies is always a challenge. You spend 2 or 3 minutes after being back in the car waving your arms around clearing out those that got in. Everyone seems to do this and it’s hilarious to watch other people in their cars doing the same thing, once you are clear and have the aircon running.

Next stop is Shell Beach where we top out at 46 degrees for the day. Swim here and you are guaranteed a good layer of salt. Eagle Bluff next where the walkway provides tremendous views. A good place to view the marine life with the right equipment.

Ocean Park cafe has a spectacular view over the sea to go with your almond cake and iced coffee. 

We arrived in Denham pretty exhausted after a full day of driving, the heat and the continual fly battles. Denham is a lovely seaside township and our beach chalet accommodation is excellent. The sea is warm and dinner at the most westerly pub in Australia (The Old Pub) was very nice indeed; Red Spotted Emperor, chips and salad. Julie had a tasty Beef Chilli stir fry to avoid the chips!

It’s off season so most places are closed so that means, no crowds when visiting places against, the severe heat and for Feb & March the flies. 

This is a fabulous road trip, it’s hard to describe what the miles and miles and miles you travel, many times alone, are like. It’s like, you approach the crest of a hill expecting to see something the other side .. you reach the crest and just see miles and miles of up and down road ahead. Quite amazing.

Day 5 we think will be our furthest north to Monkey Mia to see the Dolphins. It’s an early start at 06.30

Pete & Jules 

  

A lay-in, later breakfast after the business people had departed and we picked the car up from Avis on 4 Feb and drove over to Fremantle. The weather is still scorching hot but ‘Air-con City’ in the car.

Around a 40 minute drive and we are passing our first brewery in Fremantle. Craft Ale Capital of WA it seems. Very kind of Fiona & Mike to put us up, we had a great evening out at the Little Creatures Brewery. Ten beers to try first … Wait for it, (in shot glasses) and complimentary.

Then a decision made on the beer, pizza and my first oyster from the shell (it tasted of the sea).  A night time tour of this vibrant town concluded the evening.

5th Feb and we headed out on our first road journey of our trip. Nervous for sure but once out of Freemantle & Perth and onto the Indian Ocean Drive you soon get into the swing of the long straight road ahead. A couple of hours driving and more traffic for company than we expected, it was a relaxed drive with ‘Pete’s Road Trip CDs’ playing, to our first coffee stop a couple of hours later.

The odd and sizeable dead animal in the road were avoided, the remnants of bush fires could be seen quite frequently as could massive sand dunes that looked like mountain ranges.

A beautiful beach at Lancelin was followed by the incredible Pinnacles Dessert in the Namburg National Park. This is a 3 kilometres gentle drive (too hot to walk) around these limestone pillars that rise out of the sand.We then head on northward to Jurien Bay for fuel, a swim (another nice beach) and overnight stay before Day 2. 

Our Avis contract says that we can’t go further north than Carnarvon, so that rules out Exmouth and Coral Bay but still plenty of reasons to head north, next stop Geraldton.
  

Day 2: Homemade breakfast and coffee and we are on the road by 9am. Now we really have the reality that we are on a road trip, foot down, pretty much straight road with the sea on one side for a lot of the time. Road Trains a plenty and fellow motorists here and there.

Temperatures continue to climb as we hit Geraldton which seems quite a large new town (we will call in on the way back), this time it’s just fuel, coffee and a sandwich.

A hour or so later we turn onto the road to Kalbarri and within a mile or so we see the Pink Lake, salt flats. Stepping out of the car to stretch our legs and it’s our first experience of the pesky Kalbarri flies, which make time out of the car limited!
Whilst we eat our sandwiches in the car, the three camper vans in the lay-by in front of us head out onto the road, the last one mis-judges the speed of the Road Train coming down the road and must have had a rear view mirror full of an angry Aussie lorry driver as he slammed on his brakes and had the horn blaring. Quite how there was not an accident, I’ll never know. About 45 mins down the road we are in Kalbarri, stopping at various points on the way to view the stunning scenery. 

Temperatures well into the 40’s and first stop after checking-in is the pool. A chat with an American family from Tennessee on a one year working holiday was cool. 

Kalbarri Road house had an excellent selection of food and beers and with a covers band cranking out some classics, we spent a couple of hours chatting to a couple from Lancashire, who emigrated to Perth seven years ago
Sunday we spent just touring some sections of the National Park in Kalbari. The heat well over 40 again and hotter in the depths of the park. We have not seen any wildlife yet, the Roos move at dawn and dusk apparently but, we try to remain as vigilant as possible when driving.

You really need to be kitted out with water, boots, fly nets and provisions for most of the walks but there are a couple of spectacular gorges that you can get to within a hot fly infested short walk for the car. Well worth the drive!!
This afternoon it’s a short drive south for more cliff top views and an amazing beach at Mushroom Rock. Standing on that beach, looking at the sea ….. I think we just thought, this is a big reason we are on this trip!
We also had the pleasure of meeting a German lady called Ruth on one of the cliff tops. She has lived in Australia most of her life. Ten months ago she sold up everything she owned in Bryon Bay, brought a 4×4 live-in truck (that she now calls home) and decided to travel Australia. One amazing lady! 
Next stop is further North to Denham and Monkey Mia 
Pete & Jules
  

Perth WA 02 – 03 Feb, 2016

OMG!!,  we are in Australia and that feels like an achievement in itself, having gone this far around the world to get here! Not that we saw much of Perth when we landed, just after midnight at the city’s airport.

Our maiden flight with Quantas (from Singapore) was just over five hours and was a very nice experience (it did seem weird to me that all the crew had Australian accents for some reason tho).

Still the Jet lag plays havoc with our sleep pattern and it was a fairly restless night that was ended with the sun shining through the hotel window from a bright blue sky when we could finally say “Good Morning Perth”

A stroll around this chilled City was the first order of the day. Many of the old traditional buildings still stand in the front drop on the high rise offices. All being used for some purpose, these are beautiful buildings. Half a dozen office blocks dominate the skyline at the bottom of town and the new Elizabeth Quay had just been opened a couple of days before in the harbour area.

This is not a large & overcrowded city, quite the opposite in fact. It’s a fairly quiet, compact and relaxed place under a canopy of blue. Using the free bus system in the city, we headed up to the impressive Kings Park and Botanical Gardens in the afternoon. A beautiful place to chill with acres of manicured grassland, trees, flora and fauna.

Tall white trunk trees planted in 1929 line the roads to the main entrance but you can wander into Kings Park anywhere from the side of the road. The Park also contains the cenotaph of Western Australia.

Sitting in the warm sunshine and beautiful surroundings waiting for the bus back, the thought stuck me that this is not what it is like waiting for a bus on a February afternoon in London.

A nice breeze the temperature is just right all day and ideal for an early evening pint at ‘The Lucky Shag’ a waterfront bar, which was buzzing by 5pm!

Elizabeth (not Queen) Quay sounds like it has been under construction for sometime, many locals seemed surprised by the fact that it had actually opened! A wide open space with artworks, a tower, a double bridge, sculptures and fountains. More food and bars on the way, this should be a nice spot for the locals to meet up for a while to come.

We ended the evening with a very decent steak and Australia Day 1 was complete. Impressed!

Wednesday 3rd Feb we decided to head to Rottnest Island, a 2 hour boat ride from Perth via Freemantle. A major conservation site the 7.3 Sq Mile island was the sole supplier of salt to WA for sometime, it was used for gun emplacements in the Second World War and has a long shipwreck history. 2 Lighthouse’s are on the island today.

We hired bikes so ended up with 5 hours to ride round the island and settlements, get lunch and have a swim before heading back.

This is a wonderful island and great for a bike ride. No traffic apart for a few service vehicles and the island bus, the place just has people riding around on their hire bikes.

Saw one guy approaching me on the opposite side of the road put both legs in the air suddenly … as he ran over a snake and a Peacock swiped the end of my ice cream cone ( I had left on the bench seat). One of main island inhabitants is the Quokka. This looks a bit like a kangaroo but is the size of a domestic cat. They are not dangerous and are often seen searching for crumbs where humans congregate.

At the Geordie Bay food-stop we pulled over for lunch. I went to the Men’s cubicle to change swimming shorts for normal shorts, only to find a Quokka sitting on the floor of the cubicle. I left my swimming shorts on!!

Most of our ride is posted on Strava which shows 10.8 miles and some (small) hills. Well done Julie!

Perth did not ever seem that busy after 8pm. What restaurants that were open, were not busy and the choice of somewhere to eat after 9ish was very limited. Whether most people eat in the hotels or we were in the wrong part of town (there was a murder the night before in the city) I’m not sure but, the food budget is back on track after Tuesday’s steak with Wednesday’s McDonalds and more ‘hanging with the (travelling) kids’.

4 Feb: It’s off to Base Camp today (yes I saw Everest on the flight to Perth) Fiona and Mike are kindly letting us stay with them before we head off on Road Trip No.1 on Friday, north up the Coral Road.

Pete

 

 

 

Well our fabulous mini break to Singapore comes to an end as we head off to the airport for our flight to Perth. 
Many thanks to Clement for showing us around on Sunday, taking in the places where the locals eat, a trip to Faber Peak, a must-do ride in the cable car down to Sentosa with awesome views of Singapore on the way down.

Sentosa a park of attractions built on a part of the island with a grim past is now a place of vibrant colour even more so, as Chinese New Year is approaching (however much I offered, I could not get Julie to buy a soft toy monkey as a souvenir of this New Year symbol).

Next it was off to The Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which is three 60 floor towers that are straddled at the top by a ship (which is made up of bars and a swimming pool).

First we took a stroll at 6th floor level and along a walkway for a view of Singapore’s ‘Garden of Wonder’ which is dominated by enormous man made trees, which change colour at night (it really has to be seen to be believed, amazing).

Next it’s up to the penultimate floor were you get a 360 degree view of the Harbour and city below. An ace station to watch the Grand Prix from! Then Top level into the boat and a couple of Beers to ‘hang with the kids’ as the dance music blasts from the speakers and evening turns to dusk as the lights below flicker on and then then dusk turns to night and the view becomes breathtaking.

Singapore is loaded with Malls but bring your Amex … Cartier & co all the way around. We headed down to the food hall. Remember this is 9pm on a Sunday night and I’m thinking one or two places maybe open, half a dozen people …. i.e. Lakeside or Westfield on a Sunday night …the place is absolutely buzzing, packed out, with such a selection of food that it’s almost impossible to choose what to eat!

So, refreshed and fed, final stop of the day is China Town which is a bustling and vibrant place full of colour, lights, sounds and smells and yes, soft toy Monkeys and no, Julie did not buy one (nor did I get a cable car shot glass from the souvenir shop by the way)

Jet lag stills kicks into the night’s sleep, but absolutely lovely to meet up with Andrina and Clement for breakfast this morning. It’s been a blast seeing old friends and colleagues over the past few days, it just shows that from work, lasting friendships are born.

Thanks to all for a memorable weekend, next stop is Perth!!

  

Comfortable 13 hour flight included ‘Bridge of Spies’ and ‘Legend’ both ace movies and 3-4 hours kip on a BA A-380. On the approach to Singapore the view was dominated by the sight of hundreds of container ships waiting to get into the docks, a brilliant ariel seascape. 

Winter is well and truly left behind, humid yes ….. but it’s heat and no wooly hat! Tea Time taxi ride into the city from the Airport took us over the main straight of the GP circuit.  The grandstands are there permanently.

It doesn’t take long to find your way around, nor with the help of our local guides and friend’s Amelia & Clement does it take long for their affection of their home country to rub off on you.

The two main activities we are told are shopping for exercise & eating for relaxation. Lot’s of Mall’s for shopping ( tho not seen a record store yet) and it’s is a total ‘cafe society’ for eating. Around every corner there is something to temp the waistline from a whole host of bars and restaurants plus what we did last night, which was to go to where the locals eat.

Round the back of the Esplanade Theatre complex you find yourself in a courtyard on the bay, under the bright lights where there are lots of food stalls cooking amazing dishes all to be washed down with a jug or two of Tiger Beer. Spectacular and just like being back in Thailand. There is nothing like late night outdoor cooking, the heat, the smell, the freshness of the food and yes the cold beer!

Singapore by night is truly amazing and when the lights are up for the Grand Prix it must be even more spectacular ( already contemplating a trip back for the race one day).

Before we got to the food tho, our first stop was to The Long Bar at Raffles for a  ‘Singapore  Sling’, A must do when in  Singapore  and a lovely Christmas present  for us from Ellen & Robin. It was then off to the Swisotel, for a Lift ride up 70 floors to the Elixir suite for some truly breathtaking views of the city.

A jet-lagged City Tour at 08.30 this morning, was not particularly fascinating after the night before but the guide had some interesting information. There are the usual Red open-top bus tours (which is the usual way we introduce ourselves to new cities) which would have been as good and avoided the ritual tour visit the the ornament factory 🙂 

Off out tonight to meet some more ex UBS colleagues who I have not seen for a very longtime. May just need that part-time job I need to be in Singapore! 

Pete

  

This blog is designed for us to keep a record of our ‘once in a lifetime trip’ and to share our experiences with our family, friends and whoever else fancies a read.

Departure date for first stop, Singapore is Thursday 28th January, 2016 from Heathrow.  Safe to say as we write this, we are both nervously excited!!