Pumping the tyres up at the servo was all about saving time. Our dear old ARB pump will get all of the tyres pumped but boy, it is so slow! Even driving more slowly than usual for the 16Km to Jurien would still be quicker.....well it was supposed to be - if it wasn't for the line-up of vehicles waiting to do the same thing, not to mention the moron who parked so that access to the air hose was restricted, while he sat in the roadhouse having a coffee.
It took the best part of an hour to get the tyres back to road pressures and I daresay it would have taken about the same amount of time with the ARB pump. Never mind, it wasn't like we were in a hurry or anything. Finally, we were able to rejoin the Indian Ocean Drive for the remaining three hour drive to Perth.
From Jurien Bay you follow the coast at a distance of about three kilometres inland, allowing for fleeting glimpses of the sea. The first town you come across (although bypassed) is Cervantes. Like all of the other towns that we had passed since leaving Geraldton, Cervantes also owed its existence to the Rock Lobster industry. It has suffered, just as the other towns have as the restrictions on Crayfishers forced people to abandon the industry. One saving grace for Cervantes is that many farmers in the inland areas have chosen to retire to the town.
Passing by, but not visiting, many small towns is one of the problems with the Indian Ocean Drive. From Jurien Bay, all the way to the northern suburbs of the city, you do not drive through a single town, yet you drive by many. This is a boon to those residents whom would prefer not to put up with the traffic, but it surely cannot be good for the businesses in town. Sue and I stopped at a roadside parking bay with magnificent views and had our morning tea, whereas we would probably purchased a coffee and cake if we were passing through a town.
As just mentioned, there are occasions on this section of the road where you do get took take in the magnificent turquoise water of the sea, lined by fabulously white beaches. There are also islands, not that far offshore, that can be seen as you drive along. Many of these islands are home to seal colonies which, in turn, mean that the odd White Pointer can be found cruising the waters. I have been diving with seals on the west coast and they are great fun, emulating the moves that you make while underwater. I also know that you grow a third eye, located in your posterior, as you are always on the lookout for seal-hunting Noahs.
Once you pass south of Lancelin (about 100 Km north of Perth) you rejoin the old road which, sadly, is in nowhere near as good condition as the recently completed section to the north. The road narrows, is a little windy and has much more traffic. I was almost glad to get into the really heavy traffic at Wanneroo - at least there was dual lanes for the quicker vehicles to pass us. This brings us to our little bit of excitement for the trip.....
We were approaching a set of traffic lights. They changed to amber and immediately I knew we were in trouble. It was a wide intersection, meaning that I would never get through before the lights changed to red, but I also knew that at 60 KPH, I wasn't going to stop real quick either. The caravan brakes had been adjusted when we had it serviced at Geraldton and I was told that it would take a while for them to self-adjust to optimum. Along the way I had been adjusting the brake controller in the car because it felt like the caravan brakes had not been doing their share of the work.
Modern vehicles, such as ours, have anti-lock braking systems, meaning that as soon as a wheel locks up and starts to skid across the tarmac, the brakes momentarily release, to allow the wheel/s to rotate again, and then the brakes are reapplied. Thus we careened toward the intersection, tyres screeching, brakes coming off, brakes back on, tyres screeching, over and over - all the while the white line where we should stop was getting closer and closer. We stopped with about a metre of the vehicle over that line and our hearts thumping in our chests. Yep, caravan brakes needed more adjustment!
Needless to say, we approached all subsequent intersections a lot more slowly as we made our way to our destination - "Gibson Views" caravan park. There is no real caravan park there. The place we stay at is the residence of a very good friend and former work colleague who has six acres of land up in the Darling Ranges to the southeast of the city centre. He has plenty of room for our van and us and we have wonderful afternoons (perhaps too many) having a quiet shandy on his veranda. Our host lets us tap into his water and power and even helped me with a couple of projects that I undertook on the van whilst at Perth. He has a swimming pool, a well equipped shed and, as you can probably tell from the name we gave his place, excellent views of native bushland. We are incredibly grateful to him for his hospitality.
Unfortunately, the place is on the market, although our friend doesn't really wish to sell it, and sadly it may be the last time that we stay there. On the agenda while at Perth were: having an annex made for the van; fitting our spare 123 Watt solar panel to the roof of the van, making a total of five panels now; purchasing "flat" water and sullage hoses that can roll up onto reels; buying the last few LED replacement globes to replace the fluoro globes in the van; catch up with my Parents at Madora Bay (near Mandurah) and Sue's Parents at Busselton; catch up with our Daughter and her children, whom had not long moved to Perth from Karratha; catch up with many friends living in Perth and whom we don't get to see too often; get ready to fly out to Brisbane to join our 11 day Pacific cruise and spend lots of money on stuff we probably didn't need but would buy anyway (including a new GoPro camera to replace the one that had the untimely demise at Warra.)
All of the above took about a week and a half and soon we were at Perth Airport waiting to board our plane to Brisbane. For possibly the first time ever, Qantas managed to get us off the ground on time and soon we were winging our way across this broad, brown, land. Imagine our surprise, after taking off in brilliant, sunny, conditions at Perth, to find ourselves landing in the rain in Brissie - NOT! I cannot ever remember visiting Brisbane when it has done anything other than rain there. Not to worry, it was only for one night as we would be boarding the ship the next day.
Our taxi driver, whom, oddly enough wasn't from Australia, managed to drop us off at the wrong motel. Thankfully, the correct motel was only another couple of hundred metres up the road. We had chosen the motel from Internet searches for places that were within walking distance of the berth where we would board the ship. The lovely lady at reception could not have been more helpful and informed us that they had a courtesy bus that would take us to the ship in the morning - free of charge. Fabulous!
Our buoyant mood started to change almost immediately when it dawned on us that our room was right next to the lift-well. After entering the room we were even more enthused when we discovered that the bed in the room was right up against the wall that adjoined the lift-well. Things only got better when I sat on the bed and discovered that I would need a mining permit to dig down far enough to see how low my butt had sunken into the very soft mattress. Thank goodness it was only a one night stay! We ate at a nearby restaurant and then turned in for the night (having lost 2 hours of our lives due to time zone changes.)
What a night! Neither of us was able to get much sleep because the bed was so crap and I managed to aggravate the back injury I received at Ned's Camp some weeks earlier. By morning I was almost a cripple again and had to reach for the Panadol bottle. We had both worn ear plugs to stop the noise from the lift and thankfully they worked, otherwise I am sure that we would have got no sleep at all. That morning we ate breakfast at the same restaurant, after which Sue made for the motel while I went up the road on a mission to buy a few toiletries to take aboard the ship. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be an early riser/diner. I got to the supermarket only to discover that it wasn't going to be open for another 40 minutes. Unwilling to walk back to the motel, only to walk back to the supermarket almost as soon as I would have arrived, I decided to buy a newspaper at the local newsagent shop and pass the time catching up on the news.
All plans are subject to flaws and the flaw in my plan was that the Queensland newspaper was full of Queensland news. Apparently the remainder of Australia, and the World for that matter, does not exist....or simply didn't have any news worth writing about. So I was stuck reading about stuff I knew nothing of and cared even less of. None-the-less, it did kill off the forty minutes and finally the doors of the supermarket swung open. I was in and out in a flash and soon on my way back to the motel. Those who have followed our blogs over the years will know that Sue and I are the Rain Gods, being able to make it rain everywhere we go. Nothing has changed and on the walk back to the motel it rained. I just shrugged my shoulders and soldiered on.
Within minutes of arriving back at the motel we were down in the forecourt, waiting for the arrival of the Transit Bus. All around us stood other people, obviously booked on to the same cruise, and in the driveway was a single, six-seater Toyota Tarago. It didn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that we weren't all going to fit into this little vehicle and after some confusion it took off with just one couple and their luggage. The lovely Reception lady was buzzing around with a clipboard, assuring us that arrangements had been made for the remaining customers to get to the ship terminal.
Soon enough a small car (not a taxi) turned up. Out popped a young Vietnamese fellow and he whisked the bags of one couple into his boot, ushered them into his car and took off. Within minutes another vehicle appeared, belching smoke and this time being driven by a very old Vietnamese gent. We were shoved into this car and with a crunch of gears, followed by a frantically slipping clutch and a screaming engine, we were off at a snail's pace. The driver lurched us onto the main, very busy, road without any regard for oncoming traffic and proceeded to go through the gears - all being changed too early and with the same slipping clutch and screaming engine.
I have to say that I was truly frightened and didn't think that he would get us to the wharf alive. Sue told me that she was similarly scared witless. This was to be the second last drama of the day as the ship's crew and Custom's Officers efficiently and promptly processed our boarding formalities and got us onto the ship. Immediately upon boarding the ship you are ushered into the forward lift area. As the lifts arrive, having just taken a group of passengers to their deck, you are literally shoved into them until you cannot fit a cigarette paper between the passengers crammed in there. We were even luckier, as they also tied to jam a couple of wheelchair-bound passengers in with us. That was it for Sue....she doesn't do confined spaces and she pushed her way out of the lift just as the doors slammed shut behind her.
There we were, only on board for two minutes and we had already been separated. I waited outside the lifts at our deck for what seemed like hours, but was probably about 10 minutes, before Sue arrived in a lift with just three other people in it. She had told the crew, in no uncertain terms, that she was not up for being jammed in with a crowd of people and they finally acceded to her wishes. That was the last real drama for the day and for the rest of the trip really.
OK, the brief details of the trip, so that I don't bore you to death (with a written version of the old "slide night".) We sailed at 4:00PM and took over an hour and a half just to get out of the Brisbane River. We then did some quite tricky manoeuvring just off Stradbroke Island before finally reaching open seas about five hours after departure. Next we had two "sea days" (days where you don't call into any port), followed by a stop at Noumea (New Caledonia). Here were did an excursion, kayaking up a river (and it rained.....naturally.) Next we cruised all night and berthed offshore of Mare Island (pronounced Mar-ay) early the next morning. Mare is also a part of New Caledonia. Our excursion took us to a lovely beach but there was little else to do. Mare is totally devoid of tourism infrastructure and was selected as an alternative port of call after the Isle of Pines had to be taken from the schedule (for reasons that were never explained to us.)
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| Going under the Gateway Bridge on the Brisbane River |
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| One thing about the Pacific Ocean - there's a lot of it |
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| Most ports that we visited feature some sort of welcoming dance by the Locals |
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| The ship was too big to park at the wharf at Mare |
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| At the beach at Mare. The skies looked threatening, enhancing the beauty of the place. |
Next was a sea day as we sailed to the Fijian capitol of Suva. We spent a day on shore at Suva, where we took an excursion up a river in long boats, to a scenic waterfall. Also included in the excursion was a meal at a traditional Fijian village. That night we were back on the ship and cruised to Port Denarau, which is on the other side of the Island from Suva. This is the "touristy" side of the island, where the luxury resorts are. Our excursion there was totally forgettable and I won't go into it here, lest I start to sound like a serial whinger.
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| Fijiians love their brass bands and being a member of one carries great prestige |
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| Cop a look at the crack in the windscreen of this bus! |
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| This photo is for Karen, whom regularly posts pics of buff blokes to Facebook. Check out these Fijiians Karen - they're all trim like this! (Ignore the silly caucasion buffooon, though.) |
From Port Denarau we had another sea day, before arriving at Vanuatu. Vanuatu was, for us, the highlight of the trip and we plan on going back there (by aeroplane) for a holiday at some time in the future. From Vanuatu we had two sea days getting back to Brisbane. During all of this time Sue, whom does not do boats well, managed to avoid getting seasick - although she was feeling a little off on the second and third days and wisely elected to take some pills.
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| Sunset at sea |
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| These Vanuatuans give a welcoming dance that is predominately very forceful foot-stomping. Now take a close look and see what it has done to their feet. They are huge! |
These are just our views. People do these cruises time and again. One couple on the ship were on their 149th cruise! Obviously these holidays are a matter of taste. Give me a caravanning holiday in Oz any time. We did, however, have plenty of opportunity to relax (to the point of boredom) and the ship's staff, facilities and food were first-class. You are not allowed to take your own alcohol aboard and drink prices are just slightly higher than pub prices in Australia (with the exception of the Birdsville Pub!)
We flew back to Perth the same day as the ship arrived in Brisbane and our fabulous friend picked us up from the airport and drove us back to our van. We had changed timezones eight times in 12 days and were quite out of sorts, so it was a great surprise to find that dinner was awaiting us when we arrived back at "camp".
Just prior to leaving on our cruise we found out that we had been successful in our application to work at the Birdsville Pub, so we planned to spend three days doing final preparations at Perth, before heading off to our new life. Our first act on the morning after arriving back in Perth was to forward our resignations as Cossack caretakers.
A new chapter in our lives had opened.......
Next issue: Bound for South Australia
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