AUSSIE ROAD TRIP (PART 1): September 2015
Jackie and Megumi
Things did not go according to plan. It takes over an hour to get from the Perth airport to downtown. SO, we asked Megumi if she would mind meeting us in the city center. I gave her the same directions we were given by our host, but there was a glitch. She was arriving on a Sunday, and the bus schedule was different. Instead, I told her to take a bus that would arrive earlier, and get off on St. Georges Terrace. Javier and I left our host’s house with plenty of time to walk to the car rental station. We were almost finished with the paperwork (there was a glitch in price, of course) so I left Javier to finish up while I walked to meet Megumi. I walked to the St George’s bus station. No Megumi. Hmmmm… We were originally going to meet at the Esplanade bus port before we changed plans, so I walked there. Still, no Megumi. At this point, it’s almost 10am. We were hoping to be on the road by 10. Thank goodness Perth provides free wifi throughout the city center. I messaged Javier and tried to email Megumi. When I left the bus port and went back to the street, I noticed that I was at another St. George’s Terrace bus station. Apparently, all of the stations on the street are called St. George’s Terrace, but are differentiated with letters. I don’t know how many, but I saw St. George’s Terrace bus stops Q-S. As I’m standing there wondering what to do next, I get an email from Javier. Megumi had asked a man how to use the payphone, and he let her use his cell. She called Javier, who told the guy to direct Megu back to the Esplanade bus port, right next door. As I started walking back to the bus port, there she was!!! walking toward me, and definitely not going toward the bus port. 🙂 Javier was on foot and said he was a block away, so we went back to meet him. We waited for a while, and there was no sign of him. I figured he had our pocket wifi with him, so Megu and I walked back to the street to pick up the free city wifi. After a few more messages, and about 5 minutes later, Javier walked up. We found each other!! It was now about 1030. We were next to a breakfast place, and since none of us had eaten any breakfast, or brekkie as the Aussie say, we decided to slow down a bit and fill our bellies. On our way back to the car rental place, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some water and snacks. By the time we walked back to the car, and left, it was noon.
First driver
We had a very tight timeframe. We had booked a flight tour for the following morning out of Esperence. Esperence is just under 8 hours from Perth. No big deal, right? Leave by noon, get there by 8 at the latest. Except there is a catch. Here in Australia, they have a little problem with critters that like to come out at dusk. We were told by several people to be very careful driving in general, with the lady at Hertz making sure our insurance covered single-driver accidents, for that unexpected car vs kangaroo or camel disaster that is all too common here. We were also told that we should wrap up our driving by sunset, which is 6pm here at the latest. So, you can see our dilemma. We would probably have to slow down significantly after sunset, turning the last couple hours of driving into a few at least, and we had to check into our hotel by 10pm.
We took off. We didn’t make it out of the city and we were already lost. Javier was driving, and this was his first time driving on the opposite side of the road. He says I didn’t give him enough warning, I say, there’s not enough warning in the world that would have allowed him to change lanes in time. Thankfully, he soon became comfortable with the driving, and we were on a two-lane highway, with nowhere to go but straight.
More of the road
Once we were out of the city, our highway took us through the Aussie country, where we had to slow down as we drove right through the middle of sleepy little towns. It was beautiful. There are these bright yellow flowers, I don’t know what they are, but there are fields of them. There are also some sort of green plants growing, so the landscape is sections of different shades of brilliant green with a bright yellow plot right in the middle. It was gorgeous. After 3 hours or so, we arrived at our stop. Wave Rock.
the Yellow flower added brightness to our road trip.
We heard about this little place, and decided to check it out since it was on the way. Boy are we glad we did! It is in the middle of nowhere. Truly…there’s nothing out there. Some of these towns have populations in the single digits.
Wave rock
The wave rock is a granite cliff that truly looks like a wave. We tried to run up the face just enough to look like we were surfing on it, but it proved to be very slippery and quite treacherous, so we had to settle with only crawling up a few feet and trying with all our might to keep our balance. It was fun. We all took turns, and as we were snapping pictures of each other, it started to drizzle. It passed before it really even started, and when it cleared, there was a beautiful, bright rainbow behind the wave. We took a new round of pictures, and just like that we were done. There was another rock formation that we would have loved to see, The Hippos Yawn, but we were really running short on time. We stopped for a quick lunch at the local cafe and were disappointed that in a town this small, the ladies working behind the counter were rather unfriendly.
Happiness
We switched drivers and I continued us on our adventure. Megumi slept most of the time, since she had just come from a 14-hour overnight flight complete with a connecting stop right in the middle, and Javier was coming down with a cold, so he needed to sleep a bit. It was a very peaceful drive. The sunset was gorgeous, and I only sped up once a speedy little car went around me to lead the way. I figured, if there was a kangaroo out there, he would probably meet it first. After a few hours, we stopped for gas and switched places. We were nearly there, and Javier drove the rest of the way.
The only place open. Fried noodles.
We arrived in Esperence roadkill-free and earlier than planned. As we predicted, just about everything was closed by the time we arrived (8:30pm). The receptionist pointed us in the direction of a noodle place that she thought might still be open, otherwise it would have to be McDonalds. We made it in time for noodles, which were probably more unhealthy than McDonalds, but they did the job, we were full, and ready to tuck in for the night.
Our lodgings were very simple. We had a triple room with comfy beds, heating, and was above all, clean. In the morning, we found a small cafe for breakfast, and made the 15 minute drive to the Myrup Airfield to meet Rob, who would be taking us on his little fixed-wing to zoom over Lake Hillier, our sole reason for coming to this part of Australia.
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J and J with Rob
We met Rob, who was waiting for us. We chatted for a while before climbing in. Rob used to fly for work, but is trying to retire, so he now only flies for fun. It was really, very luck for us to have connected with Rob. Lake Hillier is on a very small island. The only way to get there is by boat or air. There used to be a helicopter tour that was offered, but it has since gone out of business. After much searching, we finally contacted the Esperence visitor’s center, and received two phone numbers and an email. The email worked, but Rob himself admits he hates using email, so communication wasn’t that great. We actually didn’t have a date and time confirmation until about a week before.
On our way to the Lake Hillier, the PInk Lake
He went through the safety information, which did not build confidence. The only other times I have been in a plane that small was when there was a man with a parachute strapped to my back, and I felt much more comfortable like that than in this little plane with nothing but my arms to flap as I sailed down to the earth. We were all given headsets, which cut the noise, but let us hear each other, which was great when Rob was giving us information, but not so great when Megumi was screaming all the way up. Once we were up however, it was so peaceful and absolutely gorgeous. The bumps in the plane no longer bothered us and the land and sea below with its turquoise water, was stunning.
Lake Hillier
We flew about 40 minutes to our destination and Rob pointed out different points of interest. When we arrived at Lake Hillier, it looked unreal. It was so pink! It looked like it was filled with Pepto Bismol. Unfortunately for us, it was a bit cloudy and therefore, the pink color wasn’t as bright, but when the sun burst through the clouds, it was like sparkles of bright pink streams that danced across the lake. It was breathtaking. Rob made three passes for us. The first was high above, I think he said a little over 1000ft, the second pass was a little lower than that, and the third even lower, around 100ft above.
Lake Hillier, bubble gum color.
He later told us that he has a special permit to fly that low, most people are not allowed, since it requires special training, but since he used to do it for his work, he is allowed. You could see the individual leaves on the trees, we were so low!!! After the last pass, we headed back. I would like to add, that a slightly nerve racking part of this trip was when Rob was turning. At times, he would turn so sharply, it felt like his wings were perpendicular to the ocean. The first couple of times scared me, but after that, it was just fun. I can see why people like to fly these little planes. We made is back without a scratch. As we were coming in for the landing, the plane was rocking back and fourth, but Rob set it down so gently. We taxied back to the cars and Rob took a couple pictures of us inside the plane. We chatted for a little longer, said our thank-yous and good-byes and were on our way for our next adventure. While flying, Rob pointed out a place called Lucky Bay. Javier had asked him where we could find kangaroos sunbathing on the beach, and he recommended Lucky Bay, so even though it was going to set us back a couple of hours (at least) we didn’t want to miss the opportunity, so off we went!
Lucky bay
We had to drive through a national park to get to the bay, and I have to say that Australia has some beautifully kept national parks. The roads are in great condition, the bathrooms are clean and don’t have that beach/park public bathroom smell that seems to be prevalent in the US, and the overall upkeep is great. As soon as we parked and walked out to the beach, we spotted one. Well, we thought it was a kangaroo, but were told it was a wallabie. Rob had told us that the roos were friendly, just be careful of the males, and don’t stand right in front of them. We crept pretty close to this little gal, and crouched down to take pictures.
Friends
She was curious and hopped right up to Megumi. At one point, they were face to face. She nuzzled around Megu’s hands, no doubt looking for a treat. We realized exactly how close we could get, took advantage, and more pictures. At one point, she laid on the ground and stretched out. It was like she was posing for us. We stayed with her for about 30 minutes, and then left her to play with the other people who had gathered.
We made the beautiful drive back to Esperence where we ate lunch, and started back on the road, this time, during absolute torrential rain. Megumi drove this time, and proved to be much more adept than either me or Javier. She buzzed along going much faster and with obviously much more comfort, even with the downpour, than either of us. She’s from Japan and used to this backwardness 🙂
Goofiness
We had hoped to drive a little further, but because of the wallabie stop, we had to end our drive a couple towns early. We stayed in Balladonia. When we arrived, we pulled into the gas station/motel/restaurant. We went inside and asked the guy if they had availability for three and also if there were any other places to stay in the town. He didn’t get offended by this, but laughed and said, “Nope. We are the town!” with his arms stretched wide. He said that he, and about 6 other employees made up the entire population, and this multifunctional building was one the only structure in town. We took the room, which turned out to be nice enough, had a decent dinner in the restaurant, and went to bed early.
… TO BE CONTINUED…
To see more pictures of Australia, click HERE.