Saturday started our way down south without knowing, how, how fast or which
route we go and where we stop or sleep during the way. Adventure time! Cleaning and packing and couple of
last beers led to a late start and when Clair and Bruce dropped us to
the highway it was already around 3pm. I have always been terrible
with goodbyes. When they drove away, me and Keiu both, looked at each
other and started laughing and crying at the same time.
Quite
soon we got our first lift. An australian man and an asian woman took
us to Bridgetown. From there another asian family collected us and
drove us to Manjimup. Found a supermarket, bought some chicken and
had a picnic in front of a local pub. A british gentleman driving by,
offered us a lift until Walpole, a small tidy town, half way to
Albany. We chatted the whole 120 km of drive and as it was dinner
time when we reached Walpole, he thought it would be better if we
stayed with him and his wife for the night. After 17 years of living
in OZ, they were still so adorably british, had a beautiful
medieval-looking house with a modern touch and an awesome dog called
Angus. Margaret cooked some eggs and bacon for dinner and instead of
spending the night in the tent, we had a pretty luxurious first night
on the road.
Tea
and a lovely continental breakfast and off we went in the morning. Tried to
have an early start.. ended up fighting 1.5 hours with extremely
aggressive mozzies on the side of the road. Finally another british
father and son saved our lives and drove us straight to Albany with a
stop for iced coffee in Denmark.
Albany!
A beautiful coastal town which reminded me of Croatia. Around half of the town was built up on the side of a
mountain. Looked around in the central area and headed to the
Middleton beach 4k away for an afternoon nap. At night were sneaky
and set our tent up right at the beach. (You get fined for that!)
That is why we tried to find a bit more faraway beach where people
wouldn't go too early on a monday morning. Oh irony. After a cold and
uncomfortable night, finally fell properly asleep when the sun
started to come up, only to discover that it was the beach for
walking your dog, excercising or any other activities. “Rise and
shine” from some lady was what shook us up at 5am. Finally woke up around 6, walked 20 meters to the left, had a beautiful swim and
enjoyed the beach, hitchhiked to town,
were dropped at the side of the highway. 500 km-s to destination!
3
cars and 300k later we were sitting in Ravensthorp for 2 hours,
almost given up and ready to sleep in a bush and almost accustomed to
the idea that we'll never get away from there, when a car stopped and
a guy was heading straight to Esperance. The last 187k were secured!
He ended up showing us all the beaches in Esperance and was worried
enough to not let us put our tent to a random place, drove us to his
friends place who lived in a proper Narnia, the roads there weren't
even roads, so another offroad experience on a field in hay as high
as the car was. We were sitting in his mates shed for hours, drinking
bundy, exchanging language lessons and talking about dropbears and
all other monsterous creatures Australia has to offer. After several
times of laughing in tears drove back to his place nearby and camped
in his yard.
In the morning he showed us the Pink Lake which I was so
excited to see but sadly it is not the dry season, and the lake is
only pink when it is almost dried out. At the moment it resembled to
a snowy lake Peipsi (Estonias biggest lake). Drove back to town
centre via 11 mile beach road, part of the Great Ocean Drive. Incredible
views!! He left us in the centre. Me and Keiu hadn't eat for too many hours, found a diner called The Dome and felt alive again after a
huge plate of English breakfast.
 |
When a couple of guys felt bad after they couldn't drive us to our destination but had to leave us somewhere on the road. Although we protested they drove by again and bought us ice cream and a couple of jacks. |
We
were supposed to meet Sarah and Marion at the Cape le Grand National
Park in the evening. It was about 60 km from Esperance. Started
hitchhiking again, soon two filipinos who lived right where we were
standing, insisted on taking us for a drive. They had a day off and
wanted to do sth anyway. The caravan parks in the national park were
packed so we had no other option than to go back to where we came
from. We basically made them drive 100k for no reason and they
apologized to us.. On the drive back, altho the car was packed, they
also picked up an elderly man coming home from work for christmas. It
restores my faith in humanity a bit, that there are still many beautiful people in the world like we have met during these couple of months in Australia.
Finally
met our lovely Germans and found a sports centre/caravan park in the
city. Barbecued some meat and had a lovely christmas eve. In the
morning headed back to Cape le Grand park to enjoy the famous Lucky
Bay. Crystal-clear, light-blue beaches with waves you see in surfing
movies. After a proper breakfast and day on the beach, managed to
bargain a spot on the caravan park and stayed the night! Ended the
Christmas Day laying on the mattress under the starry sky, with wine
and cheese and witnessing some shooting stars.
| Christmas dinner |
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| Esperance is supposed to have really thin ozone layer, our newly earned sunburn proves the fact. |
 |
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Another day of beach life (having fun in the crazy waves, while forgetting sharks and everything else we were once warned against) and headed to some rangers house who helped
Sarah and Marion with freezing ice for their eski. He was nursing an
11-month-old baby kangaroo whose mom had died. Adorable baby Kili.
Around his house there were also Berry, Ruby and Bella who were
already old enough to wander around on their own.
After
another couple of days out of reception, here we are back in the city
and stealing illegal power at the camp site. Sarah and Marion already
left towards the Nullabor. We wait our new German travelmates and head
out tomorrow morning. In 3 to 4 days we should turn up again on the
other side of the desert in Adelaide. Cheers!
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