Unholy heat, unwholesome food, the hole in our pocket and the big hole in the ground! July 30, 2008

Nevada

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

We are really enjoying the States, the sheer consumerism of the place is right up our alley, plus no tents/campervans in sight and a very happy Sophs! We have transitted a way East since the last blog, first up staying in a small town called Bishop where we noticed a gathering of two types of people 1) middle to old aged men wearing bandanas on huge Harley Davidsons, the cool head gear clashing slightly with their worried expressions about the power of their hired bike and their knobbly knees 2) big haired (mostly white-blond) women of a certain age with unfeasibly large chests (slightly drooping) working in diners and bars – we think these gals maybe ex-employees of Las Vegas!

I have had my head shaved right back, due to the heat, realising that my forehead seems to be getting bigger! The barbers shop was old school, with two really funny guys doing the chopping – old barbers shop chairs, really comfortable with pictures of girls, cars and boxing matches on the walls, just as I imagined it would be.
Next up was the drive through DEATH VALLEY dun, dun, dahhhh! It was a hilly drive initially as we went up through the mountains. It was here that we confirmed that the brakes on our hire car were very dodgy on downhills greater than 7%. They shuddered like crazy and there was a moment of panic by Chris, as he tried to hide the fact that the car was about to plummet off a cliff face from his missus. Fortunately we managed to get to the bottom of the hills, where the heat had rocketed to about 51 degrees celsius as we passed into the valley at sea level. We had previously bought a single egg in a cafe in Panamint. The waitress had to ask her boss how much an egg would cost, he said ‘oh about a dollar’, bless her she then charged me tax on that, 1 dollar and 8 cents exactly! At the Death Valley pass office (20 dollars for a single car to drive across a desert) we performed our egg frying experiment. We waited as long as we could in the heat for this thing to fry, but the only thing cooking was us it seemed. Experiment failed, it’s a myth!
The valley itself was shimmering in the debilitating heat, we tried for a few photos but ran for the cover of the AC within minutes, much like Namibia the heat rebounds of the ground and attacks you from all directions, sucking the moisture from your mouth and eyeballs. Over to the right as we drove through, was a dip in the ground – the lowest point in the USA 282ft below sea level at Badwater Basin (great name). As we came out of the desert, we passed a motel called ‘The Death Valley Hotel’ it sounded appetising, but we decided not to stay.

The roads got much busier and then we saw Las Vegas from about 20 miles away, rising like a tacky oasis in the desert (Las Vegas was named by Spanish explorers, the Meadows but it’s not like that anymore). It has certainly sprawled since I was here with Giles Evans about 15 years ago! We soon found our cheap digs, organised using my American Armed Forces Vacation Club membership – excellent! We weren’t far from the Strip, but decided to take a cab into the Downtown area for our first night. And what a night, I was kidding in our last blog, of course we can tell you about it!
We dined late in Binions Steak House, with a great view across to the North and West of the city, bright lights spreading as far as the eye could see – Las Vegas certainly doesn’t concern itself with energy conservation. We were left alone in the restaurant, as it was getting on and the other customers left, and had a romantic moment or two over our surf and turf (no surf for Soph). Nearing midnight we walked through the covered walkway of the Downtown area with Vegas Vic, the neon sign cowboy still there doing his thing. We watched some free entertainment (ball of death motorbike riders, very impressive) and then hit the slots. 2 HOURS LATER, we eventually managed to drag ourselves off these addictive little devils and cash in our winnings (20 dollars up thanks to lucky Sophs, who else?) That doesn’t sound much but we were gambling with 5 cent bits (nickels?) so if we had been gambling with dollars, that would have made it 400 dollars. But we weren’t, so it wasn’t!

Next up, roulette. Soph’s had never played this before and within a couple of spins, she was up by about 60 dollars (without realising it). I had lost all my money in the same time scale! Unfortunately, a combination of free beer and no tactics had us down by the end of the evening. They are very clever places, big casinos, they employ every trick in the book to take your cash – and they all work! We reckon, one of these tricks is to make the places like a maze or a hall of mirrors, we spent about 15 mintues trying to get out of the one we were in. Still, we had had a fantastic night and crashed into the motel at about 5 in the morning.
Next day we were up at the crack of midday, to hold our heads and wonder where it all went wrong, did a wallet check (which made unpleasant viewing) and vowed to not gamble again, until the next time. We mooched around before taking a wander to The Strip, where there is an Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Sphinx, Pyramid and the huge Golden MGM lion. It’s mad and cheesy, but we loved it and at night it looks fantastic. We also noticed as we walked the streets that the drains absolutely stink here! We wondered whether it was like Ghostbusters and there’s slime growing down there – who knows? To avoid the temptations of the casinos we went to a huge cinema to watch ‘Dark Knight’ – I was presuming that Heath Ledger’s performance had been hyped because of his untimely death, but he is very good at being bad in the movie and we really enjoyed it (Steve Hill get yourself booked in for a viewing). We slept well after eating a small skip of tasty popcorn (salty AND sweet) and a bucket of diet (that’s a joke) coke.
Next day we swapped cars and got upgraded to a bigger model for all the inconvenience, nice! We sped off south bound on the 215 to the Hoover Dam. It was swarming with other tourists and therefore we didn’t hang around, it’s also undergoing bridge building work to take cars away from the dam and across at a higher point. Not very attractive and with the security checks and exhaust fumes, it wasn’t on our top ten attractions list. Onwards to the route 40 heading East now, passing into Arizona we spotted signs for a historic loop of the old Route 66, so took it. Well, it was nice enough but we didn’t necessarily get a huge amount of kicks from it. Still it took us in roughly the right direction and the tarmac quality was above average! Lots more old men in bandanas on hogs, in groups (get yourselves out here Gill and Liz). That evening we motelled in William and ate out at a Pizza Hut. We were looking forward to our spag bol, but when my dish arrived it was without meatballs, they took my plate away to rectify and in a suspiciously short timescale it arrived back with meatballs – hoorah you might say, booh I say, they were still completely frozen – at last some British Standard Cuisine!
Early start the next day for the big push through to the Grand Canyon, North on the 64. We stopped off short of the canyon at the National Geographic centre to watch an IMAX presentation on the Canyon, the most viewed IMAX presentation of all time, apparently. The film lasted 30 minutes, but there was a food outlet outside and people were coming in with popcorn, fizzy pop and hot-dogs, this at 1030. Good film though, showing how Major John Wesley Powell (only one arm) led the first expedition to navigate the Colorado River through the canyon in 1869. Never mind him, I think the actors in the film deserved a medal, they seemed to be doing everything for real and the scenes of white water rafting in a rowing boat were spectacular. Our appetites wetted, it was on to the real thing. The West Rim road was down for maintenance and we didn’t fancy going to the Grand Canyon Village, so we headed East along the (you guessed it) East Rim. And there it was, a mile deep and 277 miles long, it wasn’t hard to miss. I won’t bang on about it, but it was a very impressive hole and we stopped in several places just to sit and take it all in. We then decided to walk along to Yaki Point via the Kaibab Trailhead. The Kaibab Trail leads down in to the valley for 13 miles round trip and reaches the river. Although the temperature had reduced to a palatable 32 degrees C, we decided not to do that based on our wearing flip-flops and having no water or inclination. Instead we tramped on via the road to Yaki Point, after about 20 minutes of walking in the heat (with my freshly shaved head and large forehead crisping up nicely in the heat, why can’t I get pork to do the same?) we arrived at Yaki, looked left and there, some 50 yards away was the trailhead we had just left, great navigational skills Warn! Sophs not best pleased, but by now she was wearing my t-shirt across her head and shoulders, while I braved the sun (idiot!) More fantastic views and some great walking along the very edge of the canyon, made for an exhillarating day. The best was saved to last however, as we transitted by car further east to Desert View, where we had a salad and visited the watchtower, which was built there in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter to commemorate the arts and crafts of the original Americans. Cool tower to look at, but boiling inside. Some incredible views though, East to where the canyon ‘ends’ and where the river carries on and West right up the canyon in all its’ splendour. The fierce sun does wash out some of the oranges and browns you’ll see at sunset/rise but it is still an awe-inspiring sight. Satisfied with some good touristy action we decided to head off.
Further East the canyon narrows to a gorge, the Colorado River cutting a deep, jagged scar which meanders through the green plain of desert brush. This cut is beautiful, but almost completely ignored in the shadow of its’ big brother (a bit like my brother Phil was with me!). We travelled on looking for a place to stay, passing through Kayenta, where we stopped off for dinner at a local cafe the Blue Pot Cafe. Apparently it’s a tradition here to get a blue pot in your new home for luck, nice idea, Sophs was eyeing up every trading post we drove past from then on. The town itself was uninspiring, but the view surrounding it was like something from the land that time forgot. Huge pinnacles, granite plugs and cliffs in the area called Monument Valley. Particularly striking in the fading light of the day.

We passed through to New Mexico and a place called Ship Rock. This was a bit of a shanty town, but did have a vast rock stuck on a flat plain just outside the town line. Huge and foreboding it looked like a stage set for Lord of the Rings. As we drove past it, we could see why the reference to a ship, but at a certain angle we agreed it looked like the face of a Scotty Dog – bizarre! Because of a distinct lack of suitable accom, we drove right through to a place called Farmington and that’s where we are now.
Next intention is to drive North now into Colorado and see the Rockys up close, should be good if weather holds up. Every time we switch on the telly we see reports of huge storms and rain sweeping across mid USA, we’ve yet to see them. That said, a day out of the sun will do ‘ma heed’ no harm at all.
See y’all and don’t worry Richie Ryan we are looking out for a big truck picture!

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas! July 30, 2008

Nevada

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Sssshhhhh………………!

Everything’s swell with Bart and Michelle! July 27, 2008

California

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello and welcome to our first blog from The Good’ol United States!
I was supposed to write this blog on the same day as the last one, but there is so much to do here I didn’t have time. Apologies,but here it is now!
So here we are in America after a long flight with a lot of noise from the young World Youth Day attendees and not a lot of sleep, we arrived at 10 00 in the morning (American time). As seasoned travellers will know, we gained a day by crossing the International Date line and therefore had two 21sts of Jul. We whizzed through customs and found our way to the domestic arrivals to meet up with Bart and Michelle. On the way we saw our first real live American ‘bitchy’ queen and several ’super-sized’ Americans. Bart and Michelle (we met them way back on the kayaking trip in Abel Tasman, NZ) had been to Las Vegas for the weekend and were arriving back in San Fransisco airport at 3.00pm. We were pretty tired, so found a quiet spot under an escalator and got our heads down for a few hours on the hard floor. Seasoned travellers or tramps – you decide! We were trying to keep an eye on all our bags, so kind of looped our arms in the straps and hung our legs over the other bags. It was pretty uncomfortable, but we were tired so fell asleep instantly. We woke after a couple of hours and unravelled ourselves. Bart and Michelle’s plane was a little late, so we went for our first dining experience. Faced with a list of burgers we were completely out of our normal dietary range. When our huge portion of food arrived it had a slice of orange on the side with a gerkin on top. We thought it was a little strange but had a go. Salty stuff.
We finally met up with Bart and Michelle, they are a good looking couple and in addiiton were both fresh, clean and tanned and we looked like a couple of very pale, tired gypos. Oh well, nevermind!
Our American mates took us on a mini tour of the city of California before we headed back to their place. We passed through the Golden Gate Park area and the Presidio residential area which was one huge military base, but all the houses and buildings are being updated. You can’t buy them, only rent from the government. We also got our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge and then travelled underneath it to Fort Point and took our first touristy snaps. It really is an impressive structure and at the point is a plaque on a fence with a pair of brass hands called Hopper’s Hands. Hopper was a chap who helped build the bridge and he noticed that lots of joggers touched the fence at this point, it was his idea to put some hands marks here for people to touch for luck. Underneath the hand prints were also some paw prints for joggers’ dogs to put their paws on. Nice idea! It was pretty breezy there and directly under the bridge were kite surfers leaping to scarey highs, Bart has also surfed there as well, if the tide is right – but I have to say that looked very hairy.
After getting some luck from Hopper’s hands, we headed through the Sea Cliff area to China beach for a look out across the bay. Then over the bridge to Mill Valley where Bart and Michelle live. This is a great little village that reminded me a bit of Tavistock. Lots of one off shops, fairy lights in trees (always had a soft spot for fairy lights) and a dinky pizza restaurant where we had dinner. Chris and I were nearly boss eyed with tiredness and didn’t know whether we should be eating cereal or drinking wine by now, so we headed off to bed. Bart and Michelle had given us such a fab welcome to the States and Chris and I fell asleep instantly. We both woke at 4.30 am (jet lag is a strange thing) and whispering and giggled in the darkness as we desperately tried to find the toilet in the dark without waking up Michelle and Bart.
Everyone slept in and Michelle cooked up a full brekkie for us to enjoy on their lovely decking. Pretty balmy here and eventually we began our first day in San Francisco. Bart said he had a loose plan for the day, but he was being very modest. We began a full days uber cool (Michelle taught us to use this word,we are sooooo American) tour. We started with a blustery ferry trip across the Bay with the Bridge in the background cloaked in a ribbon of fog. We passed Angel Island and the ex prison island of Alcatraz. Then into the Farmer’s Market in the ferry terminal building, excellent fun as we began lots of cheese tasting, chocolate tasting and open mouthed gawping at the touristy part of the town. The gourmet cuisine here is incredible, every food you can think of with so many gimmicks, gifts and enticing shops. They even had bread rolls shaped like crabs that you filled with soup. It was like a dream,quite surreal. We saw the huge Sea-lions at K-Dock lolling around in the sunshine, entertaining the crowds as though they were born to the task. Bart then had us walking at a cracking pace from the Pier 39 tourist area through steep hilled streets and up steps until we reached Lombard Street. This is the famous street in many movies (ie “What’s up Doc?” – Barbara Streisand/Ryan O’Neil) full of tight bends on a steep hill. We walked beside it and watched some Harleys gingerly negotiating the bends, there was no knee down action.
Then (still walking quite fast) we passed through the Italian area, with the odours of garlic and tomato filling the air. The pace was making us hungry so into Golden Boys Pizza for a slice of superb pizza (Chris had clam and garlic, never seen that before). The urban tour continued through China Town (there is a point when the 2 areas meet that you can get sweet and sour pizzas) and to the Castro District, famous for its gay community. We also managed to fit in a couple of street car trips. San Fransisco has street cars from around the world that have been lovingly restored and speed noisely through the towns hills (we travelled in No 1085 built in 1948).
Finally, as the sun went down we met Darius, a friend of Bart and Michelle. Then the drinking began. Bart is a man after our own hearts who enjoys beers in dark, noisey pubs that smell of booze. The smell instantly reminded me of The Dolphin Inn, which in my opinion, is one of the best smells around.
Darius was a great chap,he looked like a model and laughed like a drain, good stuff. We visited several sleazy pubs with Bart at the front, filling us with beer and information. More fast food at Memphis Minis briefly broke the beer tasting, with a menu so complicated we had to seek help from Michelle. Everything comes with a side order, sauces and various degrees of spice, very complicated,especially when tipsy!
The evening ended in another dark, nefarious pub where an entertaining game of pool ensued with Bart and Chris playing two very drunk locals. One of them looked really familiar like a pirate/film star, the other one looked like an old Axl Rose (I suppose it could have been him, although he didn’t sing). Pretty funny as lots of pirate impressions and general silliness finished the night. Chris also managed to catch a pint glass mid-air as it fell from a table, not a drop was spilt. He’s a pro.The whole day confirmed for us that Bart and Michelle were great characters, exceptionally silly, kindred spirits and now officially our mates!

The next day was a bit calmer. We had breakfast in Mill Valley and it was tastey, fast, cheap and massive. Bart had a stack of pancakes that nearly broke him. We walked it off with a trip up to Tamalpais Mountain. Tremendous views down the valley and out over the peninsula, across the bay to the Bridge with the City in the background, floating on a bed of fog and looking like a Sci-Fi city, all it needed was a CGI dome. San Fransisco is so much greener than I expected, but in the distance we could see the darker smoke created by the huge forest fires burning in the south in the Big Sur region – devastating. We then had a stroll through some beautiful Sequoia trees and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest.
Our trip in San Fran was going to be over the next day so Bart and Michelle took us to collect our hire car. It is supposed to be a compact, but it still feels massive to us. Chris deftly followed Bart through the busy streets at rush hour to partake in an all American evening at the ball game. We briefly popped into Barts last business venture, ‘Chrome’ bike bags and gear. Very impressive, i thought it was a little shop, but it is massive with a large amount of stock, all very funky stuff designed by Bart and his mates.
Excitement built on the walk to the ball game and it was sunny with the hustle bustle of people aggressively hawking tickets and walking the streets in Giants (the baseball team) kit. We were sat up in the gods and could see out over the bay as well as the pitch. Not really too sure of the rules, but it was a lively game. People (shocker) eat like crazy and there are even people coming around selling food if you can’t be bothered to get it yourself. Chips, nachos, hotdogs, candy floss, donuts, popcorn….and so it goes on. We watched most of the game (sat next to two Scots, who we turned to, to ask about the game) but it got a bit chilly and we were all so tired from our massive Bart Tour that we left before the end. My nephew Harry would have loved it though. Lots of singing, cheering and of course the essential Mexican Wave. The jet lag, the boozing and the tour have finished us off. To bed!!!!!!!

Goodbyes were said early the next moring and Thankyous for our lovely stay with Bart and Michelle. We were so glad we visited them after meeting in New Zealand all that time ago, really great people – even if Bart’s James Mason impression left something to be desired (do you know he was born in Huddersfield?James Mason,not Bart)
We drove (well Chris drove as i am still too scared) to our next adventure, Yosimite National Park. On the way we stopped for breakfast at a roadside cafe. We ordered a sandwich and tried a side order of pancakes. It was our first American faux pas. This ridiculously large meal arrived with butter (a massive dollup) and mapel syrup on the 3 pancakes stacked and they were as wide as the plate. We ate at 11.00 am and were so full we couldn’t eat again until 7.30. Lesson learnt i hope!
It took a couple of hours, but we had time to get into the park and walk to a huge water fall called Bridal veil falls. There was a fast stream of water falling from its well weathered peak, hundreds of feet above. We are late in the season so it is quite low water levels now, it was more of a heavy flow than the ferocious pounding of full water flow in winter. The heat was overwhelming and Chris and i were a little unprepared for clambering over rocks. It was the best way to get closer to the base of the waterfall. I wasn’t going to do it initially as it looks a bit dangerous, however i reconsidered as i saw an old man doing it without any fuss or screeching. The huge granite walls that surrounded us were amazing throughout our drive into the park. Pine trees seem to teeter on edges of cliffs and grow in cracks and on ledges. Amazing!
It was 93 degrees as we walked around lower Yosemite Falls,another gorgeous waterfall surrounded by dappled shade through the trees. We were both feeling a little tired as we had not stopped since we arrived, so we made one last heroic effort to drive to Glacier Point before heading to find accommodation – on the way we saw our first deer, a Mule Deer, I say ’saw’ we almost hit it, which would have taken the edge off the day. Glacier Point has views over the famous Half Dome which is 8842 feet high. Everywhere you looked there are pine covered mountains with rock so white it looks like snow. We were impressed and thrilled to be there, but I was also pretty knackered so we said good bye for the day and headed out of the park for a bed for the night.
Our room was in a brick hut and we had a hot, but good night’s sleep. The next day was the last in the park so we made our way back to Valley bottom to take in more soaring views of the imposing granite cliffs and tried to walk off some of the food we had consumed over the past days. After this we drove out of the park via the Tuollumne Grove, home to some more huge Sequoia Trees. One of them so big that it had a tunnel drilled through it so Chris stood in its centre and couldn’t touch both sides or the roof, huge. Unfortunately this tourist attraction is now dead, killed by the very thing that turned it into a tourist attraction. We drove through some stunning scenery as we left the park, so much so that you almost become used to it and dare I say it, hardly look out of the window unless it absolutely demands attention! We travelled south as far as Bishop a nice town where we holed up in one of the many motels here, clean and efficient, we think they’re great. Next up is Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. America is strange because it all seems so familiar, even if you haven’t been here before. We promise to do better on the food front as well – begone devil food!Where can you get a salad around here?

Bye for now xxx

Goodbyes in The Land Down Under. July 26, 2008

Queensland

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

 

Hello all,
We have loads to catch up on, so get yourself a cup of tea!
Our last few days in Australia were well spent with Debsi and Steve Hill. After a few days relaxing around Brisbane, we headed up the coast bright and early for a whale watching boat trip off the coast of Mooloolaba. This was the last thing to tick off the list of Aussie experiences and we headed out on Steve’s Whale One (Steve Irwine’s trip) to do just that. Perfect day for it with a clear blue sky,cooling wind and good company. About 15 miles out we spotted our first whale, we saw the tail flip out on the horizon and were told it had gone in for a dive. Apparently the whales can stay underwater for anything from 6 to 45 minutes, but this fella popped up again pretty quickly. The boat follows strict rules of maintaining a certain distance away, no feeding of the whales and all that good stuff to protect the whales from the over zealous tourists and boat drivers. We kept a distance away and everyone zoomed in with their camera to get a snap of a black dorsal fin or a flick of a tail. The whale was pretty shy and spent a lot of time underwater as we sailed along next to it.
We headed out deeper to continue the search, and soon we were lucky enough to see three humpback whales who were a lot more active. It is mating season and there were two males wooing a female. Great for us as we saw lots of showing off with tail flicks, jumping, flipper slaps and rising out of the water with open mouths. We took hundreds of snaps and think we have a few credible ones. The whales came towrds us at one point and we just stood and watched these huge creatures rolling by and giving out a huge blow of water. Now that is something you don’t get to see very often, Awesome! (well we are in Australia, but i promise to stop using that word once we have left.)
We definitely got our money’s worth on the trip, but Steve missed out on the lunch as he couldn’t take his eyes off the whales. We nipped in between dives and ate our lunch stood up watching the whales rise less than 100 feet from the boat. It might not have been the best food in the world ,but it was a pretty impressive restaurant.
We headed back to shore reluctantly to have a fruit smoothy on the beach. It may be the winter in Oz ,but you can still wear a cossie in this neck of the woods, the sunshine coast.
After a quick stroll, we drove to have dinner with Mr and Mrs West (Debsi’s parents.) They followed their daughters over to Australia in March and are now living in a fab new house in Little Mountain, near Caloundra. To top it all Mr West has just bought a very cool spanking new boat (which matches his car.) Chris and Steve were like kids in a sweet shop looking it over. Dinner was a homemade shepherds pie(Yiippee!) and a nearly homemade huge cream cake with strawberries in. A great ending to a memorable day!
We headed back to Brisbane the next morning and i began to feel a little sad as i knew the goodbyes were imminent! We stopped and bought some fresh strawberries, which took the edge off it a little.
The after noon was spent jamming things into our rucksacks. Chris is able to live with one pair of shorts and a few t shirts ,where as i seem to have more clothes than Kylie on a world tour. Still nothing to wear though.
Sad goodbyes to Steve and a teary one to Debsi and then we were off at 7 the next morning. We trained it to the airport and had a quick flight to Sydney. It took about an hour or so and was pretty non eventful.
When we arrived at Sydney it was heaving, full of teenagers celebrating World Youth Day (a Catholic sponsored event), all flying home to their wordwide destinations. Yuk! Teenagers!
We did our best to remain calm and tolerant of screaming, shouting, flirting youths generally showing off.  We coped by muttering things to each other and giving out whithering looks (I have always been good at them.)
Chris was worried we wouldn’t get through customs as we had some cockle shells in our back pack from the West Coast. He was worried they might get sniffed out by the customs dogs, especially the cocker spaniels!!!! Come on! That had Chris and i laughing all the way on to our plane. We have been really spoilt with great planes in the past, but this time we lucked out. United Airlines was a bit ropey. I was gutted when i discovered that we didn’t have any choice of movies and individual screens. The air hostesses were really unglamourous and a little past their prime. Chris reckoned that he actually saw one of the hostess’s using the trolley to help her walk! Unfortunately the flight was 13 hours long and the youths were a bit annoying.Thank god for complementary wine!
Our final goodbyes in Australia were the saddest and we will both miss our friends so much. After spending such a long time in Australia we really felt like we got the most from our visit. So many fantastic times and it really is gorgeous. We will be back,thats for sure. So i will end this one as a “cheerio” and not a “goodbye” (as Fagin might say.)
Onwards to the U.S.A.!!!!!!

A tale of 3 cities. July 18, 2008

Melbourne

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Well we’re still alive, but have travelled far since the last blog – 3 major Oz cities to be exact. We stayed in the Perth area with Neil and Vicky Carson for a few weeks in total, going North to see the dolphins of Monkey Mia and South with the intention of seeing the ‘Gloucester Tree’ at Pemberton. The latter plan was scuppered by me being ill and all flu ridden, so maybe I’ll never know the joy of climbing this tree (used as a fire lookout post) – shame. I ended up passing my flu on to Soph and back to Vicky and Neil, so on many of the days of our stay in their beautiful house it resonated with the sounds of noses being blown and general sniffles all round! We did have a couple of good socials (this time without embarrassing ourselves) and cooked some nice meals, including my first proper pucker Jamie Oliver lasagne (Rosy you would have been proud). Said our farewells to Archie and Sue and our new mates Mick and Sue and met up with a guy called Steve Hussey and his wife Lisa. He used to be my First Lieutenant on a submarine and, although I hadn’t seen him for ages, I felt like it was only yesterday as I had been following his adventures in the Aus submarine HMAS Rankin on the SKY programme ‘Submarine’. He’s now taking a sabbatical from the Navy to set up some food/coffee franchises and Neil and I spent a pleasant hour or so sampling some of his new line of buns and scones (kindly just turfed out of the oven by his missus) – he really couldn’t have picked a better man for the job!

We also spent a nice lunch in Fremantle, which is an old part of Perth and a town in its’ own right on the coast, where the Swan River hits the sea. It’s got a clean, well preserved prison, which amazingly only stopped taking customers in 1991, even though it was built in 1855 – so they got value for money there. Stopped on the Cappucino Strip (or Capo Strip), which is famous for its’ coffee houses, restaurants and nooky little shops, and had a tasty lunch before walking around the town a bit. Like many days here it was blowing a hooley, but at least the sun was out! The next day myself and Neil had planned a Friday afternoon sports make-and-mend with a round of golf, but the weather put paid to that. Instead we went for a quick 100 balls on the driving range. Funny, the wind seemed to make me top all my drives!
The next day was pretty sad as we said adios to the Carsons and Neil kindly drove us to Perth airport (60kms away!) – they had been perfect hosts and we were well rested at this point. Took the night flight to Melbourne Avalon airport (70kms away from my brother, Phil). Fortunately we had made decision to hire a small car (like a dwarf clown’s car, without the exploding doors) as opposed to busing it. Drove to Phil’s and were met with pasta and home-cooked apple pie (Phil had had his apron on). Next day was a lazy Sunday, did a roast, watched Aussie Rules Football on telly (Phil’s team, the Doggies won!)and caught up with Phil. He starts a new job soon and there are a few exciting changes potentially happening to him in next weeks – so good for him. He had the Monday off and we drove to Brighton Beach on the shore of Port Phillip Bay (it seemed appropriate) and the sea-weed strewn beach was made noteworthy by the row of brightly painted beach houses there. Apparently they each sell for 65000 quid a pop, so I was suprised to see an old fella re-painting his own, thought he would have had a man for that! Cool though and a great photo opportunity. Bits of graffitti had ruined some of them which is a crying shame, but some were excellent. Think we might emigrate and come and live in one. Phil beat me at skimming stones, so I suggested lunch! After this we visited Black Rock (which sounds dramatic but isn’t) there isn’t even a black rock, just named because it sits on loads of little black rocks, like pumice stone. The sea defences had been built from the bluestone taken from the dismantled local prison and several of the blocks had initials and dates chiselled in them – detailing who had been hung over a century before,spooky but looked like they had been done the day before. Phil’s ex came over to see us in the evening and we had a Thai and some exceptional pear tart, which rounded off a nice little stay. Up very early next morning to get back to the airport for our flight to Brisbane, the 3rd big city in 4 days. Sad to say cheerio to some-one else, but Phil seems quite chipper and at least he’s got his looks (if not all his hair). As it happened we checked in with 2 minutes to spare, so glad we got up when we did. Arrived in Brisbane in fine fettle and waited for arrival of Debs and Steve, who were going to pick us up. Classic sit-com material – the mobile network was down on the East coast, so we couldn’t get calls and couldn’t call Debs on landline. She had left a message the previous evening, that we didn’t get, saying ‘make your own way’. So after 3 hours of searching the domestic airport, trying not to bump into people stumbling around the departures lounge, shell shocked by the lack of mobile communications (like a sci-fi disaster movie, people just don’t know what to do!), we took a train. This was the first time we had actually carried our ruck-sacks for any distance for ages, which was a bit of a shocker. However, the journey was easy peasy and we were at Steve and Deb’s within the hour. We are currently enjoying further relaxing times and farewells with this couple, whose wedding we attended in March (seems a long time ago). Not much to report, but our diet is taking a pounding and the vino continues to glide down without a hiccup, until later in the evening. Tomorrow, we travel North to Deb’s parent’s house in Calloundra and hopefully, if the weather holds, some further whale watching from a boat – very excited about that, but I’ll let Soph report. After that it’s the good’ol US of A, which is where she’ll probably blog from.

The long goodbye to the campervan! July 8, 2008

WA

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello chaps,
As you can see from our photos we have seen the dolphins. This was one of the ‘must see’ we had on our list to do in Oz..
We left in our loyal campervan and headed north up the coast. After a relatively uneventful stay Geraldton, we woke early for the long slog up to the dolphin feeding coastal area. On the way to Monkey Mia we drove to the Shell Beach and had read a little bit about. Very white beach with gorgeous blue clear flat sea. As you step on the beach you realize it is a little bit rough underfoot. Closer examination reveals that we were standing on thousands of millions of tiny white shells. We thought it would be a beach with lots of shells on, but blow me down,that’s actually all the beach is made up of. Cockle shells no less! We crunched our way down to the sea for a paddle and a closer look at this unusual place. Apparently the shells are up to 10 metres deep and they run as far as the eye can see. We were lucky to avoid the tourists and spent a good 10 minutes in solitude enjoying more shells than either of us knew what to do with. They are in constant supply too and used for local building of walls, these cockles must be pretty unlucky to die in such masses.

We reached Monkey Mia at 4ish and were pleasantly suprised that it seemed quite low key and wasn’t too pricey to enter the peninsula. There were no power sites left so it was still pretty popular out of season. We had to camp with all the young back packers and enjoyed a grumble together about how loud their music was. The campsite was right on the beach and although it was quite big it was still pretty and had a sandy surface. We headed for a stroll down the beach to enjoy the sunset and have a nose around. As we walked along a sandy path we spottted butterflies flying around and a big group of them resting on plants and trees, a nice little bonus and i half expected Snow white to come along singing in her very high voice with butterflies on her hands. We headed for the deserted beach, none of those those lazy young un’s were more than 5 ft from their campsites so it was calm and quiet!
It seems that whenever we arrange to watch a sunset they are always a bit rubbish, however if we don’t plan it we see the sky flooding with a pallet of reds and we are miles away from it all. As expected this sunset was a bit rubbish,but we didn’t mind as we had already seen the butterflies.
We were also unperturbed, as we had booked a table for two in the restaurant and were really looking forward to it. A table, watching the last of the sun, in Monkey Mia with the man i love, butterfly sightings and dolphin watching the next day. I should coco!
Our evening was really lovely and we had a cheeky bottle of wine(ok we had 2 bottles) and reflected on our trip in Oz. When the waitresses started staring and tutting in front of us we knew it was time to go. Very special night though and we were really excited about the next days events. Heading back to the camper we heard drunken youths (damn those youths!) and my heroic husband asked them to keep the noise down. He is so brave when tipsy! Luckily they were quite nice youths really and did as requested. I don’t suppose really mean youths come to see dolphins being fed.
The next morning we were very excited and headed the 2 minute stroll along the beach to the jetty. It was a sunny morning and perfect paddling weather. A small crowd were building at the allocated area and we joined them, looking out to sea for signs of fins.
In no time at all the crowd had doubled and everyone was shuffling for a place by the sea front. It was a bit like the Next sale. Finally we were rewarded when fins cut through the water out at sea and the dolphins approached. We were all asked to stand in a line, just up to our shins and not to touch these lovely animals. It was incredible, first we had a female dolphin come right up to the shallows and roll onto her side, eyeing us all up. She swam around the dolphin commentator and you could hear her clicking vibrating through the water. Everyone was taking photos like crazy and before long there were 6 dolphins around the shallows. They only feed the adults on the beach, but some of the calves come along with their mums. Great fun,the calves were messing around just like kids do, cutting through the water, rolling ,catching fish and chasing each other. They really were quite cheeky and would dive in between the adult dolphins and splash their tails.
The adult females look after their calfs for 4 years and never retire from bearing children (yes,you heard right,they are constantly having children and looking after them,poor things) It must be similar to how my mum felt when i moved back home briefly at the age of 30!
I tried to get some good snaps of all the events, but really you do have to be there for this one. I wanted everyone else to go away, so we could be on our own with these beautiful creatures, especially the freakishly tall man/giant stood in front of me.
Dolphins really do seem to enjoy interacting and we were told that some people would get selected to feed them. And what do you know? (i can see my sister rolling her eyes as she reads this) they picked me out first. i had been silently pleading for it to happen. So wet fish in hand i poked it towards a dolphin and it half heartedly took it in its mouth. It wasn’t really that bothered, but i loved it and was staring with all my might trying to take as much in as possible. This was definitely a once in a life time moment and Chris and i left with our heads in the clouds. Although the dolphins weren’t completely untame, there was not a ball in sight and no hoop jumping, just as nature had intended and their beauty and deft manouevring was more than entertaining. Lucky old us!
We were back in the van before mid day and did one more cheeky visit to get some shells from The Shell Beach. I could hear my mum saying “what would happen to the beach if everyone who visited took shells away ?” But i justified it by remembering that the shells are used for local buildings and also no one saw us!
After a long trip back down the coast we spent the evening at Dongara. We were also given a beautiful sunset that night that was straight out of a painting, clouds lined with silver, rays of sun in lines onto the sea, splendid!What a lovely day!
The skies opened up on the way back to Perth the next morning and we could see the rain coming in black sheets towards our poor little rusty van. Back to the warm welcome at the Carsons house and a warm bed and good company to recover from the drive.
We were in for another treat the next day as we were booked on a wine tasting boat trip along The Swan River. Are we starting to make you sick with jealousy yet? Sorry,it was our treat for all that pasta eating and campervan sleeping. We set off at 9 with Vicky ,Willy (still suffering with flu) Susie and Mick. When they passed the wine around to taste at 10.30 ish i thought it was way too early, but it was absolutely great and after all….this was a cultural experience and we were also on a boat for the day. We visited the Sandalford vineyard and sampled several more wines. Chris and i were overwhelmed when we realised no one was monitoring our portions and you could have as much as you wanted. Show some restraint Mrs Warn! Back on the boat we were all feeling absolutely refreshed and pulled up at a restaurant for our lunch. White table clothes, 3 courses, cigars, more wine and a live jazz singer, that’s what i am talking about! Chris got very emotional as he met a man who had actually served in Vietnam and we sat next to him and his new lady all the way back. I remember laughing so hard my belly hurt and being unable to control the tears running down my face. It wouldn’t be funny if i tried to explain the jokes now, but a good time was had by all. It was like a posh booze cruise.
We returned back to Vicky and Willy’s house to continue the wine tasting and order in a lot of pizza, yum, what a perfect end to a great day!
Unbelievably we weren’t too shabby the next day and headed off to see a little of Bunbury and Busselton to the south of Perth. This is probably where our sight seeing ended though. Poor Chris has a very bad throat so we ended up watching DVD’s and getting really hot and then really cold (Chris not me,i stayed pretty much the same temperature)
We had a quiet night and after a doctors trip and some anti biotics being administered we drove back to the Carsons. Poor Chris is feeling better today ,but still a little fragile, i’ve just heard him saying he is about to have a lemsip. And last but not least we have said our final goodbyes to our campervan, yey! I am not sorry to see the back of the cold, old rust bucket, but it did take us all over Oz.I am not getting back into another one for at least a year, home comforts beckon and i am sick of looking like a gypsy.
We are now in the warm softly furnished, clean house of Vicky and Willy. Bliss. I am off to give my husband some sympathy and watch telly.Hurray,the campervan has gone!

From lots of rock formations to re-union celebrations. July 1, 2008

WA

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

After really enjoying ourselves in the town of Esperance, it was time to hit the road again and drive through the wheat-belt of Australia towards Perth. Set off in good time and after the storms of the previous day, it had cleared nicely – unfortunately we then headed inland where it almost instantly clouded over again! On the map it seemed like a lovely drive aiming for a place called Hyden (and passing lots of lakes), but the lakes were dry or close to it, so the drive was a bit dull. Bit of a patchwork road as well, so the van almost fell apart! We screeched to a halt near Hyden, because Soph was convinced she had seen the presenter from the BBC programme ‘Tribe’, this was not the case. Soph has been convinced she’s seen this guy several times since actually spotting him in the Avon Gorge in Bristol (hallucinations are us!) – we can’t even remember his name, although he was in the Royal Marines apparently. We visited a spot called Wave Rock, which we had heard mixed reports about, but actually loved. Really beautiful rock formation, which was lined in multiple hues by centuries of water run-off. This water force had also shaped the rock to look like…..you guessed it – a wave! In many ways it was quite cosmic – water shapes rock to look like water (I’ve got to stop eating these wild mushrooms!). We decided to walk through the bush to the other strangely shaped rock “Hippo’s Yawn’ and yes it does look like a hippo yawning, sort of. As we followed an old track through the gum trees and overhanging tendrils of plants, we stopped to listen to the eerie quiet; we both then made the clichéd observation that you could almost hear the silence, when seconds later a car door slammed and we realized we were stood about 20 feet from a carpark – genius! Hippo Yawn Rock was quite cool although they could do with painting some eyes on the head to make it a bit more obvious, maybe chip out some nostrils, that sort of thing. The evening arrived prematurely as the rains came in and we spent a fairly miserable night tucked up watching ‘Cold Feet’ as the heavens opened. No shower the next morning as the camp was dodgy to say the least. A mad woman who talked to her cat, one pre-op transsexual and a drunk, orange coloured Dutchman, was enough to put us off the ablution blocks. We were very pleased because we were heading for the coast, civilization and Neil and Vicky Carson’s house in Secret Harbour (now doesn’t that sound like a nice place to be!)
We arrived in good time in the earlyish afternoon and Vicky was there to greet us, with Neil adhering to the Royal Naval Friday work ethic, ie he was home by 2! We were so excited we all started tucking into wine and by the time the other guests had arrived (Archie and Sue, who I knew from Plym days of old and Mike and Sarah, whose wedding I attended in UK many moons ago) we were all fairly tipsy. So much so that this not so close circle of friends were left on their own to make conversation as we all went to bed! Disgraceful behaviour, everyone had gone by 2230!
Next day was quiet and we only fully recovered after consuming a pizza at about 9 in the evening, after meeting up with Mike and Sarah to make apologies I was really pleased to see another ex-RN buddy of mine and his wife, Mark and Sue Powell, they haven’t changed a bit!
Finally recovering on the Sunday morning we took our first tentative steps into the Freo Doctor (the ocean gale that blows in to the coast here). Certainly cleared our heads though and we walked down to the beach at Secret Harbour, seeing a squadron of pelicans give us a fly-past under stormy skies – very good drill! We experienced some of Perth’s variable weather as it went from sunny to gale, to rain, to sun in about an hour! Later we met up with Sue and Archie again and took a trip inland to Serpentine Falls. Very pleasant, walking through the trees, seeing the falls and lots of butterflys and had a lovely picnic, as semi wild kangaroos hopped over to us and begged food (as Sue promised they would). We did this pretty much next to the sign telling us not to (very poor). Nice though and also good to be able to talk to Sue and Arch sober! We left Perth with Neil going down with flu and proceeded over the Swan River and through Perth to the north. Camping in a deserted sea side resort called Ledge Point. We had a pretty shabby game of tennis, I’ll leave you to guess who won, and had a blowy walk on the beach under a hot sun. We have now traveled even further north on the first day of the month. Had a good day today seeing the Pinnacles, a huge collection of limestone stones standing clear of the sandstone surrounds (created by the fierce shore wind blowing away the sandstone to reveal the limestone beneath. The pinnacles are formed by leaching from the surrounding vegetation, which created a chemical reaction in the soil and topped each of these limestone pillars with a calcrete protective cap, resulting in erosion taking place around them. The vegetation’s roots then grew down between these pillars further fragmenting the soil and speeding up the process. Wow, Rock Evans my old Geography teacher would be so proud!)) It really was impressive and a much bigger area than we thought it would be, thousands of these things ranging in height from a couple of inches to about 15ft. Made for some good photos, with us gooning around in between them. Outstanding views as well, the deep blue of the distant sea contrasting with the white of huge sand dunes and the varying oranges of the pinnacles. After this we drove to the coast to have a cheese sandwich and then followed the road up to Dongara, this was the slower route but did take us along the coast. Unfortunately this wasn’t that attractive and you can see that man is trying to build on every bit of sea front land in WA, a running battle with nature which  man seems to be winning. If only they’d build sympathetic housing, like clapper-board beach houses instead of these huge concrete tin roofed monstrosities that are visible everywhere – quelle dommage!
Arrived in Geraldton and after short walk on beach to see a sunset, we have now settled into the van for the night. Cold last night (3 degrees C) and expected same tonight. One more push north tomorrow, when we aim for Monkey Mia and some dolphins (flippers crossed) – I’ll let Soph tell you all about it…all together now, fa loves pa!

PS – we were very pleased with ourselves tonight when we had a message from a lady saying one of our happy snaps of Adelaide had been shortlisted to appear in the SCHMAP tourist guide for that fair city.  Also Soph tonight found out that our blog had been quoted in the Simon’s Town (Cape Town) on-line tourist guide.  Check us out!