Friday 9 May--Dongara to Denham

Waking in the Priory Hotel after 10 blissful hours of holiday rest (with visions of skimpies dancing in our heads), Nathan and I rose to explore Dongara/Port Dennison. These 2 towns divided by the Irwin River have merged to become the LOBSTER capital of the world. With this in mind, we went in search of the crawfish/lobster factory, which featured tours (and I hoped free tastings). But alas, the tours were no longer available to the public and Nathan and I settled for scones and coffee from the Port Store in Port Dennison. With a little coffee, Nathan was ready for playtime.

We wandered the marina, learning about the hundreds of shipwrecks that litter this part of the Australian coast. The sea floor is mostly sand--so the water is an amazing turquise colour, luring sailors into the hidden reefs that dot the coastline. The whole coast is named the Batavia coast after its most famous shipwreck, and really there are too many less notable wrecks to count.

Not all of the water is so beautiful, as we discovered the river estuary had turned the water into a less than appealing sewage colour. For some reason, this part of the town didn't make the brochures.

From there we explored the streets lined with 100 year old figs. With about 6 shops total, Nathan and I managed 3 major shopping purchases.

1) a new camp stove (we forgot a peice of our backpacking stove in the US).
2) a guide to free camping in WA, including our next destination
3) 2 books for the trip--in our hurry to leave, we hadn't packed junk fiction. This is unacceptable for a vacation.

With these essential purchases made, we hit the road. Just up the coast is Geraldton, where we stopped at the HMAS Sydney memorial. This ship lost 645 crew in a battle with a German boat in WWII. For the last 60 years, the location of both wrecks has been a hotly debated mystery. Then just weeks ago, the wreck of the HMAS Sydney was discovered. We agreed it would be a perfect time to visit Geraldton's famous memorial. The names are listed in black granite, a woman waits looking out to sea, and 645 silver seagulls arc over the memorial site.

Our next destination was a highpoint--a visit to the Hutt River Province. The Principality of the Hutt River Province seceded from Australia on the 21 Day April 1970. Rebelling after the control of wheat prices, this farmer on a large station in Western Australia, filed the necessary paperwork to become an internationally recognized principality. After buying numerous souveneirs, Prince Leonard graced us with a royal audience, and this message for Gretchen in Minnesota.




After the thrill of meeting royalty, the next 4 hours of travel zoomed by. We arrived in Denham (Shark Bay World Heritage Site) at 8:15--about 15 minutes after every restaurant in town closed. The proprietor at the Bay Lodge called the pub and got the cook to agree to stay late for us--but the only thing still on the menu when we arrived was.....fish and chips.

Following dinner, we decided to walk off 2 days worth of fish and chips along the waterfront. We didn't get far before discovering that Denham was hosting its Fishing Fiesta, 5 days of fishing with all categories of competition. AND Nathan without his pole. He didn't forget it in our frantic packing, but it couldn't fit in his tiny 4X4 without becoming an obstacle to getting in the front seat.

Without his pole, Nathan did what all frustrated fisherfolk do--walked up to other people fishing and asked them what was biting, what sort of bait they had, the weight of line etc. This interrogation led to our introduction to Gavin a garrulous tree-loper from Mandurah (about 10 minutes from one of Nathan's clinics.) In 20 minutes of conversation well-lubricated by XXXX beer and fishing stories, we learned about Gavin's grandfather's fishing record, his years of marriage, relationship with his children, childhood vacations in Denham, and more. It was "mateship"--the casual bonding of Australians in just about any situation. And it wouldn't have happened without fishing interrogation, I'll never be able to tease Nathan about his questionning again.

We didn't really get our after-dinner walk in, so we waddled off to the Bay Lodge making plans to get up early to burn off double fish n chips with a morning run. Secretly, I thought "running on vacation? Ha!" but Nathan promised he'd get up early. "I will if you will," I bargained.

Tomorrow: Denham, Off roading in Francois Peron National Park, and our free camp site.

(Holiday Blogs delayed!) Thurs 8 May

Nathan and I just returned from a fantastic vacation in the North West of Australia. Rather than try to cram all the cool stuff from our holiday in one overly long Blog entry, we've decided to replay our holiday delayed by about 10 days.

Thursday 8 May--
Work was frantic (as always), but more so with our impending vacation and the fact that I had been sick for the days before. I had promised Nathan that we would hit the road by 4 pm. I told everyone else I needed to leave by noon, in the hopes that we might actually get out the door on time.

While I was scrambling to fit 10 days work in 8 hours (I went in at 6 am!) Nathan had the responsibility of preparing for our road trip. He had new tires, a car service, upgraded his broken CD player, and packed the car with the items I had set out the night before. (Unfortunately, we forgot to pack CDs so with no radio for most of the trip we brushed up on show tunes and hymns).

He began calling at noon (are you ready to go yet? no--by 2pm.) At 2 pm (are you ready to go yet? one more call.) At 2:45, I actually left work to finish off the packing still making calls to my admin Annie (who is a saint) on my cellphone all the way home. We quickly grabbed Jake (for a trip to the Kitty hotel) and began our vacation.

After dropping Jake off, we managed to just catch rush hour traffic on our way out of Perth. Finally at about 5:00 pm, we were outside of the city, heading North into the Australian bush. Within 45 minutes, we began to relax and realized neither of us had eaten anything all day. We made a quick stop at the GinGin Hotel for a beer and classic fish and chips. While waiting, we chatted with the locals who were amazed that we were planning to drive another 3 hours after dinner.

You see, kangaroos are a lot like deer. They come out at dusk and linger along the roadside, waiting to leap in front of your car, in mass suicide attempts. Unlike deer, kangaroo eyes do not reflect your headlights, so you can't actually see them until you are within about 50 m of your bumper. Driving at night becomes a video game--trying to avoid the roos, and still keep a reasonable average speed. Most Australian's don't drive past 5 pm, its too aggravating with the potential loss of property and life. That's one of the reasons the locals thought we were nuts to grab our dinner and head for the car.

BUT, Nathan and I have not lost our habits of a decade of roadtrips together, and carried on to Dongara/Port Dennison another 2.5 hours along the highway. Dongara/Port Dennison is a seaside town, planted with beautiful trees, dotted with classic Australian shops. But, you can't really appreciate any of that after dark, so we went directly to the Priory Lodge Historic Inn. It is limestone and brick, with deep verandas to give shade from the Australian sun. The Inn was built in 1881, serving as a hotel, then nunnery, then girls school, then hotel again..

With this colourful history, it was rather shocking to enter the bar and discover the barmaid in "skimpies." This colourful Australian term means she was just dressed in bra, underwear and high heels, serving beer to the patrons. I can only imagine what the nuns thought. (of course, the nuns might have been more troubled if the male bar staff had been required to dress in their underwear and high heels.)

So not lingering long in the bar, we made our way to a reasonable room (nothing fancy, but clean) to rest up for the rest of our big vacation.

Tomorrow-exploring the City, and a trip to Shark Bay and Denham.