Carry on camping

Reading one happy camper's comment of how great Contos campsite down in Margaret River is because she'd 'never felt closer to nature' raised two quite different 'oohs' at Number 123 last week. One 'ooh' was a positive yay! clapping hands, how exciting! kinda i'm watching fireworks type of 'ooooooh', whilst the other was more of a short, terse, frowning 'ooh'. I think you can match the person to the reaction here....

So, needless to say, i was feeling slightly apprehensive about a weekend with no showers or toilets (there was a very smelly long drop toilet) with the potential of being bitten by poisonous snakes or trampled to death in my sleep by an unsuspecting hopping kangaroo who thought our tent was just an odd looking hedge. BUT, you know me, i don't like to whinge, i'm a trouper so on with the show... or.... i do like to whinge so i spent a couple of days muttering and moaning about how it was all going to go wrong... (hmmm, i really must unearth my adventurous self, i think she's got a bit lost) before we set off down south.

In fact we had a lovely time camping and we saw a possum and mother and baby kangaroos a couple of metres from our tent one morning and no snakes or spiders! Hoorah! The campsite was very basic and each pitch was quite secluded so apart from a couple of torches and a very full moon, it was pretty dark and on the second night the wind picked up so it got quite chilly. At this point I wouldn't recommend thinking about the Blair Witch Project as the trees blowing about were making some crazy shadows on the tent and I was convinced that there were bad things going on outside our tent (one definitely looked like a deranged man with an axe)... anyway, i closed my eyes so i couldn't see the shadows and luckily we made it through to morning. phew! (And i wasn't the only one to be a complete fraidy cat because R's sister only managed to get to sleep that night by holding onto an aerosol deodorant.

And the best bit about camping in the bush for me was setting up the solar shower and having a shower amongst the trees... so much fun! Oh, and lazing in the hammock. Yay for camping... although i'd still prefer to do it in a campervan than in a tent.....

Adios Bob!

In january we took the painful (*sob*) decision to scrap Bob. Poor Bob was a reliable old motor until he went wrong and then that was it. After some radiator issues and a trip to Autobahn (note to anyone - DON'T take your car EVER to autobahn. They might fix the problem you went with but invariably something else will go wrong after - from our experience anyway)... we decided that no more money could be spent on Bob and it would be better for him to go off and live out his old age on a lovely farm in the country with plenty of space to run around (that's where all the old scrapped cars go, isn't it?). So a man from 'Bombs Away' came and picked him off (i admit i did nearly cry... because i'm a sentimental fool or because we lost $2000... who knows)... Anyways, out with the old, in with the new... (new to us anyway)... the popular Subaru Outback (i think i there were 4 on our block at last count) ... the car R has been dreaming about owning since he saw some hippies driving one in the Hay on Wye (but that's another story)... RIP Bob!

Road trip!

Yesterday Sarah, Emily and I drove to the Pinnacles on a mini road trip! The Pinnacles desert is in Nambung National Park about 250 km north of Perth, so it was a pretty hefty drive for a day's activity but the roads were empty, save for a couple of road trains, so it was too easy. The roads were of the straight variety; one lane either side that stretch out ahead of you forever so you feel like you're driving to the edge of the world, and it was pretty hard to stick to the speed limit on such empty roads (of course I did though). The drive up was pretty green and we were wondering how we were soon going to be in the desert, but in the desert we ended up... bright orange coloured sand, and not much else, aside from the thousands of limestone pillars that are scattered across the desert. There's a 1.2 km circular walk you can do (no climbing on the pinnacles tho) or a 4km loop drive. We did both. It was surprisingly not that hot as there was a lovely breeze cooling us down but plenty of flies about to bug us.

Pre Pinnacles we had a lil' stop at Cervantes where the sand was whiter than white and the ocean was crystal clear. Post Pinnacles, faced with a low tank of petrol and the knowledge that there were no services for 70 km and a gas station selling petrol for $1.50 p/l 15 km in the other direction we opted to risk the 70 km to Lancelin. This choice gave me 30 mins of mild panic as i kept one eye on the petrol gauge whilst listening to my passengers kindly relaying stories of previous running out of petrol incidents BUT did save us a whole 5 cents a litre (they don't call me 'Cheapskates Fletcher' for nothing, y'know) when we eventually made it to Lancelin (ha! and the red light didn't even come on - what were we worried about). In Lancelin we stopped for refreshments and watched the kite surfers. 2 emus (in a field) and a few kangeroos ('sleeping' by the side of the road) later, we were back in perth. Yay for road trips!

little fishes

before christmas (and it's now february - that's how far behind i am on my blog!), we went to the aquarium up at hillary's. Hillary's is a big marina with shops and restaurants and stuff for the kids, including a lil' safe beach and water area. A bit concrete and busy for my liking but we checked out the very expensive plush boats for sale and picked out which one we'd be buying if we won the lottery. It was a hot sunday and it was packed with people, but we escaped to the aquarium, where we sneaked dad in at senior citizen's price (i stood back for this one and let the boys do that). R was snap happy and took loads of pics as we wandered round on the underwater conveyor belt walkway tunnel. i liked the turtles best - so cute! We then had lunch (chicken and mayo sandwich) and i was violently ill for the next 4 days. In the last photo, you can see the smoke in the distance from a bushfire.

messing about on the river

In November my dad came to visit. He had 4 days in Singapore before arriving in perth for 2 weeks. I had a lot planned but was then struck by some weird stomach bug that lasted a week (Dad managed to entertain himself one day and found his way to the casino, where of course he came back with more money than he started with). And then Bob (the car) died scuppering some of our plans. However, the bikes were the saviours and most days were spent cycling and exploring. Dad did amazingly well, having not been on a bike for probably about 15 years. He was a bit shaky at the start but by the end of the trip was a pro and I admit to not going easy on him!

We had an awesome evening out sailing on the Swan River, thanks to one of Rusty’s work colleagues. We went out on this tiny boat and spent a couple of hours admiring the expensive river side properties and we even saw a dolphin swim by! How cool is that!

happy new year! (only 18 days late)

I can’t believe it’s already 18^th January! 2010 flew by in a flash and now it’s already mid-january. The last couple of months have been busy, busy, busy and my blog has totally fallen by the wayside. Hey ho, back on it now, hopefully.

2010 was an interesting year. The last few months of 2009 were pretty sour work wise and I was glad to see the end of it for that reason. 2010 however was a pretty big year - the year I left my job to pursue an adventure in Perth, Australia with a man I’d only been dating for 4 months before he left. Well, you know, sometimes you have to seize these opportunities! So now 7 months later, I’m not working, I refer to myself apologetically as ‘just a housewife’ (I must stop doing that) and I’m enjoying a sunny climate on the other side of the world. Hooray!

We saw in the New Year quietly with a yummy curry at our fave Indian restaurant with our friends, J and T, followed by a few drinks on the veranda afterwards. We were heading off to Southbound festival New's Year Day so we didn't want to be too bleary eyed. The last few months have been so fantastic, I’ve been so happy and in love and have high hopes for 2011! It hasn’t started the best however! It’s been v. stressful here househunting, particularly initially without a car, Southbound festival (the less said about that the better!) And it’s been so, so, SO, hot. But stresses over, and now the New Year can properly begin. We’ll be moving next week and I’m excited as this will be our first home together. We’ve bought a Subaru Outback (it’s an All Wheel Drive) so we’re planning some driving trips to see more of Australia. I’m getting stuck into a new volunteering project which I’m looking forward to. I continue to forge good friendships this side of the world and two friends will welcome babies into the world this year (congratulations Dan and Emily and Jon and Tamara!) I think it's gonna be a good year!

crazy weather

So Tonica joined us for 3 weeks in WA and I think they've had the biggest mix of weather conditions ever. It was baking hot for their first couple of days, reaching up to 40 degrees and some hot nights when we had to put the air conditioning on. Down south they said it was positively mild, only mid-teens and then back to Perth, we've had rain, lots of overcast days, it's been humid and many, many clouds. Now the weather seems to have evened out into proper perth weather - clear blue sky, no clouds and sun, which is perfect for my dad as he's happiest when it's sun, sun, sun.

At the weekend we went up to Trigg beach. the water's quite rough here, there's lots of rocks and parts of it are off limits for the swimmer but the ocean was full of surfers waiting on their boards for the perfect wave.