It was an early start for the four of us this morning as we were going for a drive south of Mandurah to a small seaside town called Bustleton. The reason for the early dart was the fact it would take us over 90 minutes to drive there. Remember, I mentioned in a previous post that Western Australia is a big place - we were going to find out.
Not too long into the journey we noticed many of the trees at the side of the road were blackened or completely destroyed. Our hosts explained the summers bush fires had closed off great swathes of the countryside as flora and fauna had suffered as a result. Not connected but the first bit of road kill we saw was a kangaroo!
Eventually we arrived at our destination, a tidy, practical looking town sitting on the edge of the Indian Ocean with one stand out feature - the longest wooden framed traditional pier in the Southern Hemisphere. Not an accolade the town takes lightly. A community led project resurrected the rotting structure a few years ago to give the town back not only a pier but an educational and scientific marvel.
You take the train and ride the kilometre and a half out to almost the end. A guide meets you and you're taken down a circular staircase to an observation gallery under the sea, the sight that greets you is quite surreal and spectacular.
The project has opened up a vast knowledge of information both for the casual visitor like us and schools, universities and marine biologists. Indeed, as we watched, a researcher was swimming around below us, we got a thumbs up from her. It had truly been worthwhile: the long drive to get there.
Later we visited a couple of wineries, now we're talking. The great thing about wineries in Oz is they give you a sample of their whole range, great for us but frustrating for our driver Jim. Most of them are truly wonderful places where you can not only sample the goods but can have a meal as well, so civilised.
On our return, and we cut our day short, we all got an early night, not until however we'd visited the local drive-through bottle shop. Now that is the future! The reason for the early light out was our impending early morning drive to Perth Airport, we'd booked ourselves on a three day break to Sydney, I know, a bit extravagant for backpacking on a pension, but what the hell! We'd never probably get the chance to be this near to Sydney again without chronic jet lag so when Jim put the seed of an idea into our heads we let it grow into reality.
Arriving at Perth at four in the morning, in the rain suddenly didn't seem such a good idea. Once in the terminal though and with a very smooth self booking on system via our carrier Virgin Australia we were soon in departures getting that first caffeine fix.
Our flight was just over four hours long, made quicker by the inflight entertainment and even though there were clouds over Sydney the heart jumped as the bridge and the opera house, in fact the whole harbour came into view, and what a view it was. A short taxi ride into town took us to the Travel Lodge just a stone throw away from the main station, we could have taken the metro if we'd known. Bags were quickly dropped and after a navigation malfunction we were heading into the tourist areas.
Sydney is in fact quite an easy city to navigate, it's also not as densely populated as let's say London - you can get around fairly easy. It did help that our hosts had been here before, soon we were turning the corner into Circular Quay and that view we all remember from the 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony and every New Years Eve. Ok, there weren't any fireworks, or cheering revellers but the impact was just as impressive - my camera went into overdrive.
That view alone had made the journey worthwhile and there was still more to come. In the meantime we ended up walking back to the hotel for a quick freshen up before Jim booked us a taxi to Darling Harbour (the other one) and we made happy hour in one of the many eateries that flank the waterside. The place positively shimmered with light, the illuminated high rise of the business sector making a great backdrop as we walked round, with ease I might add, once again a relaxing time.
Bed was now calling all four of us, stuff walking anymore, we'd already covered over 10 miles on foot that day and Jim used his new Uber app to hail us a taxi. It had been a long day, tiring just with the flight, never mind the adrenalin rush of being in Sydney - what wonders would tomorrow bring? What indeed!
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