Perth post-Christmas trip: heading home

After eight days of sociability we were exhausted. I was looking forward to getting home, but Louka was reluctant to leave all her playmates. However, we weren't going to get home in four days, as the days are a lot shorter travelling East. Pandering to my lack of enthusiasm for dirt roads, Graham revised the route plan to include southern WA - Albany and Esperance - instead of the outback dirt road he'd originally planned. And instead of passing through Broken Hill and Cobar, we took the route through Mildura.

I have to say, after the weeks of dry, scrubby land-scapes in Perth and the Nullarbor, the southern route was delightful. Before we reached Albany the bush became denser, even (comparatively) lush. Just north of Albany I started to see gorgeous brilliant orange flowers on small trees beside the road. They belong to the West Australian Christmas Tree and are really common round the southern part of WA.

Near Albany ia Torndirrup National Park, with some spectacular rocky coastline. Signs warned of the dangers of being blown or washed off the rocks, so I kept a close I on Louka, who has a tendency not to keep to paths. The Gap was the most spectacular, a huge vertical split in the rocks into which the sea rushes with a great whooshing booming noise and the waves rushing up high in the air. We also drove round Frenchmans Bay to the Whaling Museum, but just played on the beach for a while.

Next day it was on to Esperance, a beautiful part of the WA coastline. Here there was green bush, bright blue sea and a cool climate. Actually a bit cold. We climbed the spiral stairs to the lookout tower then walked the Rotary track which included large expanses of strangely-textured rock.

Later we tried to walk out to the end of the ultra-long jetty, but it was only fenced on one side and Louka kept trying to climb the fence so we gave up about 2/3 of the way. But we did see the sea-lions swimming below the jetty and, on our return, another one sleeping in a bed of seaweed on the beach.

The next day it was back into arid country and we made it to South Australia. Graham got his wish to sleep beside the road. Actually it was a rest area, with tracks winding round for miles away from the road. Louka had fallen asleep by the time we got there.

We had issues with quarantine heading through South Australia. There was no quarantine at the border, so we thought it was OK to bring fruit into SA. Then we had to dump the fruit in a quarantine bin at Ceduna. We bought more at Port Augusta, then had to dump that at Mildura. The second lot would have been ok if we'd kept the receipt, but we hadn't known there'd be a second checkpoint. What a waste.

Next day we had lunch at Renmark. It was beautiful on the Murray River, with trees and grass and ducks. We went for an easy walk along the river, then headed onwards to Mildura for the night.




Mildura, also on the Murray River, also had trees, grass and ducks. The caravan park had fairy lights on all the trees and bushes.

Next morning we headed home, via the Blue Mountains. A quick phone call to my parents ensured a nice lunch was waiting for us at their weekender in the mountains. As we approached, the clouds gathered and for the last leg of our journey it was pouring with rain.