It was 35C at 10:00am when we got out to see a rock formation called “Nature’s Window” at Kalbarri, Western Australia - a hole carved in rock by wind and water erosion, overlooking the Murchison Gorge. As usual, Trav went bounding along over rocks, jumping on every boulder he could find, while Diana sweltered under the heat and struggled to keep up. Toward the end of the walk down to Nature’s Window, there was a rock ledge about a 18 inches wide to walk on, with a 10 foot drop off the side, whereupon you’d probably bounce once, roll off the ledge you just landed on, and plummet 100m to your death. Trav ran along the ledge, and then came back to persuade Diana to come out with him, which she did, although the perspiration running off her had more to do with stress than heat at that point. Not a big fan of the 18″ ledge, Diana made it without any problems, and we took a couple of happy snaps on the *shady* side of the formation.

There was a sign at the beginning of the walk telling people to wear good walking shoes, because of the rocky ledges and associated danger. What surprised us was that people felt that thongs (or “flip flops” for you Yanks) constituted “good walking shoes” and we even saw one woman in a pair of fashionable scuffs, where if she stepped on uneven ground, the shoe would grip, but her foot would slip out of it. Oh well - we guess that if you are in the middle of a National Park, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest capital city, wandering down a rocky ledge in 35C heat, you might as well be trendy.

SPOTD? Yes, we have a winner!

Categories: SPOTD
No Comments »

Courtesy of some extremely vocal cockatoos, we were woken well before the alarm was set, so Diana cursed at them and rolled over, while Trav decided it was easier to just get up for the day. Wandering into town, he found a supermarket open at 6:30am on Sunday, which was an incredible surprise for such a small town. It was also damn good because he had a craving for bacon, eggs, sausages, and tomato for breakfast. However, seeing as it was a small town, the prices were unbelievably expensive, so he settled for some bread and vegemite and jam.

Seeing as we had simply driven through the National Park the previous evening, in order to get to our destination by dark, we actually ventured toward the tourism sites of interest this morning. Seeing as there is only one road to Kalbarri, we’d previously decided to see the park on the way out, rather than in, as it meant we would not have such a big day on Day Two. As we drove along an extremely rough dirt road, we came to a sign telling us the prices to get into the park. However, there was no ranger - only an automatic ticket machine that allowed you to pay the $5 fee to get into the park. It was based entirely on honesty, and presumably, someone would come and check the ticket on your windscreen at some stage, but we had the holiday pass, so didn’t have to pay. These ticket machines turned out to be at most National Parks, although we never saw anyone use them. Then again, we never used them because we had the pass, so perhaps everyone was as above-board as us.

It was 35C at 10:00am when we got out to see a rock formation called “Nature’s Window” - a hole carved in rock by wind and water erosion, overlooking the Murchison Gorge. As usual, Trav went bounding along over rocks, jumping on every boulder he could find, while Diana sweltered under the heat and struggled to keep up. Toward the end of the walk down to Nature’s Window, there was a rock ledge about a 18 inches wide to walk on, with a 10 foot drop off the side, whereupon you’d probably bounce once, roll off the ledge you just landed on, and plummet 100m to your death. Trav ran along the ledge, and then came back to persuade Diana to come out with him, which she did, although the perspiration running off her had more to do with stress than heat at that point. Not a big fan of the 18″ ledge, Diana made it without any problems, and we took a couple of happy snaps on the *shady* side of the formation.

There was a sign at the beginning of the walk telling people to wear good walking shoes, because of the rocky ledges and associated danger. What surprised us was that people felt that thongs (or “flip flops” for you Yanks) constituted “good walking shoes” and we even saw one woman in a pair of fashionable scuffs, where if she stepped on uneven ground, the shoe would grip, but her foot would slip out of it. Oh well - we guess that if you are in the middle of a National Park, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest capital city, wandering down a rocky ledge in 35C heat, you might as well be trendy. Stupid Person Of The Day? Yes, we have a winner!

We decided it was too hot to walk the 3km loop to see the other sights, which was a bit of a pity, but that’s what we get for going in the middle of summer, I guess. One of the sights was to overlook the river though, and the river was extremely low, so it would not have been as impressive as at other times of the year.

The drive to Monkey Mia was relatively uneventful, with the exception of the animal life. Because the road is slap-bang in the middle of nowhere, it is essentially the outback, as featured in all those beautiful images of Australia in magazines and tourism brochures. The vegetation was sparse but green. The sand was a rich, deep red colour. The sky was a vivid blue, without a cloud. It all seemed very deserted, yet at the same time, it felt as though we were in the REAL Australia, and it was very beautiful because it was so harsh.

We saw some emus wandering in a paddock only 50m from the highway, so pulled over to have a look. Our only sightings of kangaroos were the large piles of skin and bones alongside the highway. Two things surprised us about the roo roadkills:

1. There were not as many as we’d expected.
2. They were left there so long that often it was just a pile of bleached bones.

The latter detail surprised us a little more when we got further south. Out in the deserted region of the road we were currently driving in, we could understand it would be impossible for a truck to come along and clear off all the dead roos. However, when we got back to “civilisation” by about Day Six, we were still finding giant dead bodies by the roadside. We should have thought that the council rates would have covered the removal of dead roos from roads, but apparently not…

The final town on the highway, at the turn-off to Monkey Mia is called “Overlander”. The town is a petrol station. 50km previous to it, there was a town called “Billabong” which was also a petrol station. No other structures were visible, except the dwellings of the station owners. Nonetheless, each place was marked on the map as a town-sized dot, which seemed a little high as a rating, but then, when you get 800kms north of Perth, petrol is all you need in a town.

One other aspect of being so far from major centres is that the trucks tend to be larger, in order to carry more freight from one site to another, rather than making more fuel-consuming trips. In Australia, these large trucks are called “road trains” and may have up to three to six trailers behind them. When one of these comes in the opposite direction on smaller roads, the car must pull off the road and stop, because the truck will run over the car in preference to losing control of such a large vehicle in the gravel on the side of the road. The average motorist follows this logic, but then, who wants to play chicken with a six-trailer truck?

Just as we entered the Shark Bay Heritage Area (1km from the Overlander “township”), we saw a large goanna, over a metre in length, running off the road. We were all hyped up then, thinking that we were going to see lots of fauna, but that was it for the next 150kms, with the exception of bugs that splattered nicely on the windscreen every so often.

We managed to get some radio once more - no nearby stations had meant the last 200kms were radio-free, and it allowed us to finally solve the mystery of the AM radio band. As you hit the seek button, it passes through the frequency 666. We’ve always thought that no radio station would be brave/stupid enough to go out on a limb and broadcast on “the devil’s number”, but this is not the case anymore. Carnarvon has a radio station that broadcasts on the 666 frequency, and was playing nice, boppy 50’s and 60’s rock and roll. Wait a minute - wasn’t that originally called the music of the devil by “squares” back then? Coincidence?

As we approached the resort, we began to catch glimpses of the ocean. To be perfectly honest, both of us were absolutely stunned to see that it looked not only like the brochures, but possibly better than the brochures. The water was such a vivid clear-blue colour, like shown around tropical islands with reefs, in tourist magazines. This water was crystal clear, the sand was a spotless, blinding white, and the sky still had not a cloud in the sky. The view was glorious, and it didn’t change from the time we entered the area, to the time we left, despite having different light conditions.

We planned to stay here for a couple of days, so checked into the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort, and pitched the tent. We did not realise until later what a bargain it was - a nice shady site with access to a free BBQ, fridges, toilets, showers, 30m to the tennis court, 50m to the shaded swimming pool and artesian bore hot tub, 70m to the calm, waveless beach that was so shallow, we could walk out about 80-90m from shore and still only be chest deep. I’ve never seen clearer water, with us being able to see every shell on the bottom, even at that distance from shore. All this for $7 per person, per day. Bargain!

Seeing as it was getting late after our swim, we cooked dinner, and relaxed afterward for about half an hour in the hot tub. A fantastic way to end the day that basically got us inspired to get rich quick so we could get a house with a hot tub in it and we could sit in it every day, not just when on holidays. Anyone looking to donate a hot tub to us is welcome to do so. We’d even accept it as an email attachment, although I think I’d have to check with the Uni IT people first, to make sure it would not crash the server…*grin*

Tomorrow is Dolphin Day - the reason we are here…

Categories: Travel, WA 1999
No Comments »

As we arrived in the midst of the Pinnacles, we got out of the car to take a photo or two.

The first thing seen by Trav was a naked man running through the Pinnacles. Perhaps he was trying to do an impression, although one could quite harshly suggest it was a rather unimpressive Pinnacle. Before Trav could grab the camera to record this incredibly surreal sight for posterity, the pants went back on, and the moment was gone. However, this man lives on in our minds as SPOTD for exposing his genitalia to not only the world, but the cancer-causing UV rays from the sun on a 38C day.

Categories: SPOTD
No Comments »

Awoke nice and refreshed to find that Diana had survived her first ever night in a tent unscathed by the various imagined dangers she had been worried about attacking her.

Driving out of Fremantle toward Perth, we proved that we had still to get our navigation/driving skills issue resolved. After following Diana’s directions for several kilometres, it was deemed by her that we were definitely on the wrong road. As we attempted to get back onto the right road, we found that the road we were on was probably the quickest road we could have taken anyway, although not the intended route. Diana proudly proclaimed the road no longer “wrong”, but instead, “the best road to take”. Trav has done this several times in the past in a desperate attempt to pretend he was not really lost at all, and it seemed odd to be on the other side of the quickly-deflating argument. Made Trav realise how silly he must have sounded on previous occasions.

Drove to the Pinnacles (~250 kms north of Perth), and followed an extremely corrugated dirt road in. This track was the first of many breaches of car hire rules. Well, technically it was not a breach of the rules - just that if we’d had an accident, we would not have been covered by the insurance policy because we were off a sealed road. Seeing as they charge $8 per vehicle to go and see the Pinnacles, you’d think they’d have fantastic roads, but the ranger explained they liked to keep them dirt so that the local native animals were able to wander unhindered.

It was about the only thing that she knew with any clarity, because any question on the Pinnacles was met with a blank stare and a statement to “read this brochure”. Apparently she was just there to collect the money, and not know anything about the National Park she was responsible for. When we were in the Pinnacles, there were some brown ones and some black ones. Quite obviously, the burning question of the day is what causes the colour difference. She didn’t know, and directed us rapidly to “read the brochure”. Ah well, we did find out she was from Geelong, so that explained a lot for us…

Another thing proven to us to be worthwhile (other than the brochure) was the use of the internet. Without having visited the Conservation And Land Management (CALM) department webpage, we would not have known about the existence of a “holiday pass” which entitled you to entry to every park in Western Australia for four weeks, as often as desired, for $20. There were no signs up saying we could purchase a holiday pass on the board of prices, and the CALM ranger seemed a little surprised we knew about it. We bought it because most parks charged about $5-$10 per car to get in, so the holiday pass was more suited to us, we felt. More on this in coming days…

As we arrived in the midst of the Pinnacles, we got out of the car to take a photo or two. The first thing seen by Trav was a naked man running through the Pinnacles. Perhaps he was trying to do an impression, although one could quite harshly suggest it was a rather unimpressive Pinnacle. Before Trav could grab the camera to record this incredibly surreal sight for posterity, the pants went back on, and the moment was gone. However, this man lives on in our minds as “Stupid Person Of The Day” for exposing his genitalia to not only the world, but the cancer-causing UV rays from the sun on a 38C day.

After leaving the Pinnacles, grabbed lunch in a town called Cervantes which presumably was put there for some other reason than to service tourists who came to visit the Pinnacles, but we could not work it out. Seemed like a coastal fishing village in some respects, so we presume that was it’s other role. We were actually quite impressed by one of the residents though - a 12yo girl walking down the main street in bare feet on a 38C day. The bitumen was melting in some places, and yet she was without shoes. Those looneys that partake of firewalking would have been impressed…

As an aside, the car we hired was officially named “George” today, because every car needs a name if it is to function correctly.

Just south of Geraldton is a small town called Greenough (”gren-uff”). The major feature of the landscape that impressed us was all the trees were lying down. Almost every gum tree grew up a couple of metres, then aimed back down at the ground once more. The shire logo is that of a tree lying down, and we presumed it was very specific to the area. Further investigation over the next few days unearthed the fact that the species of gum tree that grows in the area does not like the salt content of the wind coming in off the coast, only a few kilometres away. As a result, the trees contort themselves into a shape that minimises the amount of salt hitting them, which quite often means growing downward and away from the wind. Seems to me that evolution is just not taking the hint well enough, and perhaps those trees just are not meant to grow there.

Reached the Kalbarri turn-off about 6:00pm and began to drive through the Kalbarri National Park. In our experience, a National Park has always consisted of towering trees, maybe a waterfall, certainly a walking track through leafy surrounds. The Kalbarri National Park is just small twisted scrub, and not at all what we expected. At a rough estimate, Trav would have been taller than 70% of the plants growing in the park, so why anyone would take the local tourist bureau up on the “hike through Kalbarri National Park” idea is beyond us. Especially in summer when everything is deadish looking, although we’d not be surprised to go there in winter and see the same vegetation appearance.

Driving through the National Park, there were lizards all over the road because they were wanting to absorb the heat of the road. Out of the direct heat of the day, the lizards were after the warmth that came with the road, although none seemed to grasp the concept of when to actually depart the warmth and make for the relative safety of the bush as cars approached. One type of lizard - Thorny Devil - had a camouflaged appearance, and so it’s defence mechanism was to stand still. Might work quite efficiently against carnivores, but not with cars… We did see one at one stage that was not roadkill, so we pulled over and got out to take a look. We expected it to take off into the bush as we approached, but it stayed there quite happy to be photographed. Unfortunately, the photos did not turn out well due to Trav’s unfamiliarity with the new camera, so you’ll just have to believe us that we could put our hands within inches of it, and it would stay there.

Decided to try our luck with the coastal town/fish dinner theory once more, and went to Finlay’s Fish BBQ - apparently “the most famous tin shed in Australia”. I’d never heard of it, although Di thinks she saw it on a travel program once. After reading the prices, decided to settle for “steak and vegies”, which will come as no surprise to those than know Trav. Unfortunately the vegies turned out to be capsicum and onion in rice, which is not something Trav would eat. When one of the staff came to take away the plate, he questioned why Trav had not eaten the vegies. Trav pointed out that he was expecting vegies like potato, pumpkin, beans, corn, peas, carrots, etc, and not the rice mix. The staff member looked at him strangely and said “around here, that’s vegies, you know, vegie rice mix”. Apparently we should just have known that…*slapping oneself on the forehead*

The Kalbarri Tudor Caravan park was featured as a Big 4 Tourist Park. Basically, for those unaware, a park that is part of the Big 4 franchise has to be a damn good park, with shade, clean amenities, possibly a pool, tennis court or other activities that would allow people to go to the park and do stuff in the park as well as the local township. We think this park needed a re-check of the Big 4 status, due to their “mini-zoo” that was promoted in all the tourist brochures, and tourist radio stations. The mini-zoo apparently featured “kangaroos and talking cockatoos”. When we went to have a look at this menagerie, we found a rather neglected 4′x5′ aviary containing a corella that needed some serious beak trimming work for the health of the animal, three moth-eaten galahs with broken wings, 2 chickens, and a couple of cockatiels. No talking cockatoos. No kangaroos.

Update (20th Aug 1999) - The park is now under new management as a result of our complaint being one of many to the management of Big 4 Tourist Parks regarding that specific park. Whether it has improved or not is now unknown, but there are apparently more staff employed, and the state manager for the Big 4 organisation agreed with us about the poor quality of the ‘mini-zoo’ and decided that until chickens become classed as native parrots, it should not be a selling point of the park. It is indeed nice to hear that at least one organisation follows up on complaints.

The local pub was filled to capacity with the “Sport Fisherman’s Gathering”, so we decided to just go for a walk along the beach in the full moon. Oh, how romantic. After finding lots of shells, Diana sat down for a while and Trav dug a great big hole for people to fall into. Once Diana had tired of watching him dig, she faced the ocean once more, allowing Trav to dig just a little bit closer and a little bit deeper to Diana without her noticing until the sand began to collapse from under her. Unfortunately there was not enough speed of sand collapse, and Diana was able to escape the fate of falling bum-first into the giant sand hole. With all the extra sand now above the surface, Trav was able to sculpt a giant turtle, just before Diana jumped on it and squashed it flat. Oh well, I guess the romantic nature of a walk along the ocean under a full moon is wasted on us…*grin*

Onward to Monkey Mia tomorrow…

Categories: Travel, WA 1999
No Comments »

When we arrived at the hire car company in Perth and were filling out the appropriate forms to say that we were aware our insurance policy was null and void if we went off-road, on gravel roads, or if the atmospheric conditions included the presence of oxygen, one of the staff went to give the car a quick wash-down to remove road-grime from the previous rental customer. We should have thought that anyone paid to hire cars would be aware that when washing a car with a blast from a hose, it is usually best to close the vehicle’s doors. However, this was evidently not the case, and the driver’s seat had a large pool of water on it when he’d finished.

We decided at this point that it would be best to look at each day of the holiday and award one person every day with the SPOTD award. This award would be given to those members of society we encountered that failed to display intelligence in either their actions, words, or both. This man had taken the award within thirty five minutes of our arrival, so he set the standard early.

Challenging the rental car attendant for stupidity was the person behind the pricing policy of RAC maps. The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) of Western Australia is the equivalent of the RACV (for the benefit of those in Victoria) or AAA (for the benefit of those in North America). Road maps published by the RAC are available for $1.50 from RACV offices, and we had purchased one to help us plan our trip before we left. However, we decided to leave that map behind as our “thing we forgot to pack”, so had to buy another one over there. The same map, purchased in the state of publication, was $3.00 from the RAC offices or $6.00 from the WA Tourism Centre. How it could be produced, shipped across the country and sold for half the price in Victoria is beyond us, and we began to get concerned about the number of people that might be eligible for the SPOTD award.

Categories: SPOTD
1 Comment »

At long last, the big day arrived, and we were finally bound for Western Australia. After spending so long waiting for the trip to finally arrive from the day we purchased the flight tickets, we still managed to pack late the night before, and be in a state of panic as to whether or not we remembered everything.

With a time difference across the continent of 3 hours, it allowed us to catch the 7:00am (Melbourne time) flight, be in the air for four hours, and land at 8:00am (Perth time). The call for boarding came and it was then that we realised that the plane designed to carry 170 people was actually only taking 35 people, which meant that there was a strange emptiness to the aircraft. Still, as luck would have it, we managed to get the seats in front of the couple with three children under the age of 4 years old. The baby managed to stay quiet most of the way, and the oldest child was not too much of a hassle, but the mother trying to maneuvre herself and a child on the lap around made for some sudden seat jolts. We were able to move around if we wished, so it was not too bad anyway.

The movie shown in-flight was “Practical Magic”, which was somewhat annoying on the grounds that we had seen it at the cinema only the previous week. The upside was that we had won tickets to the movie originally anyway, so we had not forked out unnecessary cash. Seeing as it was an enjoyable movie, but not one to watch again, Trav got inevitably bored, and hassled the flight attendants for the colouring books given to kids. As soon as Diana saw the beauty of the dot-to-dot puzzles, she wanted her own colouring book as well, which meant it was lucky Trav had gotten two of them. Seeing as the logo of Qantas is a flying kangaroo, the colouring books were featured on a cartoon kangaroo with wings, called “Max Altitude”. We think Max might have been short for Maxine because “he” featured a pouch. Oh well, I’d prefer Qantas to be better at keeping aircraft in the air than being anatomically correct in their colouring books…

After finishing off all the puzzles in the colouring books, Trav got bored once more, so hassled the flight attendants again, to see if we could go to the cockpit and see where the action took place. Stayed up there chatting to the pilot and co-pilot for about 15 minutes, and learned all about how to fly a plane, so if anyone needs a pilot in the near future, Di and I can help you out now. No, really. Stop that sniggering.

When we arrived at the hire car company in Perth and were filling out the appropriate forms to say that if we were aware our insurance policy was null and void if we went off-road, on gravel roads, or if the atmospheric conditions included the presence of oxygen, one of the staff went to give the car a quick wash-down to remove road-grime from the previous rental customer. We should have thought that anyone paid to hire cars would be aware that when washing a car with a blast from a hose, it is usually best to close the vehicle’s doors. However, this was evidently not the case, and the driver’s seat had a large pool of water on it when he’d finished.

We decided at this point that it would be best to look at each day of the holiday and award one person every day with the “Stupid Person Of The Day” award. This award would be given to those members of society we encountered that failed to display intelligence in either their actions, words, or both. This man had taken the award within thirty five minutes of our arrival, so he set the standard early.

Challenging the rental car attendant for stupidity was the person behind the pricing policy of RAC maps. The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) of Western Australia is the equivalent of the RACV (for the benefit of those in Victoria) or AAA (for the benefit of those in North America). Road maps published by the RAC are available for $1.50 from RACV offices, and we had purchased one to help us plan our trip before we left. However, we decided to leave that map behind as our “thing we forgot to pack”, so had to buy another one over there. The same map, purchased in the state of publication, was $3.00 from the RAC offices or $6.00 from the WA Tourism Centre. How it could be produced, shipped across the country and sold for half the price in Victoria is beyond us, and we began to get concerned about the number of people that might be eligible for the “Stupid Person Of The Day” award.

We were planning to tent our way around the state, staying in caravan parks as we moved from town to town, and decided to go set up camp toward the end of the day, so we could go for a swim in the ocean afterward. We quickly found out that the people of Perth do not like to travel very far on public holidays, because the caravan park in Fremantle (28km from Perth) was filled. We were told that we would have to pay for 3 nights accomodation if we wished to stay, and that $45 for a patch of grass was not even a regular tent site, but instead, a section of nature strip right beside the road, and five metres from the toilets, because the park was that full. We simply went down the road to another caravan park which did have less shade, but also had plenty of room for us to set up. Admittedly, the first caravan park looked much better, and probably was, but if we were going to pay $45 for a patch of grass, it’d have to be damn comfortable grass. Perhaps I could spend more time of the PhD devoted to the development of comfortable grass, and rent it out to tourists wanting a good night’s sleep?

Went for a swim in the ocean by walking down the path for a very long “ten minutes”, which was the time told to us by the caravan park owners when we checked in. Basically, the walk was along the back of an industrial park, with car wreckers, steel suppliers, and other industry. Walking through this wasteland was a little concerning, on the grounds that we were walking a long way to get to a beach right beside an industrial park, bringing water quality issues up in our minds. We eventually made it to the beach after about 20 minutes in 38C heat, meaning we were VERY much in need of a swim by then. Trav doesn’t swim that much - read: ever - so Di was very impressed that he got in and swam around for a while. The water was not that bad in terms of pollution, and was actually better than we get in Melbourne anyway. Only problem was that Trav forgot the ocean was salty and swallowed a mouthful of it before he realised. Another candidate for Stupid Person Of The Day?

Given that Fremantle is a port town servicing Perth, we decided that we would seek out the services of a fish & chip shop, and sample some of the local fare. It was then that we discovered that nobody in Fremantle knows where their fish & chip shops are, because we ended up driving in circles for ages before we stumbled across one. Actually, there was not one, but three, in the section of road we eventually ended up in, but two of them were closed at 6:30pm, so they we presume this is the reason for Fremantle residents not knowing where they could buy a meal - the shops are already closed by meal times…

Went on a guided candlelight tour of the Fremantle Prison, although the candles actually turned out to be those small torches used by doctors to look into patient’s eyes. The prison was built in 1855, and was still used up until 1991, and frankly, as a prisoner, it would not have been a pleasant place at all. The cells were 4 feet by 7 feet, and the whole prison was constructed out of limestone rock, which would have been an oven in summer and a freezer in winter. Apparently it took about two weeks of hot weather to warm the prison cells up over summer, and from then on it was stifling. All windows had to be closed during morning inspection, and the prisoners were locked up from 4:30pm - 7:30am each day. They ate in their cells, basically lining up to get their food from the kitchen, then going straight to their cell. The only toilet facilities available to them - right up through it’s closure in 1991 - was a metal bucket that they had in the cell with them. Each morning, they would bring the bucket down to be cleaned, and each night, they would pick up a clean bucket as they were locked inside.

There were very few prisoners of note who were kept in the Fremantle Prison obviously, because they talked a lot about only one prisoner - Moondyne Jack - who was a notorious escape artist. They decided to keep him locked in a cell lined with jarrah wood, embedded with 6 inch metal railway spikes, so he could not dig his way out. He still managed to escape from the place though, because they had him smashing rocks in a corner of the prison and piling them up. Eventually the pile got so large, he was out of sight, and while the prison guard could hear him smashing rocks, he was actually smashing a hole in the wall and ran away.

The main problem they had with the tour was that our guide would take us around and show us the cell of Moondyne Jack, and tell us all the above information. As we continued on a little further, an actor dressed in convict rags jumped out and told us all he was the ghost of Moondyne Jack and then described the same story for us. It did not help in making it seem more realistic - just annoying that he did not give out any other details than we already had. You know what it is like when you take a tour of something, and you learn the same thing twice? Well, that’s basically what was happening the whole way around.

We went to the solitary confinement area, and were told all about the cells by the guard. After we entered the cells, an actor jumped out and told us all about the solitary confinement cells. The actor also told us all about the gallows, which we were to visit next, and when we made it to the gallows, we heard all the same information from the tour guide. A little bit annoying, seeing as there were about 140 years of history that could have been talked about, and the same stories kept being told to us…

After the tour, we went back to the caravan park to go to bed. We were extremely tired after the big day, with the time change throwing our stomach clocks into chaos, and we were ready to just sleep. As soon as we got into our sleeping bags, another camper decided that 10pm was the correct time to feed his kids, and while they were waiting for the meat to cook on the BBQ, they might as well entertain themselves with running races. First one to the line had to yell out so that he knew who had won the race. Great. Oh well, we were obviously more exhausted than we’d thought because we don’t recall more than two or three races.

On to Kalbarri tomorrow…

Categories: Travel, WA 1999
1 Comment »