Chapter V - Perth, Bob, Margaret and Norseman
Our friend Bob came down on an airplane from Darwin and met us in Perth. At first I wasn’t all that sure that I knew him, but then he blew in my ears…..and I chewed his beard – yep, it was him all right!
It was a bit of a squeeze in the little H.o.W for all of us, but much warmer, just as well as the weather had turned quite cold and windy. I got the chance to wear my dark blue raincoat for the first time, I do look rather dashing as it has a pale blue lining and neck warmer and sets off my coloring rather well, even if I do say so myself.
For the first few days of being in Perth Carlin and I stayed in a rather high class motel for dogs as it was rather hot during this period. The rooms were lovely, shady and cool and the cuisine was excellent, but the best thing of all was when I went out to check the person in the next room it was our friend Marli the little Kelpie girl that we met in Broome, and caught up with in several other places too!
We were all so excited to see each other again. Of course the Kennel people didn'Annie and Bob went sightseeing in Perth and took a boat ride to a place called Rottnest Island. Annie showed me the photographs of some little creatures called Quokkas; I think I would have liked to have met them nose to nose!t know that we knew each other and were quite amazed at how we 'instantly' became best friends – Annie got the whole story when she came to pick us up.
When we all got back together again we went to stay in Fremantle for a couple of days as Bob has a grown up son who lives and works there. He is a chef at a Brewery/Restaurant where the manager is a very enlightened soul and has an outdoor eating area especially for people accompanied by their dogs; there are doggie day beds, water bowls and even some toys to play with! How good is that?
We stayed there on Grand Final night and it was interesting, with fire crackers and people walking around all night and lots of noise, none of us got a great deal of sleep!
Once we had said goodbye to Fremantle and Duncan (Bob’s son) we headed South, breaking at Mandurah for lunch, there were so many people there, it was all very trendy and Carlin and I were really not that impressed…..Maltese terriers with hair colour in, Pleeease!
From trendy Mandurah we traveled to a spot that had nearly been blown clear off the map only a few weeks before, Australind. We stayed in a lovely caravan park and Bob and Annie had tea at the local pub where the dinners were just so huge neither of them could finish and so we got the left-overs, yippee! At the pub some of the locals were singing Country and Western songs, they were rather talented too, even Carlin and I could hear in the H.o.W and we were wagging our tails in time with the beat!
Next morning we enjoyed a lovely run in a park by the river before wandering into Bunbury and checking out the Dolphin discovery centre, which was far more interesting and natural than Monkey Mia, and wandering around the town a bit for some socialization with the locals.
On the way out of Bunbury we took a stroll around The Maidens – a stand of extremely old and unique Tuart trees, so unique in fact as to be the only ones left in the world! I felt very privileged to be able to lift my leg on such a rare tree! They were really big trees too; I got a sore neck looking up to see the tree tops!
On too Busselton next -The weather had turned rather nasty by now but there was a lot to see and do in Busselton. Annie and Bob walked out to the end of a jetty that goes over 2 klms out into the sea. Carlin and I were not really happy about them going all that way out there, especially as it was so windy…what if they got blown off the jetty.
At the end there is an underwater observatory, one has to go down quite a few flights of stairs but on the way down there are windows and one can see what is going on under the sea! Annie said it was wonderful and the closest thing to a dive that she will ever be able to do. Bob used to dive a lot, but Darwin Harbour is very murky and divers cannot see far at all, so even he enjoyed it. As the weather had turned nasty we stayed at a motel for the night (we dogs had to stay out in the H.o.W though, still it was warm in there) Bob was not well though, he hadn’t eaten for a few days, he couldn’t sleep, and his good leg was giving him trouble.
The next day we traveled along the coastal route to Eagle Bluff – a lovely spot! We took a walk around the Lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste, then we headed down to the lovely Wine, Chocolate, and Cheese area of Margaret River, oh, did I mention they have a chocolate factory there too? There were no vacant motel rooms to be found anywhere in town, so we had to squeeze into the camper again. Bob went for a walk down to the main street and Annie took us to an oval to play, we got caught in a hail storm and the hail hurt my little head and there was thunder and lightening that scared poor Carlin to bits.
We went back to our H.o.W to warm up a bit and went to meet Bob, who had found a lovely Pub to have tea at as it was Annie’s Birthday a few days earlier so it was celebration time. Poor Bob was still feeling rather ill though and by the next morning he had decided that perhaps he should head back to Darwin, this upset Annie as she wanted him to come along to Geelong to see our little ‘home away from home’ down south that she had bought.
But after spending some time booking Bob onto a bus to Perth and a plane back to Darwin we did a bit more touring and then had to say our goodbye’s – we didn’t like that bit at all and we were a very sorry and sad trio that evening I can tell you. (As it turned out it was just as well that Bob did go home when he did, as he was a very sick man and ended up in Hospital again for a few weeks).
Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you that Carlin and I caught up with our little Kelpie friend ‘Marli’ here again too; she was staying with her people at the same Caravan Park, what a happy reunion that was!!
Now it was just the 3 of us again as we headed to Augusta which is away down in the South West corner of WA, there is another lighthouse here, Cape Leeuwin, and a walking trail that we rather enjoyed despite the blustery wind and a bakery that made the yummiest pasties, mmm!
We then had quite a long driving day, heading towards a place called the Valley of Giants – no, it’s ok, don’t be scared dear readers, not giant Whippets, giant trees! The drive there was just lovely with some pretty little towns to drive through, some nice short breaks for a little bit of ‘ripping’ and then we reached the Giants. Only then did it dawn on Carlin and I that Annie was actually going to walk among the tree tops. Way up high off the ground – we were not quite so sure about that idea, we were not allowed to go up there, which was quite handy really as Carlin would not have liked it at all and to tell you the truth it even looked a little bit scary to me too. We both got pains in our necks trying to watch Annie and make sure she didn’t fall off.
She didn’t fall and had a wonderful time up there - then we were off again! We drove into the next town along the way (Denmark), just as the sun was going down. But, alas, no dog friendly caravan park, so we back tracked a short way to a sort of roadside rest area just out of town and made ourselves comfy, but then some one pulled in behind us with headlights on and we thought we were going to be moved on, but no! it was the farmer and his wife, they had seen us pull in and had come to ask us if we would like to camp in their driveway – some people are so very nice! We moved on up to their driveway and before you could say ‘tea time’ we had met their Labrador and their farm dogs and their elderly little cross bred fluffy dog and shared a cuppa and a yarn with them all! What a lovely way to end the day.
The next day started in the same way, a shared breakfast with our new friends, then after the goodbye’s it was on the road to Albany. It wasn’t too long a drive, so we had a good look around Albany during the afternoon. We camped a little way out of town by another beach with even more crashing waves, then back into Albany early in the morning for a whole day of doing the sightseeing thing, checking bakeries etc and reading up a lot on Whales too!
Then it was off on the road towards Esperance. We camped in a rest area with a really big space to play in, which was lovely. There were 3 chaps there already all in Toyota Coasters and Annie had a bit of a chat with them. They were living on the road all the time and really enjoying retirement. The next day was an easy run into Esperence for a 3 night visit. It was here in Esperance that I have to admit that I blotted my copy book, BIG TIME – we were on the beach enjoying a lovely play when away in the distance a fairly frisky horse suddenly appeared from the sand hills…..I (gulp, gulp) just could not help myself. I ran off after the horse, luckily the rider was experienced and stayed on, the horse got a bit of a fright to see me racing up….Annie called me and I (gulp, gulp, gulp) ignored her 2-3 times, she was very cross with me.
Annie was just trying to get my lead clipped on when the rider said ‘oh, don’t worry; I’ll just take off down the other end of the beach’. Annie was trying to tell her that I was very fast and would catch up easily, when the horse and rider went galloping off and I am ashamed to say, so did I! This time though I did go back to Annie as soon as she called me.
Oh yes, I remember those Boab prison trees at Derby, I haven’t seen any down here, but Annie was in the mood to find one and put me in it for a very l- o- n- g time, I think.
The rest of our stay was very pleasant and we enjoyed an alfresco dinner on our last night at a lovely café where they look after dogs too, so that we could sit almost beside Annie while she ate her yummy tea. Which was very handy, as she did drop a few morsels of food here and there and, well one cannot leave it to the staff to clean up, can one?
Tomorrow we are heading for Norseman and then across the Nullarbor!
What a windy and wild trip it was up to Norseman. Once there though we took time out for a wander around and a few photographs In Norseman there are a couple of statues, one to honor Norseman, the horse who lent the town his name and another collection of metal cut out camels, situated on a roundabout in the centre of town. Annie decided they were both ideal photo sites so Carlin and I posed, firstly with Norseman the horse. We then walked around to where the camels lived on the roundabout.
A funny thing happened whilst we were doing this photo shoot. A tourist bus went around the roundabout several times.
The Bus was filling up at the roadhouse when we went to top up and Annie asked the driver if he had forgotten where he was going! No, apparently all the dear old things on the bus wanted to see ‘the sweet little dogs having their photos taken’ – They meant none other than US!
We had a spot of lunch and headed off out of Norseman. We camped for the night by a dry lake bed. Annie took us for a run and a play. As we were playing another campervan pulled in and the three young European lads in the van came out onto the lake bed to play soccer. Carlin and I decided to join them, they liked that as they all had dogs at home and they were missing them. We had such fun!
In the morning there was a quiet knock on our campervan door and the boys were there to ask, very politely, if we boys could ‘come out to play again?’, so we did. Carlin and I could not understand what they were saying most of the time, but they gave us lots of pats, so we thought they were good sorts.