Perth and WA

Hello, from my first blog in Australia

I have only been here a week and it seems like an age, as I have done and seen so much

Got here last Thursday afternoon, after 17.5 hours of travelling. For anyone who wants to come to Oz, use Qantas - they are brilliant, such high quality customer service and for someone who has mobililty issues especially when flying, they could not have been better (they are even better than Virgin and United!).

To leave cold sunny London and to get via hot humid Singapore to VERY hot dry Perth 17.5 hours later was a bit of a shock to the system. Apparently this has been their hottest November in years. In Perth Friday it got up to 37degs C - I didn't mind as I slept until midday Friday!!!

Friday afternoon: Fremantle. What a lovely little place. Full of old buildings, one storey high, painted all different bright colours, narrow streets, cafe culture. "Old" churches in the English style of steeples, balconied houses (like in New Orleans) and then the first view of the Indian Ocean at the port, into which my cousins came in 1970. A nice touch was that as we left the quayside, a tall ship sailed out on a training voyage - kinda reminded me of the sailing and immigration history of the place.

Sunday: went up country to Bindoon to see other cousins. Countryside very brown and dry, white bark on trees, palms, blackboy trees which look like they have a very large shaggy hat on the top of a short stumpy trunk. Bindoon is SMALL - and most probably a farming community - it seems a long way from anywhere, but is only 1.5 hours from Perth

Monday: Picked up hire car. Own wheels at last, freedom of the open road, where they also drive on the left and so I don't have to "mirror-drive" as in the USA!! Headed south on the freeway (no traffic Qs!). Stopped at Busselton and walked 1km out on the jetty. Very windy, wooden slats on the walkway, deep blue/green water below, didn't want to fall in or lose the cameras. Lots of photo opportunities. Full on sunshine and VERY hot. Stayed the night at Harwoods Cottages - a bit expensive but such luxury. Well a girl has to have a bit of luxury sometime! (as the rest of the aocomodation is in YHAs!)

Tuesday: Cape Naturaliste lighthouse - small size, bright red door, facing the Indian Ocean. Fascinating history, very dangerous job for the keepers. Unfortunately didn't see any whales although this is peak season for them. Had lunch on Bunker Bay beach, fresh mango, fresh bananas. Dug feet into deep soft white sand, paddled in the water, it was actually warm! PM: went to Ngilgi Cave (pron: Nilgi). Amazing rock formations and acoustics, hard work climbing up and down the rock and wooden steps in the stifling, humid atmosphere down there, but worth the visit. Spent the night at Augusta Baywatch YHA: paid for a dorm room, got a room to myself for $21 - can't be bad. Very comfortable.

Wednesday: up early to another sunny day. Went to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse - boring compared with the other one. But also visited the Petrified Waterwheel, facing directly south, which has been turned to stone over the years. Lovely setting, I was the only one there (again!). Wednesday pm: LONG drive to Pemberton and Northcliffe, and down to D'Entrecasteaux cliffs. Never seen any cliffs like them - they are limestone, eroded into lacy formations, very holey - hard to describe, but with the backdrop of the deep blue ocean and cloudless sky, they were beautiful. Of course I got assailed by flies walking on the clifftop, but the strong wind helped to keep them away.

Saw a sign to Salmon Beach. Was the ONLY person on a beach 3 miles long and about half-mile wide. The sand squeaked under my feet,was deep and white, and the rollers and surf threw themselves onto the beach, one after another, one into another, swirling round and round. I walked westwards to 3 bits of eroded cliff stuck into the beach, and stayed there for the whole afternoon- sunbathing, getting blasted by sands in the strong winds, and then playing in the waves - getting chased up and down the beach, being swept off my feet, taking photos. It was FUN and that has been lacking for a long time. The sun poured down, the insects buzzed in the vegetation, and the birds whirled overhead - and remember I had this all to myself!!!!

Wednesday night: Pemberton YHA - a complete dump. The least said the best. I got out as soon as I could Thursday am.

Thursday: Long drive to Tree Tops Walk. Terrifying 40 metre (not 40 ft as I told Col!) walkways above the Tingle Trees forest. Birds eye view interesting, but I found the boardwalk among the roots and undergrowth to be more interesting. The roots grow out and then hollow out as the trees grow. I could stand in one root space and the top was towering about 3 ft above me.

Long drive to Williams Bay (heading east all the time). Unfortunately the weather had deteriorated to a cloudy and HUMID day and so the colors of the bay were muted, but the rock formations (esp in Elephant Cove) were incredible. Granite masses, eroded in onion-ring erosion patterns, colored deep reds, browns and oranges, huge masses of rock which could be easily walked on, and explored right to the edge of the ocean. The weather made the swell of the sea and waves higher and I could kinda imagine what it would be like on a stormy day.

Last bit of driving to Albany (pronounced Al-bany and not Awl-bany). Very sweet old town - the first place settled in WA. Old buildings, a bit like one's image of Wild West towns in the USA. Bayview YHA -highly recommended, old building, well appointed, run privately and therefore looked after.

Late pm: went to see The Gap (25m sheer drop from top to bottom) and the Natural Bridge - again masses of granite, but in blocks this time. Apparently these rocks can be exactly matched to some in the north coast of Antarctica - part of old Gondwanaland and split due to continental drift (a bit of geomorphology lesson for you there!) The scenery is mind-blowingly beautiful - grey, pale coloured granite, deep blue and green sea, surf crashing onto the rocks, spume flying everywhere, booming of the water as it is forced between the cliffs of The Gap and the swooshing of the spume/bubbles/surf as it hits the rocks at ehd butt end of The Gap. Walked out to right the edge of the drop and wow - the views were stunning. Huge masses of cliffs - never seen anything like it. With the setting sun in the SW sky, and the haze due to the spray I felt very lucky to see this - and yes, once again I was the only one there!

Friday morning: it's raining :(, with a little bit of blue sky coming over :). Plans uncertain for today, as I am due up in the Stirling Ranges mountains tonight. Might stick around town for a while, and then mosey on up there (only about 50 miles to drive). Back to Perth via Wave Rock and Hippoes Yawn tomorrow, and so ends my first week in WA.

BTW: I have also become an Auntie too, baby boy born the day I got here. Everything going well.

See you next week after my trip north to Exmouth.

GT: I will email as soon as I can.
Col: text me

Bye for now

Leaving work

I have just left both my places of work.

I would just like to thank each and every one of you for your best wishes, cards and gifts. I will miss you all, but will be back next year refreshed and ready to go

Explore. Dream. Discover

To quote Mark Twain, brilliant American writer:

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails

Explore

Dream

Discover

....and that is exactly what I intend to do!!!

Blog re-opened

Dear everyone

I have been persuaded to reopen my blog as my travels begin next week.

I look forward to recording my experiences here and hope that you enjoy reading them

Bye

Due to various reasons there will be no more blog on my career break.

Email me if required and I will endeavour to reply when possible

India visa

As I am going to India (March-April) I have to have a visa for entry. Due to bureaucracy this is only valid for 6 months from the date of issue so I had to get it yesterday

OMG - what a lot of worry and time taken over this. I had been sent a newspaper cutting indicating that as postal applications had been stopped, all visa applications have to be done in person. There were warnings that people were q'ing all night, but still not getting a visa for travel the next day etc etc....

So .... Monday I got up at 4.45 a.m. to get the 5.30 train. Got to India House in the Aldwych, London at 7.30 and already the queue was about 500-strong - my heart sank as I walked along it, past the Indian flag to well beyond the central entrance of the imposing 19thC building, and joined the end of the Q. Even 10 minutes later, when I looked back, at least 30 people had joined the Q. To each other, we expressed doubt that we would get a visa today. The line shuffled forward a few paces every so often, I think as people left the Q, and I got colder and colder - the rising sun was not on that side of the building and the air temperature was about 4deg C! At last the doors opened at 8.30 and the line moved quickly. It split into 2, one for visas and one for Indian passport applicants.

At the bottom of the steps, officials were giving out Q cards. Mine was #626, but a kind lady gave me her spare ticket #581 later, and I was told to come back at 11.00. Two hours, and a long Starbucks coffee later (to warm me up) I decided to go back (rather than wait till 11.00). With no checking of ID or my Q-number, I was just waved through, into the tiniest basement (about 30m x 25m) , all old wood panels, high wooden counters, scuffed flooring, a bedlam of noise and foreign tongues.

There was no-one there to explain what to do, but by talking to both British and Indian people, I worked out we had to watch the number ticker, the associated counter number and then leap forward to ensure that your number was not missed and the official would go onto another person! I sat down when the numbers were at 280!

I watched the officials - one was a miserable guy, around 35-ish, full of his own importance and shouting and gesticulating to the poor applicants on our side of the glass, rejecting their forms if anything was wrong, rejecting official paperwork if it suited him, and sending the applicant on their way to the enquiries counter (a tiny 2ft square hatch around which at least 10 people crowded at one time). The other female official at counter 4 was quiet, and just would not engage in conversation - just did her job, and it must have hurt to crack her face into a smile. I got her at 12.30 pm and the actual processing of the form took about 2 minutes! All that waiting and worry for 2 minutes work! But this was not the end of it.

My passport was taken away and whisked into a back room somewhere. I then had to go along to Window 7 and stand, crushed by many people much taller than me, waiting for the passport to come back again. The young, very pretty girl behind the glass spoke into a microphone to call out numbers totally at random, according to how quickly the passport had had its visa attached to it. So we went from 626 to 230 to 524 to ... 581 at last

While waiting there, I heard behind me a very posh voice "oh I can't believe how disorganised this all is, it's a total disgrace, something should be done". Someone turned round to her and said "This is India - it will be much the same when you get there" and I agreed that anyone travelling to India (and even doing the preparations) should have an open mind on it and not expect services like we are used to.

Anyhow, only a 10 minute wait and my number 581 was called - yeeeaaahhh I had got the visa. A computerised page stuck into the passport, with a round green stamp, which gets me in and out for 6 months on multiple entries. I was so relieved .... and really tired! It was now 12.50 and I extricated myself from the basement and out into the fresh air.

Such is Indian bureaucracy .... anticipating the visit is exciting and I can't wait to get going.

Highly recommended

Part of the (boring) preparation for travelling is to ensure that all your documentation is in place. In the past (this makes me sound old!) this would be paper tickets and paper copies of passport, drivers licence, etc etc

Now I must highly recommend a new system of document records: http://www.myonlinesafe.com/index.aspx is a secure depository of electronic versions of travel documents. You sign up to it with your own username and passwords and then basically scan in images, and put in details of all the important docs you need. Wonderful invention!

2 weeks to work - it can't go quick enough now....