Posts for August, 2019

It finally dawned on us this morning that the countryside has changed over the past two days and we are now back in green country where there are wide farm fields of green and flowing water. The deserts and the dry salty coastal plains are no more. Unfortunately this change also signals that our adventure is winding down.

As we left our camping spot this morning we happened to see this Sea Eagle sitting atop a post. The scenic highight of today was a visit to The Pinnacles at Nambung National Park where one can walk and/or drive amongst these strange limestone blocks poking up out of the yellow sand.

Today was the last driving day of this adventure. Tonight we camped in a caravan park in Fremantle just south of Perth City. We will be in this caravan park or a nearby hotel until Sunday 11th when the next short non-driving leg of this adventure starts. Our time in Fremantle will be mostly chores such as cleaning our faithful troopy and catching up on family business. But we do plan one sightseeing day while in this area and will report on that when it happens.

The one last sighseeing adventure we had always planned to undertake during our wind-down in Fremantle was a visit to Rottnest Island. It is about 30 minutes from downtown Perth on a fast ferry and is famous for its population of Quokkas. These are small macropods (like mini kangaroos, approximately) about the size of a family cat and are the reason the island got its name. In 1696 Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh spent 6 days on the island and mistaking the Quokkas for large rats named the island 't Eylandt 't Rottenest ("Rats' Nest Island"). The current population of Quokkas is estimated at around 10-12,000 and they appear to be everywhere on the island; particularly where human visitors are likely to be consuming food. You will notice in the last few photos below that Nina had some difficulty eating her lunch without sharing it with a quokka. There is a $150 fine for feeding the animals.

The driving part of our adventure came to an end today when we returned our faithful 'troopy' to the guys at Waexperts.com.au. We were sad to say goodbye to the trusty vehicle, pleased to get it back to them without any last minute accidents or problems, pleased to share some of our adventure with the guys and sorry to say good bye to Taia and the team that have supported us so well.

We had always planned that our return journey from Perth to Sydney would be a train trip on the Indian Pacific, named because by crossing the Australian continent it joins the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This is a very popular journey and indeed we had to book our place on this train over a year before the journey date. It is also a bit of an unusual train journey in that it stops a number of times to provide the passengers with off-train excursions or activities. In that regard it is more like a cruise ship passage than a typical train.

We had a nice relaxing week in an Airbnb apartment, caught up with Nina's family, and took in some of the beach scenery around Freshwater. Then our Australian adventure was over and we prepared for the not-so-enjoyable 20 hour trek back to SEATAC and our "normal" life in the Pacific NW. Though of course there are already more 'trip' in the works.

Between February 2019 to August 2019 my wife Nina and I toured Australia's West in a Toyota Troop Carrier rented from WA Experts. The purpose of this article is to answer some of the why questions related to that adventure. Why Australia's West ? Why a Toyota Troop Carrier? Why rent? and Why WA Experts?