Cervantes to Geraldton

Day #143 February 3rd, 2009

Today we woke up after a somewhat windy night sleep, around 8 AM to check out for 10 AM. We didn’t really love the caravan park and were ready to leave. We went back down to the beach and took some pictures of the beach and the ocean, Jenny collected some shells and then we were off to the small visitors centre – located in the news agency. The lady there gave us some ideas of what we can do around the area in addition to the Pinnacles. The Pinnacles are thousands of limestone pillars, up to 4 meters tall, which form the Pinnacles Desert. They have been carved into these shapes from the wind over millions of years. The moonscape scenery is made by the pillars rising out of the stark desert landscape of yellow quartz sand. It is a favourite subject for photographers. We drove to the Nambung National Park; they had a loop about 3 km long, winding through the Pinnacles Desert. The day was beautiful, blue skies and a few fluffy clouds. We took tons of pictures as we couldn’t believe how beautiful the area was. The Pinnacles were as far as the eye could see. Far off in the distance were beautiful white sand dunes and the ocean to one side. Some of the Pinnacles were small and others were up to 3 to 4 meters tall. We took some funny pictures; some of us jumping off them, one of Jenny peering through a hole and one of Ross pretending a Pinnacle was a giant wanker! After driving through the designated loop and stopping to take pictures whenever we wanted to, we headed to the information centre. We checked out the information centre and then it was time for lunch. For lunch, we found this beautiful little spot called Hangover Bay. We were blown away at how beautiful it was; a spot with a picnic table and BBQ area over looking the bay and white sandy beaches. There were sand dunes behind us and amazing parkland all the way around, making unreal 360 degree view for lunch. We enjoyed our packed lunch and strolled down the beach before driving to the next spot. We were told to check out the stomatolites and Lake Thetis. We couldn’t find the stromatolites, due to poor signage, but walked up a large very steep staircase to a lookout over looking the ocean on one side and Lake Thetis on the other. We drove to Lake Thetis next, it didn’t look very exciting so we left to find the infamous stromatolites…we drove all the way down this dirt road but it just kept getting more and more narrow – only to have it open up to the ocean! With you guessed it, no stromatolites. The view was very nice but we were determined to find the stromatolites. We drove all the way back and decided to check out the lake a little bit closer. Low and behold there they were; grey mounds by the water, they looked like rocks but were made up of tiny microbes that only grow a microscopic amount each year, which in return is the interest in them. We didn’t get it – boring! After that we began our drive North to Geraldton. We took the scenic drive from Cervantes to Geraldton, stopping at a few ocean towns to check out the ocean views. The water is getting warmer as we go north. We stopped in a place called Dongara for some fish and chips, which were delicious. Today we finished the drive past Geraldton to Drummond Cove Holiday Park. We had a swim in the pool, ate our supper, called home and fell asleep for the night.

Perth to Cervantes

Day #142 February 2nd, 2009

We got up at 7:30 AM to beat everyone to the nice showers, and get packed up to be out of the park at 10 AM. We still haven’t found a home for everything in the van yet – so packing up takes us a bit of time. Hopefully, we will be quicker at it as time goes on. After we checked out of Karrinyup we headed to find some caravan stores to find out why our lights and water pump were only working sometimes. Today it is HOT out, doing errands is very difficult when all you’re doing is sweating buckets. We finally found a caravan place and figured out why we were having difficulties. Our problem was easily fixed with a battery charger; a charger that charges the auxillary battery while we are plugged into 240V at each camp site, rather then the alternator charging while we are only driving. After finding one, we headed to the Big W (like a crappy WalMart) for the rest of our odds & ends, and groceries at Woolworths. After all that was done, we drove to Subway and both ate a foot long sub! Yum! And enjoyed sitting in the air conditioned restaurant. With full bellies we started our drive to our first destination, Cervantes. The drive was ridiculously hot, and because we were driving in the middle of the afternoon we had the sun just beating down on us. Jenny burnt her left arm as we didn’t think that we had to keep reapplying sunscreen on in the van. We both drank about 3 litres of cordial and we were soaked from sweating so much. We have never been so hot in our entire lives. The drive was short only about 3 hours drive to Cervantes, a little town North of Perth, but it felt like a century. There was nothing to special about the town itself, the caravan park we stayed at was a thumbs down. When we got into the caravan park it was really windy and cold, we were disappointed after being so hot driving but we were determined to swim anyways. The temperature had fallen from about 40 degrees to no warmer then 20 degrees. After setting up the van in our spot, we headed down to the beach. On the path through the dunes we saw a black snake – scared us a bit but it was more scared of us. The water was warm, clear and shallow. We only had a short swim due to the cold wind but it felt good to swim. On our way of the water, Jenny saw a jelly fish and shortly after felt something bite her heal. She was ok, nothing big – just enough to scare us. The next day after checking out of the caravan park, everyone was surprised to hear that we saw a jelly fish, as they are not known to be in that area. We had a great sleep that night, nothing else too exciting, just researched what we were going to do the next day.

First camping experiences in the van

Day #141~February 1st, 2009

We slept in today at Karrinyup Waters Caravan Park. We spent two nights here, very nice park for our first park. We are getting used to the van and where everything is etc. The park itself was so nice, our site was in front of a pond with lots of ducks, swans and Australian bird life that we haven’t seen yet. We spent the entire day in the pool! It was such a nice and relaxing day. The pool was really nice, it had a walk in shallow end that you could gradually walk down the slope into the deep end, which was about 8 ft deep. There was also a hot pool that was also a good size being 5.5 ft deep in the middle. The park was clean, with lots of amenities everywhere, the camp kitchen and BBQ area, play area and jumping pillow for kids, and the pond as we mentioned before. The staff were very friendly and informative about travelling North. We gave this park a two thumbs up – we decided to take pictures in front of the park entry sign giving it a thumbs up or down whether we liked it or not. Also a good way for us to remember where we’ve stayed.

Our last days in Perth

Since Rottnest Island both of us have been busy working and trying to save as much money as possible. We took on as many shifts as we could and accepted overtime when the opportunity was there. Unfortunately this meant working different shifts from each other. We did all the local touristy things around Perth and spent as many days as we could at the beach on our days off together. Before we knew it our 3 months were over and we were packing up our room. With work complete we decided to have all of our friends and housemates that we met in Perth over for a BBQ. On Friday night we had a great time with our friends, lots of food and of course booze. Pretty much everyone is able to make it, Brigid and Mark (our housemates/Irish friends), Jonah and Louise (new housemates), Michelle and Adam (our new Canadian friends from Ottawa!), Zoe (no Ben) and Charmaine (friends we met through the hospital) and some of Brigid and Marks Irish friends too. We all ate well and had a great night. Saturday the 31st of January we woke up and cleaned up the house/back yard, packed up the van with all our clothes and food. It was a very hot day, and in retrospect we should have started to pack earlier. But nonetheless we had the van packed by late afternoon, said our good byes to Brigid and Mark and headed to Karrinyup Waters Caravan Park for the night. Karrinyup is a very nice caravan park in Perth, our site was right in front of a pond with lots of duck, swans etc. After a busy day of packing in the heat we were just happy to crash for the night.

Back up and running!

Hey everyone, as many of you know our blog was postponed after our bad luck in Rockingham. With out our laptop it made updating the blog very difficult and expensive. So what we decided to do was wait until we could either buy another computer or had better access to internet. Well the latter has come true, as we are now staying with a family friend. In October of last year, Tennille stayed with my parents in Guelph for a week during her Rotary exchange. My parents really enjoyed hosting Tennille, and couldn’t say enough about her. They told us that we would have to meet her as we drove through Melbourne. Well as luck would have it, we weren’t able to find work in Adelaide so we continued on to Melbourne to better our chances. When we arrived into Melbourne, we decided it would be best to find work for 3 months or so. When we met Tennille, and her partner Jace and their 10 year old boy, Kobe, we were blown away that they wanted us to spend our 3 month stay with them. So with access to the internet, a warm place to stay and bed to sleep in, we’re extremely grateful of Tennille and Jace’s hospitality. We are now able to update the blog and bring all of you up to speed on our travels through out Oz. Unfortunately there won’t be any of our pictures from our travels North of Perth, but with the help of some of our friends we are able to show you, through their eyes what it looked like. From now on the entries will be directly from Jenny’s journal that she has used to remember our trip. We have been working on it together since we stopped updating the blog, in order to include both of our perspectives and share our experiences with you. Hope you enjoy!!

Hey everyone for now the blog is on hold because as most of you know, if not all of you, we no longer have a computer. We are in the process of researching our options, but for now internet is very scarce. We apologize to all of you who have enjoyed following us along and we will hopefully be up and running soon! Hope everyone is well and are warming up in the spring weather. We are doing well otherwise and are in the most beautiful place in the world, at least in our eyes.

Miss you all,

Jenny and Ross
xoxo

We're alive!

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since our last entry. I'm sure you're getting frustrated checking the blog when there is not entry but don't fret because we are working on it. December and January in Perth were relatively boring, just working working and working. But now we are on the road and have more opportunity to update the blog. Blogger.com is giving some problems but we think we have them worked out. We are having an amazing time travelling up the West coast and have already seen so much! So stay tuned and check in in a few days and we promise you, you won't be dissapointed. Miss you all

JR

Rottnest Island

Pristine beaches, hundreds of bikes, quokkas, peacocks and a lifestyle that exudes relaxation. This is Rottnest Island, an island about a 40 minute ferry ride from Perth. Rottnest Island is a popular getaway destination for Perthites and residents of WA. There are no civilian vehicles on the island, so the first thing visitors do when they arrive is rent a bike. Jenny and I both had a few days off together and the weather looked great. Unfortunately it’s not cheap to get to Rotto, $72 per person one way, so we thought it would be best if we bought a package that includes one nights accommodation, bike hire and the ferry ride. This was the best option because of the size of the island, approximately 11km long and 3 km wide, there is just too much to see in one day.
When we decided to go to Rotto on Saturday afternoon we knew that our Sunday afternoon was going to be busy looking for snorkeling equipment. Jenny and I both wanted to purchase our own equipment instead of always renting it so we set a reasonable budget and went shopping. We found a local dive shop at the Hillary’s boat harbor, which is where we will be picking up the ferry the next morning. The dive shop had a great beginner’s package which included a mask, fins, snorkel and reef boots, so we got fitted and each bought one. We were so excited and surprised on the ease of finding equipment the first try that suits our budget and fits well. So with snorkeling equipment checked off the list all we had to do was buy our accommodation package. Our trip started early Monday morning when the rest of Perth was rushing to get to work, Jenny and I were getting excited to spend two days relaxing, sun tanning at the beach and of course try our new snorkeling equipment. We arrived at Hillary’s 30 minutes before departure which gave us time to pick our bikes at the harbor and put them on the ferry. Jenny and I were anxiously awaiting for the weather to improve so we could spend a day or two on Rottnest, and with the forecast calling for high 28 degrees on Monday and then 31 degrees on Tuesday withe sunny skies, we figured it was the perfect time to venture out to Rotto. So when we boarded the ferry at around 8 AM it was already about 20 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It was really turning out to be an excellent two days, but as we pulled away from the jetty and hit the sea, I realized an old problem I have was rearing its ugly head. With the combination of the hot sun beating down on me and the motion of the rough swell I quickly remembered the torturous feeling of motion sickness. Rendered helpless, I told Jenny that I wasn’t feeling too well, so we moved out of the sun. I laid on her lap which is when the show began. For those of you that know me well, you know that in certain undesirable situations like being hung over or feeling motion sick my body feels that it’s necessary to sweat, A LOT! It’s an awkward and embarrassing symptom of a pissed off stomach but obviously helps to cool my body down. Poor Jenny was forced to hold me as I sweated all over her lap, but the feeling subsided slowly and before I knew it we were arriving to the main jetty on Rottnest Island.
Our first impression was, wow! We couldn’t believe that we were only a short boats ride to Perth, it felt like we were on a secluded tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As we left the ferry and stepped onto the jetty we were amazed by the number of bikes we saw. The primary way to get around the island is on bike, and everyone had one. Because we already booked our accommodation at the Lodge which is one of the islands hotels, we didn’t need to pick up our bags and bring them ourselves, as they had their own service that would do that for us. In retrospect we should have just picked up our back pack ourselves as we walked passed it on the Jetty. When we arrived to our hotel room we were told that it shouldn’t take long for our bags to arrive and that they will be brought directly to our room when they had them. Well we arrived to our room at around 9 and didn’t get our bags until after 11. We weren’t very impressed as the weather was gorgeous and the beaches were calling our names. Someone that we met who is actually from Ottawa told us to go to a little beach that’s in a bay and secluded from the breaking waves because there is excellent snorkeling there. After finding Little Salmon Bay on the map and grabbing our snorkeling gear and bikes we were off. The bike ride was harder than anticipated, rolling hill after rolling hill and over 5kms long, we were pleasantly surprised when we turned a corner to see a picturesque view of Little Salmon Bay. Turquoise water, a small private beach and the sound of crashing waves awaited us. We spent the whole day relaxing on the beach and trying out our snorkeling gear, but unfortunately the wind was blowing directly into us and the water was cool. We had a great day soaking up the rays and luckily we were smart enough to bring some food and drinks as the nearest store was 5km away. When we headed back to our room we were starving and craving some fish‘n chips so we headed to the Quokka Arms, the only pub on the island. What we thought would be a very ordinary meal turned out to be a very cool and new wild life experience for us. We ate with peacocks and quokkas and enjoyed a spectacular view of the ocean as the sun slowly set. At one point during dinner Jenny felt something furry on her foot and had a little freak out session. When she looked down to see what it was, she saw a little quokka minding its own business looking for food. Quokkas are the reason why Rottnest is the name of the island. The Dutch discovered the island and when they arrived they were greeted by hundreds of these cute little animals and actually thought they were rats, and subsequently named the island Ratsnest Island. Quokkas are nocturnal animals that are covered in a brown soft looking fur and have a thick rat like tail. The best time to see the famous quokka is at sunrise or sundown but more often than not you can see one or two hopping around without a care in the world.

The second day was much like the first, we found a beautiful beach which was apparently awarded the title of Australia’s best beach. The beach was appropriately called The Basin, an area on the island that has fine white beautiful sand, with an amazing never ending view of the ocean. The reason why it’s called The Basin is because of the large flat rocks under the surface of the water that create a shallow swimming area with large deep open areas perfect for swimming and snorkeling in and amongst them. It was another great day at the beach, and the nice thing about The Basin is that it’s only a 10 minute walk from the Lodge. We left the beach around 3 as we had to be at the ferry for 4:30, so we hiked back to the Lodge grabbed our bags and then headed to the main jetty. As a precaution Jenny and I both took some gravol type pills in hopes that we wouldn’t have another episode like last time. The ocean turned out to be much smoother and was the perfect way to end our holiday in a holiday.

Tony Sadler's newest storeman

As some of you know I’m no longer tree lopping. Mal and I decided it was best that we go our separate ways. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. I had already been looking for another job because I was just so frustrated working with Mal. Anyways, Chris the same guy that got me my first job called me and told me on Monday night that I could work at a furniture store called Tony Sadlers the next morning, which happened to my birthday. So I told him no problem and I’ll be there in the morning. I work from 9-5:30 Tuesday to Saturday, which is the only down side to the job. It would be better if I worked Monday to Friday as Jenny has been getting weekends off but pickers can’t be choosers. The job is great, I work with one other guy, Jimmy and my boss, a fun loving kid at heart type guy named Lockey. My position is a storemen and we are responsible for unloading the freight containers into the store or warehouses, as well as help customers with carry outs. Tony Sadler's (www.tonysadlers.com.au) carries mostly wooden furniture, like coffee tables, end tables, kitchen tables and fine cabinets, but we also carry lounges (what we call couches), mattresses, office furniture and curtains for all budgets. It’s really the people that work there that make the job what it is, everyone is very laid back and fun but with that being said we are still busy the whole day. The nice thing is I’m outside 70% of the day so I can still get sun and work on my farmers tan.

The Swan Valley, Out & About Tours

The Swan Valley is an area just 25 minutes North of Perth, renowned for it’s excellent wine. Jenny and I went on a cruise and wine tour on Saturday. The day started at 9:30 AM as we left our house to walk down to the Barrack Street Jetty. We quickly realized we were cutting it a little too close and after a very brisk jaunt, we arrived and boarded the river cruise. Upon boarding we received a tea/coffee with a muffin, and then not even 10 minutes later we were enjoying award winning wines from the Swan Valley, as we moved up river. The cruise itself was only about 20 minutes but after about 4 or 5 small glasses of wine we were ready to begin the real wine tasting. The cruise boat holds around 100 people and about 10 of us got off while the others continued up river to enjoy a day of tasting wines on the boat. We met our tour guide, Claude a very enthusiastic, knowledgeable extrovert who had an uncanny ability to remember 16 of our names on his first try. Shortly after meeting everyone we hopped onto the tour bus and were off to visit our first winery. In total we visited 4 boutique wineries which were small and family operated but don’t let that mislead you. We enjoyed some excellent wines, and then some not so excellent wines. Jenny and I aren’t exactly winos but we are interested in learning more about wine and seeing which wines suit our palettes and which ones don’t. Throughout the day we tasted, white and red wines, rose’s, ports and dessert wines. After sampling about 20 different wines, Jenny and I discovered that we prefer white wines over red. We ended up purchasing a Chenin Blanc from the Lancaster Winery and a bottle of Autumn Harvest (White) and Autumn Red from the Windy Creek Winery. The Windy Creek Winery has the least expensive wines of any of the other wineries that are in the Swan Valley, only $10 per bottle, beats me how they stay afloat. Although the wine was much cheaper we found their white wines to be sweeter with hints of tropical fruit like passionfruit, strawberries and mango, an excellent choice for a hot day here in Oz. We had lunch at Sitello’s the third winery, and enjoyed a garden salad, with Turkish bread and dips, sliced deli meats, fruit and cheese and of course our choice of red or white wine. We spent about an hour in total there and then were off to the last winery which Jenny and I didn’t really enjoy, it was crowded and they had more samples of red wines then whites and ports which we just find too sweet. We then went to the Margaret River Chocolate factory and battled hungry chocolate loving crowds and enjoyed free spoonfuls of white, dark and milk chocolate chips and a truffle of choice. The chocolate factory specializes in truffles and had lots of different kinds, I had a cookies’n cream truffle and Jenny had a hazel nut truffle. Believe it or not but Jenny and I didn’t really feel like chocolate so we bought a chocolate milk and then the group went next door to a micro brewery. We were each allowed a small glass of beer, I chose a wheat beer and Jenny got their light beer, I ended up finishing both. All in all, we learned lots about the Swan Valley and their wines and now feel more confident ordering a glass of wine, which was the goal. We arrived home feeling good and with lots of wine in our blood stream an evening nap was exactly what the doctor ordered.

The Red Bull Air Race

Last weekend Jenny and I had the pleasure of experiencing the finale of the Red Bull Air Race right here in Perth. The Air Race has a series of gates which are inflated cones about 50 feet high and it’s flown over the Swan River. The race is timed and the pilots fly individually and obviously the one that flies the course in the shortest amount of time wins. Well with that being said, some of the planes are flying over 300 kph, just when they turn! In one part of the course the pilot has to fly through a gate and then immediately pulling up towards the sky and performing a loop (which now puts him upside down) and then flipping over to fly through the gate experiencing around 12 G’s. 12 G’s would make the pilot feel like they weigh 12 times more than their weight. You can imagine the exhilarating feeling you get when watching these planes perform these maneuvers a mere 100 feet in front of you.
The first day that we went to see the race we stayed on the side closest to Perth. The temporary runway for the pilots to land and take off was put there, so the spectators could enjoy watching the race, as well as see the planes land and take off. It was pretty cool watching the pilots land their planes 50 feet above your head narrowly missing the palm trees and telephone wires. We got some great pics of some of these planes as they side slipped into the runway. We noticed that there were also thousands of people on the other side of the river which is where the actual race took place. The grand stands were located on the other side of the river so naturally the race would be too. We looked into getting tickets for the next and final day but were thoroughly disappointed when we saw that they were charging $100 a ticket. On Sunday we decided to venture over to the other side of the river, so after a 5 minute shuttle ride on a TransPerth bus we were among the thousands of free loading spectators just like us. This was definitely a better spot to watch the race, you could see and hear everything much more. We had a great day and were treated with an awesome show from the Royal Australian Air Force Roulettes which is a team of 5 Pilatus PC9’s that performed about 5 minutes worth of acrobatic maneuvers while in formation. Than to top it off an FA-18 fighter jet made a few passes over the Swan testing the tolerance of our ear drums and concluding what was an awesome weekend together.

Our New place, 20 Brisbane Tce

Well we are all moved into our new place and love it here. It just feels like more of a home, there are three rooms, and three couples that are living here. Us, a French couple Blundeen & Nicolas, and an Irish couple Tam & Steve. The rooms are all in the front of the house and the two sitting rooms, kitchen, dining room and washroom are all in the back. There is a nice back yard, with half of it being covered by a lattice shelter with vines all over it and the other half open to the sunshine. There is a big garage, outside toilet, and nice hot tub. The house is a good size for three couples and we all seem to really get along. We are located on a quiet street still in the suburb of Northbridge. I am approximately a 20 minute walk from the RPH and Ross is approximately a 20 minute drive from his job. It’s really been great to have a comfortable place to call home. About a week after we moved in Steve and Tam had to move back home as her dad isn’t doing well, and another couple moved in to their room – Bridgette & Mark, another Irish couple. They are very nice; we seem to be home with them a lot - usually cooking dinner in the kitchen. They are the first couples we have met that actually cook their own meals; we were starting to think we were the only ones! lol. They have only been here a couple weeks, and are still searching for jobs. They are very clean, Ross says she is just like me… lol, I am not too sure if that is a good thing or not to have two people in the same house that are particular about some things … lol – so I guess we’ll see. Ha-ha. No I am only kidding, I think they will be easy to get along with, and it will be nice to have someone else to help keep the house at least somewhat clean. Rent is a bit cheaper, but not that much cheaper, but the house is just so much better. We have air conditioning, a TV in all our rooms and in the living room, there’s a BBQ in the back yard, and like I said there’s also a hot tub – maybe if we are ambitious enough we will clean it out and have a cold tub for after work - ha-ha.

WA Nursing registration & Health Staff Party

After a month of waiting and wondering, I finally received my WA Nursing Registration! Here in WA they are very particular and very slow… not a good combination for someone like me who has been waiting for longer than needed. After getting the nursing coordinator at Lakehead University to resubmit my more detailed university transcript, all I could do was wait. And that is exactly what I did, wait and wait and wait. I was supposed to start work on October 1^st, but instead now I am starting work November 3^rd. This puts us behind a little bit, but we were thinking of being here in WA for 3-4 months anyway. I am just really glad to have something to do for myself now, Ross has been working pretty much since we arrived and the days were starting to get boring. Never thought I would say that about Australia, but there is only so much you can do by yourself. We have also moved into our new place and are no longer living with the French sisters Sophie and Fanny, so until we get to know our new house mates a bit better Ross and I pretty much hang out with ourselves for now. Anyway, I was so excited to hear from the WA nursing board, that that same day I walked down to their office and picked it up myself! Felt so good to have it in my hands. Ross and I celebrated over a yummy dinner together and started our countdown to starting our actual travels together. The next day we attended a party put on by Health Staff recruitment (the agency I worked with) at the Subiaco Hotel in west Perth. It was so nice to finally meet Jonelle the girl I had been talking on the phone with since last June, great to put a face to her voice. She was just as excited to meet Ross as she was to meet me, which was so nice of her. It was a nice evening, free drinks and appetizers all night. We met a really nice couple there named Ben & Zoe Davis. They both work at the Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), and they were very excited to tell me all about what it is like to work there. We ended up talking to them all night and exchanged numbers with them at the end of the night. Jonelle was so nice and was just like I had pictured her to be like. I think she was just as excited to hear that I had finally got my registration as I was. It was a good night and I am really glad that we were able to attend the get together. Now all I have to do is get a hold of the nursing manager at the RPH and set up my start date!!! Yay!

Our new campervan

Our wait is over, we’ve finally found the campervan of our dreams! Seriously, we’ve been looking and looking and looking and on Friday night it was love at first sight. She’s a 1983 Toyota Hiace with only 186 000 km. She’s a light tan colour, equipped with a 3 way fridge, stove and grill, an electric water tap, a table that folds down into a double sized bed (long enough even for me), and lots of storage. It also has a pop top that allows us to be able to stand when inside of it, and lots of windows for ventilation. It’s in excellent condition, very clean and everything looks like new. The couple that we purchased it from are the second owners and took great care of the van. They are in their 80’s and were very reluctant to sell

it but due to his health they are no longer able to travel. They were the cutest couple who made us feel so welcomed. After viewing the van Friday night they invited us into their home to discuss details of the van over a hot cup of tea and cookies. We ended up staying over 2.5 hours and could have stayed longer. They were very eager to tell us about Australia and where they have traveled. We welcomed all the advice that they provided us with and we were excited to return the next day to hear more. We returned on Saturday afternoon after scheduling an appointment to have the van inspected. The mechanic gave it a clean bill of health with only a few minor problems to have checked prior to our future travels. Again we were invited in their home for a cup of tea as we filled out the paper work to transfer ownership. $5000 later we left proud campervan owners and were now ready to venture onto the unfamiliar streets of Perth.

The life of Tree lopping and Garden bag pick ups

Well I’ve been working for a month already and it’s been bitter sweet. First the bitter part, my boss, a guy named Mal (short for Malcolm) is difficult to work with at the best of times. Mal is the type of boss that lets me make the mistake before he tells me what I’m doing wrong, if I’m lucky. Other times he’ll just yell at me and say “what are you doing that for?” He has no problem raising his voice in order to make a point, but in his defense the job can be very dangerous. What also makes this job tough is how physically demanding it is. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but trees are freakin heavy. It’s a great full body work out so there is no need to get a gym membership here to stay in shape. Now the sweet part, I make $20 an hour cash and work 35-40 hours a week. It’s also a great way to meet real Australians and in their backyards too. So what exactly does a tree lopper do? First of all Mal is the actual tree lopper and is the one responsible for taking the actual tree down. He climbs the tree using foot spikes and wears a harness that ropes himself around the tree so he can cut branches off with the chainsaw. The reason why the job is so dangerous is because obviously these branches and frongs for palm trees are falling to the ground in varying weights so he has to be aware of where I am at all times. He also has to cut the branches in a way that reduces damage whether to the actual home or to the ground which may have patio stones underneath it, landscaping, bird baths, flower pots etc. So what am I doing while Mal is busy in the tree trimming it up? I’m basically the lackey who is cleaning up the ground from the falling branches. I then feed the branches in a wood chipper and then do it over and over and over again. Even though it might sound monotonous, you have to be so switched on and aware of what’s going on around you at all times that there is always something that can be done. While I’m clearing, Mal could be yelling at me over the noise of the chainsaw to get him new equipment, whether a pole saw, the ladder, a rope used to safely pull areas of the tree down or just to tell me I’m doing something wrong, which happens a lot! Like the title suggests Mal’s other part of the company is picking up full garden bags that are provided for a customer to fill with whatever they want. Basically the customer is provided with a garden bag which is roughly a square meter in size that sits on a frame that they leave in their yard or place of business. The bags can and will have anything and everything in them as long as there is no dirt, rocks, bricks or alcohol in them. 90% of the bags are just full of lawn clippings, tree prunings and other garden rubbish. We simply drive around and pick them up and replace them every two weeks. This is the part of the job that I like! It’s also great because I get to meet lots of people and see areas of Perth I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see otherwise. Even though he is a hard ass, I learn a lot and come home filthy dirty and tired.

Vehicle Searching & Happy Thanksgiving!

Well it’s been another busy week and a bit since we moved into our new place here on 44 Palmerston Street. We have been busy getting our paper work in order and searching for a vehicle. Ross has been working every week day, and we opened our new bank account and signed up for our tax file numbers. We waited patiently for our money to arrive from Canada, after spending some serious time on the phone with each of our banks and then with our parents (thank goodness for our parents!!). Meanwhile we have been trying to buy a car or even a camper van, we have been told that it was easy to get a car for cheap, and the resale will be no problem. There is so much demand for vehicles here with all the backpackers its crazy!! We are frequent news paper/internet searchers, trying our best to call each ad before it is sold – a very difficult task, let me tell you. You should see the prices, the cars are in the low 1980’s and are being sold from anywhere from AUD$500 to $1300 - in Canada the cars we are looking at wouldn’t even be functioning never mind being up for sale. After talking to Ross’ boss Mal and Chris our landlord, we have decided that it would be a better idea to purchase a camper van. What is a camper van you may be asking yourself? A camper van looks just like a regular van, but the top pops up like a tent trailer when you are parked. It has everything you need for camping in the back: double size bed, double burner + grill, sink, 3-way fridge, cupboard space, and if you’re lucky any other camping gear that has been left behind from previous backpackers! They are pretty awesome, most are in the 1983-86 year range, and we have been told to purchase nothing but Toyota. If you want a better picture of what we are talking about look up on Google what a Toyota Hiace 1984 camper van looks like. Anyway, after calling like 20-25 ad’s from the newspaper and the internet, we narrowed it down to two that we really liked. We took the first one for a test drive which was interesting in itself, as it was our first time driving on the opposite side on the road! And got our first taste of what it’s like to drive a camper van… very different! The van was very cute on first impression, a nice bright yellow exterior with a white top and pretty yellow flower stickers on the back window. After seeing and test driving the other yellow van we decided to put in an offer with the first one as it was closer and had more extra’s to offer. We took it for an inspection at a local garage and found out it had a small oil leak and a hole in the muffler system that would start to be a problem once the weather starts to heat up. The guys that owned the van weren’t willing to budge on the price, but were willing to fix the muffler. After some deliberation and talking to our dads, Chris, and Mal we decided that it was too risky to purchase that van. And never mind, it’s a little hard to buy something that big with zero dollars in your account, as our money still wasn’t here from Canada!! Now that our money is finally here we can start looking again, hopefully the other van we test drove is still available.

Our house situation has been great this past week. We were sad to find out that the couple we really started to get along with were moving out, we exchanged numbers and helped them pack there things into their new 1983 red Toyota Corolla car. To our pleasant surprise the girls that moved in to their room are really cute and easy to get along with. They are sisters from France and we are the same age. We have spent the evenings hanging out and even a day at the beach sun tanning - while Ross worked (poor Ross!). I guess this is a good time to say I haven’t got my WA nursing license yet, I am supposes to hear back from the nursing board this week. I can’t wait to find out, and actually start working. And to the best part of our week, the other couple, that are proving to be difficult to get along with, just left one day without saying anything to anyone. Yay!! They have apparently left for a trip to Thailand and no one knows when they are returning, not even Chris our landlord. They didn’t leave rent money, so we are hoping they get the boot when they return! Here’s hopingJ. As for us we are looking at a few other places that Chris has that are a bit cheaper, and next time we update we will probably be in a new house. Otherwise all is well here, weather is starting to get hot, and its sunny here most days. We have had a couple days of 30 degree weather, and not a cloud in the sky! Oh and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Perth Zoo & AQWA

Once we realized we were finally done searching for an apartment, we decided to take the opportunity to explore what Perth has to offer. Our first stop was the Perth Zoo, which holds the title of being one of the best small zoo’s in the world. It was pretty awesome, we were sad we didn’t get to see all the animals but we were able to see the most important ones like kangaroos, koala’s and exotic birds. It was a great day being able to relax and just be tourists. We even got to see the kangaroos very up close, so close that we could have touched them and not be behind a fence. They were literally hopping beside us, with not a care in the world. Check out the pics to see what we mean. The next day we went to AQWA which stands for the Aquarium of Western Australia. It was a little pricier but well worth the money as they had a underwater tunnel that took you underneath a huge tank that contained lots of sharks, turtles, stingrays and fish. It was so amazing, you had to check it out twice. We tried to take pictures but unfortunately they don’t give it justice. It was interesting how AQWA was set up as well, as they divided the aquarium up into sections of the Western Coast. It was beneficial to be able to see and understand the marine life that we will be swimming amongst however we now know how many species are poisonous and potentially dangerous, and there are a lot! Well now all we have to do is hit the beach when the rain stops and the weather turns hot.

We are all moved in now to our new apartment as of Sept 27. Things are going pretty well, but issues with the English couple have proved to be taxing. Simple things like toilet paper and sweeping the floor seem to be a difficult concept for them to grasp. They are younger and love to drink so the first night that we moved in we were rudely woken up after the bars closed to drama and slamming doors, to say the least, we were not impressed. Our outlook on our new place changed as our relationship with them has changed. When Jenny confronted them about some issues in the house they

simply shrugged it off and now refuse to be adults with us anymore. The Irish couple who we got along really well with informed us of all the trouble they have had with them, and subsequently have now moved out. We might make it out to sound worse than it is as they both work full time and we really don’t see them until the evening and weekend. Because Al and Liam (the Irish couple) moved out we have two new house mates who will be with us for the next 3 weeks. Sophie and Fanny are sisters from France, Sophie has been in Oz for 7 months and Fanny just arrived to spend some time with her sister. They are very French but speak good English and are very nice and pleasant girls that are easy to live with.

As for me, I have been busy working for the past 3 days. Chris who is the one who owns the house has been very helpful. He knows a guy who looks for backpackers for help with his businesses and gave him my name. Before I knew it I was starting my first day with him. I started on Wednesday Oct 1^st and have worked 3 days now. He has two businesses, the first is tree lopping which consists of taking down, trimming and/or cleaning up trees and the other is a rubbish pick up service that he provides. So basically he has developed a metal stand that allows a large bag to sit in so home owners/businesses can discard their rubbish. We pick up anything/everything like lawn clippings, cardboard, and even electrical equipment. It’s been a great way to see the suburbs and Mal (short for Malcolm) has a wealth of knowledge. He used to be in offshore finance and decided he didn’t like being cooped up indoors so he developed his own outdoor business. Mal is very intelligent, he likes things to be done in a certain way which is always the most safe, efficient and effective way possible.

He is a tough Australian man who has no problems telling you that you’re doing something wrong or raising his voice however it’s always because there is an easier or safer way to do something. We spend 8 hours a day together and never have any problem finding something to talk about. We talk about politics, economics, travelling, places to visit in Perth and WA, scuba diving, Australia, Canada, America…well you get the point. In order to get to work I need a vehicle and contemplated finding work elsewhere but this experience will be invaluable. The things I will learn and already have learned from Mal will stay with me for a life time. So next challenge, find a vehicle.