Ultimate Destination: Perth

I suppose it's fitting that it took so long to get this post in order to help you appreciate our long drive across the treeless Nullabor Plain. After we left Eucla we decided to push through so we could get to Perth in one day, making us drive for 14 hours. It was worth it.

We had loved our drive across the bottom of Australia and enjoyed camping and being dags, but we were so thrilled to arrive at Kerrye and Darryl's place in Perth. There is nothing like the comforts of a clean house, and a shower that isn't shared with all sorts of random people. 

We were a bit shy when we arrived to their place. There was  a big party happening in the pool in the complex, which is quite posh, and there we were all greasy and likely a bit smelly. We didn't fit in, and neither did Rosie.



One of these things is not like the other. You can't get the full effect from this photo, but normally the lot was full of nice, new cars. Whenever we pulled in and there was another resident entering the complex, they would stop and watch us, curious as to how we got passed the gate and if we were really supposed to be there. Nobody ever did say anything, but they were thinking it. 


The pad. I think we spent 8 days here. We had the place to ourselves for a week and then K & D came to join us and spoil us before we took off to head South. Kerrye and Darryl are our Australian parents and they were so incredibly generous to us. I only wish we could have spent more time with them.


On our first night there we decided D needed to try a Tim Tam slam. We found matching mugs on sale, so how could we pass that up? It was a bit chilly in the evenings, so the hot drink was perfect.


Our first day out involved King's Park. I love the trees which line the road as you drive in.


It's a gorgeous park in the center of Perth and overlooks the Swan River. It's a gorgeous park for walking, picnicking, and for spectacular views over the water.


Some of the unique flora to be found.


These were my favourites.


We also made a journey over to Fremantle and visited Mum's childhood home. We didn't intrude on the homeowners this time, so we quickly took the shot and ran.


Monument Hill is just down the road from our mum's house and overlooks Fremantle and the ocean.


Another point, shoot, and run moment. This was our great-grandmother's home. I had the chance to see it when I was there last year with mum, but we didn't want to bother the current owner.

We took photos whenever we saw the Australia Lonely Planet guide in the hands of other tourists, or in this case, in the back of a car. This was our travel bible (although Danielle hated it), it proved to be useful time and time again.

I'll end there so we can at least get a post up. I'll put up the following Perth adventures throughout the week.

The Nullabor Plain

I upgraded to the new Blogger format, but since doing that I can no longer write under each photo as easily as I once could. I swear the HTML is different. I need Mike.

I suppose it doesn't really matter for this post though because the photos really tell it all. The Nullabor is long, it's flat, it's straight, but despite all that, it is beautiful.

A Spooky Chistmas Night.

We aimed to arrive in Port Augusta Christmas night. Here are some happenings along the way.

Salt flats. We saw a lot of these and Tara had some sort of fascination with them.


T sporting a lovely hairdo.

We enjoyed yet another classic PB & J sandwich for lunch along the coastline in a town whose name I have forgotten.

This town also had a giant crustacean...

...and a lighthouse on stilts.

This road led to a state campground not far from Port Augusta. It was getting late and we thought it might be best to spend the night here instead of driving on. As we drove in we saw some guy parked off the road and chatting on his cell phone. He appeared to be the only person around. There were some dodgy looking houses and buildings before the actual camping lots that made you feel like you were in the beginnings of a horror movie. Old cars and all sorts of junk were piled around everywhere. When we got to the information booth where you're supposed to pay, we realized we didn't have the correct amount of cash. You're supposed to put you're money in an envelope and drop it in a box. Since there was no one around to help us get change we had two choices: pay more than we had to and stay the night, or don't pay at all and hope we don't get caught. We decided to drive through and see how we felt about the place before making any decisions. It was a really cool area with all sorts of hallow trees and we were excited to take pictures, but we grew more and more unsure about staying and so we made our way back out of the campground. We stopped by the guy on the cell to see if he had any money and as soon as T got his attention we knew we shouldn't have. He looked really out of it and was holding a bottle in hand. She asked if he had change and he let the bottle drop to the ground as he pulled out his wallet and muddled through it. No luck and that was fine. He was so super creepy and we wanted out of there even more. He gave us a weird look and went back to his phone conversation while sped out of there.

We drove on to witness the lovely sunset, but it was a race against the sun and we began to panic. It's quite dangerous to drive at this time of day as it is the time kangaroos and any other animals are out and wanting to cross the roads. We had a few scares, but with T's stellar navigational skills, there was no harm or accident.

Thankfully we arrived safely to the next town of Port Augusta where it looked like we were hitting a snow storm. It actually felt like Christmas, but it was just due to the strong wind and salt blowing over the road. A Christmas miracle!

These doors show the site of one of our favourite moments along our trip. When we arrived in Port Augusta it was dark and windy, so we decided to pay for a motel room rather than trying to find a campground and fighting the wind to put up our tent. We met a lovely elderly couple who ran the motel and sent us off to room 24. We rushed to get all our things inside and tried to hide any remaining valuables in the car. The wind was making a lot of noise and as I took some things into the room I started to hear a loud banging. As I went back out Tara and I realized the banging was from an elderly couple across the way (staying the room on the right in this picture). I thought they were trying to tell us we had dropped something but Tara started to walk towards them. They were standing in the window and telling Tara they were locked in - they couldn't get out of their room. So they asked Tara to go to the door on the left to where their friend was staying. By this point I was standing with her and we knocked on the door of their friend. It was another dear elderly lady and I thought she wouldn't open the door because we were scaring her. Turns out she was locked in too! I suddenly realized I have seen too many crime shows as I started to imagine we were staying at a hotel that traps people in their rooms and probably kills them. We told the oldies to use their phone to call the front desk but they thought it didn't work so we went to make the call from ours. The manager came and rescued them and all was well. No more trappings and no killings. At least, not that we heard about . We didn't see any sign of them the next morning...

Our lovely suite. It even had 3 beds! It might be old school but nothing looked more lovely to us that night.

The bathroom equipped with a fridge and all the things you need to enjoy your coffee or biscuits with tea.

Another beautiful clear day as we drove on.





Nullarbor here we come!!

Christmas Day

We arrived in Mt Gambier on Christmas Eve.

Oh, the air mattress and tent drama. We had to blow up our air mattress in the camp kitchen with our hairdryer that night. There were two German boys in Santa hats sitting in the kitchen while we did this. They didn't say anything and they didn't have to. Getting caught doing silly things is just what we Evans sisters do.

Speaking of silly things, those two German boys ended up being four German boys who sat in the camp kitchen with their Santa hats all night playing cards and listening to sappy chick music while smoking up and singing along. I even caught them dancing around with each other at one point. Oh you gotta love zee Germans.

Merry Christmas! We awoke to a very quiet Christmas morning and had the bathroom all to ourselves. We used this opportunity to make ourselves look decent for the special day - hair straightened and all. We finally felt so fresh and so clean clean.

Our lovely campsite on Christmas morning.

Christmas prezzies! The Chris Evans who is not our brother is much more thoughtful than the Chris Evans who is our brother. He sent us off from Melbourne with presents for Christmas (Perfume! Yippee!) We would have been lucky enough if the Chris Evans who is our brother bothered to get up off the couch to say goodbye to us when we left.

T with perfume from Chris and a book from Mum.

My perfume from Chris and a necklace I saw in the markets and wanted to get. Tara, being the sweet, thoughtful sister she is, managed to buy it for me and I had NO clue. We found these pendants at a stall in The Rocks market and were so impressed that I couldn't decide if I should get one. When we headed to another stall Tara ditched me to go back to that booth and buy some for herself and some friends. When I came over I was saddened to see that in that short time someone bought the pendant I wanted! I couldn't believe it. "That's what happens when you take forever to make a decision", Tara so rudely remarked. Well, on Christmas day I found out who that person was that bought it. I couldn't believe she was so sneaky and nasty at the same time. (Note that Tara is obviously the better sister here as she was so thoughtful to get me something for Christmas and I got her nothing.)

Thoughtful T again. Wanting to make Christmas a little more special Tara bought our breakfast without me so there would be a little surprise and treat for the morning. It was delicious! Well done T!

Tara loving how good she smells...as always.

Having some fun in the tunnel. Tara was too much of a lady to run and jump in the tunnel while there were potential spectators around, but she did well capturing me midair -especially when this white girl can't jump.




The Blue Lake of Mt Gambier. It was BEA-U-TI-FUL.

Beautiful lake. Beautiful Tara.



Making my wish at the wishing well...hope it comes true!

Wait a second, what does that say? "YOUR DONATION THROUGH YOUR "WISH" WILL ASSIST LOCAL CHARITIES". Why was wish in quotation marks? If it weren't in quotations and my wish didn't come true does that mean I could sue them for having a faulty wishing well? If that went down in America I bet I could. I suddenly felt somewhat betrayed. The cute, welcoming wishing well said, "Hey, come make a wish!" And then with it's caged bottom and sign saying "WISH" I felt it's greedy, dream-crushing nature saying, "Gotcha sucker! We have your money and you can take your lame "wish" elsewhere." Well I'm making it known that the Rotary International Wishing Well in Mt Gambier is a sham. It's just a charity well who can't dignify wishes as legit, and what kind of charity does that?

The Mt Gambier Sinkhole.


Tara broke out in song and dance here, serenading natures wonders with her stunning voice. A frog then came and sat next to her and said if she would kiss him, he would turn into her dream prince. She enquired if he would be over 6 feet tall and drive his own car. Sadly, the little guy didn't meet her standards and she flicked him into the hole and walked away without looking back.

Sisters at the sinkhole.

Tara was trying to take a cool photo here. I climbed up on the rocks to try and help her get whatever effect she was trying to get. Instead I felt like a leprechaun by a wishing well and she caught me giving my Irish/Leprechaun greeting.

The Sinkhole in Mt Gambier. Apparently this is the city of craters and sinkholes. Sadly, a few people died in this one. Now people like to throw the their garbage down there. Can you spot the toilet paper and plastic bag?