3/7/01

So after a teary goodbye to Perth, Peter and I jumped into our shiny '82 Toyota Hiace and headed off into the wilderness, hoping to see some kangaroos along the way. Our very first day driving we didn't get very far, as we knew we wouldn't. No, not because of problems with our beloved vehicle (that would come later on in our trip), but because we were only going as far as Donnybrook, which is about 6 hours drive away. Here we planned to do a bit of fruit-picking to help inflate our funds before started on our long drive across the Great Australian Bight, in The Petrol Guzzler.
Donnybrook was named by 5 Irish lads who arrived in this area and decided that it reminded them of the suburb in Dublin, so founded the town, and named it after Donnybrook. I personally didn't see the resemblance. Donnybrook, W.A. is a one street town and revolves around fruit harvesting, to the extent that their street lights are in the shape of Granny Smith apples. Very strange. We got there just at the end of the season, so the only fruit being picked was tomatoes and apples. So off we went to the harvesting office and the next day we were in a big field full of Pink Lady apple trees, being lectured on how delicate their skin is ("treat it like an egg") and all of the other important stuff that we obviously knew already seeing as we had loads and loads of work experience picking fruit all over the world - according to our CV's. We spent a week there plucking fruit of the boughs of trees. The work wasn't as boring as you would think, but when we got our pay packets at the end of that job we knew it was time to move on. As much as people moan about fruit picking in Australia, I have to say that we really enjoyed it. We stayed in a place called Donnybrook Cottage that was run by Ray, the guy who worked in the Tourist Office (which was also the Harvest Club), and all of the people who stayed there were really nice, which is quite important when you come home tired and grubby from a day in the field.
Leaving Donnybrook, we drove down south towards Denmark, and for the following week we drove along the coast, surfing at every available opportunity - and as you could imagine, Peter was in heaven. In Denmark we were really lucky because while we were in the water a school of dolphins were swimming really near to us, so it was a pretty amazing experience. Later on that evening from the shore we saw them come in even closer, and catch a few waves of their own. They made it look so easy!
Now with all this driving that we were doing, I knew that we were getting closer to the time when I had to do my driving test. I pretty much had to do it in W.A. anyway, because when you get your learner's permit over here you have to pay for a test, so I had nothing to lose really. So I booked my test in Esperance Licensing Centre and also booked a driving lesson for the day before and the instructor's car for the test, so I didn't have to do it in The Beast. So everything was sorted. Only one problem - the instructor had a crash on the way to meet me, and mangled the whole back of her car. So I had to do my test in The Van. Honestly I didn't think that there was a hope in hell of me passing, but by some miracle I did. Yay!



Some of the wildlife in Cape le Grand National Park

The Van - from above!
From Esperance we went up to Norseman and there we were on the edge of the Nullabor, and it was time for our mammoth drive through nowhere. This is just the strangest place in the world - it is just a whole load of emptiness with petrol stations every 200-400kms or so, where they charge pretty much whatever they want. I think these "towns" on average have a population of 10 or something incredible, so as you can imagine there wasn't really all that much there.
Our first introduction to the Nullabor was just outside of Norseman, and it was this sign.
Emus & kangaroos - ok, but camels? Surely not!


Stay tuned for the continuing fun with "Peter & Caroline's excellent adventure!"

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