Arrival in Perth
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We are on Australian soil! The flight from Hong Kong wasn’t too bad. Waiting for it was worse than experiencing it. It was difficult to stay awake and there was no place to lie down except the floor. But very humorous “white paging telephone” messages, that I assume were a series of Chinese names but sounded more like records skipping, helped pass the time. I tried to record one with my laptop but it didn’t come out too well. We’ll try again on the way back.
Got a bit of a scare when my bag was one of the last ones out. I have named it “Monstro” because of it’s relative size compared to what Les brought. I couldn’t fit a weekend’s clothing in what he brought so I don’t know how he did it. But all I’m saying is when the locals start standing upwind of us, it won’t be *my* fault.
Australia has strict import rules on produce, meats, wood products etc. to protect themselves from viruses and things they haven’t been exposed to down here. Sadly, the beef jerky in my bag didn’t make it. There was a mad crush to the “something to declare” lane, so I just threw it away without even trying. Then got selected to go through a random check anyway from the “nothing to declare” lane. Oh well, they still would have dumped it.
It’s hot here. 84 degrees at 7:30am when we landed. Supposed to hit 100 today (or 39 Celsius actually). We have acquired Australian money (which is very colorful) and seeing as there’s no wireless hotspot if you aren’t at a Quantas gate, we’re off to find a taxi and check out the hotel. More later.
(4 hours of sleep and a day trip later…)
The hotel looks like something out of a bad spy movie. “Put ’em in #19 and see if they’re more willing to talk in the morning”. Bare brick walls in an institutional green. But, passable for a night’s sleep. And more importantly, available at 9am when we got there so we got some sleep before going to get the camper.
I knew the camper would be small but the reality of it is a little frightening. Plus, the lady renting it to us gave me the same look the last 4 Australians I’ve talked to did when I told her the travel plan. But we’re unafraid. So far.
Les bravely took it out for the inaugural run and has only driven on the right hand side a couple of times when it didn’t matter. My turn is tomorrow. We headed up the coast about 20 miles. Perth itself looks like a more relaxed, cleaner Los Angeles. The coast looks like Pacific Grove/Monterey. But the water is warmer. We had fish and chips on the beach along with a local flock of seagulls who were very interested in participating but kept a respectful distance. We dipped our toes in the water. First time in the Indian Ocean for both of us.
On the way back we were stopped at a police roadblock for random testing for alcohol. We passed and the officer gave Les the breathing tube from the machine as a memento. We managed to drive to Freemantle on the way back, some distance south of Perth, but found our way back. We’re hanging out at a local Irish pub that has an e-mail station (a Mac, yuck!). Sending mail but no way to upload pictures and this log since the machine is locked in a cabinet, so it will have to wait until tomorrow when we try to find the only hot-spot in Perth on the list I have.There is a guy playing guitar and singing, which is quite nice.
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