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Australia 2025
  • Alan Chapman

Australia 2025

A 41-day adventure by Alan Read more
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  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Alice Springs

    August 14 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    On another sunny and warm day, the hotel fire-alarm went off at 08.00 whilst I was in the shower. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.
    After going into a bookshop and failing to find a biography of Stuart and a book about Burke and Wills, I had some breakfast at a cafe in the pedestrianized street and starting writing my postcards.
    However, the chest felt a bit tight so, at about noon, I walked to Alice Springs Hospital A&E, was triaged, including photocopying my passport to demonstrate that I was eligible for the reciprocal free health-care arrangement between the UK and Australia, and then put on a trolley in the outpatients section. They performed an ECG, gave me three aspirins, and did two blood tests and a chest X-ray in case I'd had a minor heart-attack or was suffering from angina. I was discharged after four hours, the diagnosis being that I'd probably pulled a muscle lifting my 20kg holdall. The service from the staff had been excellent, and I wondered whether the service would have been so quick in England.
    I had booked the shuttle bus to take me to the airport where I had a snack, wrote and posted the cards, and then took the two-hour Qantas flight back to Darwin at 19.50, checking back into MOM at 22.30.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Tiwi Islands

    August 15 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    On another sunny and warm, I took a taxi from MOM to Cullen Bay Ferry Terminal to take Sealink's 08.00 tour to the Tiwi Islands which are part of the Northern Territory. Darlene, from the recent Intrepid tour, was also on the trip.
    After a smooth journey of 150 minutes and 80km across the Timor Sea, we arrived at Wurrumiyanga on Melville Island where there was a welcoming ceremony with dancers representing animals, and smoke from the fire to clear ju-ju. We were guided around the small town to see funeral poles, the church, and the radio transmission hut from where a message was sent on 19 February 1942 warning Darwin of the Japanese air-raid.
    The museum had lots of carvings, and stories about the Catholic mission, sports heroes, and the capture of a Japanese pilot, Australia's first prisoner-of-war.
    The Islands have a population of about 3,000 who are not Aboriginal Australians. The population consists of clans based on skin group and names, and everyone is cross-related to each other.
    After lunch, we were given the choice of screen-printing a tee-shirt or a towel. I chose the latter and had the assistance of a member of the arts centre. On my return to London, I had the towel with its jabiru pattern framed.
    I bought a carved mini funeral pole topped with a bird.
    The return journey was a bit rougher.
    Staying in Cullen Bay, Darlene and myself met Steve and Anne-Marie who had come to Darwin from Alice Springs to take another Intrepid tour. We dined alfreso at a seafood buffet restaurant overlooking the beach with a good view of the sunset through the palm trees.
    After saying a final goodbye to the others, I returned to MOM.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Greyhound Bus Journey

    August 16 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    On yet another sunny and hot day, I checked out of MOM for the last time and left my holdall in the storeroom inside one of the dry lockers.
    I bought three CDs at Vinnie's, the charity shop named after St. Vincent, in case the rental car had a CD player. Unfortunately, it didn't like most modern cars.
    I sat reading a book and had some lunch at the Waterfront.
    Having retrieved my holdall, I walked to the bus stops just off Smith Street and caught the 15.30 Greyhound Australia bus to Broome. Only 8 of the 48 seats were taken with no-one sitting next to me.
    It took four hours down the Stuart Highway, following the Ghan railtrack in places, to reach Katherine where an Irishman was one of the six to leave the bus. He was an example of those who had to work in out-of-the-way places to show commitment to the country, rather than working in a big city, when applying for a full work visa. Applicants had to work 88 days in each of the first and second years and 176 days in the third year, and even then, there was no guarantee that the application would be successful.
    Katherine was one of the three places where the bus stopped for an hour at a roadhouse to give the two drivers a break as well as allowing the passengers to buy some food. I bought fish and chips for dinner.
    The drivers each drove for 4 hours at a time and then had a rest in a cubicle at the rear of the bus where was also a toilet for number ones, not number twos.
    From Katherine, we drove 513km along the Victoria Highway, part of the Savannah Way, a loose network of coast-to-coast highways from Cairns in Queensland to Broome in Western Australia.
    In the early hours of the morning, we stopped for an hour at Kununurra in Western Australia which was 90 minutes behind Northern Territory. The place was a bit spooky with a drunk hanging around, and my tea was passed through a hatch at the roadhouse.
    Prior to Kununurra, we had stopped at the State border for officials to check that no fruit, vegetables, nuts or honey was being taken across the border; this was quarantine control as at the airports.
    A few more passengers got on at Kununurra.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Broome

    August 17 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Soon after Kununurra, we joined the Great Northern Highway which skirts south of the North Kimberley where the roads are unsealed.
    After very little sleep, dawn arrived at about 05.30. There were a few wallabies, some being road-kill, plus an increasing number of cattle, some Brahmin. We were told to put our seat-belts on in case the bus hit cattle, there being a grill on the front of the bus.
    Some of the petrol stations we passed were BP. One of them had a row of boababs along the road in front of the station.
    The bus delivered and collected parcels at some of the stops.
    After Halls Creek,, the country was very flat all the way to Broome except for a few sandstone outcrops and ridges. The land may have been an inland sea. There were big horizons with millions of termite mounds. The bush was dense in places but there were more trees and grassland as we ventured towards the west. The roads became very straight.
    There was some water in the Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing, and more in the Willare River further on.
    I wondered whether other countries had a similar word for "countryside" which describes much of the British landscape but it couldn't describe the big landscapes in this region.
    There was few solar panels in the few settlements we passed by or through. You would have thought that Australia would be an ideal place for the panels, having so much sunshine.
    After stopping at Derby where more passengers left and joined, we finally arrived at Broome in mid-afternoon, about 25 hours after leaving Darwin, allowing for the time-difference, and having covered almost 1900km; 320km from Darwin to Katherine, 513km from Katherine to Kununurra; 1044km from Kununurra to Broome.
    I checked into the very smart Courthouse B&B.
    The private bus company had ceased operating a few days before and there were no taxis so I didn't get to Cable Beach for the sunset. Instead, I walked to the Town Beach, a break in the mangroves lining the shore, which also had a new jetty for fisherman. The sea was aquamarine.
    I had breaded barramundi for dinner and then walked back to the B&B. It had got dark by 18.00.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Broome

    August 18 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After a good breakfast at the B&B and on another sunny and hot day, I walked to Old Broome and Chinatown past shops connected with the pearl-fishing industry and along a jetty surrounded by mangroves. I had expected a much more compact old town.
    I bought emergency rations for the car journey at Coles, and wasted money buying unnecessary connections from my iPad and phone to the rental car's Bluetooth.
    After lunch, I went to a dentist because a tooth had become sensitive. She cleaned plaque off the gums and took an X-ray which confirmed that an abscess wasn't forming. The visit cost A$350 which I reclaimed from my dental insurance.
    In mid-afternoon, a French employee at the B&B drove me to the airport to collect my rental car from Europcar. I'd booked a Kia Sportage but the manager upgraded me to a relatively new Nissan X-Trail which was a 4-door saloon which could seat seven if the two seats in the boot were unfolded.
    The car was much more complicated than my Ford Focus, there being no keys for the ignition or the petrol cap. The car had Continuously Variable Transmission which I think meant that it could be driven as a manual although the default was to drive it as an automatic.
    The manager told me not to touch many of the controls; things would happen automatically such as the headlights coming on when the wiper- blades were on and it was getting dark outside.
    One difference with British cars was that the wiper-blade and indicator controls were on the opposite side of the steering wheel which led to me turning on the wiper-blades inadvertently a number of times.
    I paid A$200 additional insurance as cover for chassis damage for driving on an unsealed graded road to and from Pardoo Station on the following days.
    I gingerly drove the car to the B&B, and then went to a garage to buy a jerry can and funnel, and then walked back to Old Broome for dinner, seeing the famous sunset from a distance.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Pardoo Station

    August 19 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    On another beautiful warm day, after breakfast, I checked out of the Courthouse B&B and drove back to Europcar at the airport to check some things, having read sections of the car manual overnight. The manager connected my Samsung phone to the car's Bluetooth which enabled me to use GPS via Google maps as well as charging the phone. The iPad with downloaded music was also connected to the car and charged through its battery.
    Having sorted out the car, I started my journey south having set the route on Google Maps which showed me the upcoming straight sections when it was feasible to overtake.
    The Broome Highway had a section which was perfectly straight for at least 20km.
    The first stop was at the BP station at the turn-off from the Broome Highway to National Highway 1 where I filled the 20 litre gerry-can.
    I listened to Bach, George Shearing, and Sergeant Pepper, having a break in lay-bys or roadhouses to change the music on the iPad.
    Once I'd done a few kilometres, I got used to driving the car which was very comfortable with its power-steering, and AC keeping the temperature inside at 20C whilst it was 32C outside.
    The speed limit was generally 110km (70mph) per hour but it wasn't difficult to creep up to 120 or even 128 (80mph). Sometimes a signal appeared on the dashboard about keeping to the speed limit but I saw hardly any speed cameras on the whole journey. There was hardly any traffic except near urban and mining areas.
    In planning the journey, I'd overestimated the time it would take to drive between my overnight stops, not realizing that the driving would be so easy. As it turned out, I could have stayed an extra day in Broome and then driven straight to Port Hedland but Pardoo Station was an interesting place to see.
    The landscape was mainly flat bush with stretches of flood plains and floodways signposted. There were a few early-spring flowers. The straight road had occasional mirages.
    I had a snack lunch in one of the regular lay-bys which were usually unsealed. There was no other traffic, just a warm breeze and the bush.
    I saw alive and road-kill wallabies, a road-kill cow, and a feral cat.
    I filled up regularly at the infrequent roadhouse service stations, often 200km or more apart. At the first one I stopped at, I got stuck in "park", changing the controls and putting my foot down on the accelerator in the wrong sequence. I asked one driver if he could help but he, like the majority, drove a diesel. Fortunately, I spotted an X-Trail which was driven by a French couple who had collected their car from Europcar in Broome just after me. We concurred on the difficulty of the controls but eventually found the right sequence. You had to put your foot down on the accelerator, release the override Park button, put your foot down again, and shift the gear from park-neutral into forward or reverse.
    Later on, I filled up again at Pardoo Roadhouse with the help of a policeman who knew how the pre-pay worked. 29 litres of 91 unleaded cost A$70, A$2.40 per litre, equivalent to £1.20. It got cheaper later on when petrol stations were more common. The General Sales Tax (GST) was 10% compared to 20% VAT in the UK.
    I estimated that I could drive 640km (400 miles) on a full tank at an average speed of 110km per hour although 700 km may have been possible. I didn't let the tank get anywhere near that empty although, on the last day, I was on the last bar (one-eighth or 80km) on the fuel gauge.
    In the afternoon, the sat-nav packed up and I couldn't find the turn-off to Pardoo Station. Having returned to the Roadhouse to enquire, I eventually found the turn-off which was an unsealed red-dust graded road for 13km to Pardoo Station.
    Pardoo Station was a very large ranch with wagyu cattle plus a caravan park, and cabins for tourists and drovers.
    In the early evening, there was a poetry reading by a WA Bush Poet around the camp fire. It reminded me of the poetry about gold prospectors in Dawson City.
    I had to show my driving licence in order to buy a can of lager from the shop. This was a WA-wide policy.
    There was a hot buffet dinner for the visitors and staff, some of whom were foreign.
    Start: 14792km. Finish: 15331km. Distance travelled: 539km.
    I'd driven from the Kimberley district into the Pilbara district.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Port Hedland

    August 20 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    After a good buffet breakfast, I met the French couple and donated half the contents of my gerry-can to them because they weren't sure if they would make the next petrol station before running out of petrol. Then they drove me down to the beach which was the end of the 80 Mile Beach National Park, and to a creek which may have been the Pardoo River.
    Having checked out of Pardoo Station, I drove back down the dusty road to the Great Northern Highway. No vehicle passed me for 100km even though I was averaging only 100kph. I crossed a disused single-track railway which may have gone to manganese mines.
    Mining road-trains went in the opposite direction as I approached South Hedland and turned off to Port Hedland after a two-hour drive.
    I saw a stationary one-mile-long iron-ore train, BHP (Broken Hill) installations, and a Rio Tinto salt flat.
    I checked into the Hospitality Inn, a motel just behind the seafront which was rocky with occasional mangroves.
    After some lunch at a bar on the waterfront, I walked to the Don Rhodes Mining Museum which was in a park with exhibits of old machinery and locomotives. I continued on to the docks and then back along the coast. There were about twenty bulk-carriers moored out at sea. The place felt depressed with business units closed and empty beach houses covered in red dust. However, the waterfront had been landscaped from the yacht club to the Koombana Lookout where I saw a decent sunset.
    I had a nice dinner at the Pilbara Restaurant at the Inn.
    I'd filled up the tank on the way into town at a cost of A$1.99 per litre. It was probably cheaper in town than in the country due to the lower transport cost.
    Start: 15331km. Finish: 15465km. Distance travelled: 134km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Karratha

    August 21 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    After early sea mist, it was a bright start to the day but cloudy later with a little drizzle.
    I checked out of the Hospitality Inn after a good buffet breakfast and drove back to the Great Northern Highway which passed through a lot of mining and industrial installations. After 30km, I turned off on to the North West Coastal Highway.
    Eventually, I had to overtake my first road-train which consisted of the driver's cab followed by four wagons which would normally contain ore although I had seen some earlier in the trip with live animals. I'd read that you should allow at least 1km of clear road ahead of the road-train before overtaking.
    The landscape was mainly flat with the occasional hill.
    I turned off the Highway to visit Cossack, a deserted pearling-industry town on the coast where I consumed more of my emergency rations for lunch.
    Back on the Highway, later in the afternoon, I turned off towards Karratha, but bypassed it to go past the salt pans at Dampier on to the Burrup Peninsula. At the end of the road was the Visitor Centre for the NW Gas Project run by a consortium including BP. Unfortunately, the Centre was closed but there was a view of the enormous industrial installations.
    Back along the road was Murujuga NP which had not-very-clear rock engravings which could be 45,000 years old. I drove down to the coast and walked for about 40 minutes in the hills behind.
    I returned to Karratha and eventually found the Latitude 20 Motel. An employee at the bar next door phoned to get the cabin number and entry code.
    I had dinner in the bar where others were watching the screens for the international horse-race results. I think races in Japan and France were covered as well as Australian races. There was also betting on dog-racing and pony-and-trap racing. Some of the provincial towns had racecourses, some being dirt. I learnt that pokies are fruit machines.
    Start: 15465km. Finish: 15798km. Distance travelled: 323km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Exmouth

    August 22 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    I left Latitude 20 at 07.30 to get an early start on what could be a long day.
    There had been a little overnight rain but the day started sunny. However, the weather deteriorated during the day with showers and then prolonged rain in the evening.
    The landscape was colourful in the morning with the sun shining on the yellow grassland and the red ridges. Later, it became flat on the fringe of the Gibson Desert with regular floodway signs indicating depths of two to four metres although most rivers and creeks were dry.
    I turned off the Coastal Highway up the peninsula towards Exmouth which was very flat at the beginning with the road raised above the floodplain but then became down and up over the dry creeks crossing the road.
    I arrived at the Potshot Hotel/Motel at 14.30. After checking in, I walked to the Visitor Centre to enquire about trips the next day. Due to the weather forecast, the boat trip along the Yardie Creek had been cancelled.
    I had dinner at the Motel's restaurant, watching Aussie Rules on the screen.
    It was busy with coach parties, backpackers, surfers, and other travelers.
    During the day, there had been a leak from the jerry-can on the back-shelf of the car on to one end of my holdall and the smell in the cabin was quite strong so I tried to wash it off.
    The price of petrol during the day varied from A$1.80 to A$2.26 per litre.
    Start: 15798km. Finish: 16344km. Distance travelled: 546km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Exmouth

    August 23 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    It had rained heavily overnight and continued on and off all day.
    I walked round to the small shopping district, had breakfast at a cafe, and waited for the shops to open at 09.00.
    The holdall was still smelling and, besides smelling in the car, the airline might not let it on the plane on the way home. So I thought I'd cut my losses. Fortunately, one of the surf shops had a soft-top wheeled suitcase/holdall. I also bought a new wash-bag and left the old one and the smelly holdall outside the Op Shop which was the name for the charity shops in some towns; Alice Springs had one.
    I drove round the end of the peninsula down the coast towards the shoreline in front of the Ningaloo Reef. Fortunately, at 11.45, I was just in time to catch a semi-submersible for a one-hour cruise over the reef which we reached after 10 minutes, so much closer than the Great Barrier Reef. The boat had eight windows on each side and could accommodate sixteen passengers but, on my trip, there were about eight passengers. We saw varieties of fish, corals and turtles.
    I'd watched a TV programme some weeks before which said that the waters around the Reef were four degrees warmer than usual, and that this was the first time that the reefs on the both sides of Australia were being bleached at the same time. Corals could recover from bleaching but not from death.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Ningaloo National Park

    August 23 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    I continued down the west coast of the peninsula through either or both the Ningaloo NP or the Cape Range NP, eventually reaching Yardie Creek. I walked a little way to see the gorge as well as seeing fruit bats and a wallaby.
    The weather was too bad to drive up the side roads into the Cape Range.
    On the return journey, I stopped at Turquoise Beach, one of the many white-sand beaches along the coast.
    I drove up to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse but the light was not good and another squall swept in from the sea.
    Without a holdall to keep it in place, the gerry-can moved around on the back-shelf which covered two collapsible seats rather a proper boot. It had leaked on to the shelf. I tried to put one of the seat-belts around the can to hold it in place but the belt was too short. So I cut my losses again, donated the petrol in the can to a neighbour who had swum with whale sharks that day, and left the can with the rubbish bins at the Motel. I started to clean the shelf.
    A good dinner was again in the Motel's restaurant, and afterwards, I used the laundry.
    It was a pity that the weather, the worst so far on the whole trip, had spoilt the visit to Exmouth and the surrounding area but I'd managed to see and do some things.
    Start: 16344km. Finish: 16528km. Distance travelled: 184km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Shark Bay

    August 24 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

    I left Exmouth at 07.00 for an early start in the hope that the roads wouldn't be blocked after all the rain of the previous 36 hours. It was a sunny morning with showers in the afternoon and blowing a gale and raining by the time I reached Shark Bay, Denham, at 15.30. The temperature dropped from the low 20s to 17 degrees, the coldest so far on the trip except for the early mornings in the Red Centre.
    I had breakfast and lunch at roadhouses.
    Back on the North West Coastal Highway, it was almost a continuous straight road for 200km after Carnarvon before the turn-off up the peninsula to Denham. Carnarvon was like an oasis with banana plants and fruit trees. It must be irrigated, being surrounded by semi-desert.
    I saw an emu and two herds of feral goats.
    I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, the 26th parallel, twice, the second time travelling north up the peninsula to Denham on a World Heritage Road and in a World Heritage Area, the road being flanked by vegetated sand dunes.
    I checked into Shark Bay Apartments on the seafront with my cabin facing the "white horses" out to sea.
    In the afternoon and the following day, I bought some cleaning materials with which to clean the boot. I also wrapped my holdall in a bin-liner and put it on the back seat so that it wouldn't be contaminated by the smell or stains on the back-shelf.
    Having walked along the seafront to check what was available, I went to the Shark Bay Hotel which had a bar and a restaurant with TV screens showing sport. I had fresh fish for dinner.
    Start:16528km. Finish: 17212km. Distance travelled: 684km, the longest so far.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Monkey Mia

    August 25 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    The morning was still blustery with sun and showers all day. The nearby wind-farm, maybe the first I'd seen on the trip, suggested that high winds were normal in Shark Bay.
    I drove to Monkey Mia which was a resort hotel/motel on the coast further up the peninsula. I saw six dolphins close to the shore with one being fed by a volunteer.
    I walked a few kilometres across the sand dunes and along the beach back to the resort, having seen only a hare, rabbit or a mouse.
    Back in Shark Bay, there was an excellent Visitor Centre with displays about the flora, fauna and history of the district plus a 3D film about the sinking of the HMAS Sydney by a German raider in November 1941.
    I continued to wash the boot to try and get rid of the petrol odour.
    There was a double rainbow in the late afternoon.
    I returned to the Shark Bay Hotel on the seafront for dinner.
    The price pf petrol was down to A$1.80 per litre.
    Start: 17212km. Finish: 17273km. Distance travelled: 61km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Kalbarri

    August 26 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    I left Shark Bay Apartments at 08.50 and drove back to the North West Coastal Highway. The gusty wind had ceased leaving heavy showers in the morning but a sunny afternoon.
    I stopped at the Overlander Roadhouse to top-up the fuel-tank and to also have a coffee.
    On the journey, I listened to Frank Sinatra, and Noel Coward at Las Vegas which I'd bought from iTunes.
    I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn again and saw more feral goats. The landscape changed eventually from dry scrubland to trees, sheep ranches, and green and yellow fields of indeterminate plants.
    After the turn-off to Kalbarri, the countryside was like England but this soon changed as I headed towards Kalbarri NP, the land becoming a dry plateau with no fields.
    I entered the National Park to go to the gorges, the Ross Graham Trail down to the River Murchison, and Hawk's Head.
    Back on the Kalbarri Road, I turned off to go to the Skywalk which was a platform extended out over a gorge; towards Nature's Walk; the Z Bend in the river, and to Meanarra Hill as dusk approached. There were an increasing number of pretty flowering plants, especially yellow, creating an avenue along the road.
    Arriving at 18.00. I stayed in a nice room on the 1st floor of Kalbarri Seafront Villas with the key being in a coded box rather than at reception.
    For dinner, I walked down the road to a busy restaurant with a Vietnamese influence.
    Start: 17273km. Finish: 17724km. Distance travelled: 451km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Kalbarri Cliffs

    August 27 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    There were showers in the morning and evening but sunny in between.
    Having checked out of the motel, I drove to Kalbarri Cliff lookouts in the National Park. There was Red Bluff, Natural Bridge and Cove, and a boardwalk to the Island Rock with lots of spring flowers on the cliffs.
    I stayed on the coast road to go past Pink Lake and on to Northampton which was back on the Coastal Highway. The scenery had changed to green rolling hills with sheep farms, yellow rape-seed fields and windmills; no more long straight roads.
    I stopped at an old hotel in Northampton for a snack lunch. The town was founded in 1864, an indication of how young Australia is.
    I drove down Chapman Road, past Chapman Pets with Chapman valley nearby; must remember to check who this Chapman was.
    There were regular overtaking lanes on the single-lane highway as the amount of traffic gradually increased, especially around Geraldton which was the largest town I'd seen since South Hedland and Port Hedland with speed cameras and traffic lights along the highway.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Dongara

    August 27 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    I arrived in Dongara in mid-afternoon which, after checking into the Dongara Hotel/Motel, provided enough time for a walk around town.
    There were expensive houses provided behind the protected sand-dunes which had spring flowers.
    I walked beside the River Irwin down to its confluence with the sea. Port Denison could be seen on the other side of the river along the coast.
    A couple told me that the white birds in the trees were shags or white cormorants, and there were also pelicans by the river.
    There was a Bottle Mart opposite the hotel, one of the regular large alcohol shops seen on the trip.
    I had barramundi for dinner at the restaurant at the hotel.
    Start: 17724km. Finish: 17958km. Distance travelled: 234km.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Arrival in Perth

    August 28 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    A short distance south of Dongara, I turned off the North West Coastal Highway and spent the day on the Indian Ocean Road before meeting the freeways into Perth. To the right of the Road was the aquamarine sea, and white sand beaches and sand-dunes. To the left were rolling hills and ranches.
    I almost passed the signpost to Leseur NP 20km away but, having left Dongara later than planned, I didn't turn off to go and see the wildflowers.
    However, I did stop to see the Pinnacles in Namburg NP which were spectacular.
    Here and elsewhere on the trip, there were signs about poisons distributed in the undergrowth to assist the eradication of unwanted species of fauna.
    I reached Yanchep NP around lunchtime so stopped at the cafe after having seen a koala bear. There were also galahs, ringneck parrots, a purple swamphen, and Australian wood ducks. I could have spent longer there but moved on, not knowing how long it would take to find the Europcar depot in Perth.
    The freeway into Perth started soon after Yanchep NP, 40km from the city, so I didn't pass a petrol station to fill up. There was only one bar left on the fuel-gauge, equivalent to 80kms, when I reached the Europcar depot.
    There was a suburban railway and stations between the two lines of traffic on the freeway.
    Most drivers kept to the 100 kph speed-limit in the steady stream of traffic.
    Two lanes eventually became five including filter lanes. Unfortunately, the voice on the sat-nav stopped that afternoon so I missed the right exit, took the next one, stopped in a bus-lane to check the map, and found my way to the Europcar depot.
    There was no damage to the car and there was no charge for the petrol spill in the boot because I had paid insurance for full protection. I don't think I was charged for the virtually empty tank despite being offered the opportunity to drive back into the city traffic to the nearest petrol station.
    I took a Red Cat free bus for a few stops to the Oaks Hotel on Murray Street.
    My room overlooked Murray Street, and I stayed in the hotel in the evening for dinner and to do some laundry.
    During the 10-day journey down the west coast, I listened to the Beatles singing Sergeant Pepper, George Shearing, Jascha Heifitz playing the Bruch and Mendelsohn concerti, Ella Fitzgerald singing Rodgers and Hart, Noel Coward singing his Las Vegas cabaret act, Stephen Hough playing Chopin, Alexandre Tharaud playing Bach, and Jeff Harner and Frank Sinatra singing.
    Start: 17958km. Finish; 18321km. Distance travelled: 363km.
    Start in Broome: 14792km.
    Finish in Perth: 18321km.
    Total distance travelled: 3529km = 2205 miles.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Perth

    August 29 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    On a sunny day, after a good breakfast at the hotel, I followed the route of the walking tour in Lonely Planet to some of the architectural highlights of central Perth. There were high-rise offices amongst c.1900 buildings with some buildings such as banks being reused for retail or catering as in London. There were lots of coffee bars but not so many restaurants.
    According to a hoarding, there was a Redevelopment Plan for East Perth with lots of empty properties amongst the East Asian, maybe Vietnamese, massage parlours.
    I booked theatre tickets and also the cruise to Fremantle.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Perth

    August 29 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    After lunch at the ferry jettties, I went on a tour up the Bell Tower which enabled me to receive a certificate as a bell-ringer of some of the bells saved from St Martins-in-the-Fields which were due to be melted down because their weight was affecting the stability of the bell-tower. An Australian entrepreneur and enthusiastic collector of bells sent minerals from Australia for the casting of the church's new smaller, lighter bells. Five thousand changes could be rung by six bells. Pulling the rope was heavy work.
    There was a good overview from the top of the Bell Tower.
    I walked through Victoria Park along the embankment of the Swan River to Fraser Point and the Boorloo pedestrian and cycle bridge over the River.
    After dinner in the hotel, I walked through lively Yagan Square to the modern Heath Ledger Theatre to see the Black Swan State Theatre Company perform Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell. The stall seats were cheaper than in London.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Western Australia Botanic Garden

    August 30 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    After taking photos of the views from Kings Park, I entered the Western Australia Botanic Garden which is a great facility for the city. It has sections for the different flora (trees, shrubs and plants) found in the various regions of the State together with water features, gazebos, and a lookout tower. The dry-bush zone was a nice reminder of the landscape in the north of the State.
    There were also a variety of birds including pied honeyeaters or magpie larks, mulga parrots, and Australian white ibises.
    The city was quiet walking back to the hotel with many shops closing at 13.00 on Saturdays.
    In the evening, after dinner at an Irish bar on Murray Street which also had a restaurant, I went to see Plied and Prejudice in the basement of the historic His Majesty's Theatre. It was very funny with a cast of five playing all the roles.
    When I went to book the ticket the previous day, I was informed that it was only the second His Majesty's Theatre in the world, the other being in Aberdeen. However, Her Majesty's in the Haymarket has changed its name to His Majesty's since the Coronation of King Charles.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Ferry to Fremantle

    August 31 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    It was another sunny and warm day but the evenings were becoming chillier as I travelled south.
    After breakfast at the hotel and having checked out and left my holdall in the storeroom, I took a taxi to the Royal Perth Hospital to check a cyst which had appeared just above my left ankle. After an hour's wait, an Irish nurse in A&E told me that it was a ganglin and nothing to worry about. There was nothing to pay due to the reciprocal arrangement with the UK although a check is a made afterwards from the passport details to ensure that the patient is legitimately entitled to free treatment.
    After retrieving my holdall, I walked to the ferry jetty past people wearing their medals having participated in the City to Surf 12km run for charity.
    I also passed an anti-immigration demonstration in the park outside the Supreme Court with lots of Aussie flags being carried. The police were keeping them away from a smaller pro-Palestine demonstration.
    There was noticeable Vietnamese influence in Perth in the cafes and massage parlours. There also appeared to be more mixed partnerships than you see in the UK, e.g. Asians with non-Asian partners.
    After lunch at a cafe by the jetty, I boarded a 75-minute Sealink cruise which I used as a ferry service down the Swan River to Fremantle. From the stern on the upper deck, there were good views of the Perth skyline, the smart houses on the riverbank, and pockets of parkland. There were many yachts on the river plus surfers using the wake of the boat.
    At Fremantle, there were some large container vessels on the quays, and the boat passed the impressive Western Australian Maritime Museum.
    A short walk from the quay was the Hougoumont Hotel. My room was in the New Haus across the road from the main building which was constructed from containers. The bedrooms were smaller than those in the New Haus.
    There was excellent security with access through three key-coded doors.
    Unfortunately, the smart TV was useless unless you had a Netflix or another subscription, the same as at MOM in Darwin.
    After a walk around town, I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Cottesloe

    September 1 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    It was sunny and warm on the first day of Spring in Australia.
    I took the train from Fremantle to Cottesloe for a cost of A$3.50 to travel through one zone and a few stations.
    From the station, I walked through a very smart tree-lined housing estate and past the golf course to the beach, and then walked on the pavement above the white-sand beach and dunes and in front of very nice houses in South Cottesloe. A school was having surfing lessons although the sea was very calm with few breakers.
    Retracing my steps, I walked in the opposite direction to the beaches at North Cottesloe as far as Swanbourne Beach before reaching a sign on a fence around the dunes warning of venomous snakes on the dunes.
    I could see a few islands and container ships out to sea.
    After a light lunch at a cafe overlooking the beach, I retraced my steps back to the station and returned to Fremantle which was much quieter midweek than at the weekend.
    I stayed in the hotel in the afternoon and finished a Jeffrey Archer novel I bought at one of the airports. I gave it to a 2nd-hand bookshop the next day.
    I returned to an Italian restaurant for dinner where I had gone the previous evening to have fruit pie for dessert.
    There were messages at museums, National Parks and theatres about paying respect to past, present and future Indigenous elders.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Fremantle Prison

    September 2 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    On another sunny and warm day, I walked to Fremantle Prison and took two very good tours with guides who explained about the facilities, the convicts kept there, and prison life. The tours went to the cells, the gallows and the chapel where the board on the wall behind the altar showing the Ten Commandments was very similar to the one in the Temple Church in London.
    The prisoners came in the mid-19th century on prison ships from England and they were meant to have been convicted of low-level, non-political crimes, and when released, to become part of Western Australia's expanding population. However, in the 1860s, some Irish Fenians were sent and there was a famous escape of a few of them on a ship sent by American supporters in Boston.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanAustralia 2025Traveler

    Fremantle Buildings

    September 2 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    After a light lunch, I walked past the Oval where Aussie Rules is played by the Fremantle Football Club, the Dockers, who played the Gold Coast SUNS on Saturday 6 September for the second Elimination Final at Optus Stadium, Perth, and lost by just one point. I watched the match at the Irish pub on Murray Street, Perth.
    I continued down South Terrace which is also known as Cappuccino Strip because of the abundance of coffee bars. There were some beautiful balconied buildings along this street and others such as High Street.
    I went into The Round, the original town gaol, which had a small museum.
    Bathers Beach was below The Round and further round the bay were the yacht harbour and restaurants.
    The Shipwreck Museum had a preserved section of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia, which was wrecked in 1629, followed by a massacre by some of the crew of some of the survivors. Items from other wrecks and their exploration were exhibited as well.
    I spoke to the driver of an Outback Spirit bus who also knew Natalie and Dave Patrick and Gaetano Barone. Her colleague said that you weren't allowed to face backwards in the bus by Australian law, hence the lack of card tables in their bus and in the Intrepid bus I'd seen in Shark Bay.
    At 18.00, the joining meeting for the Intrepid trip to Margaret River was held at the hotel. Tracey was the leader together with Mags from Salisbury, Nicki from Chessington, Edwina from Canberra, and Jenny from Auckland.
    We went for dinner to a large restaurant in a converted barn or warehouse where you had to shine a torch to be able to read the menu.    Read more

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