Suffice to say, with Perth being a 4 hour drive South, we went North!
Our first stop was a look out post in the middle of nowhere which was an ideal opportunity for the Lion in the party to get her mane all windswept. This kept Inga and I amused for seconds, at least. We were aiming for a small tourist town called Jurien Bay which was up the coast from Cervantes (this is the town by the Pinnacles desert and the Great Western is recommended for your comfort). There was no reason to go to Jurien Bay other than the fact it was on the map and we were in the vague vacinity. Turns out, it was quite a sweet little place, set in a nice bay with a small pier jutting out and something splashing and playing about in the sea. Dolphins!
Unfortunately we failed to get any pics on them playing about as they were too far out so instead you get a picture of Inga on the Jetty being artistic.From there we headed for New Norscia. With a brief stop to take pictures of empty roads and strange trees. Jason kindly identified the tree for us later on but I, in my usual fashion, failed to make a note of what they were called. They are pretty cool though and remind me of ice creams or ice lollies (which is something we could have done with on this trip!)
New Norscia (which we eventually found after a small detour and failing to take the road we had identified as the quickest) is stuffed full of lovely turn of the century buildings. There's loads of history there and, unfortunately, loads of flies. Oh, and Catholic monks. The buildings are spectacular and the monks earn their money by growing olives and showing toursits round their "humble" abode. We chose not to be fleeced for a few billion dollars plus our souls, and instead just ambled about taking photo's.
The buildings are spectacular but I'm not sure if it's a credit to the monks or it just goes to prove that they obviously have too much money to spare. For monks, who I always thought had given up worldly possessions in pursuit of a purity of life worshipping God, it was maybe, just maybe, taking the piss a bit to be building huge houses. That said, part of it was a school and seminary, another was a hotel for visitors, and one was a brothel so the brothers could meet up and have fun with the sisters. Ok, maybe not, but wouldn't that have been a scandal to rock the foundations of the Catholic church, or would it....The ubiquitous parrots were also in residence and very vocal about letting us know they were there. We paused and watched them screech at each other in the trees and then spotted the one thing Inga was desperate to get a picture of - and at a distance that made sense for a camera shot - a road train!
Ok, it's a bit hard to see - being only 3 trailers long - but if you look closely you can see it hiding behind the tree. Honest.From here it was a straight run back to Perth, which was going to be a novelty for us. Too much of a novelty in fact, so we had no choice but to make some stops on the way. This wasn't, and never will be, hard in Australia as there is so much that is strange to see. Bus stops for schools where there isn't a house to be seen anywhere, signs for animals that might cross the road that are so cool I wanted to steal them and ship them home (the signs not the animals although Inga probably wouldn't have objected to a pet Kangeroo).
Why don't we have signs that are as cool as these? Especially the long necked turtle one. We didn't know what the hell this was and didn't believe Jason (the oracle of Australia) until we actually saw one. There really is a turtle that has had its neck stretched out, just like it's been on a rack or is related to those He-man stretchy toys you used to be able to get. So cool. We drove back to Perth happy and contented with our little desert jaunt with associated side trips and wondering what joys had been planned in our abscence.
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