Ever since arriving in WA we had been able to make impromptu arrangements for accommodation or a campsite, and generally planned as we went, trusting our luck. Admittedly, this took time while travelling but the strategy had worked well. Now we had the car booked in at the Perth Tesla workshop 3 days in advance (new front tyres and wheel alignment) and 6 days after that were due to board the Eco Abrolhos in Geraldton for 5 days in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands (later episode)! We regularly saw other Teslas around Perth and charging installations are concentrated in the south west of WA. A pity more weren’t set up elsewhere in WA.

Our luck stayed with us as we approached Perth. We scored 4 days at the Sage Hotel near Kings Park at a very good price 4 hours before arriving. A Tesla destination charger is no more than a block away and a fast charger less than a kilometre away. The Sage Hotel opened in 2016 as a high rise extension and refurbishment (Julio's Italian Restaurant) of the 1902 heritage-listed Walsh Family Residence. It gave us an enjoyable few days in Perth and was within walking distance from the city along Hay St.  We took in a couple of movies and visited museums in Fremantle, including the WA Maritime Museum where the America Cup winning Australia II was suspended from a high ceiling, complete with the named crew, in action and in place as as dummies onboard.

There was also a decommissioned, dry docked Owens Class Submarine. The latter was a gift from the Australian Govt to the WA Govt but no funds were provided  by the Commonwealth for ongoing maintenance. Sadly, the Australian Government appears to have habitual problems looking after its submarine interests. Stephanie spent time in the Shipwrecks Museum (very relevant preparation for the Abrolhos Trip) and found a copy of Robert Drewe's memoir Montebello, which touches on the atomic tests of the 1950's and their legacy near Onslow, which was touched on in an earlier blog. Drew accompanied a group of zoologists monitoring the success of efforts to repopulate Hermite Island with small marsupials raised on Barrow Island. The author does take the opportunity to re-visit many other aspects of his life in WA, including shark attacks, the evolution of his career from cadet journalist to published author, his various relationships and the allure of Rottnest Island for young people from Perth.

Wandering the appealing streets around Fremantle city centre, one could be in a European setting.  The University of Notre Dame campus occupies many historic buildings.  Students have the luxury of being able to wander to and from their classes via cafes, bars and bookshops in intriguing laneways and courtyards.  It seems that a fairly horrendous convict history lies behind these intact and well-tended remains. After dark, restaurants and pubs in this part of Fremantle started to overflow, a striking example of how the West Australians have avoided the worst of COVID.

Late one afternoon we came across the old observatory/meteorological station in Perth, now the home of the National Trust of WA (photo) and nearby, the Royal Perth Tennis Club, both fringed by the lush greenery of Kings Park. There was a no court hire sign at the tennis club and we realised play was only possible with membership credentials, or membership of some other highly venerated club elsewhere around the world. We also came across the Cottesloe Tennis Courts in our wanderings to Perth’s northern beaches. It is situated high on a hill overlooking the Indian Ocean, but it was night time and very windy so we missed out on tennis again. It had been so easy to play tennis in Horrocks! 

We had the best part of 4 days to get back to Geraldton to board the Eco Abrolhos. We left Perth just as the weather started to change for the worse. Despite the weather, our first stop north was Yanchep National Park. Coming from Queensland it’s a bit disconcerting to find private accommodation and restaurants within a National Park but it seems to be normal in WA.  The Yanchep Inn is a good example. It has an old hotel by a lake with a large grassy recreation area and small botanical garden, which features a handful of koalas (nothat can be viewed from a walkway. All of this was established a long time ago and being so close to Perth the site has been a convenient destination for Perth residents for a long time. Ready access to limestone caves makes it even more attractive and the Parks Service offers one large cave as a hire venue for banquets and weddings. Another cave has an excellent guided tour. Unfortunately the water level in the caves has dropped in recent decades and water is artificially fed into the caves to help maintain a high humidity and assist the growth of stalactites and help keep alive cave populations of some ancient endemic species of arthropods.

The bad weather set in with high winds, low temperatures and rain. We stayed in Cervantes at the Pinnacles Motel, which had a 3 phase destination charger. We visited the nearby Pinnacles Desert (Nambung National Park) and Lake Thetis (coastal reserve). The way the stromatolites of Lake Thetis are formed is uncontroversial and similar to what happens in The Hamelin Pool of Shark Bay. However, how the the limestone Pinnacles in the sand dunes came about is still hypothetical, with two different theories for their origin. The first that they are hard capped limestone remnants of an eroded landscape, and solution weathering (karstification) of surrounding substrate has left them standing. Alternatively, the Pinnacles were created through preservation of tree casts buried in coastal aeolianites, the tree roots becoming conduits for water resulting in the precipitation of calcrete, which is what we see today. Either way, these peculiar pillars are quite unique.        

(Photos of Lake Thetis and an ever present native smoke flower  below)

We happened to be in Cervantes at the tail end of their week-long biennial art festival which showcased an array of WA artists, but we were too late to spend more than 20 mins in the gallery. Impressively the Men's Shed produces a range of door mats from retired rope from the fishing industry (this is prime rock lobster country, with mansions on the sea front to prove it). Fortunately we got in a game of tennis at the local courts before the weather turned.  The Lobster Shack with a wild and raging sea at its doorstep, was our last destination in Cervantes. As the weather improved we continued on our way to Geraldton, passing through Jurien Bay (too developed for our liking), Leeman (has a great bakery cafe), Port Denison/Dongara and Greenough.

Tim Winton, a favourite author of ours, draws inspiration from the coastline we had travelled through and we suspect lives in one of the smaller townships we had visited, perhaps Cervantes or Leeman. We felt we had another companion this last week, namely the bobtail skink (also shingleback or sleepy lizard), Tiliqua rugosa. There are 4 subspecies, 3 of which are in WA. The bobtail was persistently seen crossing the road in front of the car, sometimes with disastrous results (by others). Its foot prints through the sand are unmistakeable with a continuous line of closely spaced treads separated by the broad streak of a dragging tail. It is apparently monogamous and can live for several decades, providing motorists see them in time (it is a wonder any survive). Thankfully, the very high winds that had whipped the west coast seas into a frenzy had abated. Nevertheless, our sea legs were about to be tested.