21/08/2004 - Stage 2, Day 85, Page 3 of 3 - Nanutarra Roadhouse to Melbourne, Vic - That's right, we're home!
We did take one turnoff on our way to Perth. We headed out to Monkey Mia for a look at the dolphins. There was a dive shop there which had these awesome little compressors (called hookers) which float around behind you and pump air down to you so that you don't have to strap a tank to your back. We'd only seen hookers that are bolted to boats before, so these mobile ones were all new to us. I've dived with a hooker once before on Flinders Island with Greg Reddy and it was amazing to dive without having all that crap strapped to you! No tank, no BC vest - it's great. Anyway, we want to get one of these hookers some day so we got a photo. The company that makes them has a website at www.powerdive.com. They also had a hooker built into a surf ski. All this stuff was for hire too, but we didn't have time to play with it, and the weather had turned cold since we'd been heading south and swimming was out of the question!
There were heaps of cool friendly pelecans on the beach at Monkey Mia, so we took some pictures of them.
According to Freddo, all the rules had changed at Monkey Mia. You used to be able to swim, pat and play with the dolphins that come into the beach there every day, but you can't do that now. Nowadays, they tell you that if you touch the dolphins they can become aggressive and attack you. What a joke! If the dolphins didn't want to be patted or played with, they wouldn't come near you, would they?
Anyway, Freddo told me to keep an eye out for the 'Dolphin Nazi' who patrols the beach making sure people don't get in the water without permission or touch the dolphins. He wanted a picture of this lady, so here's one for freddo. This is the lady he calls the 'Dolphin Nazi' telling a boy off for being in the water without permission. She told him that the dolphins could attack him. Hummm, I've heard of shark attack before, but dolphin attack??? Anyway, Freddo assures me that the dolphins don't come to the beach as much as they used to - apparently this all changed when the new rules came in about not being able to pat them.
Monkey Mia turned out to be a big anti-climax. One dolphin came in near the shore, but just swam past once while we all stood on the beach waiting for the dolphin police to tell us it was ok to walk in up to our knees (but not touch). It's unlikely we'll ever bother going there again.
After our dodgy dolphin encounter, we continued our journey towards Perth, finally arriving in Fremantle (Freo) on Sunday 15th August 2004. Freo was great - somewhere everyone should go! It's got Perth's version of Melbourne's Lygon Street, or Sydney's Norton Street. If you like to eat woggy food, Freo's for you. There's a place there on Market Street called Sandrino which makes the best Zuppa di Cozze (mussel soup). My parents have been known to fly to Perth just for a bowl of it!
The buildings there are all really old and made with beautiful stone and the place has a great night life. There's a pub there called the Sail and Anchor which brews its own beer and it's a real tourist attraction - mainly because the beer is fabulous!
Freo is a southern suburb of Perth and it is right on the coast. There's a big Marina there. We went for a walk along the marina on Tuesday 17th August after checking out of our room at the pub, and to our suprise we found the Little Creatures Brewery there. We've been drinking Little Creatures beer at home for ages, but never knew where it came from. Now we did!
The brewery is right on the marina too, so the back bar is on timber decking out over the water!
The food was fabulous too. They had a wood-fired oven there and an open kitchen where you could see them making your tasty snacks and dinners.
The brewery was great! You could see all the big steel vats where the beer was being made, and they also had a bar with huge two storey high vats behind it (scroll right to see the whole picture). They don't pour the beer out of kegs here, they pour it straight from the vat!
After the Creatures we went to the cinema to kill time and watched Farenheit 9/11 then took off to meet Kem and Tracy at their house nearby in the eastern suburbs of Perth. We stayed there the night and then took off early the next morning (Wednesday 18th August) bound for Melbourne. We actually got stopped at a booze bus coming across the Nullabor Plain too. Bradley asked the police man if he could get any further from anywhere, and he said 'not on the bitumen'. I think he was telling the truth.
After passing Eucla (which we both thought was a complete hole) we stopped at the lookouts on the Great Australian Bight and took a few pictures of the cliffs.
I had been munching on strawberries that morning and there was one in the packet which I thought was a lovely shape, so I took some pictures of it of course! I just knew you'd all want to see it too!
Delicious!
Anyway, we stopped at Streaky Bay (on the north west corner of the Eyre Peninsula) and picked ourselves up 9½ dozen fresh live oysters off a local oyster farm for a total of $40. What a bargain! Two days later (21st August, 2004) we were home and we had the biggest feed of oysters you've ever seen!
