On Saturday Jane and I left Perth and headed south again (Jane drove most of the way) to pick up the keys of our new (rental) house in Dunsborough. A real, live, honest to goodness house, with walls and doors that don’t zip up and real plumbing and hot water and power…

Anyway, so this is where we’re settling until at least well after the baby arrives - what d’you reckon? It’s a massive house, all on one level, surrounded by trees in the older part of Dunsborough - older, but more character than one of the soul-less new estates, where they cleared all the trees and the houses are built almost on top of each other. There’s terracotta tiled floors throughout (except in the bedrooms, which are carpeted), a big open kitchen (gas), a woodfire in the living room, 4 bedrooms plus a study plus 2 living rooms - and a shed out the back. The only downside so far is the colour of the blinds - they’re an off-pink (Jane insists they’re apricot, but I still reckon they’re pink).

Now we’re just waiting for all our stuff to arrive… lucky we’re fully equipped for (and dare I say it, kinda good at) camping.

Ok, bit of a delay in writing this - sorry. Anyways, back to the road trip. After the last post, which I wrote at around 8am at the SA/WA Border Village after already covering 300km, I kept on trucking for the day. I’d fueled up at the Border Village, and this saw me through the rest of the Nullarbor to Norseman, WA, where I stopped for fuel and a greasy spring roll (a man can’t live on Chiko rolls alone, you know) then turned right and headed north towards Coolgardie.

The Nullarbor had been flat and straight, until Balladonia, where it starts heading uphill into the Fraser Ranges - however, the most boring part of the drive was this stretch from Norseman up to Calgoordie and then west into the setting sun. As compensation though, the moonrise seen through my rearview mirror was magical.

Anyway, long day much abbreviated, I made it as far as Southern Cross, where I stopped for a feed at another truck stop (chips and gravy, washed down with an iced coffee milk). Still feeling chipper, I pushed on to a rest area about 80km out of Southern Cross, where I pulled over, crawled into the back of the troopy and passed out. I’d covered a long, boring 1408km since setting out pre-dawn - that’s from point C to D on the map above .

A brief 4 hours later (3am WA-time) I was on the road again - trying to nail the last 340km (D to E on the map) to Perth before peak hour set in on the approaches to the city. I didn’t manage to avoid peak hour totally, but shortly after 7am Friday morning I pulled up outside Janes mums place in Claremont.

So just for the record, I’d managed to cover just under 1750km in just over 24 hours - woohoo! Again, if you wanna browse the map, click here.

Overall, the worst part was probably the sheer mind-numbing boredom of some of the remote stretches of road - and it’s made worse by not having access to radio stations. I found that when I was getting radio reception (particularly ABC Radio National or their news radio service) time went a lot quicker, as you get to occupy your mind a bit. The best part of the whole drive was probably having the sheer size of our country brought home to me in a big way; other highlights included the 3 wedge-tailed eagles by the side of the road, the road trains, the sky, the sunsets, the moonrise, and the roadhouse diet (mmm, Chiko rolls - but seriously, the best quality roadhouse food I found on the trip was at a place called Mozies at Ceduna).

The second day of the drive back towards WA went a bit smoother - maybe I’m getting into the long-haul zone. Could be the fact I’m wearing a filthy blue singlet, swearing at traffic a lot and living on Chiko rolls and roadhouse sustenance (Gray, you must have snuck a camera into the car).

I left Lake Benanee around 7am Sydney time, and managed to get as far as the rest area just east of Yalata Roadhouse, 300-odd kms short of the WA border - a total distance of 1260kms. Again, if you wanna have a closer look at the map and my route, try this link.

I’m writing this from the roadhouse at the WA/SA border village - I got up pre-dawn and have notched up another 3 hours/300kms. Here’s me at the border - I’m not grumpy, just squinting into the dawn:

Here’s a few more shots from the road:

I’m on my way back to WA and Jane! I finally finished up in Sydney - apologies to all the people I didn’t have a chance to catch up with - and hit the road this morning around 9am. It’s been a long day. I’m now camped at a little rest area off the Sturt Highway at Lake Benanee, with a small pack of grey nomads around me. 950 odd kms down, just over 3000 to go.

If you wanna see closeups of the map of the route I’ve taken so far, try this link.

Not really.

Well, almost. I arrived in Sydney on Monday night previous, after catching up with Craig and Liza in Coffs Harbour on Saturday night and then spending Sunday night and Monday up near Newcastle, sorting through the container-load of stuff Jane and I have stored up there, in preparation for moving it all across to WA. Seven a.m. Tuesday saw me on a bus to Surry Hills, crammed like a sardine in amongst all the other commuters. I’ve pretty much just worked since then, bar another trip to Newcastle last weekend to drop off more furniture and get everything ready. While Sydney can be beautiful, the shock of the commute and the hectic nature of the city made me realise why I left to start with. It wasn’t until yesterday (Thursday) that I managed to get a surf in - scored a nice 3-hour session out at Long Reef with Marty in the morning, then managed a late out at Curlie.

Jane’s been in WA (working in Perth and down south) for the last few weeks while I’ve been doing all this, and she’s found us a house in Dunsborough. While still in the general Margaret River area, it’s not as far south as the block was - it’ll be a bit of a luxury being able to walk or ride into town for dinner and a few beers, not to mention Jane can now walk to work. And the surf breaks are a similar distance away as they were when we were staying at Spence’s block, we’ll just be driving in from the other direction.

The plan now is to finish up here this weekend and hit the road across to WA to rejoin Jane by Tuesday at the latest - according to Google, it’s 3970km door to door.

Does it get any better?

… and I surfed in boardies. Sorry, Jane.

I ended up staying the night in Byron, but the pulse of swell from the afternoon before didn’t hang around until morning. So I started making my way south, stopping in to check first Tallows (nothing doing - still some size, but very messy) and then Broken Head - bingo! It looked pretty good when I first got there so I went out for a wave, but it rapidly deteriorated - mainly closeouts.

Organic doughnuts? They weren’t open at the time, but Jane has a thing for doughnuts, so I felt compelled to at least capture the sign. So there you go, Jane, this one’s for you.

I’ve spent the last few days in limbo, otherwise known as the Gold Coast. After hanging out in Burleigh on Sunday night, I’d headed further south, all the way to Tugun (about two suburbs away), when I got a call from Keenan - I’d thought he was living somewhere just south of the border, but turns out he was one suburb back the way I’d just come, in Palm Beach. So we hung out for beers and dinner at the local surf club on Monday night - it was good to catch up, we figured out the last time we’d seen each other was around 5 years ago - then on Tuesday morning I bid him farewell and was all set to head south into NSW.

I made it as far as Tweed Heads, when the clutch on the troopy decided to give up the ghost - it had been threatening a caper like this for a while. So off I went to Keenans mechanic, Roger, where I was told I couldn’t the car back until Friday. Keenan kindly put up with me as a house guest for the rest of the week (I owe you, mate) while I waited. And waited. With no surf.

Anyway, this afternoon I finally got reunited with troopy (and dis-united from over a grand), and hit the road south. I intended to drive through Byron Bay, just to see what had changed, and then keep going further south until dark… but lo and behold, as soon as Main Beach hove into view, those plans went out the window. There was surf. My home state (sorry Jane!) had laid out the welcome mat.

I managed to keep it together long enough to snap off the pictures above, then bolted for the water. It was offshore, warm water, head high and getting glassier with each passing minute. Oh yeah…

Late yesterday afternoon I cracked - I’d driven from the Sunshine Coast past (and kinda through - I wanted to avoid a toll bridge) Brisbane, down to the Gold Coast and through the insanity that is Surfers Paradise. I was more than a little stinging for a surf, but Huey would have none of it. I went out for a grovel anyway - half a foot onshore mush at the south end of Broadbeach (the massive beach that runs past Surfers), at a spot called Miami. Good to get wet, but no joy on the waves front.

Feeling at a loss, and slightly cold, I went for a walk/skate over the next headland, and found Burleigh Heads. No surf to speak of, but the place was jumping - Sunday sessions in full swing, from random families and people using the council bbqs along the beach-front, to a full drumming circle (hippies come out of the woodwork) and in another spot, a whole bunch of people fire-twirling (!). I ended up heading back to Miami to get the troopy, and spent the night in Burleigh, hoping the wind would back off overnight.

This morning the wind had indeed dropped off - nay, it actually was mildly offshore for a while! I went for a skate to check what the surf was doing, and snapped the photos above. I figured I’d let the pre-work and pre-school frothers get the early in, then I’d head out for second shift. Which would have worked out fine, but when I headed out there, thinking the grommets would have to head in soon, I found out it was some sort of student free day at the local schools. So I got my first taste of the Gold Coast crowds . Still, I managed a couple of turns on some waist-high grovelers - the new board is way fast and loose - and I definitely got a feel for the potential of this place. Not surprising, really, it is rated as one of Australias best right-handers after all.