Andy Luck 2

As night fell we arrived in Kalgoorlie and had a stop here of three hours. Despite the odd time we took a bus tour at $10 a head to see the sights, including the famous Hay Street Red Light District. They really do have Red lights, and just about every other colour round the doors. The ladies were also in evidence. Such activities are notionally illegal but are tolerated in a frontier mining town. We had a look at an open cast Gold mine, the biggest hole I think I have ever seen. Work continued by floodlight far below. Those monster trucks, with 12 ft wheels looked like dinky toys. I quite enjoyed Kalgoorlie, it was a much more substantial and attractive town than I expected. It has the almost impossible unemployment rate of 1.3%! Accommodation, however, is extremely expensive. Kalgoorlie’s water is pumped through a huge pipeline from Perth, it is this pipeline that made the goldmines possible. The engineer responsible was, as usual, ridiculed in the press and parliament by persons seeking their own political advantage and the poor devil committed suicide before his project proved itself.

We had another night on the train and arrived in Perth at 7:30 am on the 19^th March. It would have been nice if they had told us we had arrived, as the platform was on the other side of the train and we sat there for about 10 minutes until we realised the corridor was getting very busy! Never mind, there was no point in rushing, we had to wait for the baggage to be unloaded before we could retrieve the bike.

Our hosts in Perth were to be Rob and Marjorie Whittaker, and as we were running late, we phoned to tell them we would not arrive until that evening, as we could not get there until after they left for work. Ah, the convenience of the Mobile Phone, how soon one takes technology for granted. We did not have to worry, Rob had taken the day off just to look after us. What a guy! I met Rob and Marjorie in the early 80’s through a mutual friend, Phil Goude. Rob is also a biker (of course!) and now rides a Yamaha XJ900 but is also restoring a Velocette Venom Clubman, and making a superb job of it. I stopped with Rob twice in the 80’s when I was working for Allens Confectionary. I also sent Georgina there when Marilyn and Edward were in the UK to give her something exiting to do. At the time Rob and Marjorie had a daughter, Kirsten, but she was tragically killed in a road accident when she was 16. The loss of a child is very hard, we are supposed to die before our children.

Rob and Marjorie live in the northern suburbs of Perth in a beautifully kept house. I do admire taste in others, perhaps because I don’t have any! We didn’t do much that day, I made an attempt to reduce the vibration reaching my speedo, in an attempt to increase its life somewhat. It must have worked as, at the time of writing, it has now done over 8000 km and is still going strong! Marjorie came home about 3:00pm and they insisted in taking us on a sightseeing trip, which was most enjoyable. The weather was still superb, as was our dinner that evening. This was the first time that Marilyn had met Rob and Marjorie but, as usual, they got on like a house on fire. The next day we packed up again and set off north to Monkey Mia. This is a long trip, over 1200klms, which we planned to break in Northampton. If you were born in Northampton UK, you would, wouldn’t you?

Northampton is a small town supporting an agricultural area north of Geraldton. Geraldton is quite a sizeable city, why it even has that ultimate symbol of civilisation, MacDonald's! Northampton cannot quite boast such luxuries although it does have at least three hotels and it was in one of these that I discovered what a ‘Skimpy’ was. We kept seeing signs outside pubs ‘Skimpy Tonight’. Who or what is Skimpy? I went in to buy half a dozen stubbies and this vision of loveliness wafted over to serve me dressed in a VERY skimpy bikini. Ahh, all is explained!

We stopped the night at the Canada Goose Bed and Breakfast. The owners were Canadians, escaping the snow for the benefit of their rheumatics, well, her rheumatics anyway. We had dinner that night in the Northampton Restaurant, in solitary splendour, with our host being an Australian of German extraction. She had just returned from a trip to Europe and I don’t think her normal clientele knew she was back. We told her that we originated from Northampton UK, expecting exclamations of surprise etc, but apparently every third visitor is from Northampton UK. Slight exaggeration for effect here, but we were certainly not the first such visitor. Oddly, Northampton WA has some sandstone walls that are very reminiscent of Weston Favell in Northampton UK.

We were now more than halfway to Monkey Mia. The road is good. Long and straight, but good. There are heaps of interesting Banksia trees lining the road. I called them ‘Boiled Egg Banksia’ because the flowers looked just like a boiled egg with the top shell taken off ready for decapitation. I thought they were dying back but later discovered that they start out white and the yellow flowers bloom from the bottom and work their way up the ‘egg’. We finally reached the turn off to the Peron Peninsula, on which lies Monkey Mia, and made the first left turn for about 1000 km. It is another 129 km to the only town on the Peninsular, Denham, and another 24 km to Monkey Mia.

The local authorities are making strenuous efforts to eradicate feral animals, particularly Foxes and Cats, on the Peninsular, which has a fairly narrow neck. This is fenced off with grids across the roads, although how this stops foxes and cats I don’t know! The area is baited with 1080 Poison, something I have been aware of ever since we arrived in Australia, but not until now did I learn its magic. 1080 is a poison derived from a native Australian Plant, the Poisonheart, and it is fatal to feral animals but has no effect on natives. Evolution has given them immunity. Now isn’t that clever! Since the program started all sorts of native Australian animals have made a comeback, some they thought were extinct on the mainland.

As we rolled along on an empty road, over gently undulating countryside covered with low bushes, I was moved to observe to Marilyn that people who came up here must really like Dolphins! We eventually arrived in Denham, a fishing town, in time for lunch and had the most magnificent Fish and Chips, ‘the best I have ever had!’ said Marilyn. After a short tour around town, and I mean short, we set off for Monkey Mia. We subsequently discovered that the Town Manager was also a Ulyssean, and owned a Honda Gold Wing. The perfect bike when everything is hundreds of kilometres away. When we told our Melbourne neighbour Lyn Tamblyn that we were going to Monkey Mia, her response was to say, ‘but there is nothing there, just a beach!’ Well, I am pleased to report that there is now a very pleasant resort at which we stayed in a beach front cabin. In exploring the resort we met the Ranger, a lady whose partner was the Town Manager of Denham, so that’s how we know he is a Ulyssean. We did meet him the next day.

We ate at the Café that night and were up early to get to the beach for the Dolphin visits. Sure enough, along came a party of several dolphins, one of which was a calf of about a year old whose mother seemed to leave him in the humans care while she explored elsewhere. More dolphins turned up and one of the Rangers organised the human ranks whilst the Dolphins inspected us at close quarters. The Ranger then called out several people to feed some of them. They recognise all the Dolphins individually and each has a name. The Rangers carefully feed each Dolphin only 1/3 of its daily diet and never feed young ones under 3 years. This is done to avoid making them dependent on handouts from humans. Later in the day Marilyn actually stroked one, which pleased her greatly.

Shark Bay also boasts a Pearl Farm, and I was instructed that we had to see that! Transport to the Pearl Farm out on Shark Bay was provided by a glass bottomed boat but the weather was rather windy, so we could not go over the areas where we might have seen Dugong. Dugong, as you probably know, are large marine mammals, similar to the American Manatee, which are thought to be the origin of Mermaid Myths. Personally I think I would have to be at sea for a long time before I mistook a nursing Dugong for a Mermaid! We did see some later, well, the odd tail and some brown shapes in the water!

The Pearl farm was interesting, they seed pearls of course in order to ensure they actually farm pearls, rather than just oysters. This is not a trivial operation if attempting to make spherical pearls. Only the Japanese have the skills to do this and such people earn $5000 a week! In Shark bay they only farmed half and three quarter pearls. Of course Marilyn just had to buy one of their rare whole, if oddly shaped, pearls in a gold fitting to hang on a neck chain. I just cannot see any value in such things, am I strange, or is the rest of the world nuts?

After lunch we went out for a sail on the bay in the “Shotover’, a very large Catamaran. Because of the weather they would not guarantee we would see Dugongs or Dolphins, but we did. It was a very enjoyable experience, made all the better as I was not seasick for once. Later that afternoon we met two Pommies, about our age, who were on Holiday from the UK. He was a Biker, also owning an FJ1200, whose presence outside our cabin encouraged the meeting. Nice couple but they exhibited that ‘pommie’ reserve that I forget about between trips to the UK.

We had a pleasant meal in the Restaurant that night and then retired to make an early start in the morning. Back down the North Western Highway we roll, keeping more or less to the speed limit of 110 kph. The road is almost completely empty, we see perhaps one car every 50 km. It is times like this that you realise how ridiculous such a blanket speed limit is, particularly on a motorcycle. I could have ridden at 200kph in perfect safety.