Western Australia
Nov. 26th, 2008 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietSo far, it has rained a bit, and I have had some very nice wine. And cycled 20k very slowly (due to stopping at a cave, and an Aboriginal cultural centre, and the place with the wine and some lunch), and 35k really quite fast.
Then I had to put up a tent on *deliberately placed gravel*. "There's a [somethingorother, didn't catch the word] for your tent", the campsite owner said, showing me where I was headed on a map. The somethingorother is a patch of dirt & gravel (mostly gravel) with some kind of nylon close-weave net over the top, on which you are expected to pitch your tent. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY. Took me 35min to put up a tent which normally takes <10min, because I could not get the *bloody* pegs in the ground. I have vibration ouch on my peg-holding hand now. Grumble.
Last night I spent being The Only Grownup In The Village, at a caravan park in Dunsborough. It is Schoolies Week, which is when every 18-yr-old in Aus, having just finished their exams & thus their school career, goes in search of a beach and quite a lot of alcohol. The caravan people said, doubtfully "I'm not sure you'll *want* to stay here, and normally we don't let anyone else in while they're here", but I assured them that sleeping in a campsite, even surrounded by inebriated teenagers, would be preferable to sleeping on the side of the road, so they charged me $14.50 and sent me over to the back of the site. The teenagers all looked at me as if I'd grown an extra head (I checked: still only the one), and I had a couple of conversations that went:
"You're - not a leaver, are you?"
"No, about 12 years too old."
whereupon polite conversations about what I was up to were held, and my tent was admired. (One lad asked how old I was, and looked quite shocked to hear the answer "30. Three-zero.". They made a hell of a racket all night but this did not bother me in the slightest, so all was well.
Nearly sunset now so I should go sort my dinner out. Off to Augusta tomorrow, & to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse - apparently one of only 4 places in the world where 2 oceans meet. A long day though - I'm not stopping at Augusta but heading 20k or so inland, to a national park campsite which has only cold showers. HORRORS.
Then I had to put up a tent on *deliberately placed gravel*. "There's a [somethingorother, didn't catch the word] for your tent", the campsite owner said, showing me where I was headed on a map. The somethingorother is a patch of dirt & gravel (mostly gravel) with some kind of nylon close-weave net over the top, on which you are expected to pitch your tent. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY. Took me 35min to put up a tent which normally takes <10min, because I could not get the *bloody* pegs in the ground. I have vibration ouch on my peg-holding hand now. Grumble.
Last night I spent being The Only Grownup In The Village, at a caravan park in Dunsborough. It is Schoolies Week, which is when every 18-yr-old in Aus, having just finished their exams & thus their school career, goes in search of a beach and quite a lot of alcohol. The caravan people said, doubtfully "I'm not sure you'll *want* to stay here, and normally we don't let anyone else in while they're here", but I assured them that sleeping in a campsite, even surrounded by inebriated teenagers, would be preferable to sleeping on the side of the road, so they charged me $14.50 and sent me over to the back of the site. The teenagers all looked at me as if I'd grown an extra head (I checked: still only the one), and I had a couple of conversations that went:
"You're - not a leaver, are you?"
"No, about 12 years too old."
whereupon polite conversations about what I was up to were held, and my tent was admired. (One lad asked how old I was, and looked quite shocked to hear the answer "30. Three-zero.". They made a hell of a racket all night but this did not bother me in the slightest, so all was well.
Nearly sunset now so I should go sort my dinner out. Off to Augusta tomorrow, & to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse - apparently one of only 4 places in the world where 2 oceans meet. A long day though - I'm not stopping at Augusta but heading 20k or so inland, to a national park campsite which has only cold showers. HORRORS.
