Back on the "Trail" in W.A.

Good to be back! Just checking the local infra structure at the airport while our aircraft taxis to the terminal, I get the definite feeling that everything in my vIew seems to be in order and in good repair. After a few weeks in Bali I am filled with a sense of being able to rely on things mechanical and things electronic again. Reliability, in plain view!!

A Taxi takes us back to where we have both our vehicles stored and on our return there, I connect up both batteries that we disconnected before leaving for Bali. Both engines start at first go. Hurray! We park at two parrallel sites. Our Fridges are both empty, mine requiring a good internal wipe with a bit of bleach. We settle for hot Tomato soup from a packet and have a cracker with it before turning in for the night.

The following morning we book in, me for two nights and Jo for three, as she wants to head west for a few days while I am going south. On Wednesday morning its time for me to leave after collecting my mail and I leave a sad Jo to pursue her own travels for a few days, me feeling the same way.

Travelling on my own again after many weeks together with Jo, its like a new, different experience all over again, somehow lacking now, as there is no-one nearby to share and experience what I see… I very much miss the laugh and the banter going on as well.

I am spending my first night in a Park by the weir, just outside Waroona, about 100km south of Perth, where we both spent a night before going to Perth for our Bali adventure. I am amazed just how much the water level has dropped since our last visit there. Today, the place is deserted and very quiet. There was a little rain this afternoon, the smell of grass and Eucalypts, sweet and pleasing. I have a few slices of toast and some cheese before turning in on a very dark night.

The next morning, after coffee and breakfast I am on my way, heading south. I stay on the Western Highway until south of Roelands, where I turn to the East onto the Coalfields Highway towards Collie. The plan is to check out a campsite called Honeymoon Pool, about 25km west of Collie. The first 8km in toward Honeymoon Pool is sealed and in good condition, the final 5km in are gravel and quite badly corrugated, most times only allowing slow progress at snails pace, although constantly going downhill into a deep valley. Coming into the Park area, the road is sealed again. I am very glad I have come down as this is a truly magnificent spot. Located on the banks of a fast-flowing river, clear water and, although quite cold, about half a dozen kids seem to enjoy jumping in and having a swim.

Honeymoon Pool

I intend to do a bit of exploring, drive back out of the camp area to check whats ahead. After crossing the river there is a sealed road rising sharply out of the valley. I follow it to the top and after about 5km come to a T-intersection where my GPS tells me to turn left in order to get to Collie. As it turns out, I should have turned right but ended up driving about 50km on very dusty dirt tracks through the bush. When I finally get to a sealed road again, I find that I am almost 60km from Collie, where I need to go to the local Centrelink Office.

While I am in Collie, I discover a large Camping Store where I look to discover a nice new chair to replace the broken one I threw out at Perth, a much more solidly built one than the previous model. I now head back to Honeymoon Pool.

I have brought some minced meat, so decide to cook some german "Fleischpflanzl" and cook some spuds for a potato salad to go with it. The beer tastes good too and I share a bottle with my neighbor Jeffrey while sitting at his campfire. With our torches we also check on the crabs that come close to the shore, some of them quite a decent size too. By the time I call it a day its about 10.30.

In the morning, after consulting my maps, I decide to head further south for the coast again and try to stay at the Anglican Camp again on the "Holy Mile", just south of Busselton. Its such a lovely spot, right on the water, the view absolutely spectacular. I decide to spend a week here.

The Beach at the Anglican Camp

Balinese surprises during the night...

Well, moved again to another room as the night time "entertainment" was getting rather noisy. It all started a few days ago with rumblings in the false ceiling of our room, faint at first but with successive days sounding somewhat more like a colllection of rodents running all over the roof area. The woman living next door had similar experiences, with the added flavour of sighting a somewhat large rat INSIDE her room. At first there was muted reaction from the staff at reception even when I also reported the same kind of entertainment, "..having rats running in our ceiling wearing hobnail boots…" at 3 am and all through the night.

Jo was getting a bit spooked by it all with visions of rats walking over her. In the morning I request to be moved to another room and we are allocated a so-called "de-luxe room". Tony, at reception does try to squeeze me for some extra money but I refuse. So, for the last 4 nights we are living without the nightly racket.

It has been rather hot and humid, Jo and I decide to spend our days closer to the beach, the ideal spot being close by the pool of a large Hotel nearby, bordering onto the beach road of Legian with the added benefit of the constant breeze coming off the ocean.

View along the promenade with Hotel deck chairs

We grab a deck chair each, collect a couple of towels from their towel counter and make ourselves comfortable with view of the ocean on their promenade. A great place to be on a hot day!

Jo, Just hangin loose

The beach across the road is setup with many a deck chair, most of them unoccupied but the throng of locals offering a multitude of services, from the obligatory beach massage, nail painting or having plaits put into hair to selling watches or baseball caps, are looking very languid, so business must be very slow for all of them.

Across from my deck chair on the Hotel promenade, someone has put up a boogie board in a tree and has written on the underside "Beach Bum Bar" underneath the words "SURF LESSON",

"Beach Bum Bar"

20 metres away, another sign, made of a broken surf board in the branches of a tree that reads "FRANK'S BAR", underneath, "Surfing Lesson".

"Frank's Bar"

Close by both enterprises, a few surf boards leaning against a tree and a beach umbrella with a table, a few Esky Coolers on top. No customers in evidence in either business. The bigger Hotels in the area seem to be pretty full but I suspect that most guests prefer the clean chlorinated water of the hotel pools to the polluted beach. The many sellers on the beach, obviously are not permitted entry on hotel property and so business will remain slow for all of them.

The daily Treat at Legian

Our stay at Legian does not include breakfast, so off we go on our morning short walk around the corner to visit "Bobby's Cafe" where a wonderful breakfast can be had every morning. Great Bali coffee, a large platter of fresh and delicious fruits and then an absolutely lovely omelette with fresh toast with NZ butter. It seems, many a visitor have discovered Bobby's as well, so there is usually a good gathering each morning of many people.


Tommy's Cafe

We have also tried his Iced Coffee on most afternoons, so now I can only comment that the stuff is addictive - not just the usual cold-and-wet variety that are offered in most other places.

That Iced Coffee sure does put asmile on your face!

The staff are all friendly, we are always greeted with a big smile and cold hand towels that help to reduce the heat on a hot afternoon when we come back from a walk.

It also looks as if some of that rain we have experiennced last week has been blown away, resulting in hot sunny days where its smart to look for a bit of a breeze close to the sea shore. This afternoon, Jo and I went to spend our day reading in the gardens right along the beach in one of the big Hotels, cooled of in their pool and watched the promenade with visitors getting 'hooked' by street sellers.

More Bali Impressions

Rice Terraces in Central Bali

Certainly an island of many faces, of immense contrasts, clean and pristine with breathtaking views, perfect environment to relax in, to switch off, to just lie back and enjoy that, which we call life.

Exotic Flowers at the side of the road

Quite obviously, the general population is hurting from low tourist numbers and it appears that income for many of the small businesses or hole-in-the-wall shops has already been severely curtailed.

Today, Jo and I took a Taxi to Sanur Beach which is much more up-market than Kuta or Legian. As I have not been there for many years myself, it was really nice to see how much the beach front has been improved with lots of trees providing virtually endless shade along the waterfront.

Beach Promenade at Sanur

Many restaurants have their tables set out under the trees, so its wonderful to sit in the shade and enjoy the view along the coastline with a line of mountains in the background. Several street vendors though are deperately trying to get our attention and coax us to go to their shop for a purchase of whatever it is, that they happen to sell there. There are some tourists also sitting outside, mostly from european countries, but we also see the odd Australian, whereas in Legian, the vast majority of visitors are Australian.

Sanur is quite peacefull though, the beaches clean and freshly raked, a sight, I am yet to experience at Kuta, Legian or the Seminyak Beaches. After some heavy rain we experienced in the past week, lots and lots of rubbish has been washed up on Legian Beach, most of it Plastic articles, but also lots of wood and trees that now cover the foreshore along the beachfront. There is some sort of cleanup underway, but haphazard at best, with a lot of the trash simply being dumped along the beach promenade and not a vehicle in sight for days that might take it away.

Washed-up debris on Legian Beach

Last weekend saw some auspicious days where many Temples performed ceremonies accompanied by large Gamelan Orchestras with drums and large Gongs. Everyone is dressed in colourful outfits, so it's nice, for me, the tourist to see some of the more esoteric traditions and customs of this island again.

Bali, first impressions

An old statue by the side of the road

Finally, adjusted to Bali time and the humidity. Yesterday I gave some data to a survey conducted by students in the street. In the evening I got a call from a lady, saying I had won a prize to stay at a hotel and we would be picked up from our hotel this morning so we could receive that prize. Jo and I both think this is simply a novel way to recruit time-share customers, but since they are offering free transport to Nusa Dua and return to our hotel and also include a free breakfast, we feel we have nothing to lose.

Jo at the local Market

Right on time we are picked up by a driver with a young lady who asks lots of questions on the half hour trip to Nusa Dua, the driver depositing us on the doorstep of the hotel where we are greeted by yet another young lady. She asks me to fill in yet another form but seems to not like that my nationality is German and not Australian, a few minutes later informs us that we are not eligible to take part in a guided tour through the hotel but we should proceed to another desk where I will receive my supposed prize. I thank her and point out that we were given to understand, a breakfast would be given and therefore we had not had any back at our hotel. A little grudgingly she writes out a voucher and directs us to the hotel bar where we indeed receive a free breakfast, then collect our "prize", the fine print informing us that we are actually outside the age group targeted and not entitled. The driver is called and together with another young woman, called Susie we are driven back and I ask if we may be dropped off at the Matahari in Kuta instead, to which she happily agrees.


Street displays at Legian, Bali

Susie tells us she is from Java. She is quite funny and we get to laugh all the way to Kuta. The driver also tells us he lives in Ubud, only coming to Kuta to fulfill his job as driver. Jo and I say good bye and walk into the Matahari, a local Department Store looking at various items on display, comparing prices etc. After about half an hour I realise that I have left my camera in the car that brought us back to Kuta. What now?

What are my chances of ever seeing that camera again, given that

- I have no telephone number of the hotel we just visited
- I do not know the name of the driver
- I do not know the registration of the car we were brought back in
- I do not know the full name of Susie
- I do not even know the name of the organisation involved apart from the name of the hotel

I call my Hotel and ask for them to obtain the phone number of the hotel in question. When I call that number repeatedly I cannot get through and decide to leave the matter untlil we return to our hotel. As we walk out from Matahari, a young woman and a young man are trying to get our attention for yet another sceme.

Exploring some of the posh places at Sayan

Jo apologises saying we just left a camera in a car and relates the story to them both. Now this is where it gets very interesting. The young man tells us that the hotel we have just returned from, have an office just around the corner and takes us to their front door. Yes, there is an office inside but not a single letter or inscription identifying the organisation.

We walk in and talk to a young woman at the desk, explaining our situation. Yes, she says, Susie was just here and she will try to track the driver, walks out the front door talking on her Mobile and crossing the road where she disappears. Jo and I sit down in the foyer and wait. A few minutes later she returns, pointing across the road to about five young men, asking us to identify our driver, cross the road and there he is holding out my camera.

The lesson? Well, firstly, never leave your belongings in strange cars, but also, never underestimate the balinese network, everybody seemingly knowing everyone else and last, but not least, that extra lot of good fortune. Thank you!