Last update Australia 2014

Heya People,

It has been more than 2 months now, that I’m back on the Island and back to civilization. They welcomed me with open arms on the island. Two of my colleagues had been waiting the whole day for me to arrive. First the afternoon boat, then the fast service and finally the evening boat. It was such a lovely surprise! Thank you!

On the 31st of March I left Beverley and took the bus to Albany. The first day in Albany I walked around past the Anzac Memorial, straight to Middleton Beach and after that over the boardwalk along the coast back to the hostel. My right heel was hurting, so it took ages for me to get around. In the afternoon I hired a pushbike and cycled to Mount Melville. Pretty tuff going uphill, but going down was Woehoe!!
Dinner was delicious. Pasta á la Lai . The hostel 1849 backpackers was super chill. Everybody was nice and they were thinking ahead with you, about where to go and how to get there. They served lovely, sweet pancakes in the morning. It was a luxury. You could eat as much pancakes as you liked, and they only thing you had to do, was showing up between 07.00 AM till 09.30AM.

The second of April, me and my pushbike got in a taxi and got dropped off in Torndirrup National Park. The Gap and the National Bridge were my first stop. I had te place for myself, there was no one around. At 10.00AM a bus full of tourists came along, so time for me to go. The first couple of minutes were hard. Shit what was I going to do with this hilly National Park. Am I crazy? I survived the first hill and was off to the Blowholes. They were working, so I had a good view and the sound was amazing. My third stop was the stony hill. Jesus Christ, that hill was steep. I’m sorry people, but I got off my bike and walked for a bit. On the top there was a small walk circuit. I was again the only person walking there and I also was the first person that day, because I walked straight into a spider web. I ate it literally. Bleeh, the web was so strong, that it almost swinged me backwards. Bleeh, bleeh, and then 2 more spider webs. The view on the top was beautiful. I could see all the way back to Albany. It was pretty windy up there, so I decided to fly back and go down the road to Frenchman Bay. I ate my lunch and drank 600ml water. Not that I was really thirsty though. Just needed to drink, so my mum doesn’t get worried ;-).

I was thinking where to go next and the massive hill that was awaiting for me. I skipt the whale world, I didn’t feel like going to a museum. So I went uphill towards Big Grove. I had the wind against me and it started to rain. I got wet, wet, wet, but it stopped after 15 minutes and I was dry in no time. Good onya on the rainjackets! I past the Gap and a bit further on the right I turned off towards Whaling Cove on the Quaranup road. It was a long, long way. On the way back I saw something crossing the road. It were 11 caterpillars in a row. So cool! I was wondering if they would make it to the other end of the road, because it was quite busy on the road. So when a car past by I looked how the car drove by, over the insects and threw them everywhere. Two of the caterpillars where absolutely dead. Green stuff came out of them. The little things were so lost. They had absolutely no idea where to go, now they lost their leaders. I felt sorry for them, but had to leave them behind. Back on the Bay road, I cycled to Little Grove and along the water back to Albany. This day I saw a lot of rainbows, they were beautiful and very bright. From town to Frenchman Bay it was 20km, so I reckon I cycled about 50 km that day with rain, wind, hills and sunshine.

The next day I left my pushbike aside and got picked up by Cousins of Bean- Eye. They drove me around Albany, the places I couldn’t visit without a car. The Port, Emu Point, Oyser Harbour, Lower King Bridge, King river, Kalgan river, all the way to little Beach and Two Peoples Bay. The clouds and rocks were a very good scenery. They showed me the Dog Rock in town, the most photographed thing in Albany. We went up to Mount Clarence and again to Mount Melville. We went to the windfarm. They brought lunch with them and I ate a lot of the home made relish. Tomato and onion taste. Mmmmmm. After that day I can tell you, that I’ve seen Albany’s ins and outs, so I’m allowed to leave the place for another.

04-04-2014
Got the bus at 06.00AM. at 09.15AM I arrived in Wagin and had to wait till 11.30AM. But the bus was half hour later. So from Wagin we drove to Esperance. At 18.00PM I arrived in Esperance and got picked up by the YHA hostel. I fell asleep at 20.00PM.

The next morning I woke up at 07.30AM, with Brooke my roommate I went to town. At the French bakery I bought my breakfast. Satay roll with tomato, avocado etc.. So good! At 09.30AM I decided to go bike riding. I had 4 pushbike choices. One to small for me, the second one had no brakes, and the last two bikes had each one brake working. I chose the one without a childseat and one brake working. At Woolworths I got myself some water and sweets. At 10.30AM I was ready steady!
First West Beach, there were a lot of surfers and girls lying on the beach. The ride was really hilly and my bike needed to be oiled. I was riding a pretty shitty rusty bike, who I absolutely didn’t trust at all, but going back to the hostel, was not an option.
So I got off the bike plenty of times. After West Beach I cycled to Blue Have Beach, there was no one. At Salmon Beach, they were fishing, Fourth Beach was to my opinion to long and not as pretty as the other beaches. Twilight Beach was nice and small, but because it was busy I moved on to Observation Look Out. With only one brake working I didn’t go as fast downhill, as I would loved to. I just didn’t want to end up in the bushes or sea. I stayed half an hour up there.
I ate a pear and mad a selfie. I almost lost my SD-card. My camera fell down onto the rocks and the camera lock opened itself, and my SD card was half way out. Oh I was so damn lucky, because otherwise my camera would now be talking water instead of photos. I put my camera safe and well back into my bag and was thinking where to go next? Go back or go forward? Lai and a pushbike never go back, not even when it’s a crappy bike. So I past Observation Beach, 9 Mile Beach, 10 Mile Lagoon, 11 Mile Beach, the wind farm and I was on my way to the Pink Lake. The Lake wasn’t Pink at all, but lovely blue with white salt edges, dead trees around it and Emu’s walking in the area. It was lovely. I took the Pink Lake road back to town. I think it was the hardest part of the day, with still the wind against me and my bum hurting. At 15.30PM I was back at the hostel. In 5 hours I cycled around. I was so happy that the bike made it back home too.
Someone told me that I had cycles 40km to do the whole loop. From 15.30 till 18.30PM I was sitting on the veranda, talking to Ruben and Christian. Christian felt like going to the Mac, I joined him, but instead of taking a hamburger I took a chicken honey, soy wrap.

The next day my phone rang at 07.30AM. I picked it up and my friend from the Netherlands wished me a happy birthday. There’s where my beautiful day started. I did my laundry and waited for Christian to wake up, so we could have breakfast at the French Bakery. At 10.00AM he was fresh and fruity, better looking then 2 hours before. At 08.15AM he knocked on my door to say Happy Birthday. So at 10.15AM, we walked to town. The sun was out, it was beautiful. In the morning I ate 200gram of liquorice with dark coated chocolate, because I was so hungry. So first we ate both a breadroll and then we shared a mudcake with chocolate mousse. It was soft and delightful. The second cake a gateau cake was even more heavier. I had two bites and let Christian eat the rest. We sat there for an hour I guess.
When we left I bought some bacon, egg, pineapple pastries and another beemster cake. We walked back to the hostel and took his car to got to Twilight Beach. There was a bit wind, but the sun was warm enough to do some sunbating. After 2 hours Cory, Clemont and Dan came along. Cory was the ony one who went into the water. Brrrrrr, cold he reckoned. At 15.30PM It began to cool down, so we left. Christian treated me with a Mc Flurry for my 27th birthday ;-). Back at the hostel I sang Happy Birthday for his brother Spencer. I had to sing it in Dutch though and in front of his camera. That was weird, singing happy birthday in Dutch, to someone else on my own birthday on the other end of the world.
In the evening Cory, Clemont and I went to the Yacht club to see one of the backpackers playing drum with his band. They were not that good, so after 45 minutes we left and went to the tavern, next to the hostel. We ate steak for 12 dollars. We were back at 20.30PM and we all watched some tv in the living room. I had such a good birthday, with loads of random strangers.

The 7th of April, Ruben took me to Le Grand National Park. Lucky Bay was Wow! The sand was so white and the water was so blue, it was wonderful. Further down the rad we saw huge rocks, I loved them. The views over the National Park and the sunset were good, but I had seen enough landscape, that if I had missed the Le Grand National Park, it would have been no disaster. Back at the hostel I start talking to other strangers. One guy from Germany, his name is not important, because I’ll not remember him by that. He talks English freak in slow. It’s so damn slow, that it’s a pain in the ass to listen to him. I’m sorry to be so rude!

My last day in Esperance was chillen on the Beach. When walked back from the beach to the hostel, I ran into the German Guy. He asked me to got to Taylor’s that night, to see a live band play. That afternoon I was thinking going myself, but now I couldn’t say no of course, because if he would go himself too, then it would be awkward. So I said yeah why not. At 19.00PM we walked to the Yacht club, we arrived at Taylor’s 45 minutes later. Bill Chambler was performing. He must be famous if he had played in Norway, Sweden and London. He was a good performer, maybe a bit to country, but it was different. Jo was afraid the band stopped playing when we arrived. But the band played until 22.00PM. From 18.30PM till 22.00PM. Jo was pretty annoying though, he started talking to me, he wanted to have conversation, rather than listen to Bill Chambler. On top of that he took out his mobile and started to txt msg people, probably his friends, but oh shit it really irritated me. He asked me what Bill was singing about and he was complaining about how expensive food in Australia was. So he ordered a bowl of chips and a green island cocktail. Only 18dollars as he said so. But when the cocktail finally arrived, he complaint about how small it was. Grrrrrr…… The whole way back he talked about how his journey a coincidence was. The way to Taylor’s, he was also talking about some guy he met. Out of one question people, he told me a whole story around it. How he met the person, why met him, why they hanged with him, and from there his whole weekend. And all this in a snails rhythm. ……………..:-s

At 22.45PM I was back in my room, I sorted out my backpack and went to bed. At 05.00AM I woke up, it was pee time. With my torch I searched for my flipflops and looked across. What is that I said to myself?? Is that bed used? I shined the light to see if there was someone and holy shit there was a girl sleeping. How was that possible??? She must have come in after 23.15PM and left her luggage in her car. It was so strange. You must know that the room was 2 by 2,5 metres, so if we would stand up at the same time, we would stand straight next to each other. There was no space for huge suitcases or backpacks. 1,5 hour later I left the room and brought my backpack outside, not to wake up the strange girl. Who always will be the strange girl through my eyes. At 08.00AM Violet brought me to the bus terminal. Barry, Violet and Carol where all so nice. Normally I avoid YHA’s, but there was no other hostel, so I had no choice. This was the first time that I had a good time in a YHA hostel. So thank you for the lovely hospitality Barry, Violet and Carol from the YHA in Esperance!

At 08.35AM the TransWa left Esperance to Kalgoorlie. At 13.45PM I arrived in town. I walked 2 blocks down, at the chemist to the right and then another 1,5 block down. Lizzy welcomed me at the Kalgoorlie backpackers hostel and introduced me straight away to some people. I arrived in the afternoon, so when I stationed my stuff in the room and began walking to town it was late afternoon. I visited the museum of goldmines, it was interesting, but I didn’t feel like reading everything, so my eyes were focuses on a photo gallery about the ancestors convicts. It was really good.
At 16.30PM I walked to Mount Charlotte. The walking path to Mount Charlotte ended at some point, so thought the bushes I walked to the pipelines, over the pipelines and through a fence. It was prohibited, but I was not planning to go around it. A kangaroo was staring at me, it was so cute! I walked around the water reservoir to the top. People who would get dizzy easily should drive to the car park and climb upwards. On top I had a view over the city. The sunlight was nice and created with the shade, some artwork. Who I of course photographed.

The next day I went for a bikeride. I cycled direction of Hammond Park, past the cemetery. Further to Kurlunda Bushland Park. I walked around for 1,5 hour and then cycled back along Hammond Park , through the arboretum, through centennial Park, along the race course and oasis recreation centre, towards Burt street. At the historic site I had a look at the loop line railway museum. After that I cycled to the Super Pit look out. The way up was difficult, because of the loose bricks. The Super Pit was colourful and beautiful. I stayed there for an hour or so. The ride downhill was freaking scary! I was going down fast, with loose bricks and bumps and cars coming by. I didn’t even dare to use my brakes. Wow I was just hoping not to fall of the bike and hurt my legs. As eventually I didn’t. Really I called myself stupid, but it also gave me an adrenaline. So probably the next time I would do the exact same thing. I cycled back to Kingstreet, Hamilton street and followed Lionell street all the way down till I ended up in Haystreet.

In two days I had seen everything interesting that Kalgoorlie has to offer, so the third day I did absolutely nothing. I moved from chair to chair, to chair. To sit in the sun, then 3 other chairs in the shad and when the evening began to fall I changed my seat again for the sun.

The next day I took the train from Kalgoorlie to East Perth. It was a 7 hour trainride. At 13.45PM I arrived at East Perth. Half hour later I had another to Perth Central. From there I took the train to Mandurah. 50 minutes later I was in the place to be. My friend Lesley picked me up and she offered me a great stay and even the dog welcomed me. I cuddled the dog, the whole day, I wouldn’t do that in the Netherlands though. Those dogs smell and stink and leave hair everywhere.

The following day Lesley, Steve and I went to the offshore of Mandurah to have breakfast at Mama’s. At 13.00PM Lesley drove me to the airport and at 16.00PM I flew from Perth to Sydney airport. I had to wait 7 hours before I could check in at 05.00AM. It wasn’t the best overnight, but I survived. At 07.45AM I was on my way back home.

In Seoul I had another stop for 7 hours . My eyes were red as traffic lights, because I was so tired. For 1,5 hour I slept on a bench and just after midnight at 00.15AM I went through the gate. I slept 11 hours in between two girls. Pretty annoying place. At some point I had to go to the toilet. When I came back I couldn’t fine my seat. With my sleepy eyes I found the girl I thought. But she had her blanket over her head, that was so strange I was thinking. But any way I jumped over her and sat down. But with my feet I was searching for my shoes and my bag, but where were they?? At that point I realised that I was in the wrong seat. I looked up, with my half open eyes, seat 28… What 28!!! Oh shit!

The guy with the blanket over his head, woke up. He was probably thinking that there was someone sitting next to him, because there shouldn’t be one. He stood up and I apologised many times. I got back in my own seat and fell asleep straight away. Before 05.00AM on Tuesday the 15th of April the plane arrived at Schiphol airport. My mom and sister were waiting for me. At 07.00AM I was back home in Brabant.

The next couple of days I visited my grandmother who’s 93 years old. I visited my friends new apartment. I ate at my dad’s house and my cousin, her husband and child visited us on Saturday.

On Monday the 21st of April I left my hometown again. At 20.30PM I arrived at Vlieland and from there you know how they welcomed me.

The end!

Well people, thank you for reading my blog again. My sister didn’t like to read such a long story again, so I must say I left some things behind, but sorry it is still 5 pages long.
Any way stop reading if you don’t want to read it ;-).

All I have to say is: See ya all next time when I’m on my next journey!

Thanks a lot folks!

Kind Regards, Li La Lai