Dateline Down Under - The Pinnacles, an Accident and our renewed faith in Human Kind!

Dateline Down Under – Perth
Friday, February 15 – Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Friday, February 15, 2008:

Today is a “down day” for us, sort of a rest between road trips and longer outings. We are planning to head up to “The Pinnacles National Park” tomorrow, so we went out and stocked up on food, stuff for iced tea, and a few cleaning supplies, as Sunday will be a major housekeeping day for us. One of the things you want to do when you trade homes with another family is leave the place in the same shape you found it! We have been traveling around a lot, going to-and-from the beach, and all that stuff, so we felt it was time to give the house a good thorough (any of you who know us well understand what this entails…) cleaning). We did a “garden and yard” day last Sunday, and are sort of maintaining that, along with the mower man who hits the yards here, little by little.

We also had the home alarm people come out and look at one of the sensors that is acting up each time we leave the house. It keeps setting the alarm off, and the poor neighbors (who we have become pretty good friends with now because of this) have to keep calling us or coming over to tell us, “Hey, your alarm is acting up again!” We have called the help desk for the alarm company here a few times, learned how to bypass the offending sensor, and finally decided to have the company that installed it come out and check into it once-and-for-all, as we are leaving for our longest jaunt since getting here on Monday, down to the bottom of Western Australia. We cannot remember what the drill is in the States for those of you who have alarms, but if the cop shop has to come out here at ANY time for a “false alarm,” that’ll be $70 thank you. The guy who came out to fix the alarm system was an Irish gentleman named Liam, and he had us in stitches talking about what things were like when he first arrived from Ireland some 16 years ago, and his insights. He was also very interesting, because as an alarm technician he must also be licensed in telecommunications, network analysis and repair, and a lot of other IT-related stuff. We had a LOT of stories to share about bad software, hardware, and customers of IT organizations! Some things are world-wide in their application.

Steve also went through the car we are using to check the spare tire, under the “bonnet” (that is the hood for you Yanks) and assorted stuff, as we realized this past week that there are places out here that if you get stranded, you ARE stranded, especially on the weekends. As I think we have mentioned in previous blog postings, Western Australia is closed tighter than a tick from about Noon-to-4 p.m. on Saturday until Monday. Most of the businesses and shopping venues are closed through a day-and-a-half of the weekend, like it was in the states so many years ago.

We have sort of viewed this from both sides of the coin. It is great to see people off on Sundays to have time with their families, but if you forget something, or need something on Saturday evening or Sunday, especially if you are not in a major metropolitan area, no dice. America has spoiled us I guess.

The cyclone we have been writing about for the past week or so has just been hovering off the shore of northwestern Australia, just sort of building and building. We have had some cloud cover and wind as a result, but it comes and goes with no rain. They have named it “Nicholas” and it is the subject of nightly discussion on the weather channel. It has now reached “Category 3” and expected to hit a Cat 5 (highest level) in the next days as it races across Northwestern Australian and on into the center of the country (where we are headed in two weeks, by the way). According to Dr. Karl, the Weather Channel's local guru, a cyclone's (which is Australia's name for a hurricane) winds can be five times as strong as a nuclear blast!! If you want to follow along and find out where the cyclone goes next you can travel with us at www.weatherchannel.com.au


We have also been doing a lot of reading. Steve just finished a book given him as a Christmas gift from the Overacker family (Thanks guys!!) about Crazy Horse, Custer, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and the “parallel lives of two American warriors.” For all of the time we have spent trekking the back country of Yellowstone and the surrounding environs, we have never made it to the site of what is commonly called “Custer’s Last Stand.” This has now moved close to the top of Steve’s short list of places to visit. The book is by Stephen Ambrose, and as usual, is extremely well researched and written. While living in a land of a different culture, it is interesting to read something such as this. If we had spent a little more time on understanding the different cultures inside our own country, a whole lot of bloodshed and misery could have been avoided. Steve said he felt it was Vietnam (and Iraq) all over again, at least in terms of the political and military blunders committed by people who should know better. He is now on to “The Kite Runner” and Carol is doing a Stephen King she found in Sheena’s library which she actually has not already read! Shock of shocks.

Well early start tomorrow, so off to bed. So until tomorrow’s adventure begins, we remain, Steve and Carol, wandering around the world.

Saturday, February 16, 2008:

First and foremost, we would like to say Happy Birthday Erin Elizabeth! Erin is 23 years old today. From what we understand, Erin is enjoying her birthday with her friend Amy in San Francisco. She is busy raising Vara Ann, (our almost three year old grand daughter) and going to school. She has been accepted at Sacramento State University and is working hard to finish college. We are so very proud of her and what she has accomplished in her life!! Happy Birthday and we will see you soon!!!


What began as another day of adventure, ended up as a REAL adventure for the two of us, and absolutely not a good one! However, it really restored our faith in our fellow humans, and thanks to the serious effort of strangers from another country, we can look back on it as an expensive, unfortunate experience. We have both learned that when you are in a different country, with different customs, sometimes you just have to play it by ear, be flexible and work things out as you go, and today will be a perfect example of that.

We got up early and had breakfast, checked the weather channel (no change from last night) and then headed north to “Pinnacles National Park.” This is our longest round-trip event to day, a day trip of almost 560 kilometers (about 350 miles), and this place is out in the middle of nowhere pretty much. You can see the photos at our Photo Album at Picassa. As we wrote yesterday, we did have some concerns about this, but it appeared many locals headed out here on weekends, and it wasn’t a big deal to people when we asked them about it. Steve had checked the car thoroughly, and it has been flawless as a road warrior for us.

It was cloudy and muggy (what else is new?) when we left Perth, but the sun began beating down through clear skies as we drove north on the “Brand Highway,” which is an off-shoot of The Great Northern Highway out here, which runs all the way up to the top of Western Australia. Every one we have talked with here says it is a long, boring, desolate drive to Broome, so Pinnacles National Park is far north as we intend to go while we are here. There is also a small beach resort called Cervantes and we will picnic there along the Indian Ocean.

The trip up was uneventful, so Steve gave Carol a little “stick time” learning to drive on the other side of the road, as once we began heading north there were almost no other cars to be found, and after about a two-hour stint, Steve qualified her to fly “solo” in the Holden, at least in non-high traffic volume areas. We passed a couple of Road Trains (see previous blog comments) and they still fascinate us. It is amazing that something this big can roll along the highways. But it is SO desolate out there. If you can imagine the Nevada desert between about Fallon Naval Air Station and heading east on Highway 50 towards Ely (“Desperation” Country for Stephen King fans -- KAK!), with almost no other traffic on the road, you have the idea. No towns, no cell phone coverage, zip. It is also a longer drive than we anticipated, but we stay busy talking about all of the stuff we are passing along the road. There are exactly TWO Road Houses along the way, each about 50 miles from one another, and only one of them is a 7 X 24 operation, which we carefully note. It is about 65 miles from the park.

We passed a lot of desert scrub and some real interesting trees (see photos -- we have been unable to define them as yet) and then a huge wind farm out in the badlands before finally reaching Pinnacles National Park. If anyone knows the name of this bush, let us know. We have searched a few flora and fauna books and haven't found it as yet.




We went through park and hiked the trails through all of the neat geological formations and desert, and then headed back to Cervantes for a late lunch. This is a truly amazing place and we were in awe of the beautiful stone structures we found. For more pictures, take a look at the Pinnacles Photo Album on Google Picassa. We are driving along the road out of the park and all of the sudden, “BANG!!” as we experienced a blowout on the left front wheel of the car. We obviously hit something along the road (the slash in the sidewall of the tire is huge and sharp) that neither of us saw. Although we were driving the park speed limit (like 40 or 60 kph, can’t remember now), the car bounced hard and slid off the road to the left. Steve got the car under control and we pulled over to the side of the road. Shorts are still dry (pretty much) so things are looking good. As Steve has said many times, “Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.” Carol pulled out the owner’s manual and read directions to Steve who found the tools and jack and changed the tire. We threw everything back in the boot (trunk) and headed out toward the ranger station, which is still about 3 - 5 miles from where this has happened. Steve says, “There is something wrong with the car, it is not steering correctly.” This is NOT good news.

We pulled into the Ranger Station. Remember, we are some 140 miles from home out in the middle of the freaking desert on a hot summer day, and we now have no spare tire! The car is not steering correctly and this is not a positive sign for the long trip back to Perth. The closest road house is about 70 miles to the south, and there is a LOT of nothing out there between us and it. Oh yeh, this is on Saturday afternoon, and there is almost NOTHING open out here anywhere. The rangers are great, and they call a tire repair place in a small town called Jurien Bay, which unfortunately for us, is like some 30 miles away in the WRONG direction from Perth. The closest town (Cervantes) has no services at all on Saturday. The man at the tire store promises to remain at his place of business (which is scheduled to close NOW for the weekend) until we can limp from the park into town. There are NO tow vehicles anywhere out this way, so we are on our own. We have the ranger tell the man we have some potential steering issues with the car so it’s going to be a while, so don’t go anywhere until we get there! We have no choice except to hope the car will make it.

We carefully drove into the small town and followed the ranger’s directions to the tire shop. The owner, his wife and young son were true to their word, and they were in the driveway awaiting our arrival. The owner jacked the car up and he and Steve look underneath, and the front sway bar is bent out-of-whack. The car is NOT drivable, at least not for 170 miles. Steve asks the man if there is any chance he can fix the car and he says, “Nope. The soonest I could even order any parts for the car is Monday, and it will take a day, most-likely two, for them to get here on the bus from Perth.” Another day to fix the car and we are now looking at Wednesday or Thursday of next week to get the car back home. Pucker factor is now going up a bit.

The business owner drove us over to a little “hole in the wall” service (which means mechanic is there) station and parts house, which is the official “Royal Automobile Club” (RAC) towing site for the area where we meet Rob Dellaway, the owner and mechanic. There are two others along the coast “near by;” one in Perth (170 miles south) and Geraldton (about the same distance north). Rob is GREAT. He calls the RAC, argues with the people on the phone, all the way up to a supervisor of some sort, on our behalf. No dice. The car is not registered with the RAC; we cannot join on the spur-of-the-moment (we are not permanent residents of Australia). Even if it was, they will only tow 36 km (that’s a tad over 22 miles -- Oh, how we miss AAA Plus right now!), which gets us about back to the park where this all happened. Our AAA card ain’t worth squat in Australia, and the pucker factor notches up another bit.

As the service station owner is calling all over Western Australia in order to try and find us a tow truck, we ask if there is any place we might spend the night if we cannot get a tow. Not really. Can we get the police to maybe help us? Nope. The police station is closed for the weekend, and they probably can’t do much of anything anyway. There is a small caravan park (trailer park) around the corner by the beach, but that’s pretty much it, and you know, we ain’t got a caravan anyway… well, we can sleep in the Holden. We know of no one to call for assistance (remember, our exchange partners are in Pollock right now and it is about midnight there yesterday). Uh, this ain’t looking too good Kemosabe….

FINALLY, after about 45 minutes on the phone, Rob talks a 24 X 7 tow company in Perth into driving up to Jurien Bay to pick us up. It is a 350-mile round trip, so it will take the truck about four hours to get here, and you do not even want to know what the tow bill is going to be! Well, we are pretty much out of options so we say, “Bring the truck on.” Steve asks the operator on the phone, “Now you are sure you know where to find us, and you ARE sure you are coming tonight, etc., etc.” and the operator assures us he will make sure it happens. It is now 4:30 p.m., everything in the town is locked up tighter than a drum (except the local bar which seems like an EXCELLENT option at this point, but we decide that probably is not a good idea), so we took a two hour walk along the beach in the evening. Rob gives us both his home and mobile phone numbers and tells us to call him if no one has shown up by about 9 p.m., by which time it’s gonna be pretty dark out there – but we assure him we will. We thank him for his obviously going the extra mile for two stranded foreigners and he just says, “Ahhh, no worries a’ tall, Mites…”

Despite our present problems Jurien Bay is a beautiful little town, and the Indian Ocean up here is again spectacular! We walked along white sand beaches for about two miles, and we can see some low-lying sandy islands just off the coast. There is a nice little harbor there with a lot of fishing boats, and a long break water made of large rocks that we walked out to the end of and explored. Summer vacations, camping and Cray fishing are real big here and during the season the Aussies swarm the place for Cray fishing. Unfortunately, we don’t have any sleeping bags or a tent. The prices of homes here are just phenomenal! A lot (no house, just the dirt) is going for about $550K - $600K if you want to even peek at the ocean. The tow truck driver later tells us that if you want a house, add another $400K - $500K because real estate has gone nuts here (think California in 2004 or early 2005) and contractors are charging accordingly. We headed back into town and found a bottle shop (liquor store) open. We snagged a couple of sodas and headed back to a park by where the car is parked and enjoyed out “picnic lunch” in the park, saving the iced tea for later, just in case….

The tow truck showed up about 7:45 p.m., and a welcome sight it was. The man was quite nice and he had the car on the truck in no time flat. We talked with him on the way back home and found out he had worked in the mines of North Western Australia before coming up with enough money to purchase his tow truck, which cost him $190 Grand. He told us about life in the mines here, and that his son had just begun and apprenticeship to become a miner. Good money, but a VERY dangerous job. To be honest, both of us just said “Yeh” to him a couple of times because his accent was so thick you could slice it with a knife, but we talked about cricket (the sport), life in Perth, and a bunch of other stuff on the drive home.

Other than a couple of kangaroos bouncing along the road in the dark, and a few spots of recent road kill (the driver suspected Dingo Dogs of these) we saw a TOTAL of two cars on the road before getting back within about 20 kilometers of Perth! We did see one or two Road Trains, but even they don’t seem to be doing much out in the bush on a Saturday night. Had we attempted to head out for Perth and run into trouble, we would have been in Deep Doo Doo, to be sure.

We rolled the Holden into the garage about 10:30 p.m. and we have been never happier to see “home!” We emptied the car, had a glass of wine (or two) and hit the rack. Again, but for the kindness of strangers we did not even know, we could have been in for some pretty rough times out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously we feel terrible about the car, but now that all is said and done, we consider ourselves to be very fortunate, indeed.

So until tomorrow’s adventure begins (and we hope a LOT less adventurous), we remain, Steve and Carol, wandering around the world.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008:

The “Carol and Steve Express” is back on track and running again! We are So happy.

We spent Sunday cleaning the house to the bone, as we had planned, and threw in a little garden time just to enjoy the sunshine. We enjoyed a nice spaghetti dinner (Steve’s Grandmother’s Famous Italian Recipe!! – some of you have enjoyed it at our home) and a quiet evening. We have decided not to email or call the Sheena and Trevor until we have the car issue “sorted out” as the Aussies like to say, because there ain’t a lot they can do about it on a Sunday from 10,000 miles away, and we do not wish to disrupt their holiday – they have been hitting the Tahoe area resorts for some heavy skiing for the past few weeks and this is the last sort of crap they need to hear. We consult with the neighbor who has to jump when the alarm acts up, and he gives us some good advice about handling the insurance end of things here.

Monday is telephone day with the insurance people, who are very receptive to our issues. They make arrangements to get the paperwork going, get the car picked up and taken to an “assessment centre” (Claims Department in the States), and get us a rental car – gee, Steve is happy some one is going to trust him to drive again! We did get some great shots of the full moon Monday night after dinner, so be sure and check them out. Called the Lannin’s and they were GREAT! Helped us finish the insurance details with the car and told us not to worry about it – accidents happen. Easy to say when it is your car, but not the other guy’s – but we really appreciated it! They will be smart and stay at home for president’s Day and watch videos on T.V., which is what we have recommended to them in light of the annual idiocy at the ski resorts that weekend. Over here there isn’t any President’s Day and we sort of enjoyed that.

The weather has turned MARVELOUS here since today! The temperature is now down in the low 20’s (70’s) and it is still sunny and warm. This is evidently a result of Cyclone Nicholas coming inland since late Sunday afternoon. We have turned off the AC for the first time since we have been here, the humidity is almost gone, and we are looking forward to a comfortable night of sleep with the windows open! It has been quite windy, but the skies remain crystal clear and deep blue, with little puffs of white clouds from time-to-time. Steve took some great night-time shots and you can find them at our Night Shots Photo Album on Google Picassa.


Steve Overacker and his son Joe have addicted Steve to this crazy British show called “Top Gear.” It is simply hilarious, and if you get BBC America or UK TV, you have to watch it. It is about these three idiot guys who do all sorts of weird stuff with and to cars on sort of a dare. Carol even will drop in and watch for a few minutes of it if her book is getting slow… We met some Brits while on the road last week, and asked them about the show. The man was obviously not impressed with the show, or Steve’s addiction to it. “Ah, he’s just a big, bloody chauvinist PIG, and I cannot believe that an ass hole like him is making so much damned money!!!” His wife just sort of laughed. Last night they were making limousines out of other cars and delivering Rock Stars to some awards show in downtown London and we just roared. This show and another Brit show called “Silent Witness” have become our favorites, and of course, Carol has found “Jeopardy” on another station as well.

One thing about waking up in the morning here is checking the email each day, as all of you Blokes and Sheila’s are a day behind us. Steve was extremely saddened to find out Tuesday morning that the husband of a former employee died over the weekend in an ATV accident of some sort out in the Nevada desert. Details are sketchy at this point, but after our desert brush with adventure of this past weekend, it hits home for the both of us. Thank you to Mark Vasquez and Terry Green for passing along the information.

We are heading into downtown Perth via bus and Metro (TransPerth) rail link to pick up our “hire car” at the Hertz offices after getting it set up by the insurance company. We have found out that the Lannin’s auto insurance policy includes a provision for a 14-day rental car similar to ours, so by 1:00 p.m. we are back on the road and in business. Steve took some great pictures along the way and you can find them at the Canning Vale and Metro Stop Photo Album on Google Picassa. Take a look at the bird's nest. It is pretty cool.

We plan to head south tomorrow down to the very bottom of Western Australia (check out Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia on the Internet) for a couple of days before returning Friday. Friday will begin our last week in this area, and it has blown by WAY TO Fast!! We are already feeling sad about having to pack up and leave here so soon, but we are also quite sure the Lannin’s (who have been on an “around the world” vacation since early December) probably want their lovely home back.

Early start tomorrow, so off to bed. So until tomorrow’s adventure begins, we remain, Steve and Carol, wandering around the world.