Aussie Soil

Debbie (sister) was there to greet us. Her place was not too far from the airport so we were there in no time. Debbie had just moved into her new home the day before so we only stayed with her for a few days to let her get unpacked and settled into her new home. Surprised my niece Tracey and nephew Grant that live just houses away from Debbie. Was great to see her house too and see that she is happy.

Monday morning we took the bus into the city to get a phone each sorted, a bank account set up and have a look around. Nice city and easy to get around. Went back into the city the next day to sort out medicare cards too.



Peter and Vicki's House in Mandurah

Friday 13^th (black Friday and all) we took the train to Peter and Vicki’s in Mandurah for the weekend. There were a couple of buses to look at down south in Bunbury. These turned out to be lemons and would barely get us back to Mandurah safely.  One more bus to look at just north of Perth. Peter and Vicki drive us up on Sunday to view it......shes a beauty. Made a deal with Sue and got dropped off at Debbies so we could transfer money over.


This only took two days so we were able to pick the bus up on Tuesday 17^th. Sue had owned it for a few years and had maintained it well. We drove it down to Debbie and stayed the night in it on the side of the road outside her house – which, apparently was a big “no no” in the city. Off we drove the next day to Peter and Vicki’s house in Mandurah south of Perth. They live in a lovely house that has a bit of land and an awesome manshed any man would be proud to have at his backdoor step. Pete had every tool you could think of so we set off to make a few adjustments to make the bus as comfy as possible for our big journey. Vicki is the Housekeeper at the Atrium Hotel in Mandurah and hires us to work there for a few weeks. This works out great as we started at the Atruim at 9am and worked til 12.30ish, sometimes later, sometimes sooner we were home to work on the bus getting it ready for our BIG Adventure. Kerry decides to change all the belts and checks the air con etc. Nice to get this done too. We end up working 3 weeks at the Antrim Hotel. Great to get the extra money.

Griffs Helicopter

Mandurah

Peter and Vicki’s landlord owns a helicopter and arrived one afternoon with his mate in another one. We had a chance of a free flight over the city in it which was an amazing experience.

The Plan.....

The decision was made to go down south along the coast anticlockwise all the way to Esperance then back up to Kalgoorie and back over to Mandurah taking about 5weeks to do and then work another 2 weeks before setting off up North to warmer weather, up to Darwin and over to the East Coast by about September.

 We’re Off.....

Its Monday 14^th May and we are finally off in our bus for our adventure. By the time we got organised it was about 2pm in the afternoon before chugged down the road. Panic started to set in, to where we’re going to stay our first night??? Couldnt find the camp we decided on and didn’t know how to sort the GPS out. Finally found a beach in the near dark (was warned not to drive when it was getting dark as this is when you are likely to bump off a Roo on the road)mmmm yes our first night and we had broken all the rules. The spot was Peppermint Beach that we illegally parked and stayed the night. What a lovely spot. Heard the waves crashing all night.