Here we are, sitting in the QANTAS Club at Perth airport (I was kind enough to take Chantal in as my guest) with a couple of hours to kill before we board the plane to Singapore.  So, here are the overall stats for the trip:

Distance Today: 3km

Total Distance: 6372km

App % of Trip: 116% (that 3km today didn't change it much)

Total kms Jonathan saw: 6371.5km (that's why I stopped for a rest on the second day)

Total kms Chantal saw: <6000km (those 50+km snoozes add up you know)

Total kms you saw: Slightly less than Chantal if you watched all the videos

Top Speed: 200km/h

Average Speed: 85km/h

Fuel Economy: 8.8 litres/100km

Speeding Fines: 1 ($150 for, ironically, doing 113km/h on the highway)

Accidents: 2 (1 the car came off worst, the other the bird did)

Near misses with wildlife: A few birds (including the one bird strike) but no real ones

Distance Today: 0km by road (but a few by boat)

Total Distance: 6369km (plus those boat km's)

Start: Perth, WA

End: Perth, WA

Stops: Fremantle (sort of - we never got off the boat)

It's time for Dorothy to click her heels and leave Oz.  Officially, we don't leave until tomorrow but tomorrow we'll get up early, pack the car for its journey back to Sydney and then sit at the airport until around 11:30am before flying to Singapore.  Chantal's looking forward to that since she has heard some stories of what it's like to fly with me but I was getting better before I gave up flying to work every week so we'll see how I'm doing now.  Hopefully, I'm still coping better as I've got another, longer flight to take in a few days.

On today, we decided to take it easy and have a cruise down the Swan River to Fremantle.  I think Australia is glad to see the back of Chantal (or maybe WA is glad to see the back of me) as today was probably the sunniest and hottest day of the entire trip.  The country seemed to be happier...

Our original plan for the cruise to Fremantle was to leave on the first available cruise, get off at Fremantle for an hour or so and then get the lunchtime cruise back to Perth.  On the way down to Perth we discovered that, strangely, the lunchtime cruise back did not have the free wine tasting so we changed our minds and stayed on the ferry for the roundtrip to Perth; with free wine.  We saw quite a few dolphins playing in the river so better than our Madurah cruise although there are no photos.  We also saw what will become, if it is sold for anywhere near the asking price, the most expensive house in the southern hemisphere (at $85 million).  Looks a bit garish for me but would be a nice claim to fame.

Once back and Perth, we had a wander through the town, I mean city, before watching "Shrek the Third" at the cinema.  I don't think it's as good as the first two.  While waiting for the movie to start, we tried to re-ignite our Nullarbor pinball skill but it was made harder with one flipper not working.  We failed miserably at the game and, more annoyingly, we won two free games!!

The evening was finished off with another Indian as we both wanted to have an Indian WITH meat.  I had a chicken tikka masala and Chantal had the vegetable jalfrazi.  Spot the problem?

The road part of this trip is essentially over--we've reached Perth and the car will only move again to take the train back to Sydney.  But I'm getting ahead of myself:

Our day rotated around an afternoon visit to Cherie and Joe at the Holyoak Cattery (Jonathan was really tolerant and humored me in this pilgrimage). 

We were quite close to it in the morning so we had to kill some time before going.  This turned out to be a lucky thing because we were able to appreciate the chic parts of Mandurah through a cruise around the harbor and canals.  Mandurah is a coastal town that residents compare to Venice, and many of the expensive holiday homes built upon the canals get to enjoy not only the boats passing by their windows, but also the colonies of dolphins living in Mandurah's waters.  Not a bad way to live!

We then drove to Dwellingup, home to some of the rarest purebred cats in the world.  Let me explain.  My cat, Scaramouche,

is a Russian White cat (he was the fifth such cat to be born in France).  They are an obscure color variant on the Russian Blue, and originated in Australia.  Scaramouche's mother

was actually born at the Holyoak Cattery in Dwellingup.  I'd never in my wildest dreams ever imagined that I'd ever get to visit this cattery, but when I heard I'd be in Perth, I emailed Cherie and she told us to stop by.

Jonathan and I had lunch in the hotel in Dwellingup, which had drinks that although not unusual, may have been a reference to the famous cats in town.

One of Cherie's friends 'created' the Russian Black cat over the last 30 years (they've been recognized as a breed for much less than that).  They're even rarer than whites, and as far as I know, there are none outside of Australia.  The color isn't very stable, and at the moment, they're at risk for disappearing :-(((.  I got a few pictures with Stacy, a Russian Black that will hopefully help to keep things going.

Once we'd finished our cattery tour, we drove over to Perth. 

Jonathan has asked me to add that he got a speeding ticket.  It's our first of the trip (and ironically in the last 30 minutes of the last day)--we got caught in an obnoxious speed trap--whereas the limit on most highways is 110 in Australia, this one was 100 and we were doing 115.  I guess it's just as well we weren't caught doing 200 on the Nullarbor--we'd have spent 3 weeks in jail like Paris Hilton.

In Perth, we've gotten a hotel for 2 nights (finally!) and we wandered around town looking for a curry, which Jonathan has been craving for a week.  It was amazingly difficult.  We finally found a place, which turned out to be...vegetarian (to Jonathan's disappointment). 

:-)

We finished off our evening at a pub called the Brass Monkey.  Nice place--apparently, historically, they used to serve crocodile, and as I wanted to try some of this before leaving, we did some reconnaissance work.  They no longer serve it.  Anyway, I had a beer called the Dogbolter.  Ick.  It's like an unimpressive Guinness (which I'm incapable of drinking).  :-D

As you can see from yesterday's stats, we've now flown past the revised distance of 5,500km but as we're nearing Perth (we're about 80km away), it means we can have easier days and see more things.  Today we managed to get in a few scenic and interesting stops.

First stop was Lake Cave just south of Margaret River but we had missed the tour by 15 minutes and the next one wasn't for 45 so we turned around and paid a visit to Conto Beach.  It's a strange beach as the stands stops high above the water on the hill (in fact, we had to drive on it) and below it is mainly rocks that give an extremely dramatic effect when the big waves of the Indian Ocean roll in and crash against them.  Just like the Kiama blowhole though, the biggest ones seemed to strike after we'd taken the photos.

One soaking later (kidding) and it was back to Lake Cave for the 10:30am tour.  We still had a few minutes to spare so we had a browse around the display at the top of cave and I found out what it was like for cavers who crawl through small holes in the name of fun.  Trust me, it wasn't so much fun when that stalagmite found itself nicely positioned to give me one in the groin!

The cave itself was fairly remarkable.  Small compared to other caves I've been in but had a lot squashed into the small space and the guide was a fairly jovial, old man who obviously enjoys the caves around this area.  They're highlight is the Puff the Magic Dragon show, which does highlight the suspended table, below, in a great light but I didn't want to take a photo as the flash would ruin the effect slightly (you can maybe see Puff's head to the left of the left pillar).  Of course, after climbing down 100m so to get into the cave, we had to go back up.  Exercise total reached for the trip.  More food and wine required.

It was back on the road again to Carbunup (a lot of towns here end in "up" and it's Aborginal for "place of") where we'd heard of a good, small reptile centre.  I liked it.  The animals seemed active as the place was dark and well heated, which is better than some others I've seen.  Chantal even got to hold a SW carpet python but don't let the blur in the photo fool you.  I think that's just because of the dim light in the place.  I could've taken a video and you still wouldn't have seen movement from her!

Our final stop, before Mandurah, where we are staying tonight, was Bussellton for lunch and a walk along the jetty.  We don't know why they have a 2km long, bent jetty but we walked to the end as there's an underwater viewing thingy 8m below the water at the end of the jetty.  It was closed so we walked back to the shore.

Fabulous, fabulous news for those who are following the saga--Natasha ran the Marathon in Anchorage today, and finished in about 5 hours (I haven't spoken to her so I don't have the exact time). 

The weather was great for running, and apparently she ran the first half with a camera and took a picture of a moose.  :-) 

So I want to wish her congratulations for this successful conclusion to 6 months of fundraising, teamwork, and persistent training!

Today was another quiet one, with our 5th straight day of rain. It's a bit tricky writing these last few days, because as Jonathan rightly pointed out yesterday, we haven't been doing much but drive. 

After taking a few scenic shots over Albany,

we pursued our path along the South Coast. We stopped in a beautiful forest of some of the tallest hardwood trees in the world and they've built a nice treetop walk to give you a giant's perspective. This is our second treetop walk on this trip, and there are only supposed to be three in the world (the other reputedly in Tasmania). More on this later.

We got to Margaret River and had dinner in a place called Wino's, where we had some terrific Margaret River wines (some of the most exclusive ones in Australia) with a dinner of kangaroo (me) and chicken (jpm). Actually, we had such a variety of wines (by the glass) that we decided to skip visiting the vineyards tomorrow. Of course, at the rate we change plans, you never know...

Oh, and I was advertising for Tommy Wood's band in Margaret River! :-D

I'm not sure if I'm getting the easy days or the hard days on this diary.  For the second time in a row, I get a day where we didn't do much.  We drove from Esperance to Albany stopping in Ravensthorpe for lunch.  That's it really.  The worst thing about this blurb is that it is only 5:30pm in Albany and I'm concerned that there may not be much to add to it later.  That may seem a strange conclusion as we are in the major city in the south of WA and we'll see what happens later but I have my doubts.

Nowhere can we find any information on good places to go on a Friday night here and when we were at the tourist office looking for accommodation we had, as we always have had, one request.  Internet access and preferably in the room.  Apparently there is no accommodation in Albany that has anything other than dial-up access so we've taken the closest we could get.  A small apartment that will have it tomorrow but they will let us use their office network tonight.

We'll see if I add anything to this tomorrow.

Late addendum:

We hit the town at around 7pm and wandered around for 30 minutes looking for a restaurant.  We found a few but in this popular tourist destination, and number one commercial area in the south, I was surprised by the lack of places to eat.  Probably a lack of quality too as the place we wanted to eat was full although a table appeared after 30 minutes.  After dinner, where we consumed a bottle of "Scuttlebutt" cabernet sauvignon merlot shiraz (we weren't sure what we wanted) the only thing for us to do was to return to the hotel.

Of those final few hours of the day, I can tell you of the taxi driver who said we needed to stay longer as there's so much to do in Albany before asking us for some lovelife advice or about Chantal and I deciding to do something fun by taking a dip in the hotel fountain.  Unbeknown to Chantal, I had already done some recon work and noticed the wire mesh and the fish in the fountain so decided against it, much to the ridicule of Chantal.  A few minutes later, Chantal was in her cossie and running out to the fountain.  I followed with a camera.  She stopped at the fish and wire.

That's it for Albany.  Didn't take many photos today so none here.  Actually, there is one photo but I don't think Chantal will want it on the internet...

Today is June 21st.  This is a special day for a few reasons.

#1) It is 'la fete de la musique' in France.  I'm sure my choir friends are having a ball tonight, and part of me wishes I were there.  But guess what?  Jonathan and I (hmm,hmm--that is to say, only I) did Karaoke tonight in honor of the event.  It was a lovely international affair as well as I sang a song with a woman named Dee of aboriginal decent (we sang Brown eyed girl).  I'd previously sung some Abba and Madonna...

#2) It is the longest day of the year in my homelands.  This is the best day of the year because nothing beats daylight.  Ironically, and naturally, today is the shortest day of the year in Australia (the sun went down over WA before 17h).  Very ironically, given my attachment to sunshine, I will experience two 'shortest days of the year' in 2007.  Ah well.

#3)  Today is my half birthday, and Jonathan's quarter birthday (we are from December 21st and March 21st, 1975, respectively).  We celebrated this important day by drinking the best of our Barossa wines, the Penfolds Bin 389 (and the best it definitely was) at a terrific restaurant in Esperance called the Loose Goose.  It was a notable meal for me because it was particularly Aussie--I had shark in garlic dill sauce, and Aussie Pavola for dessert. 

And you know what?  I got another unexpected present.  I received an email today notifying me that Duncan Richardson, Ivy Wong and I have been invited to a late night book signing in London on the night of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book release (July 21).  Ivy can't attend because she'll be working for the World Bank in DC this summer (go Ivy!!), but providing there are no hiccups in the meantime, Duncan and I will meet JK Rowling and she is going to give us a Children's Edition book with a personalized message, how cool!!

Ok, you're now thinking that none of this has to do with our road trip, and you're right.  Actually, Jonathan and I took it easy today.  We checked into a hotel after lunch and caught up on a bunch of internet stuff (like this site), did some laundry, etc. 

Lunch was quite memorable, as it was in this really seedy pub where the bartender was running around dressed only in her underwear (a teal number with burgundy lace), and where the cooks managed to ruin both caesar salad and nachos (the chicken caesar salad had no chicken but more bacon and sauce than lettuce, and nachos were essentially doritos with ketchup).

We did manage to follow the Esperance Great Ocean Road, which is where we took today's video.  A note about the videos--we're having a bit of trouble getting them up on the site but we'll keep trying.  We will probably have to remove some of the older videos in order to get the newer ones on.  If you go back and check the ones in the Nullarbor, you even get to witness our 'accident'.  ;-)

Esperance is known for beaches with unusually colored water.  The ocean is lagoon turquoise--just beautiful.  We saw it in the evening, so it's a bit hard to make out in the pix.  Esperance also has a Pink Lake.  It's a saltwater lake that is inhabited by salt-tolerant algae, who give it its pink color.  Unfortunately, as you know, we've had a lot of rain over the last few days, so it's hugely diluted.  But you may still get the idea.

Across many oceans, another adventure is unfolding.  Natasha (my sister) is as I write this boarding a plane to go do her big run in Alaska after having raised over 5,500 USD for Leukemia patients--thank you to everyone who contributed!!! 

That run is on Saturday, and I will for certain give you the updates as I get them.

She told me a great story this morning.  Late last summer France played Scotland at football in the European championship qualifiers.  Jonathan and I bet against each other as to who would win.  The loser owed 20 dollars to a cancer charity (Scotland won).  Anyway, Natasha was around when all this was occuring (by SMS), and it turns out that this was one of the things that got her thinking about cancer charities, and led to Team in Training and Alaska.

So the moral of the story is...winning at football is good, but losing at it is even better.

Go Tash!