A foreign country and amusing shaped rocks

Trip Start Aug 15, 2006
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Trip End May 27, 2008


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Flag of Australia  ,
Saturday, December 1, 2007

Sunday morning we left Kalbarri and headed for a drive along the coastal national park there and saw some nice gorges.  We then headed off to another country.........Hutt River Province, down a dusty dirt road where we almost ran over some huge blue tongued goannas.  At Hutt River we ran into John and Michael from the day before - John had called ahead to chat with the founder about how he may go about setting up his own country in the UK!  Hutt River was founded by a guy and his wife (Prince Leoanrd and Princess Shirley!) about 25 years ago and they have about 30 residents.  He doesn't have to pay tax, has his own stamps and currency and is very proud to show visitors around for free.  There's a post office and a church complete with thrones for the royal couple which he lets you sit in.  He has a ton of royal memorabelia from all around the world, especially the UK.  He obviously says the same speech every time as a couple of people arrived late and he started from the beginning, word for word, with identical chuckles at the same places (bless him!) 01 Weird rocks
01 Weird rocks
 .  No tax meant that cans of cold drink were cheap so we stocked up on a few tasty beverages and headed off to Cervantes, a tiny tiny place. and I went for a run along the beach which was great as it was pretty quiet.

Monday we drove to the Pinnicles (or penis rocks as the others called them) which costs 10 bucks just to go and see some rocks which seemed quite steep and I wasn't fussed for going but Matthias had a great time making lots of silly photos.  Drove to Perth and checked into the Witch's Hat hostel which was quite nice with the first properly equipped kitchen I've seen in Australia.  We dropped the car off and luckily it wasn't going to cost much to replace the windscreen (the crack was almost all the way across the screen!) and it was cheaper than if we'd taken out the extra insurance too.  Additionally one of the guys working there offered to take us back to the hostel as it would have been quite a journey on public transport. 

Went out with Matthias and Suzy to the Aberdeen hotel, a common backpacker pub in Perth and saw a band which were quite good but I was pretty tired and went home at 12.  Popped into the living room and ended up staying up late chatting to some other backpackers staying there longterm for work - Claire, Shaun, Connor, Cramer, Marc and James and they seemed to be a nice bunch 02
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Didn't do much in Perth after that.  Marc cooked me a meal one night and I returned the favour by cooking for him and Shaun.  Had my hair cut by Dave from Liverpool - he's been working in professional salons visited by the rich and famous in London so I trusted him.  He was telling me that he's moving to Sydney as Perth is too quite for him as he loves to party. 

Perth is quiet but I like it and could imagine maybe living here.  The next few days I just walked around, went for a couple of runs in Kings Park which is pretty and they have a huge flight of stairs which is popular with runners.  It even has a name like the Devil's staircase I think.  Hung around with some of the guys from the Witch's Hat, went for a swim, went out again in the Aberdeen hotel with Matthias and a nice German girl, had to change hostels as mine was full to One World Backpackers hostel which was OK but heaving and noisy and not as friendly as Witch's Hat.  I did have a good chat to the owner and he gave me a few ideas about places to go and things to do while I was there.  Moved back to Witch's Hat and met a guy from the UK (Glen) who was off to a town called Bussleton at the weekend to compete in an Ironman triathlon there so I made the decision to try and book myself into the local campsite and get the bus to go and watch the event. 
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