Go West Young Man

Days 45 & 46 Wednesday & Thursday 02 & 03 September 2026  I am preparing the blog this evening from the bar at the hotel, but using the laptop with the dodgy battery, so we will see how far I get. It has been a few years since I have been to Adelaide and on a superficial level not much seems to have changed. The Rundle Street Mall is still a magnet for the mall rats, the homeless and the ill at ease. All the drivers still count to 10 before they drive off at at the lights.  A lot of the pubs appear to be closed and boarded up, this has been a familiar sight in most places that I have visited. The other strange thing here is that the traffic lights at he major, and some minor, intersections have a cycle that includes a red light for all traffic and pedestrians get the little green walking man to cross the intersection in any direction they like.  There is also a countdown clock to show how much time you have left to complete the crossing. Last time I was in Ade...

   Days 41 42 & 43 Saturday Sunday & Monday 29 30 & 31 August 2026 and Day 44 Tuesday 01 September 2026 A bit of a hiatus with old blog over the last few days, mainly big driving days so not a lot to report.   They have done it to me again.  Let me explain, a long time ago I did a number of road trips to the US with my friends Jon & Clair.  Being on a bit of a budget we often stayed in tourist class motels, generally pretty good but often interesting.  Well, seeing how we liked a drink with our dinner we always got a bit excited when then motel advertised bar & dining room on site.  That meant that neither Jon or I had to drive to dinner which meant we had to careful with our drinking.  As an aside Clair never drove on any of these trips she used to sit in the back seat of the car in a nest of paper maps, guide books, macca wrappers, empty Pepsi cans and peach smelling hand cream.  Anyway back to the story, imagine ou...

  Day 40 Friday 28 August 2026 This could be a short blog today.  It is being prepared in the bar at the Balladonia Roadhouse where I am spending the night, not in the bar but in their motel style accommodation.  I am paying $230 for the night in what they class as a 'luxury room'.  I kid you not, I suppose it passes for luxury in this neck of the woods. Balladonia is a roadhouse, fuel stop, motel units, caravan park and bar with a restaurant, stuck right in the middle of nowhere.  To get here I have driven 400km from Esperance.  The first part of the journey was 200km north from Esperance and then take the first right hand turn and then drive another 200km east to Balladonia.  All on dead straight roads. There is no wifi in the luxury room and exremely dodgy wifi in the bar.  There is almost no mobile coverage and what coverage there is is only available with Telstra.   Balladonia's main claim to fame is that the American manned space l...

Day 39 Thursday 27 August 2026  I told you this would happen, shorts yesterday, and cold, wet blustery today!   A couple of other peculiarities from this corner of the Commonwealth.  If you go into a bar and ask for a  Sauvignon Blanc Semillon the bar tender will look at you with some bewilderment, but if you ask for a SBS he or she will happily provide you with a glass of the aforementioned Sauvignon Blanc Semillon.  Is it called SBS anywhere apart from WA?  It is even listed on wine lists as SBS, go figure. The second thing also to do with wine is nine times out of ten if you ask for a glass of white wine you will be asked if you want ice in the drink.  Understandable in the middle of summer sitting out on deck somewhere but this is in the middle of winter and although not quite as cold as Melbourne still not summery. Overcast with a maximum of 16, very strong winds and rain squalls and heavy seas.  But I did persist with the shorts!  ...

Day 38, Wednesday 26 August 2026 First full day in Esperance, 25 degrees, clear blue skies.  So warm today I have had to wear shorts and display my lily white legs for the first time on my trip.  As I have only brought one short sleeved shirt with me I have visited the local gentlemans outfitter and purchased two new short sleeved shirts.  Having purchased these shirts I can guarantee this will be the first and last warm day I get on this trip. Esperance is a nice town with a population of about 13,000.  It is a major port and handles huge amounts of grain bound I daresay overseas.  The town has a nice little shopping centre with a couple of pubs.  Of course being winter the place is very quiet but like some of the other towns I have been through it depends a lot on the summer holiday trade.  It is also the centre of a large rural area and the centre of local government and government departments.   A grain ship waiting to be loaded. A bit li...

  Days 36 & 37, Monday & Tuesday, 24 & 25 August 2026 A couple of travelling days Monday & Tuesday. Monday was a 350km drive from Albany to Hopetoun and then 200km from Hopetoun to Esperance.  Hopetoun was just an overnight stop to break up the drive to Esperance but turned out to be a nice little seaside town with a nice pub.  With a nice young German girl from Dresden working behind the bar. View from near my cabin at the caravan park As accommodation options were rather limited I stayed in a cabin in the caravan park, which a bit old and worn was perfectly adequate and walking distance to the pub for dinner. Being winter the town and caravan park were very quiet but the locals assured me the place is "jumping" through the summer. As an observation I have noticed that West Australians are a lot like the ancient Romans, not that they hold gladiatorial contests at Optus Oval or have conquered most of the known world, no, they are like the Romans in that th...