After arriving at our camper site in Ceduna, which was a lovely location with tree separated sites just over a dune from the ocean, we had dinner while it was actually still light out (due to the time change) and got in some wi-fi time. Right after getting into bed though, Jaz heard a noise, glanced over and saw a mouse run across the top of his bag towards the front of the campervan. Needless to say, this caused a small amount of panic on my part, and started a search for the mouse all in the front of the van. Jaz attempted to convince me that the mouse ran out some “hole” in the floor, but I didn’t quite believe him. We put a board across the gap that runs under the bed in the hope of keeping the mouse contained in the front of the van and out of our luggage. I tried to go to sleep and ignore the fact that I never actually saw the mouse leave the van, until every little noise had me thinking the mouse was running around. Ten minutes later, I heard a definite mouse noise and made Jaz get up to check again. He saw the mouse run back under the front seats of the van, but couldn’t find it again. After pulling out all the bags it could hide in, the mouse was nowhere to be found. Again. And by now it was after midnight, so we gave up, and Jaz once again tried to convince me it must have left down through the engine. Which might have worked until I woke up in the morning to seeing the mouse dash from the front of the van under the bed. Past the board we put up, which meant it somehow squeezed through a crack less than a quarter inch big. That is the fastest I’ve gotten out of bed in quite awhile, and there might have been a squeal involved. We pulled up the whole bed, moved all the luggage outside, and basically emptied the back of the van to no avail. Where this mouse keeps hiding I have no idea, but I’m hoping I won’t go to bed tonight and hear little scratching sounds.

UPDATE: The mouse has decided to take up residence in our campervan. After driving five hours to Port Lincoln, and stopping at several lovely field locations, the mouse is still here. We put out some Rice Krispies yesterday in the hopes of luring him out of the van, but the only thing that accomplished was to get a bird in the van. After much convincing upon going to bed that the scratching sounds I was hearing weren’t the mouse, I did manage to fall asleep, only to be told in the morning that while I was sleeping, Jaz saw the brazen mouse run across the gear stick, and all along the front seats. Too bad the mouse didn’t take his chance to leave yesterday, because now we are going to buy mouse traps. And you can be sure that I won’t be the one checking the traps later.

Here she is – the campervan we picked up in Perth to take us over 4000 km to Sydney over the next 19 days. When we arrived at the campervan, I was thrilled to see that the guy gave us the hi-top camper instead of the low top we had reserved (which should have been probably $10 more per day). The main perk of the hi-top is that you (well at least me) can stand up in the inside of the van, but it’s also nice because it has a microwave in the little kitchen. I have a feeling that I’m going to be saddened with our van now in New Zealand.

The first day leaving Perth, we didn’t drive a very long distance, just 4 hours south to the Margaret River wine region. Our first stop in the town was the grocery store to stock up our little fridge, and then on to the information center where we found a fabulous road atlas of Australia, sure to be useful for the rest of the journey. It was disappointing to realize when we headed out to do some wine tasting that many places close at 4, so we instead headed straight to Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, where we spent the night at Cantos Campground. No one should be surprised that the first meal I made in Polly was pasta, but in my defense, we’ve both been quite surprised with the cost of everything here, including groceries. One kg of chicken costs $16! (And since the Australian dollar is almost equal to the American dollar, that’s more than 6 times what I’d pay at home.) In the morning, we had breakfast at Cantos Beach, and I waded in the Indian Ocean for the first time. It didn’t really seem like it’d be a good beach for swimming even if the weather was a little bit warmer, the waves and the big rocks did not seem like a good combination.

Above: Cooking dinner; Below: Cantos Beach

Leaving the Margaret River region, we drove through gorgeous wooded forests to Albany. Along the way we stopped in Walpole and Denmark, which is known as the Valley of the Giants, home of the giant tingle trees. Up until the 60s or 70s you could park your car inside the tree and take a picture, but that’s not allowed anymore because they found it was bad for the roots. You can still walk through them though, and it was cool to see how the trees will partially burn in a forest fire and still continue to grow. One of the trees we walked through was covered in soot and charred bark on the bottom half of the tree. To promote their claim to fame, the Western Australia Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) built the Tree Top Walk, where you can walk 40 m above the ground on a metal walkway in the trees. Other than the couple people jumping on the walkway, it was fairly sturdy, although a little dizzying to walk and look down at the same time. It was fun to be able to look over the top of the trees, although a little less rain would have been preferable, and for the price, I would have liked to gone around again, but they were closed by then. We stopped in Denmark for another grocery run before heading off towards Albany to our campground for the evening.

Above: Giant Tingle Tree; Below: Tree Top Walk

Our campground for the night was at Torbay Inlet, a little spot in the woods where you could park and sleep (and it was free!). Not counting the mosquitos, walking out to the beach where the inlet met the ocean was beautiful. (Jaz was not happy about the number of times he got “bit”.)

Stopping in Albany in the morning, we drove up to the ANZAC memorial which overlooked the city and the bays. Albany is an old harbor town, which served as a port between England and Sydney back when Australia was first settled. The town reminded me of a lot of other little U.S. towns, so it didn’t really feel like we were in another country. We didn’t spend a lot of time sightseeing in Albany and we quickly headed off to Esperance, another 5 hour drive. We almost had a big problem, because we drove the whole way on the South Coast Hwy, and in the highway driving I’m used to, there are exits and such labeling where to buy gas. However, a highway in Australia is just a two lane road with little cross streets. So about 100 km away from Esperance, we realized we were going to need gas, but then there were no choices. Apparently there is only one spot to get gas between Albany and Esperance. Coming into Esperance, we were both crossing our fingers as the gas needle dipped below empty. We breathed a sigh of relief when we pulled into the first gas station, only for it to have no attendant, and none of our cards worked on the scan machine. So we got back in the van and slowly drove off in search of another gas station. Luckily we only had to go a couple more km before finding one and filling the tank again. Our good luck didn’t last though because we got to the caravan park for the night with all our electronics needing to be charged, the power didn’t work connecting to Polly. The caravan park was really nice though, and set the standard I think for all the future parks we are going to be staying at. (Of course when I called the campervan people in the morning, and tested the power cord again, it worked just fine, so I’m pretty sure the guy thought I was a moron. As long as it works at the next site though, that’s all that matters.) After reserving our spot at the campground, we headed off to check out the renowned beaches of Esperance before it got dark. Driving along the coastline, we stopped at West Beach, Fourth Beach, and lastly at Twilight Beach, where I played in the water for a bit while the sun set. We didn’t get back to the campground till after dark, but the camp kitchen made it nice to do dishes and cook dinner.

Above: Oh no!; Below: Twilight Beach

Leaving Esperance for Madura, we prepared for a long day of driving, the start of the two long days to cross the Nullarbor and vast expanse of nothing. After a gas stop in Norseman, we quickly realized gas was going to be quite a bit more expensive for this leg, because with only one gas station every 200 km, they can charge whatever they want, and most were charging 50 cents higher than the Perth prices. We made it to the car rest stop just east of Madura as the last bits of sun were fading, just in time to pick a spot to park, go to the bathroom (in a creepy little metal box that had a bird nesting in it) and get dinner started. Because we were going to be crossing the border into South Australia, we had to eat up or toss any of our fresh fruit or vegetables, so we ate all the leftover vegetables for dinner. Being out in the middle of nowhere meant the stars were out en mass, so we sat outside to look at them for awhile after dinner.

Today’s drive was another 7 hours but we’ve finished crossing the Nullarbor, and should be back in more populated areas from now on. Along the way, we stopped at the Nullarbor cliffs (not very spectacular) and the Head of Bight. The Head of Bight is known for its’ Southern Right whale population, but sadly they leave to migrate by the end of October, so we just saw the beautiful cliffs and extremely blue waters. Our final stop for the evening was Ceduna, we made it out of Western Australia into South Australia, so one state down, four to go!  Sorry for the long delay in a first post, hopefully wi-fi will be more prevalent as we go further east!

After meeting on an overseas holiday, travelling together always seemed like a foregone conclusion when discussing the future. In fact, the first time the future was even discussed it was travel related, when Jaz asked me to join him on his sabbatical trip at the end of 2011. After e-mailing and talking for ridiculous lengths of time for almost 5 months, Jaz made the trip to Detroit in January. Nearing the end of his visit, after a fabulous (if I say so myself) dinner of homemade chicken pot pie, we were relaxing on the couch and Jaz said he wanted me to go on his trip with him. Obviously my first thought was that I’d love to go but practicality set in rather quickly, and I said I’d have to figure out how much time I could take off from work, I wasn’t real optimistic.

Sadly the attitude to vacation time in the U.S. is far behind Europe and the rest of the world as most people know. Over the next 3 months it came up several times, and by April, we had decided it would be more feasible if I asked for 3 months off and just accompanied Jaz to Australia and New Zealand. This was perfect, since both were already on my travel agenda for either 2011 or 2012. By June, I was trying to plan the basic outlines of the 3 month trip without getting too excited because I didn’t have an official answer from work yet.

Finally, I got the go ahead from work, and after jumping up and down a whole bunch of times, I went full steam ahead on the trip planning. Jaz was impressed/apprehensive after seeing my spreadsheet, but I told him he did give me free reign! After 5 months of research and finding out all of the cool things we are going to see, both of us are thrilled to be embarking on this journey, and we hope you’ll enjoy our updates as much as we will enjoy posting them!