Post holiday, pre holiday
Jul. 17th, 2025 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msconductI got back from my month in Western Australia early in July, and it's taken me this long to get out from under everything that had piled up while I was away to post. Sigh.
We had a fantastic month. Perth is a lovely city with stunning botanical gardens, although we didn't spend a lot of time there. Most of the trip was spent in small country towns, which in WA are separated by endless open country. I did a few long drives, the longest being the eight-hour drive from Esperance back to Perth across the interior. I covered thousands of kilometres while I was there, and it was great to see so much of a state I've never been to before and which is very unlike the Eastern states.
WA has an amazing number of national parks and an equally amazingly organised number of trails. Using their special app, we did hour-long walks through the bush pretty much everywhere we went. Getting out in nature and being active turned out to be exactly what I needed after a stressful few years.
It was winter, and we had some rain, but not enough to get in our way (good quality rain gear always goes a long way). Previously this trip was booked for last October, which is spring and wildflower season - and then I found out about WA's fly problem. If you've never encountered an Australian fly: they're maddening. They move really slowly, are hard to discourage, and worst of all congregate around your face trying to get at the moisture in your eyes and mouth. Last year was a particularly bad year for flies, and when I saw pictures on social media of people literally covered in a blanket of them, I felt I had no choice but to move the trip. I'm glad I did. At the most northerly point we visited, Kalbarri, there were a few flies even in winter. I took my hat and flynet, which were helpful, but it was difficult to brush off the few flies that landed on us and half a dozen managed to get into the car. And that's in the winter.
WA is also incredibly hot in the summer and hotter than I'd like in the shoulder seasons, so winter temperatures were just fine for us. The other advantage is that there were so few people on holiday at that time. On most of our bush walks we didn't encounter any other people. Australians are super lovely and friendly, but as someone firmly convinced that the outside is far too peoply, this was sheer bliss.
Oh, and also, despite my fears I DIDN'T GET COVID!!! There was definitely some around, and far more at the end than the beginning, but I masked on the plane and anywhere indoors and was fine. It was so encouraging to know I can travel without Covid being an automatic sentence. Travel is my life and I've missed it soooooooooooooooo much.
And now, back home I've plunged straight into trip prep again, as we're booked for a month in Japan in January. These trips were originally meant to be more than a year apart, so six months is pushing it, but I didn't want to put it off now I have my travel-fu back. And I can't wait.
Edited to add: I didn't see a single snake or spider! Most of the roos I saw were sadly roadkill, but I did see one bouncing across the road ahead a couple of times - fortunately far enough away not to hit the car.
We had a fantastic month. Perth is a lovely city with stunning botanical gardens, although we didn't spend a lot of time there. Most of the trip was spent in small country towns, which in WA are separated by endless open country. I did a few long drives, the longest being the eight-hour drive from Esperance back to Perth across the interior. I covered thousands of kilometres while I was there, and it was great to see so much of a state I've never been to before and which is very unlike the Eastern states.
WA has an amazing number of national parks and an equally amazingly organised number of trails. Using their special app, we did hour-long walks through the bush pretty much everywhere we went. Getting out in nature and being active turned out to be exactly what I needed after a stressful few years.
It was winter, and we had some rain, but not enough to get in our way (good quality rain gear always goes a long way). Previously this trip was booked for last October, which is spring and wildflower season - and then I found out about WA's fly problem. If you've never encountered an Australian fly: they're maddening. They move really slowly, are hard to discourage, and worst of all congregate around your face trying to get at the moisture in your eyes and mouth. Last year was a particularly bad year for flies, and when I saw pictures on social media of people literally covered in a blanket of them, I felt I had no choice but to move the trip. I'm glad I did. At the most northerly point we visited, Kalbarri, there were a few flies even in winter. I took my hat and flynet, which were helpful, but it was difficult to brush off the few flies that landed on us and half a dozen managed to get into the car. And that's in the winter.
WA is also incredibly hot in the summer and hotter than I'd like in the shoulder seasons, so winter temperatures were just fine for us. The other advantage is that there were so few people on holiday at that time. On most of our bush walks we didn't encounter any other people. Australians are super lovely and friendly, but as someone firmly convinced that the outside is far too peoply, this was sheer bliss.
Oh, and also, despite my fears I DIDN'T GET COVID!!! There was definitely some around, and far more at the end than the beginning, but I masked on the plane and anywhere indoors and was fine. It was so encouraging to know I can travel without Covid being an automatic sentence. Travel is my life and I've missed it soooooooooooooooo much.
And now, back home I've plunged straight into trip prep again, as we're booked for a month in Japan in January. These trips were originally meant to be more than a year apart, so six months is pushing it, but I didn't want to put it off now I have my travel-fu back. And I can't wait.
Edited to add: I didn't see a single snake or spider! Most of the roos I saw were sadly roadkill, but I did see one bouncing across the road ahead a couple of times - fortunately far enough away not to hit the car.
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Date: 2025-07-16 11:41 pm (UTC)