Freemantle, Bunkers Bay

Landing in Perth was smooth, moving through immigration quick, and customs saw me having to open my hand-luggage and suitcase to show all my declared items. We went straight to the Europcar desk to pick-up our rental car - to find that it was unattended. Picking up the phone and talking to the operator it was finally discovered that the car had been arranged for us to pick up at the Domestic airport rather than the international. We ended up having to pay $16 for the bus transfer over to pick-up the car.

After downing a coffee we headed off with me driving towards our accommodation in the Margaret River area. The first problem we had was we didn't have a map that went all the way to where we wanted to go. The lady at the desk said it was signed all the way so we shouldn't have a problem. I don't think she took into account that her customers had been travelling for nearly 30hrs before picking up the car!!!

The end of a long, long day

After four hours we decided that we needed a map and stopped at the next town. Here we found that we had missed the turn-off from highway 1 to highway 10, and we were headed in-land. The service station operator gave us directions to get us back in the right direction. I pulled over at an information area and decided that I could drive no further as I could hardly keep my eyes open. Joe said he couldn't drive either, so we popped back the seats in the car and both had a sleep for about an hour and a half.

On wakeing, I rang the resort we were to stay at to get some directions for when we arrived in the Margaret River area. This is when we found out we were not staying in Margaret River, but an hour away from here. Although this was initially disappointing, it did mean we were 1hr closer to our destination!! Off we went again and about 2-3hrs later arrived in the proximity of the hotel. We of course missed the turn to the resort as it was overgrown with trees and ended up in the local nature reserve. A slow drive back in the other direction and we finally found the place.

The resort is set-out in single-level villas over a large area and is an eco-friendly resort. This meant cars were not allowed in the hotel grounds and that concierge golf carts are used to traffic luggage back and forth. Of course we did not want to wait for this, so we walked our luggage to our room four streets from reception. It was now 5pm and I was in need of food and sleep, in that order. At dinner, we both enjoyed eye-fillet steaks with side plates of potato mash and seasonal greens and two mixed drinks and went back to our room $130 lighter!!

I couldn't stay awake any longer and was asleep before Joe even got in the shower. Not two hours later I was wide awake again and watching tv for 4 hrs till 2am in the morning. Don't you just love Jet-lag!!