Update no. 0.5 on Tanya DewhurstCopyright 2001 Tanya DewhurstTanya Dewhurst,
who regularly wrote for FTH from London and other points, continues to pursue her
avocation as a travel writer.
She wrote this on Nov. 28, 2001. It's the first in a series of email
newsletters she sent to a group of friends, but she just (Jul. 2002) resent it to
me, so I'm adding it as the first one in this series.
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrated
turkey day. No turkeys down here under the rest of the world,
well not the sort you eat, anyway.
So I've finally finished my trek across the country and am
settled in my little beach house in Augusta, right on the south
western tip of Australia. Actually, if you look at a map, you'll
see that right around the corner is the point where the Southern
and Indian Oceans meet. A lighthouse juts out at the point --
yes, this is one rugged coastline. And bizarrely enough, even
though I'm on the west coast, my house looks east, so I watch
the sunrise about 5 every morning over the sea.
Anyone who watches whales, may have heard of Augusta
which has the dubious honor of having the largest whale
beachings in the world: two massive ones during the eighties
(can't remember exact years) where one year, more than 180
whales beached themselves right down on the beach that I
overlook. Apparently, people came from all over, and they
managed to save all but 20 of them, which is pretty amazing
when you think about it. Especially when after getting the
whales onto a trailer, taking them to a release point out of the
bay and then swimming them out to sea, the whales turned right
around again and rebeached themselves. The house I'm staying
in has a photo of it on the wall, and it truly is an amazing
sight.
Well, apart from walking on the beach and staying out of the
wind (oh yes, this is the place to get blown away), there isn't
much to do in the tiny town of Augusta. So, it's a perfect place
to finish my book. There is some amazing countryside around
here though; apart from the coast, I'm right near a beautiful
temperate forest complete with a huge network of caves
underneath, and just down the road from Margaret River,
Western Australia's major wine growing district. Oh, what a
pain.
My sister in law and nieces and nephew also live in town; my
17 yo niece just graduated from high school, so I can enlist her
as my tour guide leader to show me around. I hadn't seen my
sister in law for 14 years, but you'd think we last talked a year
ago; it's been real easy reconnecting. Her husband is a real
character; a fair dinkum aussie bloke. I don't know that I can
really capture the nature of a real aussie bloke, but imagine
someone tall and stocky like a bear, really short hair, calls you
mate all the time (even if you're his 9 yo daughter), gruff and
grumbly and quick to be really really annoyed, but just as quick
to be the friendliest, happiest person on the planet, and has the
ability to drink copious amounts of beer any time of day or
night.
So one of the most striking thing about my trip so far is that I
have been rained on in every single place I've been. In fact, I
think I have been rained on here more in the last three weeks
than the entire 20 + years I lived here. Apparently the weather
has genuinely altered in the last decade since I left, and the
desert that I grew up in - Adelaide - now has humid summers, it
gets really really cold in Perth (supposed to be the balmy city),
and the wind just does not stop blowing AT ALL in Augusta.
Of course I brought a bag full of summer shorts and tank tops
and it's pretty much freezing, except for about two hours in the
afternoon, when five minutes in the sun will give you extreme
sunburn: no amount of sunscreen can seem to protect you from
the lack of ozone. Apparently, two out of three Australians get
skin cancer, and okay, there's only about 19 million people in
the entire country, but that's a scary statistic when you think
that if the deadly spiders, venomous snakes, blue ring octupi,
scorpions, poisonous frogs, crocodiles, or sharks don't getcha,
then the bloody sunlight will.
The other striking thing, that I just cannot get over at all, is the
lack of smog. Even in Sydney, the skies were clear and the
color of sky, not the slightest hint of haze. The entire country
appears like a pristine wilderness. But, get this, there's very
little, if any, recycling, and they still use leaded petrol. So I'm
enjoying the last outpost of clean environment whilst it
lasts....because no doubt enough humans will f**k up this place
just like everywhere else. Oh, but that's only if they abandon
their racist white Australia policy and start letting in refugees,
but don't get me started about that.
Okay, so I began in Sydney, got the overnight train to Adelaide
which was one sloooow ride, spent a few days in Adelaide
going to wineries and looking around where I grew up, which
hasn't changed a real lot -- just more of it and green from so
much rain. This was quite a sight, because when I was living
there, the duststorms would pretty much obliterate the scenery,
it was such a huge dust bowl. Now there are millions of trees
and green space, so I guess things do improve afterall.
Then spent another 30 hours on the train crossing the infamous
Nullabor plain (containing the longest stretch of railway in the
world without a bend! - about 250 miles) and got off at
Kalgoorlie, a mining town in the middle of Western Australia. I
didn't really know that I was going to the gold mining capital of
the world, which has something called "The Superpit" an open
mine (still operating) about two and half miles square and god
knows how many miles deep. The town is built up right to the
tailing heaps, so it's a pretty surreal landscape. Kalgoorlie is a
real wild west kind of place with rows and rows of brothels
complete with women in the windows (something I didn't know
existed outside of Amsterdam) streets wide enough to turn
camel trains, and miners who spend three weeks out in the
middle of nowhere working and one weekend in town, um,
having a good time. As you can imagine, "titty bars", brothels,
and beer drinking feature large. I had a great time.
I also rented a car and drove about 300 miles north to a tiny
town called Laverton for some research for my book. It rains
about once every 10 years out there...and the rain and lightning
storm I got caught in pretty much flooded the roads. Sheesh.
The countryside is almost all low scrub (but amazing
wildflowers with all the rain), but if you drive too fast you are
likely to take out a six-foot kangaroo, emu, or even wild
camel.
Caught the overnight train to Perth and spent several days at my
cousin's house before coming down here. She lives in the hills
about 40 minutes out of Perth in really stunning countryside -
farmlands and natural bush and tracts and tracts of national
park and forest. One day, we went camel riding in the bush,
traversing a historical track that Aboriginal people used to get
from Southern West Australia to Darwin. Can't tell you how
many miles that is, but let's say that it's probably the equivalent
of walking from San Diego to Anchorage.
So, here I am, gotta get back to work (oh all right, I confess,
time for a brisk walk on the beach). Email me about your fun
lives and gossip. Address is still the same. Hope all is well with
you.
love Tanya xxxxxx
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