Esperance Road Trip - Nov 2013

Our last road trip was 6 months ago now, down to Denmark WA to enjoy the wineries and walks in the area as well as visit the in laws.

We are ready, let's go!

This trip was to involve our friends from Kalgoorlie, and their two doggies, Indy and Bella. Indy is an old red heeler cross and was friends with Bender back when we lived in Kalgoorlie. They used to wrestle and play biteyface. Apparently Indy never played with another dog after her time with Bender. Bella came later and she is some kind of poodle cross. She was found on the streets as a pup with ear infections and a belly full of worms. Now she is just a teddy bear who demands love from whoever is nearby.

heavenly Esperance, everyone wants to be there in summer!

As it is Summer now, the holiday houses in Esperance are booking up. N had to hunt around for a house that would allow all the doggies. We weren't sure if Mouse would still be with us when we booked so the possibility was 4 or 5 dogs. Our friends were only staying for two nights and we were staying for three.

N found this cute little duplex half with a grassy backyard. It was hard to tell how high the fences were from the photo. The living area was small but we were planning to be on the beach with the dogs for most of the time anyway so we figured it wouldn't matter. The only tricky bit was to introduce all of the dogs.

Bender says, hey aren't we going to have a cook up? I feel like sausages!

I took the Friday and Monday off work, as it is a long drive down there for us. We weren't completely on the ball and got caught in peak hour traffic on the way out of Perth on Friday morning. Some Esperance folk we met on the weekend said that the best time to leave Perth is about 4am. On reflection they were right of course, but getting out of town at that hour wasn't that realistic as we had to load the car right before we left.

We got to use my brand new towball bike rack that I bought from Grip Sport months ago and it was solid. I did not have a worry about the bikes at all for the 1400 kilometre round trip. We also bought down a soft crate for Mouse to sleep in so that she wouldn't bother us during the night. That concept didn't work so well as she still woke up at 4am every day and made a racket, whining and digging at her bed. The dogs had to practice a bit of give and take due to the lack of space in the car for all three of them.  Mouse always seems to get her way and has the uncanny ability to pass out and sleep in all situations, so she hogged the whole back seat for most of the trip. At one point she was even roaching, in the car! She is such a great traveller.

We had to stop and take a photo of this sign! Pity it was such a long detour to visit Bender's railway siding

Our first stop was to get a bite for breakfast at a road house. There was a park nearby so I let Bender wander around off leash, whilst we sat down with Mouse and Barbie. I had Mouse sitting politely next to me whilst I ate my ham and cheese toasted sandwich. I turned my head away from her to see what Bender was up to and heard a crisp *crunch*

I quickly turned my head back and saw Mouse daintily chewing on the corner of my sandwich that she had just bitten off!! N cracked up laughing. I couldn’t really bring myself to scold her, it was too late anyway. The whirling dervish, or sneaky white fox, struck again!

the trio at wave rock

We stopped at Wave Rock in Hyden, which is a big tourist attraction in WA. There were signs up everywhere that said 'no BMX or Mountain Bikes at any time'. I thought we should look it up on youtube, and this is the guy who made a cool video but kind of ruined everyone else's fun.

Bender's first instinct was to try and run up the rock. He didn't make it very far. The greyhounds tried to walk up the rock too, but as soon as the gradient got to a certain level they fell over sideways (I caught this on video, so make sure you check out the video in the next post).

paying our respects

We also stopped at the dog cemetary in Corrigin. It was touching to see all of the headstones people had created for their dogs.

When we got to the house in Esperance the dogs were very happy to be out of the car. we weren't there long. We unloaded our stuff, put the dogs back in the car and headed to the local beach for a quick walk. It was less than a kilometre from the house so this was the only time we drove down there. Bender was very confused that we didn’t have a ball to throw and kept looking for one. After their quick walk to the beach we went back, got everyone settled and fed them their dinner. Barbie and Bender, true to form, didn't eat much. Mouse chowed down like usual. After a bit of relaxing on their beds, the new guests arrived.

Barbie and Bella doing a doggie handshake

Bella and Indy went through the side gate and we turned our dogs out into the yard one-by-one. We tried Bender first, and it took a little while to get them all settled, because he kept trying to hump Bella. Indy protected her friend with her 'cattle dog' ways, giving him the eye and rounding him up with a series of low growls. When they settled we swapped and let Barbie out. Barbie showed very little interest in either of the dogs. Just a little sniff and she went on her way. Mouse was last. Mouse as a little bit energetic still and that scared Bella. They all got along pretty well though and settled well.

We bought them all inside and they all slept nicely on the dog beds. I was pleased.

The dogs quickly became used to each other and Mouse's shifty ways became evident. She plonked herself down on Bella and Indy's beds outside. She even lay down next to Indy - backing in and avoiding eye contact as Indy was growling. Mouse always gets her way.

princess Mouse always gets her way...

First thing every day we went back down to the local beach. We walked but Bella and Indy were chauffered as Indy has bad arthritis and can't walk very far. They were cute when they recognised each other. Mouse was a bit frustrated because she wasn't allowed off leash. At one point during her 'pork chop' antics, she landed on my leg and left a very big bruise.

Barbie exploring the rocks

On Saturday afternoon we also went to a really nice bay, which was about a 11 kilometre drive away from the house. It was a little bit rocky, but Barbie enjoyed fossicking around on the rocks. N took Mouse into the water but it was very cold so she didn't stay in long. She also did this really cute 'jumping through the water' thing which I also got on video… (stay tuned for the next blog entry for that)

Barbie cooling off

After the beach visit N & I went for a ride up the coast to that beach. There is a very hilly separated bike path the whole way along, though the climb out of town was the hardest part. It was a very pretty ride. Apparently at about 6pm Barbie started crying and whining and no distraction could stop her. I think it was because that's the time I usually get home from work and feed the dogs, so she was worried. Poor sweet girl.

After the first day of driving, a very early start (thanks Mouse), and a day of beach going with small breaks in between, Barbie and Bender were exhausted. On Sunday Bella and Indy left and Bender seemed a bit upset that they were gone. He was sniffing around the yard looking for them. To give the dogs a rest, we took them to the beach, then did non-doggie things.

We went to a local market in town and bought some local honey which was made by bees using Salmon Gum pollen. I had never tried it before and it's very different from the Karri and Marri forest honey I am used to, in a good way!

Esperance Stonehenge

After the market we drove out the Esperance's version of Stonehenge. There is a bit of a story behind it. There's a big granite quarry across the road, and  the 'Stonehenge' pieces were ordered by a really rich guy in Margaret River. It was going to cost him $250,000 to truck the stones to his property. He went broke before that happened and the landowners across the road managed to sort a deal with the quarry for the pieces. They assembled it using drawings by some Margaret River architects and a heavy duty crane from Kalgoorlie. It was pretty cool, but will get better with age. At the moment the rocks are a bit 'perfect'. It reminded me a bit of a 'Chinese' version of stonehenge - when we were in China we noticed there was a tendency to 'rebuild' ancient attractions so that they looked all shiny and new. After Stonehenge we took the mountain bikes out to the local MTB club track about 15 kilometres out of town. It was really fun and I'm glad that we did it!

me checking out the local MTB track

On the last morning Mouse did her usual 4am wake up thing, but I managed to get her to pipe down and go back to sleep. We weren't in a huge hurry to get back to Perth and if we left too early we would get caught in the afternoon peak hour traffic. On the way out we stopped again at the rocky beach. Barbie didn't do more than a trot. Bender found a discarded 1.25L coke bottle on the beach and decided it would be fun to play with. He carried it all the way up and down the beach, flattening it as he went. It was his ball substitute, but I did throw it for him a few times because it didn't go far.

what is this I have found ?? 

Bender, new ambassador for 'Clean up Australia'

We went a different way back via Kulin and came across the 'Tin Horse Highway' where the locals had made all kinds of horse sculptures out of various bits of scrap metal. It was very entertaining. We pulled over frequently to take pictures - but this one with the light plane had to be my favorite. The plane was so tiny!

the car posing with a plane on the Tin Horse Highway

As we got closer to home, out of the wheatbelt and into the Darling Scarp which is forested,  the dogs perked up. As soon as we got in the door Barbie collapsed onto a bed and went to sleep. She really doesn't sleep in the car. Mouse chased Froufrou and Bender grabbed the nearest toy to engage in a game of tug. Everything was back to normal very very quickly!

ahh how we will miss the beautiful beaches...

Stay tuned for a video version of the road trip.... 

More Road Trip (Day 6, 7 & 8) Exmouth - Bush Bay - Geraldton - Perth

After our last coffee at the homestead, we packed up and bid farewell to Yardie Creek Caravan Park. We headed back down the coast towards Carnarvon. We stopped briefly in Carnarvon to take the dogs for a walk and a wee break.

We saw a group of young indigenous fellas jumping off a bridge and swimming near a housing estate in town, and we decided it would be a good place to walk. When we got up there though, Bender didn't want to walk over the bridge - it was a weird bridge, an old railway bridge which seemed to be a drawbridge. It freaked him out. Anyway we were surrounded by the young guys, they were most interested in Barbie.

I suppose I should explain a bit here. Greyhounds seem to have a different reputation amongst country dwelling Aboriginal people than they do amongst urban folks. We live quite close to a train station, and often there are young Aboriginal guys hanging around the train station, the shops, or the nearby park who see Barbie and I stroll by. They always say 'hey, roo-dog! get 'im a good feed of roo.." Most kangaroos would be no match for a savvy Greyhound, that's for sure. Anyway it's happened so often that I have the idea there are at least some Greyhounds being used to hunt kangaroos in outback Australia.

Back to our stroll in Carnarvon...the now familiar "hello roo dog" was voiced as they all came in for a pat. They were less sure of Bender, but as Bender stayed calm some of them patted him as well. After a lot of questions about our "roo dog" we went on our way, bundled back into the car and headed towards our camp site in Bush Bay.

By the time we got to Bush Bay the sun was pretty low in the sky. It's a popular fishing spot and a few people were pulling their boats out and leaving by the time we had set up.

The tide was heading out as the sun was going down, so we went for a stroll along the beach. Barbie was being driven crazy by the small, zippy little birds that were on the mud flats hunting. She could only see them when they moved but she really wanted to give chase.

Both the dogs seemed to enjoy the walk.... and then we went back to cook dinner - but there was a huge problem - the gas hose for the stove had sprung a leak. No cooking for us! We had to eat the mangoes that they had given us up in Exmouth for dinner. We didn't really have much food left!

The dogs lying politely on their beds - got a good night's sleep despite being a little hungry. I even munched on some dry pasta - it wasn't particularly satisfying. Next camping trip I think I will bring some 2 minute noodles to eat in case we have issues with the stove again - at least you can chew them more easily dry than pasta.

Barbie woke me up in time to see the sunrise, though Bender didn't seem to want to go anywhere. I took Barbie for a wander around so that she could toilet, and then ran into N and Bender down on the beach - I guess he wanted to come after all!

We packed up as quickly as possible because I was hungry - we stopped at the first roadhouse we came across (which I think was Wooramel Roadhouse, 100ks South of Bush Bay). There was a scraggly little Jack Russell dog there who came trotting over to me and the dogs while N was in the road house getting our food.

We had lunch at Billabong Roadhouse, which has become a favorite of ours, and the lady there remembered us. She said 'wow, quick trip', and chatted to us about her dog - apparently he catches budgies (which are a small Australian native bird) and buries them on his walks. We sat in the shade near the roadhouse and watched her big dog in his backyard. Bender and Barbie were very good, not trying to get over to him or bark at him. He was a big brindle mastiff type dog.

After a fair bit of driving, we pulled over for a break at the rest area at the Murchison River. There is free camping here, and I think if we didn't have a house to stay in at Geraldton, this is where we would drive to on the first day heading North.

This lizard decided to pose for the camera - he was very cute and he wasn't afraid of the dogs at all.

Barbie decided she was hot, so she lay down in the water. The water was pretty stinky!!!

We let Bender offleash as there weren't many people around and the ground was hot - so I thought it would be better for him if he could choose where he put his paws. When I took his leash off he looked around at me, surprised, like he was saying "really?..... thankyou!"

It was just a short drive to Geraldton from the Murchison rest stop, and we stayed again at the house with the neighbouring horse. Bender kept asking to go out the back but he wasn't allowed. We had a great night's sleep, and headed back to Perth the next day.

The kitties both greeted us enthusiastically when we got home, and the dogs passed out. I think they slept for two days straight!

So that's it, our road trip up North with the dogs. Overall pretty successful if I do say so myself!

Road Trip to Exmouth - Day 5 - More Exmouth

On our morning toilet walk, Barbie noticed the kangaroos for the first time. They had always been there, but I think they moved at an inopportune time. The kangaroos up here are pretty small, not like the massive red kangaroos that we used to see around Kalgoorlie. I got her to forget about them eventually.

For the second morning in a row, we took the dogs down to the beach for a run. The dogs were quite tired, and it didn't take long before Barbie made herself comfortable on the sand.

We then took the dogs back to the homestead, to leave there for a few hours so that we could properly check out the Cape Range National Park.

On the way out there, we were flagged down by a guy on the road near 'the dune'. We were told we should go look at 'the dune', but not to go too far or we would get bogged. Well, this guy was bogged, but as we stopped he looked at the X-Trail and said 'I don't think your car is big enough to pull us out'. I was like, no - we don't even have recovery points on this car, it's really a city car.....so N offered to go back to Yardie Creek and ask someone to help him out.

We pulled back into the gate and they made fun of us "can't bare to be away from them from more than five minutes, hey"? They said they would go help the guy stuck on the dunes, but when we drove back past he was gone so he may have pulled over a proper four wheel drive car in the meantime.

We enjoyed swimming and sightseeing in the National Park. The Ningaloo Reef is pretty famous as a tourist attraction - it really is the WA version of the Great Barrier Reef. We really didn't get to do as much snorkelling as I'd like though as we didn't want to leave the dogs at the homestead all day - they had to go to town and go shopping and stuff.

Yardie Creek gorge is just lovely, and though we didn't have time to go on a boat trip we decided to go back with our kayaks to paddle up it. We also want to go and swim with the whale sharks during their season. We are looking at going back up (without the dogs) in May.

On the way back into the caravan park we managed to snap these emus hanging around outside. Emus are very cute and very fast. I found myself wondering if they would beat Barbie in a foot race.

We went to the homestead and collected the dogs and headed back into town for lunch. We revisited the cafe we went to last time because we knew it was dog friendly, and lunch was pretty good.

After we ate, we took the dogs back to town beach, though they were pretty tired and it was blowing a gale.

Barbie decided that she wanted a nice bed in the sand out of the wind, and in N's shadow out of the sun. I decided to record it after watching so many turtles dig holes in order to lay their eggs. Barbie's digging style is a lot quicker than a turtle's though!

Note her strange one-pawed digging style and the fact that she knew precisely how big to dig the hole!

On the way back out to the caravan park, N spotted three people sitting in their car eating icecreams and decided she wanted one. I figured the Lighthouse Caravan Park would have a shop and it might be a cool place to check out.

No dogs are allowed at the Lighthouse caravan park but they do have a resident Staffy. She had such an expressive face. Later when I asked the folks at Yardie Creek about her they said they had to put signs up telling people not to feed the Staffie as she was getting huge!

Once we had our icecreams we drove up the hill to the lighthouse to check out the view. It was blowing a gale and N didn't want to get out of the car. Neither did the dogs. I got out to take some photos and almost got blown off my feet!

I got some good photos though! I noticed that a fair few cars we had seen in the National Park that day, or spotted in town, or both, drove up the hill, stopped briefly, and drove back down.

Sightseeing for the day was over and we headed back to the caravan park. We had dinner at the homestead again and it was so cool to be hanging out with them. I was so glad to have finally met N's friends who live in Exmouth. The kids were also so charming and cute.

The dogs were exhausted and sprawled in various positions around the deck. After some wine and a lot of stories and food we headed back to the tent for a good night's sleep.

To be continued.....

Road Trip to Exmouth - Day 1 - Perth to Geraldton

I managed to get leave between the Christmas and New Year public holidays, we decided to go on an epic road trip up to Exmouth, WA. I also got myself a car which would comfortably fit us, the dogs, and all of our gear.

I've yoinked this map from somewhere on the internet to show some major towns in Western Australia. We used to live out to the east in Kalgoorlie and make road trips down to Esperance.

On Christmas Eve, we packed up and headed off to our first stop - Geraldton, about 450 kilometres North of Perth.

Bender was hyper in the back of the car for almost the whole trip - he took ages to settle, but did eventually. Luxury of luxuries, we got to stay in a house at Geraldton. This place has a huge backyard. The dogs enjoyed the grass and the wide open space.

There was one problem. Bender ran to the back of the yard and he found his arch nemesis. A horse.

Of course, he barked. I had no idea what he was barking at, but I knew he was afraid. He was barking with a bit of a snarl on his face, but he was keeping his distance from the fence, and creeping backwards with each bark. N ran down there and saw the horse, who was totally freaking out and galloping around in small circles. He had run into a star picket in his pen and had a flesh wound on his chest.

N went next door to tell the neighbours that Bender had spooked their horse, and that it had hurt itself in a panic. The neighbour came around and was telling us the horse was only in the little pen because it had been recently attacked by a dog - no wonder it reacted the way it did. While N and the neighbour were chatting through the gate, Barbie slipped out the front of the house.

The neighbour had been saying that she really liked Greyhounds and was thinking about getting one as her next dog. Barbie slipped out of N's grip and stood in the front yard. N took her time getting out to her, and couldn't see her anymore. Barbie had headed towards the neighbour's house, as they have two dogs and I think she wanted to introduce herself.

I called her name - she looked up, then spotted the sheep across the road, so went over to their house. She refused to come back to me, and instead trotted circles in this person's yard, sniffing around very close to the house. She finally stopped and stared at the sheep. I caught her and bought her inside - she was not going to be trusted off leash on our holiday now, except for on one beach. Hopefully she didn't put the neighbour off Greyhounds for life!!

In the morning the dogs were given their Christmas presents, and I got the best present from N - a brand new camera to replace my ailing Panasonic Lumix FT-1 which turned out to be not-so-tough.

I didn't get any pictures of Barbie with her Christmas present - a new stuffie. She seemed to lose interest in it fairly quickly. Bender loved his toy though. Here he is enjoying it!

We left Geraldton after going visiting and headed north. We didn't get out of town until about midday. The dogs both settled into their positions on the back seat quickly, maybe a little tired from visiting and getting so much attention from so many people. We stopped at a few attractions on the way up towards Carnarvon (Banana Town) - but I'll tell you about that when I've recovered from New Years Eve.... so stay tuned for some beautiful pictures of what North West of Western Australia has to offer :)

Keeping your dogs in the kennel for long periods of time...

Recently we went on an extended holiday in Europe and had to sort out the dogs and cats. We were gone for 47 days, and after much deliberation and angst we decided that the kennel was the best place for the dogs - that way we would know they were safe and wouldn't get into any bad habits. For the cats, we found a housesitter - for half the time. For the other half of the time we needed to use a pet sitting agency that sent someone around to feed them, take out the rubbish and bring in our mail.

The dogs stayed at The Paw House with Claire and Leigh. The dogs have stayed with them twice before, and they both really love dogs. All dogs. The dogs seem to enjoy it there as well. When we checked in they asked if the dogs wear coats, and I said that they probably would just take them off. They said they would try and give the dogs coats anyway but they would also get blankets to curl up in. They encouraged us to email them for an update when we were away, so we did. At that point, Bender wasn't wearing his coat, he kept taking it off, but Barbie was accepting hers. About a week after Leigh sent the email, Barbie started removing her coat, so now she is really really fluffy!



See! That is one fluffy greyhound butt! For those of you who don't have greyhounds, the butt area is where they often lose hair in kennel environments!

She does have a couple of flaky spots which Leigh pointed out to me before we left - one on her thigh, and there is one on her chest. He said he had been watching and hadn't seen her licking it so I am not that worried. I'm sure it will clear up with her indoor life but she will moult all of that beautiful fur she has grown too, so I will have to make the most of it.

Understandably, after 47 days they were very happy to see us.

As we left though, it seemed that the dogs were quite attached to Leigh. They both had eyes on him until we pulled out of sight. When we got home we didn't leash them, they both went straight to the front door and Barbie practically pushed past Nic to get inside. They both pranced around the house to investigate. Bender spent more time snuffling around as there were two people he didn't know in the house during the time we had been gone. Neither paid any attention to the cats. Froufrou got up in Barbie's face, and Barbie just ignored her. Bender almost trampled her as if she didn't exist. Both of the cats seemed a bit put out that the house, and the humans, were no longer exclusively theirs.

The cats were looked after for the first three weeks by a student who does housesitting. The cats took a little bit more time to get used to him because they are used to being in a house full of women. They seemed to do OK with him though and he gave us some email updates as well. After he moved onto his next housesit, Paws in the Park took over. The cats got plenty of cuddles and attention from Lauren, though they took over the house. There were no boundaries any more. When we got home, the cats were waiting in the window and they were hungry. They were both competing for attention, but Froufrou was still the boss. When we ignored them they started climbing all over the kitchen bench and walking along the TV cabinet like it was a normal thing for them to do. We had to start enforcing the rules again. They did interrupt our sleep a little when they decided they wanted attention - Mittens by sprinting into the room and jumping onto the bed, and Frou by doing these strange little meows until I told her to shut up.

Anyway, we have a few days now for everyone to settle back into life before we have to go back to work.

Now, I have decided that I will give a shout out to a new blog each Thursday. I am going to mention blogs that I like, blogs that are new, blogs that maybe don't have many followers yet. I want to introduce them to the pet blogger community that I have enjoyed so much.

So for this Thursday Blog Shoutout, it's 28 Legs!

While I've been away, Desma (who is the trainer who helped me get Barbie to get her Canine Good Citizen Award), has been working on her blog, 28 Legs. Desma is particularly interested in animals in film and TV, and she has gotten TV roles and ads for many of her animals. The latest one was an IKEA ad involving her Bengal cat, Gunny. Her dogs also do agility and tracking. Check it out and say hi!