Summary of our Western Australia trip

Now, from home with temporal and spatial distance to the 5 weeks of travel we experienced, as announced, some summary impressions, now expressed from Gerhard's perspective as a travel planner and one of the two drivers of our group of four:

The way we planned, organized, and carried out our Western Australia trip, only a minority of visitors travel through this country. Those who do not want to make any effort book a group tour, those on a tight budget travel as backpackers using public transportation and staying in low-cost accommodations, those who want to be everywhere in a short time fly across the vast Australia by plane, and those who do not want to be tied to fixed accommodations travel with a rental camper and stay at the many campgrounds.

Our approach was different:

Limiting ourselves to a "smaller" area of this continent in order to explore it independently and self-determinedly with sufficient time using a suitable (expensive 4x4) rental car, only bound by the pre-booked accommodations. This already resulted in approximately 7000 kilometers of driving with 31 available days in the country, as well as 32 nights of 1 to 3 nights each in a total of 18 different accommodations.

Of course, not everyone wants to do it this way...

And besides, we do not have an aversion to moving in great solitude, we even prefer it to the hustle and bustle of urban areas - in Western Australia, you are naturally in the right place.

For cost and convenience reasons for the self-drivers, it made sense for the four of us friendly oldytravellers to form a travel and driving group, as we all brought relevant positive experiences from 3 previous similar joint long-distance trips, as well as a shared interest in getting to know this country that was still unknown to all of us.

As planned, this trip finally took place - without boredom, because new events naturally awaited us every day, which we had to face. Rest and "vacation" are different, but we knew this in advance, and (most) retirees have this relaxation at home throughout the rest of the year! We came across a fun sign during a stop at a Roadhouse

and thought that this suits our travel credo, you can still have a laugh about something like that...

What will particularly remain in our memory:

The remarkable cleanliness in this country, whether in cities or settlements, no litter or dirt in public spaces, no graffiti anywhere, clean toilets everywhere, well-maintained public facilities, parks, playgrounds, or picnic areas, all designed to be accessible for people with disabilities. The viewpoints in nature, especially in the national parks, are creatively designed and elaborately constructed, and there is a good general and tourist infrastructure.

Perth convinced us as the Western Australian metropolis right from the start: modern, spotless, organized, high-quality design, life here is more relaxed than at home and certainly has its quality. This can also be felt throughout the country in traffic, easy going instead of hustle and bustle, 110 km/h is usually the speed limit, and it works!!!

When leaving the few cities, you mostly have the (well-developed!) roads or tracks all to yourself, especially in the deeper Outback. However, we always made sure to start the daily stages with a full tank and plenty of water on board, you should never travel recklessly!

In the Outback, we never really got lost, a good Australian road atlas, the built-in navigation system of our Toyota Land Cruiser, and the vigilance of up to 8 eyes made it possible...

We could only have good human experiences, friendliness, openness, and helpfulness seem to be characteristic of Australians.

But what also stands out in our memory, and doesn't cause euphoria, and which a potential (Western) Australia traveler should also be prepared for:

The consistently higher price level than at home! Western Australia is a rich country due to the proceeds of its booming mining industry, it pays high wages there, and accordingly, the money is recouped through high prices, Switzerland greets...

This also makes it clear that the state has plenty of money available for the aforementioned beneficial public investments and also spends it generously.

The sheer size, endlessness, and sometimes monotony of this country the size of a continent become really apparent only when you actually "explore" it day by day!

With the exception of a few landscape exceptions, all of Western Australia is a huge, mostly flat, level landmass. The vegetation varies from (eucalyptus) forests in the moister southwest to a large agricultural grain belt heading north and east, and then the increasingly dominant bushland of the Outback. The bushland, in turn, only varies in height and density, from knee-high to lower trees and back. Everything has a savanna-like to semi-desert character, reminiscent of Africa...

Beneath that, mostly red, but also brown and yellow-white soil, in the Pilbara region further north, increasingly exposed iron-red rock appears.

Excitement is generally lacking on the overland and Outback journey, we have actually seen relatively few animals in relation to the long distances, most of them in dead form, run over on the roads and tracks. And the great scenic and tourist attractions, which are indeed advertised in brochures, are mostly felt light years apart! A different dimension!

Wannabe rental campers should also be aware that free wild camping outside of campgrounds is apparently not desired. We have seen clear prohibition signs everywhere at beautiful lookouts and parking areas, which is actually a shame.

Lastly, the experience that every visitor to Western Australia will inevitably have, even if most travel guides at home do not mention it for good reason: the plague of flies, continuously and everywhere between sunrise and sunset. Particularly bad in the Outback, but also extending to the coast unless there is a strong sea breeze blowing. We were forewarned and had already equipped ourselves with face nets at home, which then brought us the necessary relief... Without them, it's simply mega-annoying and disgusting to be attacked by these creatures. The flies, slightly smaller than our houseflies, do not sting, but they crawl everywhere they sense body fluid (eyes, nose, ears, mouth, when peeing, etc.).

So, if you want to emigrate to the Outback, have fun and high resilience!

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With that, we conclude our blog about the Western Australia trip 2018.

We would like to thank all readers once again for your lively interest in our adventures, as well as for your abundant comments on the individual reports.

This encourages and delights us, because often (especially me) I was despairing during blog creation when progress was slow due to slow WLAN and insufficient performance of our hardware. This cost us some unnecessary overtime hours on the road...

In return, we would also like to thank our friends Gisela and Günther, who bravely shared the joys and sorrows of the oldytravellers with us during the 5 long weeks and made the overall success of our joint journey possible, super!!!

Goodbye to everyone from Regina and Gerhard