THE TRAVELING MARTINI'S

My days are not recorded by a diary, but by photos of sunsets. I can’t imagine writing down what we do every day…or don’t do – we are so boring! Michael is very good about keeping up and blogging about our nightly meals and the local Australian wines we have enjoyed! My days are remembered by the sunsets we share or enjoy on our own. It takes less than ten minutes to walk from our house to the beach! We can run down last minute if we think there will be a sunset. Today Larkin and I enjoyed the local Farmer’s Market which was absolutely incredible. Sorry USA compadres…but Western Australia at this point in time is phenomenal! Local meats, vegetables, wines, dumplings, pancakes and smoothies etc as well as assorted condiments. It was a beautiful day with Larkin but I needed to take a walk and I waited until sunset.

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No one else wanted to join me for sunset, so I started out on my own. I walked past our normal little set of rocks to the Surfers Point area where I encountered the local birds enjoying a perch and the first photo as the sun was heading down to set.

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I walked past Surfers Point and headed past it back down toward the mouth of the Margaret River. First of all I wanted to check out the rocks at the bottom of the cliff and luckily I found the last set of stairs that led down toward the beach.The area I headed down to was called the Rock Pools. Strong Rips, Large Waves, slippery rocks, submerged rocks and sand bars, cliff risk area and sharks. Oh how exciting….sharks! Haven’t seen or heard of any while we’ve been here over the last month! If a person leaves something behind it is often set aside like the above kids shoes…makes for a great photo!

As I reached the bottom of the stairs and walked along the beach to the north, I encountered another “nomad” enjoying SIP (Sheltering in Place) in Margaret River. Herrings are running and he was cleaning his fish and the birds were circling. You can see him in the bottom right of the upper left photo. After checking the rocks out, I walked toward the River which doesn’t really have a mouth as it doesn’t flow out to the Indian Ocean but must go underground where the huge sand berms are located. After I walked across part of the Rivers edge, I wanted to see the sunset near the rocks while enjoying the huge waves so I headed back along the beach!

As I waited for the sun to set, I enjoyed the company of a local statue on the rocks. The birds were enjoying her as much as I was. I’m not sure if she was suppose to be pregnant but she was definitely holding a big fish.

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As I started back toward the stairs, I noticed another family enjoying the rocks and the waves. The waves were huge! There is no way a photo can catch these huge waves. The gentleman and his kids were enjoying these waves as a family but the man was very aware to keep his kids safe. The dog sat in that position on the left photo for quite a long time. I wondered whether he was waiting for the mom!? The last photo shows the reflections as the sun was setting. I had to make sure I was heading back up the stairs in order to see the final setting sun as the waves were so big that they would have obscured the green flash if there was one. Happily after arriving halfway up the staircase, I notice the big GREEN FLASH! I walked with a bounce in my step all the way back to our Sea View home! It was worth the walk all by myself – I have photo’s to prove my day!

Unfortunately when I arrived back home and Michael and I turned on the news, a local man had been swept away a little south of our location by a huge wave as he and his mate were fishing for Salmon. I remembered the noise of at least three helicopters this afternoon. I wondered whether this woman was reporting on the death. As much as I loved those waves and felt their power, a death made me realize they are not to be taken lightly! ..and I wondered why there was no one out surfing today! Fourth Week of fabulous takeout local pizza! Have a great weekend!

The town is called Margaret River but to surfers around the world it is a WAVE. It breaks around a horseshoe shaped reef which reaches out into the Indian Ocean to draw powerful swells that provide big, consistent surfing waves. The headland at surfers point acts as a natural amphitheater so when the swell is up and the offshore breeze is blowing you are surrounded by the wild waves and reefs that now define the West Australian surfing experience.

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The experience is not one that can just been seen but must be felt by getting on a board and paddling out…however, the three Martini’s won’t be partaking in this beauty of the Margaret River. We will stay with the wine experience and watch the surfers catch the waves! We can watch a sunset and take in the surfers and their craft. We will also be able to avoid the Sharks. It was shocking to see the Shark Warning system…It makes me wonder if they have a tsunami warning system?

“Crank up the Vee Dub and head to Margs”…duh we rented a Toyota not the same panache!

As the book Margaret River Stories says, “The big difference between a rodeo and surfing is that there is no starting gate. Out in the ocean the ring is full of bulls running wild. The real skill in surfing is to get close enough to jump onto the beast’s back without being gored. A surfer wants to go out there and catch a beast to feel its power and ride it. The best surfers do it with style. ”

New World, New Waves…the reason for Margaret River’s prominence in the surfing world is obvious when you look at the map. At the bottom south western corner in one of the most geographically remote places (our “V that shall not be named” social distancing area seems so appropriate), the Cape region juts defiantly into the vastness of the Indian Ocean. We’ve all heard of those roaring forties, those wild winds that propelled the earliest explorers in their wooden ships across the unknown expanse of the Indian Ocean to collide often tragically with the scarred landscape of our Margaret River West Coast – giving surfers the waves they want to ride.

On an early blog I mentioned the pole sticking out of the water near our sunset rock with wire keeping people out. When reading Margaret River Stories I ran across a tragedy in 1996 where three schools of local school children were competing in surfing. It was raining and students were sheltered under a limestone cliff. The cliff gave way and 9 people died that day. Hence, that must be the reason that major limestone cliff areas in Margaret River are cordoned off. The nearest major north south road near us is called Cave Road for a reason. Limestone creates marvelous caves. We are waiting for the shire to open up so we can go visit the local caves!

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Enjoy the last weekend in April! We continue to enjoy the beaches, the weather and the people of southwestern Western Australia including the surfers off our beach. This state has only had 1 case of the “V which shall not be named” in the last four days. People are happy that no one could come into the state either driving or flying for the last three weeks and that the lock down has worked! We’ll be waiting until mid May for any restrictions to be opened up – but we all feel safe, keep our distance and no one really wears a mask.

We imagine mid May we might be able to drive to the next “shire” and do more site seeing as Western Australia may open its regional borders. We still have no clue when international or national flights may begin again at Perth – we aren’t even allowed to drive to Perth right now.

Knowing the stores shelves are full of food and any necessary supplies, that there are 5 bottle shops and various cellar doors to accumulated wine and that the best local restaurants have all started opening and have amazing takeout just 10 minutes from our home, makes us extremely happy to be sheltering in place here in Margs. Let us know how you all are surviving this panic pandemic.

So Michael began his wine notes on March 22nd. He has faithfully updated notes with each wine consumed. Instead of putting the information on here, he will be putting it into msquaredwines.com as soon as he figures out the best way to do it.

On the other hand I gave up trying to write my own notes and just try to make sure I get at least one sip of every wine opened. It is a difficult job but someones has to do it!

The interesting first blog was our drive back from The Pinnacle Desert to Perth going through Swan River. I realized that is less than a month ago and in many ways it feels light years away and others about a week ago. We have been in our little home in Prevelly Beach now for four weeks on Monday. We have not driven each other crazy yet and I hope all of you still have your sanity (more or less) too!

A few of Michael’s notes included:

Australian wine blog: Consumed March 22^nd.  Drove up to the Pinnacle Desert today and on the way back stopped on the Swan River at Olive Farm wines.  Mostly for a break but purchased several bottles of wine and some cheese and crackers to go with it.  The Swan River runs into Perth from the north and is dotted with small wineries and vineyards of which this is one.  It is supposed to be the oldest wine area in Australia started in 1829. The tasting room was packed and tables outside on a deck were filled with young people enjoying the experience.We purchased two bottles here one a Verdelho 2020 and the other was G.S.T. “THE TAXMAN” a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Tempranillo 2019.

My input here is – Australians have to be the most creative wine companies in the world. Like the above wine Michael mentioned is “THE TAXMAN”. Really? Like I guess I’d rather drink it than pay them, but alas in this trying virus time the taxman will come knocking to all of us…just a little later.

6ft6 its a pinot noir. Every winemaker I know thinks of a pinot noir as feminine. so why the name? The back label says, “We’ve gone to great lengths with this alluring, exotic and perfumed Pinot.” It is made in Victoria and their handle is #feeling6ft6. I guess we’ll all grow when we drink it.

Michael’s notes for 6ft 6 included – Consumed March 26^th: Tonight we ate Buttered chicken on riced cauliflower accompanied by a Young and Company generic California Chardonnay (Jacque liked the label and didn’t know it was California) and a Pinot Noir from Geelong in southern Victoria Australia.  We picked it up in a shop in Margaret River because Jacque thought this label was also cute.  It is called 6Ft6 with the front descriptor of “It’s the length of the finish”.  I figured it was just a very tall winemaker because it actually finished quite short.  A rather flat wine with little charm.  It was true to the Pinot Noir varietal character but didn’t offer anything interesting.  The chicken was great though.

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In actuality, I have left out many of Michael’s extensive notes and will only comment on some of his blog. Some of this information we have written about in previous blogs. There was no toilet paper on our first trip to the grocery store (Coles) but we were able to buy 6 bottles of wine each. The next trip we tried the next grocery store (Woolworths’s called Woolies down here) and found we could also buy 6 bottles each. The very next trip the checker said no no no…put half of that back – the new edict says only 3 bottles each, one six pack of beer and one 750ml of hard alcohol. Hence we hit three bottle shops in town, bought 18 instead of 12 wines and felt satisfied. We have slowly filled up what we are using as a wine rack and finally felt we can visit a few cellar doors and buy their wines too.

Ha ha ha. First day at a cellar door (winery tasting room) we could buy three each, next time a case but only after the edict went through at 4 pm that day. …and supposedly we could only buy a case a month or maybe it was a week. We still have not understood why they feel the need to “limit” without true limits available on wine and spirits. They call it all booze down here. In the USA we wineries hated wine called booze but in reality, call a spade a spade. We have taken a week off from over filling our coffers and just today bought a few more.

Michael’s notes – a few more – Consumed March 24^th. I believe we opened this wine on the 23^rd and sipped on it over several days.  It was a present from our Margaret River rental agency and much appreciated.  It was the Voyager Estate 2017 Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon from Margaret River.  Jacque and I actually visited here last October when we were here for a few days.  I find New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs to be very aggressive and high acid.  This area is just that much warmer that it drives the grassiness down in flavor and then to blend it with Semillon, which many times adds a green fig note, helps to fatten both the nose and the texture up.  This wine was stunning and was in the true style of the Margaret River. 

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Running With Bulls – Singing erupts from a sea of white and red. Viva San Fermin! Its 8:00 am. Snake and Herring is a wine safari searching for grapes from West Australian vineyards. Fifth Leg likes to explore great questions over a good wine like, ‘How did the remains of five Tasmanian tigers end up in the Devil’s Lair cave in WA? Australia – amazing creative labels, the ability to laugh at themselves and make mostly delicious and affordable wines.

Consumed April 1: Wow a Rocky Road Semillon Sauvignon blanc blend.  Opened it on the beach while watching the sun set. All is fantastic. Finished it off while Jacque cooked dinner of a fresh cabbage and sausage stir fry that Paige taught us and we love.  Had to go back up to the chocolate factory for a resupply and spotted a fresh grow vegie place along the road so we stopped in.  Man did it smell good so we bought fresh Basil, Cabbage and they had sausage so we went for it. Had it with a Running With The Bulls Tempranillo 2018 from Barossa.  This is really a different wine. Smells like black cherry jam and has a sweet mouth maybe even 1g/100ml sugar but it went great with dinner.  I’d consider this on a hot afternoon with ice cubes. 

Michael’s notes – Consumed April 2: The aperitif wine was a Rocky Road (not ice cream) 2018 Chardonnay Margaret River.  I’m not a huge Chardonnay fan but this was alright.  There was some butter, honey and golden delicious apple.  It was medium weight and quite pleasant to drink.Then came dinner with two  two-inch Rib Eyes bone in and smothered in a thick spicy sweet shiraz marinade, charred on the outside and rare on the inside.  BARBIE’d cauliflower and broccoli rabe with a garlic olive oil drizzle and a bottle of Tasmanian 2018 42 Degrees S Pinot Noir.  Had this wine in October in Tasmania and loved it.  It didn’t disappoint.  Medium bodied it is full of spice but the fruit is that classic leaf mulch and pheasant blood earthiness.  The tannins are sort of prickly in the mouth indicating it has some time to go.

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Take it to the Grave has a great shaped back label and when we die we take it to the grave! Providore only allows Amiga and Firetail’s Elsa wanted to go with me and unfortunately I had to say no!

The beauty of the beach is always stunning. I end today’s blog with this sunset. Tonight’s is full of dark grey clouds with rain potential. Larkin can’t wait. Sleep tight, social distance and stay healthy!

The tides of course come and go so where we can sit to watch the sunsets, when there is a sunset, changes. One of our sunsets we had to back up the beach and sit on the rock Michael’s perched on in the middle photo below. The two of us enjoyed a bottle of white wine. There was no one behind us on the beach as you can see from below right on even another night. The social distancing with surfers at the point that is visible on the right in the two photo above has come into question. We hear helicopters every day and wonder if they are checking out the beaches. They have taken orange cones and placed them in every other parking spot. If they can’t distance on their own, their parking lot will be closed. We are happy we have a house and we can walk both for exercises and for the views.

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The pole is actually wires to keep people away from the limestone cliffs on the right. What is hanging on the pole is seaweed. Not sure whether it arrived there on its own or with help. Folks generally stay on the correct side of the pole but like America, “dogs on the leash at all times” doesn’t mean they do it.

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As we walk up and down the beach paths, we keep running across information on the beach from its aboriginal history to what its like now. They have local groups actively working on keeping the dunes healthy and have specific paths from the walking and biking trail to the beach. They have ice plant and do not consider it invasive like at home.

Michael continues to write his memoirs and blogging about the wonderful Australian wines we have found both at bottle shops and in cellar doors that are open to purchase and leave (take away). Tonight is Easter night and we pulled lamb out of the fridge and will open a McHenry Hohnen Cabernet Sauvignon. David Hohnen was our best man, Patrick Heck’s, roommate in college. We are hoping to find him while we are sheltering in place, more or less. David started Cape Mentelle and one other winery before we believe starting McHenry Hohnen with his brother-in-law.

We will bring more little signs and notes about life in the Margaret River. It is difficult to be cheery everyday but we try to hug each other and count our blessings because we know each of you finds yourself in much the same mental and physical condition. We pray for the health of all of those on the front line especially with doctors and nurses but also the food chain from growing through serving via takeout or grocery stores. Many restaurant service people that have been laid off we hear are now helping farmers bring in crops in Western Australia. Farmers fear not having enough help to bring in some of the crops. We forget what it takes to get food to our tables.

Easter day has been gorgeous but we are now used to watching the odd clouds come and go off the Indian Ocean. Everyday the weather and clouds are different and the birds keep us entertained with their songs. Netflix is my friend, old NCIS’ are nightly on local TV. It takes so little to entertain us.

Stay healthy, get a good nights sleep and count your blessings, this time of Covid-19 virus is trying for all of us but this too shall end on a new normal.

We are loving our digs for the next two months. We are in our ninth day and one would think I could have posted about Margaret River before now. Ha ha ha ha! We all have plenty of time on our hands but our brains don’t always want to focus as they should. I’ve enjoyed more of Ellen Crosby’s books and still working through Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries set in Sicily. After a walk at sunset we walk back to the house, start whatever dinner we’ve planned and listen to Australian TV news, then NCIS, and now a local channel is doing one James Bond movie a night. Takes our brain away from the virus and blog posting!

At our rental house there are two decks on the front side one off the master bedroom. The views of the Indian Ocean are mesmerizing. Some days we don’t walk to the beach but enjoy the pink clouds from the decks. We have not seen a green flash yet but some stunning cloud formations.

The back yard has a massive covered deck and large table. Michael has mostly used it for waiting on the barbie to be ready and cook our meats! The trampoline has not been used yet but Larkin and I are hoping to both try it.

Prevelly is a small surfer beach town. We can walk quickly to the beach or slightly up the hill to the local store which includes plenty of wines and a cafe which currently has take out. There is one other take out location a short hike south toward Gnarabup. We have yet to try these.

On our walk to the beach we pass a dog and kids play area. People always self distance and I believe hold their breath when they pass someone else. Australia loves their statues! One day the kids can play, the next day they are cordoned off!

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We have taken out lunch from Fish Bone…sushi…what fun! We also have take out from Cullen which we visited and ate at last October. They had some frozen entrees which we picked up and have in the freezer. In the town of Margaret River – they call this area Margs – there is a bottle shop associated with each major grocery store as well as at least two other stand alone bottle shops. If you want to buy at those shops, its only three bottles per person. If you want more you just hit every store in town. If you go to a local Cellar Door (winery tasting room) that might still be open, you can take home a case per person. The hard alcohol is not even considered higher in alcohol – its about the ml’s. No one can figure it out. We have more than enough and Michael is keeping up on tasting notes so we can blog. I want to post the adorable labels. They are the king of labels down here with each cellar door having what it seems to be at least 3 totally different labels.

Swimming beaches, surfers point and the river mouth are all within walking distance while our drive to down in Margs is 10 minutes. For folks with bikes, there are some incredible trails around here and one that goes straight to town. Our first joint walk was to The White Elephant where even the swimming women after their exercise were standing 6 feet apart. Perfect. Larkin and I walked there this morning and it was still a perfect place for a chai tea latte takeaway. The surfers were enjoying the incredible waves today.

Here is a view of our house from the neighbors and you can see the breakers on the Indian Ocean. Like Dillon Beach, we hear a storm can come in and move the sand to a totally new location. We were also told that fall is great weather because the winds die down and its cooler. We’re ready for it!

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The unknown black and yellow bird, the green bird is called a twenty eight because they sound like they are saying 28 and they are a type of parrot actually called an Australian Ringneck. The grey and pink bird is called a Valentine Galah. Michael just counted 12 at the bird bath. This morning for the first time we saw a Western Rosella. The female is less colorful than the male and they travel in pairs or family groups. I cleaned out their bird bath today – you can see the difference.

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There is plenty of social distancing but plenty to take photos of. We’ll add more as we take them. Beach sites, sunsets, statues and wine labels…etc. More to come!

We spent Saturday March 21st getting last minute items like a sim card for Michael’s old apple phone and a sweater or two as the weather gets colder here in the fall. Being connected via the sim card has been a godsend when our Skyroam won’t connect and we need to make Australian calls. We found two tiny bunny foofoo’s that are so soft and relieve stress when petted!

One of the areas that was close to Perth and we had the flexibility to get to at the time was the Nambung National Park. So on Sunday the 22nd, we rented a small car. The little car was comfy enough and gave Michael the ability to get used to driving on the left side of the road before we got the larger Toyota the next morning and headed south. This was Larkin’s quest so she did the navigating.

We took Highway 60 North which is called Indian Ocean Drive arriving mid morning at the Pinnacles. It is a desert. It was warm and we learned the new Aussie salute – at least to us – which is wave continually in front of your face to keep the flies away. I learned those little buggers bite if they fly up your sleeve. Over a week later it still itches! Those Pinnacles were out of this world…looked more like mars than earth. It wasn’t crowded once again and when using the restroom or in the little store/museum, people kept their distance. They had hand sanitizer. We bought three to refill on our sling bags. Photo’s just don’t do the pinnacles justice.

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We were about 11 kilometers to stromatolites so headed north to the Cervantes Beach area and Lake Thetis which is still part of Nambung National Park

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A single 1 meter structure may be 2,000 to 3,000 years old.

As we drove north and back south you could see mounds of bright white sand dunes on either side of the highway. Since we had never seen the Swan Valley wine area east of Perth, we took a little jaunt on the way back and headed east and inland. We stopped at Olive Farm Winery and the Cheese Barrel. Little did we know this would probably be the last tasting anyone in Australia would be allowed to have in the foreseeable future. People were still having fun. I tasted a few wines and we bought a few…Michael was driving so he tasted them later. Our little cheese package we bought became lunch the next day at Prevelly Beach when we arrived at our rental home.

After the wine and cheese detour, arrived back in Perth to turn our car in and pack for the next portion of our adventure. Michael and I enjoyed the warm pool on the top floor, finally. It was mostly relaxing or maybe it just felt good. Nothing will take the stress the world is accumulating away! The Blue Rock and its blue iced tea drink were comforts across from our hotel. Restaurants were beginning to limit days and hours as tourist/workers stay home and the government said close except for take out.

The next chapter/blog will be our adventures in Southwestern Australia. Stay safe and distance! Lets count our blessings.

Friday morning the 20th of March we walked early to the little Port of Perth where they have the local ferries along the Swan River to the Indian Ocean as well as ferries to Rottnest Island. By 10:30 we had landed on the little island after a stop at Fremantle to pick up passengers. Two more cruise ships were docked and unloading passengers and seemed totally empty already. Spreading more virus’? The Australians were soon to close the entire country to any incoming foreigners.

On our way down the Swan River to Rottnest Island we had a running commentary by one of our hosts on the ferry. The day was gorgeous after a little sprinkle on the way there. We saw the typical on the water multi million dollar homes with docks. This home owner below just wanted a little dock. The powers that be said “no dock” and he said, its not a dock its a yacht club. …and voila here’s a yacht club!

There were a couple of 25 million dollar homes. One the new owners after spending tens of millions just wanted to tear the house down. Their prerogative however that person might just have way too much money!

Our first stop was a walk to the second lighthouse on the island.They built a second one to help ships navigate and not run aground since the first one didn’t always get the job done. The first one is on the west side of the island and this one is on the northeast side.

Dutch sailors landed on the island on several occasions during the 17th century and Willem de Vlamingh in 1696 named it Rats Nest Island after the quokka population which reminded him of rats. They are however a marsupial! The island has been a penal colony, military installations and internment camps. It is now a quarantine island for Covid-19 for Aussies sailing in on cruise ships that have been infected.

The Noongar people called it Wadjemup. We love their “up” words here. We are now near Gnarabup Beach. Boranup is a local forest. Cowaramup, Metricup and Wilyabrup are towns just north of here. You’ll hear about more “ups” from us on this adventure.

This island is full of vacationers who love the outdoors, cabins, tents, tent cabins and definitely bicycles or push bikes as they call them. Your luggage will show up at your cabin delivered by the locals. If Gail and Russell had joined us instead of flying that Friday, they had ordered the Rottnest Express little red bikes. If we go back, push bikes it will be! The average age of the tourist here must be around 35 and the average number of children about two per family. Everyone riding bikes. One hardly noticed the virus fear but distance in restaurants and stores was always observed.

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It was a warm and beautiful day. You are not suppose to touch or feed the quokkas. The little guy checking out Michael’s water bottle in the first set of quokka photo’s had the tendency to walk into the little restaurant and the local waitress would have to pick him up and put him out. They are soft and she let us touch him. We were afraid we wouldn’t see any but they tended to hang around seated areas with people. Our lunch on the island was delicious wood fired pizzas. The quokkas during the heat of the day would snuggle up, bury their head between their legs, look like a ball and take a nap. It actually looks comfortable.

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If you look close beneath the sign about not feeding the quokkas, you’ll see a couple guys snoozing away. They feel protected in these little areas around the trees and there are plenty of seats to sit and watch them. We love the fact Rottnest is shortened to Rotto and we love their Rotto too!

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Another fine day around the Perth area with dinner at The Blue Rock across from our hotel. Nice Asian food and a great blue iced tea alcoholic drink. Next up the Pinnacles and Cervantes Beach and the Stromatolites.

As you know from my previous post, we arrived Tuesday morning, March 17 and began disembarkation at 10 am. By about 11:30 a.m. our number and color was called and from the blue bus to the Marriott it was a new adventure.

When we took a walk after a quick lunch with fellow passengers, we enjoyed the CBD where most stores were open but people kept their distance. We kept trying to think what we might need as we stay into the southern hemisphere fall. Tea shops, luggage shops, shoe shops, winter clothes etc. But..whatever we buy we have to haul along with us or use up along the way.

We did walk through the Hay Street Mall and to the budget rental car place to set up a Toyota Kluger which is much like a Highlander. We didn’t need the passenger capacity but the luggage capacity. We wanted the car for Monday morning for our trip to the beach and Margaret River.

On the walk back, “Diagon Alley” was one of our fun stops. The only store closed for Covid-19 down this little alley was the Rock shop ….what a shame for my School Of Mines Geologic Engineering grad!

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We decided to get some dollars exchanged into Aussie dollars. Of course now no one wants real cash only credit cards due to germs on the bills. We’ll survive! I still try to pull out my own pen to sign transactions. One less germ contact point. The guard at the bank said he wears gloves so he won’t touch his face!

So this is the beginning of our newest adventure/journey. What to do before Western Australia closes more places to see.

We are not on a quest…we are definitely on an adventure because we are not sure where we can go in Western Australia AND also a journey since this trip of staying safe in this covid-19 time is more important than the destination.

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Wednesday afternoon Larkin and I walked down to the waterfront in Perth and bought tickets on the Rottnest Express ferry for Friday morning. It was a gorgeous day as you can see by the clouds. We walked across the pedestrian bridge which is behind the white sculpture and Larkin. There are many new buildings going up that, I imagine, will change the waterfront skyline. We enjoyed the painted walls to hide the construction.

By Thursday most of our friends were gone to points east like Perth or Melbourne to fly home to the west coast and the states. Some went to Abu Dhabi and flew north and west toward the east coast. We had a late check out and headed to what is called East Perth or just about 5 blocks east on Hay Street. Michael went with the taxi and luggage, Larkin and I walked. Larkin and I found a great little Thai restaurant a block or so away from our new digs and had a great little lunch after we settled in – there were few tables occupied and lots of distancing. During our five days in the Mantra on Hay we were able to eat breakfast in the hotel, lunch wherever our travels took us for the day and dinners across the street at the Blue Rock which was actually pretty good and a great little Asian restaurant called Red Opium.

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I have read that the US is also doing hand sanitizers at wineries. I think the Aussie beer places started it first. The editorial cartoons took advantage of the situation and made us laugh. Imagine the USA was in the middle of football season. Well, they cancelled footy down here after playing a few games to empty stadiums mostly because they stopped allowing any movement between any states. The cutest play was when a ball went into the empty stands but found the camera man – score! We are enjoying the Aussie news stations.

Again the Aussies love shortening things hence football if footy. Breakfast is Brekky. Cabernet Sauvignon is Cab Sav. An Esky keeps things cold. A Flannie or Flanno is a flannel shirt. We bought one of those for sure as its getting colder! Lollies are sweets. Thongs are our flip flops not underwear! Counties are Shires. Slot it in…means put your card in the card reader. Push bikes are bicycles. Not a bad drop can mean the wine tastes pretty good. Kindy is kindergarten. Pre-kindy is preschool.

A sign at the beach said “don’t drink and drown”. In Australia they are adamant about putting up alcohol check points almost every day until this virus and now they don’t want their police to get the virus. They are stopping people at borders and making them do a 14 day isolation immediately however. No restaurant is serving at night so less alcohol is consumed away from your own home anyway.

Next blog up is Rottnest Island before it became a quarantine location for Aussie cruise ship passengers. As Michael takes notes on the great wines we can consume down here at dinner, we will post the info. I buy many simply on the adorable labels. 6ft6 anyone?

The showers were appropriate since it rained on our parade – uhm cruise plans – but it has rained on everyone in the world. Life will not be the same for anyone over the next 2-6 months!

From the day we were suppose to land in Esperance to our rush for Perth, most passengers attempted to stuff and fill every suitcase and little bag to the gills in preparation for disembarkation. Since many of us were going from house to ship… then ship to house whether we started in Miami or San Francisco, small bags abounded. Now what to do with that stuff to send home? They gave everyone the ability to send four bags home each via a baggage forward service. We sent 7 and from what I’ve read from other passengers even after 9 days they are still in Perth. Freight is suppose to be flying but maybe not bags. We hope they arrive by the time we get home most likely in June!

We had no clue at first whether our disembarkation day would be Tuesday the 17th when we were allowed to berth after arriving and anchoring in the harbor on Monday the 16th, or maybe Wednesday the 18th or Thursday the 19th as those were our scheduled days. The Queen Elizabeth 2 had all its passengers leave on the 16th. So our day would be the 17th. Oh joy!

None of the passengers or crew on either our ship or the QE2 had any virus issues as we had all been self contained since Sydney in early March. Since our trajectory was around the southern part of Australia as as was theirs and there were no cases at that time none of us could have been exposed or we would have already shown symptoms. We also had a good six days with no interactions with any other humans off the boat. We were happy to not spread Covid around Perth regardless. We prayed none of us would pick it up from the locals but at the time all cases in Perth were from the Princess cruise ship passengers coming home to Australia. There is still only one death in Western Australia and that patient was on the Diamond Princess in Japan.

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Scenes from our last night including our very last canapes. Still don’t know why we had canapes and why are they not called appetizers? Those little egg rolls could have been the demise of me staying the course on my weight. They were delicious. Shameer must have saved those tux buttons for the last night and Larkin got a great photo of the little penguins on his shirt. We pray we get to enjoy Shameer again on another Regent cruise. He was delightful and we want to meet his 4 year old daughter and wife back in India.

Gail and Russell Lee were going to join us in Western Australia so Gail could get over a cold. Nunzio and Sienna were our social hosts and Nunzio was our Italian teacher! Nunzio and Sienna are traveling with the crew back to the states via Honolulu for refuel then to Los Angeles. We are hoping since the crew will be virus free that they are allowed off the ship in Los Angeles but if the USA is anything like Australia, only Aussies can get off the ship or those with the virus taken to a hospital. They are turning ships around here in Australia but at least they are allowed to refuel. Australia mostly spread their virus via ships that were infected and letting those Aussies in with no quarantine. They are quarantining the most recent ones in Perth now on Rottnest Island. Couldn’t be a better place! We visited and will show photos in the next blog!

Our last meal…sadness…but the most crowded huggy meal yet. None were infected so there was nothing to share but LOVE and hugs. Ben had to head home for family and business. Gail and Russell found out on Thursday night that borders were closing so they booked a quick flight in economy plus and headed home. Their sons are in Silicon Valley and in a hot bed of the virus. They mentioned the flights was much better than they hoped. Russell slept, Gail didn’t. They are now home in the foothills of California – in isolation.

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The boat in the harbor with us that you can see in the distance was The World. It was totally empty. No clue as to why. We saw it a few days later on our way to Rottnest and it was still there sitting empty.

The bottom photo shows the entire farewell the crew gave us as we departed. They helped us with our luggage. They clapped and they gave wonderful hugs. The captain told us that it was even more grand at the end of a completed world cruise. It was overwhelming. I tried to video the walk but missed once again on taking a video. Instead I spent time giving hugs to all different crew members. We boarded our blue bus and headed to the Marriott.

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Part of the passengers went to the Ritz on the waterfront. They may have enjoyed that location better but we enjoyed ours just fine thank you. The Crown Towers was suppose to take all of us but didn’t want cruise passengers. The Crown, I hear, was mostly a ghost town as it caters to Chinese tourists and gambling. It is very close for mainland China people to hop a plane down. No Chinese to be seen other than the locals.

We had two days at the Marriott before we moved on Thursday the 19th to a two bath 2 bedroom down Hay Street. Every meal in the Marriott was chatting with other passengers and staying our distance from other guests and workers. Ben flew out the first night and arrived into Atlanta probably by early Thursday. Others on Delta were cancelled and scrambling for flights. Qantas announced cancelling all international flights and about 40% of in country flights. Western and Southern Australia shut down to outsiders last week. They are keeping us safe!

My mom is happy we are safe in Australia. She was not expecting us until the 4th of June. We think maybe June? They have also closed off states here in Australia so there is no travel unless you want an intermediate 14 days in the nearest hotel if you cross a border. We were glad we were here in Western Australia which is such an amazing and beautiful part of the world. Can we travel to see Uluru or other incredible geological sites? NO – but the sunsets over the Indian ocean have been delightful.

Michael and I have decided to buy mostly local or at least Australian wines and writing about them each evening. Now I have to figure out how to do those blogs. Food is plentiful. Toilet paper, bleach and other paper products and hand sanitizers are scarce the typical empty shelves for those products. Italian – I saw a few bags of dried pasta but mostly empty shelves. However Mexican and Indian options are plentiful. Wine has gone from 6 bottles a person per day to 3 bottles a day. Doesn’t mean you can’t go down the street and buy at every wine shop! We did that today…

Everyone keeps their distances. When you rent a car you are not suppose to drive at night due to kangaroos…no restaurants are open and we are cooking in so no problem. We wonder why American car rentals let you you drive at night? We’ve hit more than our share of deer at night – or even during the day! Michael almost hit a kangaroo yesterday in the middle of the day and that roo wasn’t small!

More on Western Australia in the next blog!

Even though you know we have had to remove our bodies and all our luggage from the Mariner, we can admit we did NOT want to leave and loved every minute of what will be only 60 days of cruising. Some of you can’t imagine doing a world cruise. Well we can’t either yet! It was incredible and the three of us would do it again. The problem with “again” is everyone who has been disrupted by this COVID 19 virus has already set up cruises for these ports we missed over the next two years so we’re not sure whats next on our cruising itinerary. We are hoping in August we can make Crystal and Barcelona as Michael is lecturing to Quebec. That certainly might be delayed. We imagine we will have to take it all one month at a time.

Regardless, I need to post on our fabulous time at Port Lincoln. We were able to dock on their grain port and it made it easier to get to buses etc. Larkin and I were able to get our steps in by walking the pier to a little beach past the grain bins. Sand – Check! Right after noon we boarded a bus to Glen-Forest which is an animal preserve that also added a winery – makes tons of sense right?

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According to Larkin koalas smell much better here in south Australia and are softer than the ones she remembers from 2012 on the east coast of Australia! Larkin got the cute photo where the koala reached down and the little boy reached up! You can tell by their ears it was windy. The minute the eucalyptus showed up for dinner the guys climbed down from the trees to eat and of course interact.

Then there were kangaroos! I never though they could give such incredibly adorable feed me faces! Don’t you want to pet them?

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We loved the koalas and the kangaroos but I especially enjoyed my time with all the birds!

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After enjoying the animals, we scurried into the room that was both Glen-Forest entry and wine tasting room! We could help ourselves to taste various wines and they had really nice cheese and cracker plates. We still didn’t know what was going to hit us the next day. We were all still happy campers!

As we enjoyed our tour of Port Lincoln we did not realize our time was near. We thought we had three more ports including Esperance, Albany and Busselton. Luckily we had a few more hours to celebrate with cruise mates including fellow guitar players and an Indonesian dinner in our suite. The flavors were divine! The tofu to die for! And of course the ’47 Zinfandel!

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As you know now, not only was the cruise cancelled, but every cruise in the world has been cancelled. It has been one week since our panic drop off in Perth and every cruise ship sailing the high seas had to find a port to dock at and some still have not been allowed to berth anywhere in the world. We were lucky as we found out two days later when we tried to anchor in Esperance that corporate told us go NOW to Perth – do not pass go – or so it seemed. We made it under the wire to Perth and knew that none of us were Covid-19 positive as we had been too many days in isolation. I guess that was the best news.

For now this is my last post on our excursions on the World Cruise…next will be our last day on the ship and disembarkation in Perth and our next adventure in Western Australia. Thanks for reading our rambling blog! The Three Martini’s!