The Bagsy Blog: Driving South

Monday, 7 May 2012

Driving South - Stone Roses

When the Gods are conspiring AGAINST then you can either sit there and take it or get off your 'pinkie' and try and do something about it. Opting for the later the situation was thus:- we are now seriously in the 'outback' where they still don't have 2 cocoa tins joined by a piece of string let alone Internet. Arriving at the small outpost of Billabong there was access but, enter Mr (F**kin') Surly, the most objectionable B*s*ard I've encountered thus far, who would not allow use of my own laptop. Unable to reach the Blog via his machine I had to give yesterday's post up, at least for the time being, but there was a Plan B.

On the road at 04:00 it was a mere 300Km to the next town where access 'might' be available, but there were 2 things running short. One was time and the other was petrol, but I had made a mental note that the next gas was just 70 'clicks' away so now all I needed was for it to be open. It was and as a real bonus a young Brit was in charge and told me of his world travels, how he was raising a few bucks and then off to Figi. Coupled with one of the best cups of coffee this trip this was as good a start as could be wished. Speed limit is 110Km/h but on these open roads the temptation was too great to stick within the law with the major hazard being straying animals both wild and domestic. I stopped counting when I got to 36 recently killed Kangaroos (the local corvides and Kites having a field day) but managed to miss one Roo myself along with a blood big cow.

I arrived in town in a little over 2 hours but the only cafe did not have the required gadget, so have had to wait for the library to open. The former did however serve the best breakfast yet and I just got the idea Chef was an ex-sailor, I was right. Anyway, enough rambling here's the post! CHEERS!

Today's venture was to start in a southerly direction towards Cape Leeuwin, after which other decisions on direction will be made on an if and when basis - a series of ?????? really! On the way there was something of a nostalgia run for me when, at Bussleton, I came across a good deal of Naval presence. To find this Memorial Park would have been enough, but in the distance there were a few items of memorabilia.

This 'fin' from a 'P' (Porpoise) Class Submarine brought back many memories of when we (the Royal Navy Submarine Service) trained our Australian equivalent and sold them what I seem to remember were 2 'P' boats. While in both HM S/M's Tiptoe and Alcide were had a small number of what we would refer to as 'Dinks' for training everyone getting on very well.

Next up was a 4.5" Gun Turret likely from one of a host of Frigates that carried this weapon,

while to come across HMAS Stirling held equally interest as my son in law has served there in his current roll in the Australian Navy.

Once again time presses and the availability of the Internet continues to be on an ad hoc basis, yesterdays post coming by kind permission of a shop keeper who I talked into it! For that reason alone I will simply caption each species.