Well, March has just flown by and my time in Western Australia is up, and I have to say it was the best section of my Australian travels so far. The weather was perfect almost every day and my "working holiday" was tilted so far in favour of 'holiday' that I now feel guilty referring to it as such. The month was bookended by two great stays in the magnificent city of Perth, where it was really fun to be shown round by people I met earlier on my travels in Hong Kong and Cronulla. The centrepiece of this chapter was a two week helpx placement in Kojonup that was surprisingly busy - I envisaged having plenty of time to while away reading and wandering after completing my four hours work each day, but I ended up playing tennis, giving tennis lessons, going cycling, attending social events, and spending a couple of days on the South Coast in Denmark (a place whose beauty will take some topping). As a result, my stay in Kojonup was brilliant fun and I must have met upwards of 40 people during the two weeks, all of whom were wonderfully friendly and interesting to talk with. Then I headed East and enjoyed a five day adventure on my way back to Perth which featured typically exhausting amounts of walking, swimming, and cycling, but will be best remembered for the good times had and people met at the hostels in the evenings. I've really taken a shine to Western Australia, it's a spectacular place and its residents are so amiable and laid back.
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| A bizarre sign I saw while roaming around Bunbury. |
My trip is now taking a tropical turn, as tonight I will be flying 2,000 miles from one corner of the country to another and touching down at 4.15AM in Cairns, to begin the final chapter of my Australian adventure. I'm flying home from Sydney towards the end of May, so for me the East Coast will basically be a giant home stretch, completing my lap of the continent. Given the great times I've had and the amazing places I've been to already, it's hard to believe I still have the entire East Coast to go - the part of Australia most renowned by visitors. Here's what's coming up on
Putting the Ali in Australia:
- I'll be celebrating my 24th birthday in the backpacker haven of Cairns.
- I'll be experiencing life in Queensland on more helpx placements.
- I'll be exploring a string of idyllic coastal spots, whose names are so wondrous that I can smell sunscreen and feel sand between my toes just reading them - Sunshine Coast, Surfers Paradise, Mission Beach, The Whitsundays... (compare this to the place names you would run into travelling down the East Coast of Britain - Grimsby, Skegness, Cromer...)
Stay tuned.
OH, no, Alistair, I can't let your suggest that British place names are in anyway inferior to Australian without a counter-attack. It's quite the opposite. Those you quote from Australia are mere congratulary opinions. They may well be accurately so, but nevertheless that's all, whereas many of those in the nations and counties of Great Britain combine rythm and music and poetry and hint at our long history.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason you chose rather gutteral examples, but even these remind us of ancient immigrations and settlers. More romantically the tongue can roll over Piddle Hinton and Tolpuddle, Poxwell and Maiden Newton; near your own home there's Huish Episcopi, Lydford on Fosse, and Shepton Mallet, whilst the East Coast which you malign proudly sings of Saxmundham, Little Snoring, and Kibblesworth. Talking of songs, that lovely Scottish ballard, the Road to the Isles, tells us "Sure by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go,,," and striding on "It's by Shiel water the track is to the west by Aillort and by Morar to the sea" because " the far Cuillins are puttin' love on me." Here in Wales we have within a few miles of us Llangeinor, Llangynwdd, and Nantymoel, without going further afield to Aberystwyth, Llandrindod Wells, Twywn, and LLangollen.
The only place names in Australia that can anywhere near a match with those of this sceptred isle and the Aborigine ones. Now, if you had mentioned Goonyella, Moorabinda, and Coonabarabran on the eastern side you would have been on firmer ground.
Anyway, I do hope that you have a Happy BIrthday riding a Greyhound upside down, or whatever it is you're doing.
Cacaphonic ancestor
Don't get me wrong, I love English place names myself and I think they are unrivalled across the world - just look at the likes of Chew Magna and Middle Wallop. But, when it comes to whetting the appetite for a sunny time on the beach, you can't argue that names like Sunshine Coast get the juices flowing more than names such as Hunstanton.
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