Now we are Three

Saturday

Up early after not much sleep in the very noisy and quite intimidating hostel. I have tried to be brave but this is not a family hostel or one for an older woman on her own. I have stayed in family hostels and YHA hostels with the kids and they are never like this. Not a backpack in sight.  The other inmates are young mainly workers who are there for the winter – v cheap rent. They all drink it seems to excess and the shouting swearing raucous laughter into the night, the banging up and down the corridor, the loud talking ( and worse) outside my room and the beyond reason drunken behaviour that provokes them to mistake my room for theirs has really now got the better of me. The earplugs are not up to the job. This was my fourth night and I’m exhausted.  Once Owen and Alice arrive we will discuss our trip to the South West which will give us a break of a couple of nights.

So – bus into Perth and another to the airport. I am a little early but on time they float down the escalator in arrivals. God it’s good to get my arms around my baby girl. I manage not to cry. Just.

The lady at the Thrifty Car Hire desk is lovely and we are soon sorted. Owen can after all be on the contract for no additional money. I didn’t need my international driving permit. STA got that wrong.

So with Owen at the wheel we set about navigating our way across Perth to Cottesloe in our shiney red automatic Toyota. No problem! When we got to the hostel the stormy wind had increased and it was raining hard.

The kids were impressed enough with the room and we set off out to Cottesloe Central for lunch. The library cafe at Peppermint Grove was sadly closed but we found a nice cafe. At last. We three. All sat down together.

Owen has no coat. No warm hoody. It’s really chilly and raining hard. Katmandu has a sale. We have a waterproof, a hoody and a couple of other purchases, some food from jolly Woolworths and off we go to Freeo. They love Freemantle. Slightly alternative easy place. Coffee, market, Sophie & Rob’s wedding present, running shoes for Owen (and shorts) – so many sales. A look around the old harbour area. Back to the Hostel. Alice needs a nap. After weeks of early shifts on her very demanding nursing placement and weekends working with very challenging autistic youngsters she is beyond exhaustion and was today up at 4am for the flight. We are 2 hours earlier here in WA. Owen settles on a run and I join him to walk the same route along the coast path. The wind is still blowing its hardest WNW but the sky is clearer and the sun is sinking in the West. Lovely. We catch each other up and head back to get ready for dinner at 8 at the local restaurant.

The hostel is bedlam. The inmates are all getting ready for a night at the Casino. The noise levels are high. Owen feels very uncomfortable about the whole place. Not friendly and not what he has ever experienced during his many travels.

Over dinner both he and Alice express horror that I have had to put up with this, reassure me that it is not usual and both agree that we should leave on Monday for our trip to the Margaret River and not return to the hostel. We should get a refund on most of the unused nights. We have booked an apartment near Dunsbrough and Bussleton as a base for our exploration of the South West. We will have to sort out accommodation for the last part of the holiday but I am so relieved we have only a couple of nights left in the Ocean Beach Backpackers hostel. Watch out STA – you have a refund to resolve. It was their wholeheated recommendation that took me there.

Back at the ranch after a lovely dinner my lovely pair wonder anew at the racket made by the remaining (non Casino bound) inmates. We settle down to try to sleep. I draft a stunning email to STA. The noise increases. I can’t sleep. I lie there awake in anticipation of the return of the revellers.

Sunday

Between 3 & 4 am they return. Drunk. Loud. Raucous. One chap bangs on our door. We all jump out of our skins. Alice leaps up to open the door. Al, leave it! You got the wrong room mate, she shouts her best Aussie, now f**k off. And he did. How we laughed. Slightly hysterically! The racket continued. We got no further sleep. As the sun rises Alice goes for a run. There is a rainbow, sun, wind, rain. She arrives back wet but exhilerated. Owen and I had packed and been down to reception. I think the chap on duty is as intimidated as we were. He agrees with everything Owen says. I tell him I will be emailing STA and would cc the hostel in. He agrees we shouln’t have to pay for the unused nights.

We don’t really care!

Car packed, Alice dry(ish) and we drive away south.

A stop along the coast near Pelican Island (or google island as it became known) provides a coffee stop. There is what appears to be a dog club gathering on the verandah. Owners and their indistinguishable pooches having brekkie out of the rain.  The trips out to Puffin Island are suspended due to the weather and in any event they are breeding (the Puffins not the boats) so we would only have sailed round not onto the Island.

Suitably fortified we again head south.

We don’t yet have a bed for tonight so a number of google inspired guest houses are sought. We can’t find any of them. But we do find a lovely National Park lagoon where we walk and take a break.
We stop in Bunbury for picnic lunch from Woolworths and sit by the estuary to eat. Owen befriends a gull who is seeing off the opposition and protecting his foodsource. It is very quiet but I imagine it would be very busy in the summer.

I call the apartment owner at Siesta Park and secure an extra night for $90 – bargain – since we haven’t found anywhere to stay. We are there within the hour. The only people staying in this little holiday park.

We have a brick chalet right by the beach. I can see the Indian Ocean as I type! Tucked in a Peppermint Grove amongst the trees and birds and possums. Bliss. The chalet has two double bedrooms – Owen bagged the double bed and kindly gave Al & I the twin. Turns out he has an electric blanket!

The heater is on and we soon have it snug. Kitchen within a huge lounge and a verandah outside. Lovely shower room and a utility with a washing machine. I wash the smell of the hostel out of my clothes and hang them outside on the line. Owen sleeps. Al and I walk along the beach till it’s almost dark.

We have enough picnic food for supper and watch a bit of telly ( a luxury for Alice who doesn’t have one). Owen emerges briefly but we all go to bed early. Lots of sleep to catch up on. Al & I sleep 10 hours!

So a potential disaster avoided. Happy to be here in the Peppermint Grove with my brood.