First impressions
Australia we’re coming! After Mauritius, Madagascar & Asia it’s amazing to come back to western Civilisation again. The first impression we had about Australia was really like coming to an organized country again. Everything is so clean & organized. It’s like the US but without the Americans.
In Perth we stayed with Coert & Desi. A great couple we met in Vietnam. They live in Scarbourough just a 2 min. walk from the beach! The wind starts blowing in the afternoon and so Coerts friends always passed by to get us for a downwinder. The perfect place to work & kite.
Kiting conditions in Perth are excellent. On the downwinders we enjoyed playing with the waves & riding in blue clear water again. For one week we enjoyed Desi’s delicious food, got our camper-travel organized and Andy was having fun giving “handy Andy” help to Coert in the house & garage.
Travel up north
After checking all Camper Rentals in Perth we decided for a VW Crafter from Apollo Motorhomes. Our 6 m long Campervan quickly got his surname BFM and proved to be a racing camper. Equipped with kitchen, toilet and shower and even a 2m bed it was the perfect choice for us. The nights we always spent in Holiday Parks, so it was rather the luxury than the wilde camping. Even Isa who’s not really into camping normally really enjoyed, having her home always with her.
We travelled all the way up to Sharks Bay. As were kiting on lot’s of different spots up north. The places we preferred though where Geralton (Point More) & Dongora (X-spot).
Luckily we had ordered Isa’s 4m2 kite for Australia. The wind was blowing like hell and it was great having this little baby kite with us. Even Andy used it several times as he was overpowered on the 7m2! So for everyone travelling from Perth up north – just take the smallest kite you have!
Up in Sharks Bay we where not lucky with the wind, but Monkey Mia seems to be the perfect flat water spot.
A great time we spent with all our Perth friends in Dongora, where the Kitestock Event took place. It was great fun with perfect wind conditions.
Travel down south
After Isa got her “krücken” in Dongora, with the first medical opinion saying there was just a small bone broken, we continued south after a short stopover in Perth. Distances in Australia are just huge – a short way on the map, but a long distance in km. In one day we drove the 750 km from Perth to Esperance to arrive at the most amazing place we’ve ever seen.
Esperance is in the middle of know where…. There are non ending beaches of an absolutely amazing colour surrounded by rocks & coral reefs. It’s just wild nature beauty and you nearly have no tourists there. The kite conditions where the best we found up to now. Andy was one day out on a non stop 3 hour kite session while Isa got the best pictures of our trip.
There’s one thing which is sure: We will go back to Esperance one day!
After Esperance we stopped in Albany. Albany has amazing coasts but not a lot of kite possibilities. So we spent the time there mostly sightseeing and searching for beach access between the rocks. On most places the wind is completely onshore with not a lot of space to launch the kite. Especially as all the coast is rock’s – not really the spots to go kiting on your own.
Getting back
We had to go back to see a specialist for Isa’s foot in Albany as there was no improvement. After having spent a whole day in the hospital (going through emergency, gp again to finally get access to a specialist’s opinion) the verdict was clear. No weight on Isa’s foot for at least 6 weeks & probably surgery…. So… back to Switzerland to recover.
We hope to be able to continue our travel as soon as possible….