Home ... and Home

Aries docks at the Dome

As many of you know, we spent much of December and all of January at home in Western Australia, in Perth and Bunbury.  It was so good to see all our friends again and to spend time with the kids and other family.  Heartfelt thanks yet again to the Cowans for the chance to house-sit our summer ‘home away from home’ and to dear Pauline for putting up with us for weeks on end – we hope we paid our way in gardening, cooking and odd jobs! Special thanks to Jo for the loan of her car – sorry about what all the berry-eating parrots inflicted on it!  As always there is a long list of people to thank for sleepovers, meals and a general good time: Leonie and Steve for great company and a way higher star rating than Noovoh;  Kathy and Pete for a great day on the water (with dolphins!) and gatherings with friends; Ann and Robin for a warm welcome complete with pizza oven;  Colin and Sol;  the South West Cruising  Club; all the crew at the NAB; Jenny and Robbie and the kids for fun times down on the farm; Lea; Pat and Julee, Jo and Bill and all the kids for a great family Christmas, Marg and Mike; Robyn, Christina and all my old friends from school; future cruisers Jeanette and Neil; Jan; Dawn; Pat and Terry; Sue, Olga and Sally; Penny; Pauline and Jerry; Melissa; Blin and Kim; Lisa and Aaron; Lizzy for chauffeuring us and Mart for a great evening at Green Street Bar – and everyone else along the way.  It wasn’t just the 26 hour journey back to Turkey that wore us out!
 

Lizzy, Keith and Martin, Christmas

Apart from the people, it was lovely to get back to the beach and the bush, especially down south.  Our beaches really are sensational – clean white sand, clear water, plenty of aquatic life, surf and no crowds.  The down side is hearing the theme music from “Jaws” every time you go in the water.  The other negative is the outrageous cost of everything – a meal out is at least five times the cost of something similar in Turkey, for example – which reflects high salaries and high property values of course, but was a bit of a shock still.

The beach goes forever

Before we knew it, it was time for the long trip back to Common Sense. 11 hours to Doha, six hours from Doha to Istanbul, an hour from Istanbul to Antalya, two hours on the bus from Antalya to Finike – 26 hours including layovers. And strangely enough, stepping aboard felt like we were coming home.

Robbie and Jenny at Lone Crow

 Martin stocks the beer at Green Street