Thursday, January 8th

Intermission

For once, I had a proper plan. I was booked on a flight leaving Perth at quarter past three in the afternoon. I had chosen Bunbury the day before partly on the merit of being a leisurely two hour drive away from the airport. This should give me an arrival around noon and left enough time for any contingency.

But, things are as they are: if you plan extra time, you won’t need it. Without incident I drove along the boring dual carriageway. First, it was rather empty but the closer I came to Perth, the busier it got. I didn’t get lost, quickly found a petrol station, and dropped off the car terribly dirty yet unscathed a quarter before noon.

Thus I ended my three thousand kilometre loop through Western Australia. It needed a little acclimatising, but I loved WA. Perth not withstanding, the West had kept an air of an era long gone elsewhere. This was a world full of little towns where main street still alive with curious shops. Even the supermarkets weren’t all that super.

Things took time out here. Just getting to the next village was a major undertaking. Shops were thoroughly shut by six thirty (if you were lucky). Event the Internet was slow at best.

It seemed that here, without sacrificing the comforts of modern life, they had somehow managed to refuse the hectic and just-in-time-liness of the global age. And there is something to be said for that.