Day 63

When we woke up this morning there was a mist covering the trees over the farm it was all quite pretty. Left Kardella this morning and drove through to a free camp about 20 kms from Geraldton. This camp here is Fig Tree Rest area, it is quite good.  We thought it would be quiet here but there must be about 20 vans, some of which have been here for a week or so.  The weather here was quite warm today you can certainly tell that we are closer to the warmer weather although tonight it is quite cool.   We travelled with Jodie and Shane.  We are meeting up with Paul and Bev from Sydney tomorrow in Geraldton and will spend a couple of days with them before moving on.

Spoke to Bill & Trudy and Betti.  Betti was quite upset George is now in a nursing home and it looks like this will be a permanent arrangement.  

Morning sun coming through the mist

Ready to leave

Homestead at Kardella

Day 62

Well today was very different from yesterday, we woke to grey skies and by about 11am the rain set in.  It was quite heavy and rained for most of the afternoon. We had 18 ml of rain and in Moora they had 36 ml.   We are fortunate here that we have the use of a big kitchen/dining room and there is a split air conditioner in there which heats the room really well.  We sat in there most of the afternoon and downloaded photographs and did some craft work.  Jodi is trying to learn how to crochet so I was able to help her.  Tonight we had a really easy dinner, BBQ chicken and salad and it was delicious.  

Day 61

Had a really good day today.  The weather once again was really warm with clear blue skies.  We went with Shane and Jodi to the main farm - Edale - about 15 kms from here.  Gabbie the woman that Shane has been working with has two young lambs that have been separated from their mothers and Gabbie is hand rearing them, she has to feed them a bottle every four hours (worse than having a baby).  I even got to give one of them a bottle.  It was like feeding a baby.    Shane was building an enclosure for the baby lambs to run in away from all the other sheep.  We then had a drive to Moora to get some supplies then we came back here and I cooked meat and potato pie for us all for dinner.  It was really nice.  We then all sat round the fire for a couple of hours before retiring for the evening.  What a beautiful sky we had tonight it is so clear with millions of stars.  

Gabbe feeding Princess and Ramboy

Graham and Shane - where will we start 

Edith feeding Baaram

Day 60

Had a great day today doing nothing.  This is the best "free" park we have been on,  running hot water, showers, toilet, free washing machine and Jodi has been feeding us.  I did a couple of loads of washing and that was about all I did for the day.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we sat around chatting and catching up.  Tonight we had big fire and a few drinks after dinner, which Jodi cooked.  Tomorrow we are going to go exploring around the farm and see what there is about we may even get our bikes down and go for a ride.  The farm is 10,000 acres and it is a Marino stud farm.  I don't think we will see much of it.  

Some of the farm buildings

View from the van

Our set up at the farm

Jodi, Shane & I around the fire

Day 59

Well the rain certainly came down last night we must have had about 50 ml, the roads in the caravan park were flooded, not so that it was near the van but it soon subsided.  This morning we woke to clear blue skies again.  We left Gwelup and headed towards Moora, Shane and Jodie are in Moora, they have been working on a farm here.  On the way we came through New Norcia and stopped there for a while.  Last time we were there we didn't do the guided town walk and I have always regretted it so this time we thought we would do it - unless you are in to Catholic history I wouldn't recommend the tour.  The buildings are beautiful and there is some lovely artwork, organs and altars which you do not see unless you do the tour.  Apparently there is some really bad history associated with the monks and pupils but of course this is not talked about.

We had a great night with Shane and Jodie, we really are in the back of beyond on a farm about 15 km from Moora, very desolate but will do us for a few days.  Jodi cooked dinner, it was delicious, she cooked marinated roast lamb and roasted vegetables.  She really is a hard act to follow, she loves cooking and is always trying out new recipes.  They love the life out here and have been offered work here on the farm.  They still are not sue what they want to do. 

Day 58

Not much to write about today.  We had a bit of a lie in then we had to take the car to have the tyres rotated and a wheel alignment.  This took nearly two hours, so we walked down to a shopping centre that was close by and meander for a little while.  When we got the car back we had some lunch and picked up some groceries, we are leaving here tomorrow and are not sure what the towns on the next leg of our trip will be like.

This afternoon we just did a tourist drive along some of the beautiful beaches that are around here and chilled out. The weather started off really nice this morning, quite warm but the wind got up this afternoon and it was blowing a gail.  There is a severe weather warning out again for Perth tonight, we are expecting some very heavy rain.  Once again we have battened down the hatches.

Day 57

Well once again we were up early and out of here.  We decided to go to Rottnest Island and take our bikes over there.  We caught the ferry from Fremantle at 9-45 and it took half an hour to get over there.  Well we got the bikes off the ferry and began our trip around the island, then at about 11-15 it started to rain.  Fortunately we had reached the lighthouse by this time and there was an old storage block with a lean to that we were able to shelter under.  We thought the rain would only last for a few minutes but it lasted for about 40 minutes and at times it was torrential.  Anyway once it had stopped we decided to carry on and get back to where the ferry leaves from.  Rottnest is a very pretty island, with a lot of beaches and bays.  We stopped at most of them to have a look but the weather was really against us.  We must have ridden our bikes about 20 kms all up and down hills, lots of steep hills.  We got the ferry back and needless to say we are both feeling a little tired.  All in all it was a really good day and we certainly were glad that we went over to Rottnest.

Parker Point

Lighthouse Rottnest

Catherine Bay

Day 56

We were up early this morning showered and ready to go by 8-30 am.  We were told by the management at the caravan park that all seniors travel free on public transport in Perth/WA between 9-00 am and 3-30 pm, so we thought we would leave the car here at the park and travel in to Perth city on public transport - big mistake.  First of all we got on the bus here at the park - the bus driver had no idea what we were talking about and rudely told us just to take a seat.  Then we got to the train station and when we enquired how we got a senior ticket were told that the free transport is for Western Australian seniors only by yet another very rude young lady  - who after explaining that it was only for WA seniors could not be bothered to show us how to obtain our tickets.  Anyway we managed to get our tickets - it only cost $1.50 each to get to Perth so were weren't too bothered it was just the way we were treated.

When we got into the city we headed for the Tourist Information to find out the best way to get to Kings Park and the Bell Tower.  The elderly gentleman in there was very helpful and explained which bus to get and how to get to the places we wanted to go to.  We got the bus to Kings Park and spent about 3 hours walking around there.  Anyone who has been to Kings Park will know the views are incredible and it is beautiful place to walk around.  Plus the weather today has been fantastic - I would say that it was about 23 degrees.

We then got back on the bus to the city and went to the Bell Tower.  This is quite an impressive building - we were a little disappointed when we realised we had missed the bell ringing times - but the lady that we paid our entry to explained that they were expecting a school group and would be ringing the bells when the children were there.  Needless to say we were very pleased.  The bells are from St Martins in the Fields in Trafalgar Square and were given to Western Australia to commemorate Australia's bicentenary in 1988.

We had been in touch with David and Betty during the day, they are now back home in Cottesloe after their 14 month trip around Australia.  They invited us round for dinner tonight and when David realised that we had got the train into Perth he told us to get the train to Cottesloe and he would pick us up and bring us back to the caravan park after dinner.  Well we got to Cottesloe at about 4 pm and David true to his word picked us up and took us back to their place.  We then had a walk down the beach front in Cottesloe before returning to their place for dinner, which was very nice indeed and then David brought us back to the caravan park.  Cottesloe is a really nice area and the sunset tonight was beautiful.

All in all it has been a big day and we are both ready to hit the sack.

I am unable to put photographs on for some reason tonight so I will try and add them tomorrow.

War Memorial Kings Park

Old Swan Brewery (now apartments)

View from Kings Park

Mother and Child Fountain

Bell Tower

Indiana's Cottesloe

Sunset at Cottesloe

Day 55

Well we were in shorts and t-shirts today once we arrived here in Gwelup - which is about 20 kms north west of Perth.  We have booked into the Karrinyup Waters caravan park for four nights.  This is a really large park but would have to say it is one of the better parks we have been on recently.  The staff are really helpful and the sites are really big.  

After we set up and had some lunch we went for a ride to Hilarys Beach, a beautiful beach about 10 kms from here,  which has a rather large Boat Harbour.    We spent a couple of hours walking round and had a drink then we came back to the van and for a change we were able to sit outside and read our books.  Hopefully the weather will stay fine for a few days.  The boat harbour was quite good, I will put a couple of pictures on here of boats that were moored there.

Hilarys Beach

Day 54

Well we had quite a lot of rain overnight but it was fine when we got up this morning and we have only had a few light showers today.

We went into Mandurah this morning to go on the Canal Cruise but because we were the only two people so the 10-30am cruise was cancelled.  We then decided to have a drive into Pinjarra to have a look at the Suspension Bridge.  Pinjarra is quite an historic place with a lot of old buildings.  We then came home and had lunch and because the weather had fined up I decided to do the washing before we head off tomorrow.  We then went back into Mandura and did the 2-30pm canal cruise.  The cruise was for an hour and it took us through the canals around Mandura, it is like a little Venice in Western Australia.  Where the canals are is reclaimed land from the Indian Ocean, it is quite incredible to see.  The land used to be farming land and there are still some old buildings from the farm on the side of the canal.  Some of the houses that have been built along the canals are very big and expensive and majority of them are holiday homes.    Some of the boats that were on the private moorings were probably worth more than our house.  One house in particular belongs to the brother of the Prime Minister of Singapore, worth $8 million dollars, has six bedrooms and six bathrooms, and is only used twice a year (what a waste).  

Suspension Bridge Pinjarra

Walkway across the canal

$8 million house

Old Farm Buildings

Artwork around Mandura

Day 53

Before we left Bunbury this morning we had a few things that we wanted to do.  First of all we went back to the Cathedral and bought Maureen (Graham's sister) a bookmark for her birthday, she is a church goer and will appreciate this.  Then we decided to have a quick look back at The Cut to see if there were any Dolphins in.  Well patience paid off there were four Dolphins there.  It was worth the journey back to see them.

We then drove through to Mandurah, not very far only about 108 km.  We got here at lunchtime.  We had a quick look around the harbour and then we had a look at the War Memorial.  Memorial Park is on the canals and the memorial is a series of white plinths with water running through them.  It is very well done.  I didn't realise until today that our forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001.  I probably knew they had been there a while but I didn't realise it was ten years. We then had a look at Halls Cottage, Circa 1833, it wasn't open today but was a nice looking place.  We may do it again tomorrow if we get chance.  We then came back to the van and started to plan what we are going to do tomorrow.  We will probably go on a Dolphin cruise depending on the weather.

The Cut

At last some Dolphins

War Memorial

Halls Cottage

Day 52

We woke up this morning after a much better nights sleep, the road was much quieter over night.  We think that maybe they had unloaded a cargo boat the night before and that is why there were so many trucks on the road.  

Anyway it was raining when we woke up but got better about 10.30 am.  We went out for a little while.  First of all we dropped an envelope off to Gail's mum for Colin and Gail.  Then we went up to the look out where you get some spectacular views of Bunbury.  It started raining again about lunchtime so we came back to the van and had some lunch and waited for an hour or so.  After the rain stopped  we went to The Cut where we were told that we would probably see some Dolphins - unfortunately not today.  The water has been really rough and the Dolphins are just not coming in.  Apparently there are usually 100 around here in Bunbury but as yet we have not seen any.  We are hoping that tomorrow before we go it may be calmer and then we might see some.  We then went to St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral, apparently this was destroyed by a tornado in 2005and had to be completely demolished.  It re-opened in March this year.  It is a spectacular building (it should be they spent $78 million repairing it) and all the pews in the church are Jarrah.  It is right up on a hill and affords some beautiful views of Bunbury.

Bunbury Lighthouse

View over Bunbury from the Lookout

Inside St Patrick's Cathedral

The new St Patrick's Cathedral

Sunset over Bunbury

Day 51

What an horrendous night we had - we didn't realise that the road outside the caravan park is the main route through to Bunbury from north and the ports.  The trucks were going past at regular intervals and the noise was incredible, I think we finally got to sleep at about 2 am.  When we spoke to some of the other campers they all agreed and one said that even his van shook.  

Anyway we got up this morning and went out exploring.  First of all we went to the information centre here in Bunbury and got some leaflets.  Our first stop was the Dolphin Discovery Centre - which is only about 500 metres from the caravan park.  Unfortunately because of a severe storm that came through Bunbury on Tuesday the boardwalk has been washed away and the Dolphins are not coming too close at the moment.  The centre is well worth a visit, we saw them feed an octupus, they catch the octupus and keep it for about a month before releasing it out to the wild.   We watched a video and a computer generated film both of which were very interesting.  

Then we went off to Gnomesville - what a place this is.  We expected it to be a little community that had gnomes in their gardens - but no - it is at the edge of a forest where people have been putting gnomes for many years.  It was absolutely incredible - and I wouldn't like to try and count how many gnomes are there, there would have to be a couple of thousand.  It certainly puts a smile on your face.  There was even a model of a Sterling Caravan that the Western Australian Jayco Caravan Club had put there.

Then we came home and after having lunch we went to a Featured Wood Gallery and Museum.  One of the museum exhibits is dedicated to John Ablett's forebears - who were skilled workers and farmers who migrated from England in 1840.    This is in Australind and was well worth seeing.  John Ablett is related to the football Abletts from Geelong.  The resemblence to Gary Ablett snr was incredible.  He even let Graham hold a 1846 Army Colt Walker pistol, and it weighed about 8 kilo.  John is really passionate about his museum and as we were the only people there he spent quite a lot of time explaining everything to us.    His display of woodwork is also very good both he and his wife are woodworkers.  

 

Ablett Family

Custers Last Stand

Piece of John's Work