Day 49. - Karridale to Pemberton.

Doesn't look like we travelled far but we went further inland to see the big trees in Manjimup. The first were the 4 aces.

Then one tree bridge.

Had lunch at the Diamond Tree.

Then to Pemberton to the Gloucester Tree. There were some rather tame birds there.

Decided to call it a day with the rain pelting down and are watching the footy at the Pemberton Caravan Park. S far I think the trees in Tasmania are bigger.

Day 48 - Busselton to Karridale.

Left Busselton and headed to Dunsborough and onto Cape Naturaliste lighthouse.

Then to Yallingup. What a windswept place. You can see the Seaspray running up the hills in the picture. Good for surfers though.

Had a couple of winery visits but didn't have much. Enjoyed the liqueur muscat. Visited Margaret River and travelled down to Hamelin Bay for lunch.

Travelled onto Augusta and down to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. Great lighthouse and the corner of the continent. From now on we will be seeing the Southern Ocean instead of the Indian Ocean.

Travelled inland to Alexandra Bridge ( WA 287) for a quiet night.

Day 47 - Busselton

We have decided to stay here so Jeff can go to the doctor's about his gout. Did the washing and then off to the doctors. Jeff said he was a very nice Irish doctor who renewed his prescriptions. Quiet night.

Day 46 - Near Bunbury to Busselton.

Travelled into Bunbury through the lakes area and out through the tuart trees. They are big gum trees with silvery bark. Nice to be in forest again after so long with nothing over 2 metres high. Got to Busselton and saw the little train chugging down the jetty. We haven't been able to do a lot of walking so a little train trip seemed like a good idea.

Left there and decided that we had done enough. (Jeff's foot is still very painful). Found a nice van park along the road and decided to stay there - big difference in rates from up north because it is off season down here and everyone is up north - except a few sillies like us. Peppermint Grove Eco Resort it's called. There is an enormous motor home staying here made from a double decker bus with an amazing paint job. It even has a sun deck upstairs! Queenslanders of course. Had to take some photos. Big news tonight - the change of Prime Minister.

Day 45 - Perth to almost Bunbury.

Said a sad goodbye to Debbi and wandered down to a nearby shopping centre to catch up with Trish and John from the island who arrived in Perth yesterday. Great to see some home faces. They are here for their son's wedding in Busselton. Travelled through Rockingham and Mandurah to Old Whittakers Mill (WA 138). Had a pie for lunch from the Miami Bakehouse in Mandurah. Garlic Prawn, absolutely divine. Possibly the best pie I have ever had. They win awards all the time - no wonder. Jeff said his pastie was pretty good too but not as good as his mum used to make. We got to the rest area but couldn't find a mill anywhere. Oh we'll, a reasonable night given we were close to the highway.

Days 42, 43, 44 - Still in Perth.

Spent the afternoon with Lucas, Stephi, Lola & Ruby. Figured out how to get to the other side of town, Perth isn't difficult to get around. Had a lovely catchup with them and had a quiet but cold night. Brrr.

This is where we are staying.

Sunday was quiet, watched the footy and then took Debbi out to dinner at the local pub. Nice meal except that I ordered pumpkin & coconut cream soup and ended up with mushroom. The waitress then came over after I had had my first mouthful to tell me this. Splutter, splutter I'm allergic to mushrooms - why didn't she tell me when she served it. You would think I could taste it but I had just had a mouthful of crab cake and the taste of that overpowered the other. I passed on the soup.

Today we went back to the caravan repair place to see if they had a replacement for the bathroom roof hatch but the one they had was too big. on our way home we went via King's Park. He are some views of it.

And views from it.

Days 39, 40 & 41 - Perth

Brrr. The weather is getting colder as we go further south. It was 4.5 degrees overnight. We have even got the hot water bottles out now plus blankets on top of the doonas. Caught up on the things we were waiting to do in Perth. New tap, new transformer for the TV, replacing the one that blew up in Dampier, It's lovely to have lots of shops around - Perth seems to have a lot of shopping centres.

Debbi is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new grandchild, due any minute. Next night was cold too. Jeff is complaining that he is cold so I bought him a wool under blanket and flannelette pyjamas to see if he is warmer. Jeff has never owned pyjamas before. (I think he will cook tonight). Overnight Debbi became the proud grandma of a little girl Ellaynah (I think that is the spelling). She and her mum are well. Debbi and I went to IKEA today and had a nice girl only shop. Watching the footy tonight and probably an early night. Also today is Jarvis's first birthday. Happy birthday little man.

Day 38 - New Norcia to Perth.

When we got to the visitor centre we realised we would not be able to do the 2 hour guided walking tour with only 1 good leg between us. So we got a map and drove around to look at the buildings. Here is a selection.

We keep seeing these parrots so I decided to take a photo of one. They are ring neck parrots. So different to the ones we have at home.

Decided to head back to the coast via the Gravity Discovery Centre. Interesting concept but a good way to show kids about gravity. Here is part of it. The tower is on an angle.

Travelled down the coast to Fremantle and to Jeff's cousin Debbi's house.

Day 37 - Dongara to New Norcia

Sadly left Seaspray Beach and headed south to Cervantes. Had grilled lobster for lunch and then went to the Pinnacles. Not happy that we couldn't drive around the site in Glen ( too heavy) and had to walk to the viewing area which meant we only saw a small part. But it was very interesting.

Decided to head inland to New Norcia via a series of back roads that made Jeff a bit nervous. Why doesn't he trust me? Saw another wind farm. This one was about as big as the other one. Massive. Arrived at New Norcia. Wow, impressive looking place. Quiet night in the little campground.

Day 36 - Geraldton to Dongara

I hinted that there was more to last night than I had first let on. Well thank goodness we shifted because the trains shunted all night! What a clatter, and the drivers kept tooting their horns. Nearly drove me berserk. Anyway left there and made our way to the Alinta Wind Farm down from Geraldton. It has 58 turbines and can power more than 68,000 homes per year! These panorama shots are next to each other and show all the turbines you can see from the viewing platform.

Here is Glen wearing a wind turbine.

We travelled on to Dongara and childhood memories of Seaspray in Gippsland made us go to the Seaspray Beach Holiday Village. Just lovely. Jeff's favourite sound - the crashing waves will lull us to sleep tonight. Sunset was very nice too.

Day 35 - Geraldton

Rest day - yay! We decided to see if we could move from where we were in the park and so we were moved to a better site which also had a concrete pad so we weren't tracking in grass clippings as well as being quieter. Caught up on our grocery shopping and did a little scenic drive around the town. This is their cute lighthouse.

Watched the football and had a quiet night, till we went to bed! (More tomorrow).

Day 34 - Galena Bridge to Geraldton

Left for Kalbarrie in rain but it cleared as we drove along. Kalbarri area is well known for wild flowers but it was a bit early for the whole experience but there are lovely flowers around. We saw some beautiful bright orange banksias and a plant called a Murchison Rose.

Kalbarri is a beautiful seaside town but the weather was very ordinary. It reminded us of Anglesea thirty years ago. Along from it are very striking cliffs, gorges and formations.

We were looking out to sea at one of the viewing platforms and I said to Jeff that it would be great to see a whale when about a kilometre out to sea one breached and then breached again. Jeff said it did it just for me. Note the facial growth.

Next was Pink Lake - just looked like an ordinary lake till you got close and it was bright pink. It has very high levels of Beta Carotine and that gives it the colour.

Got to Geraldton, chose a caravan park and later realised we were parked about 2 metres from a railway line. There was a four metre block fence between us and the railway line.  Great - wasn't as bad as I had thought it might be.

Day 33 - Denham to Galena Bridge

Set off early to Monkey Mia ( note to self - why is it called Monkey Mia?) for the feeding of the dolphins. Jeff has his gout back, not good for him. Lady ranger was a bit long winded but eventually the dolphins were fed. 

Thought we would get to Kalbarri but again we didn't make it. Decided to stop early so Jeff could rest up and found a nice free camp at Galena Bridge (WA 444). Quiet night.

Day 32 - Gladstone Scenic Lookout to Denham

During the night I had been checking the rain radar and decided to see what Wiki Camps said about the site. Quelle surprise! A little secret we had not known about. Over on the other part of the hill was a memorial to a lot of deceased people made of rocks, things and gnomes all with dedications on them. We sat Darwin and Conan in amongst them for a photo.

After we came down off the rock we started for Denham. It is World Heritage Listed in the area and the first place we came to was Hamlin Pool where the stromolytes are. They a the oldest living things on earth and are responsible for giving our atmosphere the oxygen needed to sustain life. Very interesting.

On the way to Denham they have a feral fence where they are trying to stop the feral cats and foxes on the peninsula to create an area where the native animals can live unmolested.

We got to Denham and stayed in a caravan park by the ocean. Very nice. A great night's sleep.

Problems

I am having problems with uploading photos to the blog so I haven't put the other posts on yet.

Day 31 - Carnarvon to Gladstone Scenic Lookout

Hung around in Carnarvon so Jeff could get his stitches out at the hospital. Bought a FM transmitter for my iPhone so we can listen to the iPhone music through the Fiat's speakers. Had lunch a short way out of town and decided that we wouldn't make Denham tonight so checked out the free camps as we went along till we got to Gladstone Scenic Lookout (WA 457). Oh wow. About 100 meters up on a mesa with a couple of caravans over on the other side. Wild night of rain and wind. Kept checking for lightning because if i saw that we would have been off that hill quicker that a rat down a drainpipe. Fortunately none happened and we woke to the rain clearing. 

Day 30 - Minilya to Carnarvon.

Gout still playing up so Jeff took a tablet and went back to sleep again. An hour later he arose and we got ready and took off. Rang Bekky for her birthday. Lunchtime saw us at Point Quabba (WA467). What a strange place! The sea was very calm so the blowholes were not very exciting at all. Here is the beach there.

There are little old shacks everywhere. We decided to push on to Carnarvon so Jeff could watch the football. We are spending the evening at the Outback Oasis Caravan Park, very nice and very reasonable. We even got a free stubby holder and pen.