WE'RE IN KALBARRI

SUNDAY 20TH JULY  -   We left Coronation Beach at 9.30 and drove for 1 ½ hours north to Kalbarri.  It was a lovely sunny day.  We were sorry to be leaving Coronation Beach as we’d really enjoyed our stay there.  We went via Northampton, Horrocks and Port Gregory and arrived at The Top Tourist Murchison River Caravan Park.  As we were checking in, the park manager told us that the dirt road to two of the main tourist attractions in Kalbarri National Park ”Nature’s Window” and “Z-Bend”  were closing the following day for a period of 3 months, whilst they were tarring the road. We hurriedly set up and set out for Kalbarri National Park, which is 486 kilometres north of Perth and covers 183,000 hectares.  It took us about 45 minutes to get to the car park for the Nature’s Window Lookout and walking loop.   It was $11 per car for a day pass. It was fairly busy as it was a beautiful sunny day and also the last day for three months that you could visit there.  The scenery was absolutely magnificent with the rugged rock faces and deep gorges and different hues of browns as well as the contrasting variations of greens of the surrounding bushes.  There was a 9km loop walk across the top of the gorge, taking 3-4 hours.  We opted for the shorter 400 metre walk from the car park right down to the Nature’s Window rock which was a natural rock arch framing the river below.  The walk would be a bit treacherous on a wet day and temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees in summer.  I was glad we were there in winter when the temperatures weren’t as high.  People have actually died on that track.  The scenery was just stunning and absolutely breath-taking and we were so glad we’d arrived just in time to see it.  There were other parts of the park to visit, all equally beautiful I’m sure.  We will visit more of them later in the week.   We drove on to the next area called ”Z-Bend Lookout”  and walked down the steep track to the viewing platform, with a 150 metre drop to the river below where the river redgums are a lush contrast to the earthy tones of the Tumblagooda Sandstone.  Once again, there was a longer 2-3 hour river loop walk, but we were running out of time.  Some of the wildflowers were just starting to come out and looked really pretty, lots of tall bushes of bright pink bottle-brush effect blooms.  It was such a quiet and serene place, so vast and desolate, so beautiful and majestic.   The viewing platform looked down into the deep river gorges that were quite dried up, although we were told that the river runs beneath the sand bed.  What a magnificent start to our stopover in Kalbarri.























Kalbarri is a small coastal town, 592 kilometres north of Perth, at the mouth of The Murchison River in the Mid-West Region.  It attracts over 200,000 visitors every year, when it’s tiny population of 1,400 people swells to over 8,000.  It was named after an aboriginal man from The Murchison Tribe.  It is also the name of an edible seed

The town featured at the end of the movie “Wolf Creek”.

The first Europeans came on the Dutch East India Company ship called the Batavia.

The caravan park is right in the middle of the small town and everything is within walking reach.  The front of the park faces the water and every morning at 8.45 the pelicans are fed.  There are lots of lovely coastal walks and tourist boats pass up and down. You can hire canoes, paddle boats, or power boats, do a sunset cruise or take a joy flight through the gorges and rivers. It’s a really pretty place.

MONDAY 21 ST JULY  -   We visited The Rainbow Jungle Parrot Sanctuary with exotic species of parrots in a native, natural jungle setting. Entry was $14 each. Inside there were lots of big cages with every variety of parrot imaginable inside roomy, shady homes.  There were smaller cages with older birds that chatted to you as you went past.  Some of them had 6 or 7 phrases they could say  - “hello”, “hello cocky,”  “how ya going?” and wolf whistles among their repertoire.   We walked along paved paths past the tropical waterfalls, fountains and stained glass windows and into one of the largest free flight aviaries in Australia with lush tropical gardens.  We saw The Red Tailed Black Cockatoo, Purple Crowned Lorikeets, The South American Blue and Gold Macaws, Indian Ring Neck Parrots, Major Mitchell Cockatoos, Alexandrine Parrots and my absolute favourite The Scarlet Macaws.  They were just beautiful and so vividly coloured.  Many of them looked as if their colours had been painted on their bodies.  We were absolutely fascinated and spent almost 2 hours looking around and taking photos.  Many of the birds were for sale and have been bred in Australia.  Some were purchased for $8,000 a pair and haven’t yet bred in captivity.



We went up into the Whale Watch Tower and had gorgeous panoramic ocean views of the coastline.

Then we went for a drive to Red Bluff and Red Bluff Beach, the start of the scenic coastal gorges, with stunning red cliffs surrounding the ocean and superb views.  The next lookout was Jakes Point, a popular surfing break.

That night, we sat on the beach and watched a stunning sunset.  It was a lovely calm evening and no cloud in sight and everyone was sitting around enjoying the view with cameras on tripods and glasses of wine. 

THURSDAY 25TH JULY   -   We visited Murchison House Station which was founded in 1858 to provide meat and wheat to lead miners, beef to a growing Perth market and remount horses for the British Army in India.  Today it is a 350,000 acre family owned working station producing beef cattle and rangeland goats.   We toured  through Von Bibras Cottage, built from tumblagooda sandstone and mud bricks by convict labourers.  It was the first permanent building on the property.  We toured through the shearers shed and quarters which were refurbished in 2003 and can be rented out.  In its heyday 35,000 sheep were sheared there. We saw the old wool press and classing table.  The whole property has old machinery, cars, trucks and war memorabilia scattered around the grounds. We saw the original blacksmith’s residence and workshop which is soon to be occupied by local and indigenous artists to showcase their works.  Next we visited the cemetery and saw the grave of A.J. Ogilvie,  an owner and manager of Murchison House Station and those of Fawcett and Broad a pilot and mechanic aboard one of three planes from Australia’s first commercial air service.  Their plane crashed on the property in 1921.

It was an interesting self-guided walking tour, costing $10 each which included a yummy home-baked morning tea in the gardens overlooking the river.  The owners’ two Rhodesian ridge backed dogs came out to greet us wagging their tails excitedly.

Camping is allowed on the property and the owners are very friendly and helpful. 

We drove to Hawks Head Lookout in Kalbarri National Park, named from the hawk shaped natural rock formation visible in the river below the lookout.  The views across the gorge were stunning and the red cliffs had a honeycomb effect.  There were many overhanging rocks and crags, all different shapes, sizes and colours.

Next we drove to Ross Graham Lookout, named in honour of the first headmaster of Kalbarri Primary School who was a keen conservationist and died aged only 31. It was a short 300 metre walk  from the car park to the lookout, with another short walk down to the mouth of the river.  The views once again were amazing and the colours of earthy reds, oranges and browns contrasting with the green foliage and shrubs.  We have thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this magnificent National Park.

NEXT WEEK:    We’re heading a further 374 kilometres north to Denham in The Shark Bay World Heritage Area and will be going to Monkey Mia to see and hopefully feed the dolphins.   

PERTH TO SANDY CAPE TO CORONATION BEACH

 

TUESDAY 2ND JULY   -   We left Perth at 10am, later than we normally like to leave, as there was a “farewell committee” to see us off with lots of people from the park gathered around the van chatting as we were leaving.   It felt good to be heading off again, although a bit sad leaving our friends and family behind.  By the way, apologies to the friends we wanted to see but ran out of time to visit.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we drove on the freeways until we picked up The Indian Ocean Drive – a $98 million coastal road that opened in September 2010 and stretches for 268 kilometres from Perth to Dongara.  We stopped at Moore River Bridge about an hour later for a cuppa.  It’s an overnight stop by the river, quite a small but pretty spot.  There were a few campers there enjoying the view and the sunshine.  We drove on to the small fishing town of Lancelin 110 kilometres from Perth and had a drive through the town which was very pretty.  We stopped off at Wedge Lookout with magnificent views of the Indian Ocean and Wedge Island and headed to Cervantes, 198 kilometres north of Perth.  We drove further on to Jurien Bay and passed The Lobster Shack (fresh and cooked seafood) that Daniel told us about and had been to a few times.  Jurien Bay is a very popular tourist area and close to The Pinnacles which are huge, natural limestone formations (some up to 5 metres tall) in Nambung National Park  and are a major tourist destination in Cervantes and Jurien Bay, attracting over 190,000 visitors every year.   We went 11 kilometres north from Jurien Bay to our destination Sandy Cape Recreational Park.  It was a 10 minute drive along dirt road to get into the park.  There were lots of large parking bays on a first come first served basis – no bookings.  There were a few other vans parked but it wasn’t very busy then and we had a good choice of spots to set up.  We found a suitable spot and after we were set up went for a walk to explore our surroundings.  We were so close to a beautiful long beach with sand dunes to the left hand side.  Over the other side of the dunes was another magnificent beach.   They were all so breathtaking.  There was a fairly newly built board walk atop of the dunes with seats at either end and a viewing platform overlooking the aqua seas and rocks where fishermen were throwing out their lines.  It was a beautiful, peaceful, serene place.  It was $15 a night with toilets and an on-site ranger.  The camp gets very busy during school holidays and is a very popular and well known spot with everyone we’ve talked to.  We had happy hour with our neighbours Kevin and Gaele and lit a welcoming camp fire as it got cold at night.   We only stayed here for 2 nights as we were keen to get to our next destination Coronation Beach Camp.  There are only 20 available spots at any one time and school holidays started the next day.  We wanted to be certain of getting a spot before the school holiday rush began.  We would have liked to stay a few more days at Sandy Cape.  We’ll try to stay there when we come back to Perth later in the year.  It was lovely to be so close to the ocean again and to be able to hear the waves crashing whilst we were laying in bed.  Life just doesn’t get much better than that!!!

THURSDAY 4TH JULY   -   We left Sandy Cape at 8.30 for our next destination Coronation Beach Camp Ground 11 kilometres north of Geraldton a large regional town, the capital of Australia’s Coral Coast that starts in Cervantes and stretches for over 1,000 kilometres all the way up to Exmouth.  It has a population of 40,000 people.  It is also known as the gateway to The Abrolhos Islands.  We were anxious to get there and find a spot before the mad school holiday rush began as we’d been told that people drive long distances, even as far as Broome, during holiday times.   Once past the town of Geraldton, we noticed how bright and brilliant green the fields were on either side -  quite startling so. The turn off from the main road was actually tarmacked, for the first time, and was a short 7 minute drive into the camp ground.  We found a suitable spot and set up. We were told there had been many improvements around the place with playground equipment, sheltered seats and large rotundas along the beach front.  There were toilets and a dump point and a resident caretaker.  It was $14 a night, with a maximum stay of 30 days in any 12 month period. It was quiet and very scenic and it was lovely to see the ocean on our doorstep once again. There was a steady stream of caravans and campervans coming into the camp ground during the day.   There was also a day parking area as you came into the camp for people to use for picnics, water sports or swimming that weren’t staying. 

ANOTHER GORGEOUS SUNSET

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET SKY

HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY?

FRIDAY 5TH JULY   -   We went for a drive around to Northampton – a 20 minute drive from Coronation Beach.   It is one of the oldest settlements in Western Australia. It was a very small town but there was a dump point and a tap to fill up water tanks behind the park and there was a steady stream of caravans pulling in to do so.  We drove on to Horrocks a sleepy little fishing village with really old fibro shacks along the beach front.  Behind the shacks there were lots of new houses with many more being built.  It was a very pretty place.  We had a picnic lunch overlooking the ocean and drove to Lynton where we came upon the funniest looking trees that grow absolutely bent over to protect themselves from the harsh winds.  They grew in rows and rows and we were astonished looking at them. We then drove 45 minutes north to Port Gregory another fishing town, past The Pink Lake which was very pink in places.   It gets its pink hue from bacteria caught in the salt granules and is supposed to be best seen at sundown.  The beach and jetty was full of boat trailers and boats.  It was a very wide flat beach with calm water.  Fishing is obviously the main attraction here with a caravan park and very little else around.  The caravan park had no drinking water and like a lot of places in WA relies on boar water and you supplying your own drinking water.

THE PINK LAKE

THE BENT TREES

SATURDAY  6TH JULY   -   We decided to drive to the produce markets in town and get some supplies. They were a bit hard to find and we had to ask in the Tourist Information Centre where they were located.   They were at the back of town in a park and were very small – about 8 stalls in all (hence the reason we couldn’t find them as we were looking for lots of market stalls and people to guide us to them along Marine Terrace by the foreshore).  Nevertheless, the fruit and vegetables were really fresh and very cheap.  Everything I bought was really tasty.  We’ll be going back for a bigger shop next time before we head further up the coast.  We had to go to the launderette in town after the market and had lunch in a lovely café whilst waiting for the washing to be done.  That’s the only disadvantage of bush camping -  we can’t use the washing machine in the van as it uses too much water (about 80 litres per wash).  We have two water tanks underneath the van and they each hold 80 litres.  We now have five 20 litre containers in the back of the car for drinking water and to top up the tanks underneath the van for showering and washing up etc. whenever we need to. We can survive bush camping for over a week now without needing to worry  about water supplies.  We also have a 20 litre jerry can for petrol for the generator.   Speaking of which, we had to buy a new one last week as the Kipor one we had has been playing up since we set off 3 months ago.  Richard has nursed it along and done as much surgery to it as he can with the tools he has with him.  We have to have a totally reliable generator to survive bush camping, so we had to bite the bullet and got a Honda 2KVA which was on special (fortunately for us) at Geraldton Mowers last week.  It’s much quieter than our Kipor 2.6KVA, lighter, uses less fuel and is smaller – all round a good investment.  We probably should have got the Honda to start with.  Everyone we meet swears by their Honda.  It also seems to run the air conditioning ok (which was a major reason we bought the Kipor in the first place to have the power to run everything we needed).  Oh well, live and learn. 

MONDAY 8TH JULY   -   We went to the hill at the top of Geraldton to visit the HMAS Sydney II Memorial.  It’s a very poignant memorial site, commemorating the 645 seamen who lost their lives in a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran during World War II in 1941.  There was a Wall of Remembrance with all their names and photos of the ships.  The most striking feature was a magnificent huge tall silver dome, featuring 644 seagulls resting on top of six white pillars.  The 645^th seagull stood 2 metres tall coming out of a pool of water – the pool of remembrance “closing the circle”.   Another feature was a life-size bronze statue of a woman gazing out to sea, looking for her loved one across the ocean.  It was a beautiful memorial but saddened us right to the core thinking of all those poor men lost at sea together and the loss to their families .  The wreck of The HMAS Sydney took 66 years to be found buried 2,468 metres in the ocean.  This was also the first memorial to be recognised as a memorial of national significant outside of Canberra.

THE POOL OF REMEMBERANCE

THE WOMAN WATING

TUESDAY 9 TH JULY   -   We went for a drive through The Chapman Valley Way.  It’s an agricultural region renowned for its rich soils and beautiful landscapes and many people are moving to the serenity of the area to escape the city.  The rolling hills and lush green fields were superb and full of scampering lambs and sheep.  We followed the signs from Geraldton and followed the scenic drive through to Northampton.  The whole drive took about 45 minutes and we stopped in a gazebo in Centennial Park for a picnic lunch.  It was pretty deserted so luckily I had packed a picnic lunch or we’d have been starving.  We passed by the lavender farm and saw lots of lavender growing in the fields.  On the way back to Northampton we had to stop for a big flock of sheep crossing the road.  The two sheep dogs were herding them around and the farmer was on a quad bike.  One of the dogs gulped mouthfuls of water from a nearby water trough and the other jumped on the back of the quad bike to oversee things.  The sheep were funny to watch – if the leader broke into a canter, all the others did exactly the same, if the leader stopped or slowed down, the rest followed the leader’s pace.  We were stopped a good ten minutes whilst this was taking place.  Most of the sheep we’ve seen in Western Australia have  dark brown faces and others have very pale skins.  We haven’t come across these varieties before.   

We had 2 days of heavy winds and rain and the forecasts for Perth and the South were even worse, with hailstones and low temperatures.  It was definitely time to don our trusty husky jackets for a few bracing walks along the beach.  We had to roll up the awning as the winds were gusting.  The temperature dropped very noticeably and by Friday of our second week, we were enjoying warmer weather, still quite fresh, but the strong winds had eased .

I’m very pleased to tell you the satellite dish is working a treat and is easy to set up and find all the channels.  Richard was told when he bought it, he’d be in line for many free beers helping out frustrated caravanners that hadn’t purchased the more expensive satellite finder box.  We have come across them in many places almost tearing out their hair with frustration as they couldn’t get the angle right on their dish.  Funnily enough, our first night at Coronation Beach, Richard got his first “freebie” helping our neighbour with our trusty $150 top of the range locator box.  We laughed saying he needed only another 23 satisfied customers to score his first “free slab”.  At long last, our investment seemed to be paying dividends!!!

I hope you’re noticing a remarkable improvement in the quality of the photos in the last two blogs (otherwise, it’s been a waste of money buying the expensive gear).

Richard’s been busy photographing birds (the feathered varieties) whilst here.  There have been lots of eagles, cormorants and zebra finches.  We used to have two pet zebra finches in our first home at Revesby called Woodstock and Peanuts (from the cartoon which you may or may not remember).

ZEBRA FINCHES

BIRD IN FLIGHT (NOT  SURE WHAT VARIETY)

I think I mentioned before that we’re reading lots of our newest favourite author – Lee Childs.  We found a great second hand book shop in town and have almost got his entire collection now.  Just for a change, inbetween reading Lee Childs, we both read the last Bryce Courtney book – Jack of Diamonds - which we both really enjoyed.  He’s a very easy to read author.  This book had lots of twists.  It was very sad finishing the book to know it was the last one he wrote (and would ever write) before he died.  There was a poignant epilogue at the end of the story, saying that he knew he didn’t have time to write the sequel, so he wrote a brief outline of how the story would have continued.  He also said  it had been a privilege writing for us all and was obviously aware that he didn’t have much time left.  I had bought it for Richard for Christmas and we’ve been carting it around ever since unread.

Well that’s all for this episode.  Look forward to telling you all the latest news in the next blog.

SALLY DE-STRESSING

NEXT WEEK:   We’re heading further north to Kalbarri for a week and are looking forward to exploring Kalbarri National Park which is supposed to be awesome.

WE'RE IN PERTH

Sit yourselves down with a nice cup of tea, as this will be quite a long blog, covering e 4 weeks we spent in Perth all in one episode.

THURSDAY 6^th JUNE    -   We left Busselton at 8am and were very excited to be heading to our next destination Perth.    We had a short pit stop along the way and the rest of the drive towards Perth was on freeways.  We arrived at Crystal Brooks Caravan Park in Orange Grove at 1pm.  The park was fairly old, but the management were making lots of improvements and had recently put in a brand new facilities blocks and laundry.  It was mainly permanent residents staying there, many of whom did fly in fly out as it was 20 minutes to the airport.  It was set in the foothills of Perth with huge houses and blocks of land, very rural.  It was also 10 minutes to Centro Maddington the local shopping centre.  It wasn’t ideal or the fanciest, but it was only 30 minutes away from Daniel in Nollamara and 30 minutes to Richard’s brother Bob in Sorrento.  At the bottom of the park was a grassed dog exercise area with paddocks of sheep and horses alongside.  Four baby lambs were born whilst we were there and they were fascinating to watch skipping around the paddock.  We quickly settled in and met our new neighbours Bill and Pauline, who had recently sold their house and were waiting to finish work and head off in their caravan around Australia, so we got some good tips from them about places to visit.

We went to Daniel’s for dinner and it was so good to see him again.  He looked really well, despite his number one hair cut that I haven’t seen on him since he was at school.

The next few days were taken up getting the car serviced and having a bit of a battle with Toyota as we’d discovered there was fluid leaking from the power steering when we were at Ceduna.  The warranty expired on 21^st May, which was typical, and Toyota weren’t going to fix the leak under warranty as they argued it had expired.   Richard was having none of that as he’d phoned the Toyota dealer in Ceduna who had advised him to “top up the fluid and it should be right” which was exactly what he’d done and had been doing ever since.  The leak had gotten worse and beyond “topping up” and needed some serious fixing (ie taking out the entire engine to get to the leaking valve – big bucks if it’s not done under warranty).   After many phone calls back and forth, they finally agreed to repair it under warranty (thankfully) and gave us a courtesy car for the 2 days that it took to fix.  One problem solved.

THE CAMERA   -  You may remember Richard’s been hankering after a new, improved camera for quite some time.  After lots of research and disappointment, he finally found a place  -   Camera House in Leederville  -  who had the one he wanted in stock and were very knowledgeable and helpful.  He couldn’t contain himself and headed straight there to pick up his new toy.  It’s a Nikon DS200, tamaron lens, 18-270, 24 megapixels  -   for those of you that have a clue what all that jargon means.  It came with a bright red shiny casing as that was the only colour they had in stock.  Well, he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when he arrived back at the van  – he was like a kid in a lolly shop and practically slept with it for the first few nights, looking at it and reading the instruction booklet.  It certainly was his pride and joy and now goes everywhere with us.  He had to get a new tripod, small and large to sit it on and goodness knows how many other extras.  I haven’t even dared ask the 64 million dollar question “how much was it?” Hopefully you will notice a remarkable improvement in the photos on the Blog from hereon in!!!   Another problem solved in Perth.

We visited Bob, Shelly and Alexander (AJ) in Sorrento and had a drive around Hilary’s Marina and took Sally for a walk on the beach.  It’s a beautiful area with lots of huge houses being built along the ocean front.   There was a big park close to their house and Sally enjoyed a good run around there too.  I hadn’t met AJ before.  He’s a strapping 18 year old rugby player, with a HUGE appetite, quite normal for his age.  We hadn’t seen Bob and Shelly for 6 years since their last visit to Sydney, so it was lovely to spend time with them all again. 

TUESDAY 11TH JUNE     -  We took a drive south to Rockingham and Mandurah, two beautiful coastal areas an hour from Perth.  We drove down on the freeways and came back through safety Bay and along the coast road to Perth.   It was a beautiful drive.

THURSDAY 13TH  JUNE   -   Karina and Kieran arrived in Perth at 11.30am.  I was just so excited going to meet them at the airport.  Perth airport was relatively small compared to Sydney.  There was no separate arrivals or departure areas, everyone just came out the one entrance.  We walked through to the luggage carousel to find them walking out.   We didn’t even have to pay for parking as the first 30 minutes was free.  That would never happen in Sydney.  We went back to the caravan for lunch.  Karina was really pleased to see Sally once more.  Then we went to Daniel’s so that they could unpack and get settled in before Daniel got home from work.  It was lovely to have dinner together with them again.

FRIDAY 14TH JUNE   -   Fremantle Goal   -    We had coffee in the Convict Café before the “Doing Time” tour of Fremantle Goal.  It was $20 and lasted for an hour. We had a very interesting and funny tour guide called John.  The jail was much bigger than we'd imagined.  It was built as a convict barracks by convict labour using limestone quarried on the site in the 1850’s.  It was closed as a maximum security prison in 1991. We toured through the gatehouse, perimeter walls, kitchen area, upper, middle and lower galleries and the gallows and flogging area and saw the one cell where prison art was allowed on the walls inside. It was cold, dark and miserable and would have been freezing inside during winter.  The walls were 2’ 6” thick and the prison was on a 15 acre site.  During it’s time there were numerous hangings, floggings, escapes and riots.  In 2010, it became the first building in Western Australia to be included on the World Heritage List.

After the tour we walked around Fremantle and had a fish and chip lunch at the famous Cicerellos on the water’s edge. Then we drove back to the famous Cottesloe Beach (like Bondi in Sydney).

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE   -  Kings Park   -  It was a stunning park set in 400 hectares, overlooking the City and Swan River.  There were free guided walking tours three times a day, walking through the memorials, picnic areas, manicured lawns and native gardens.  It was a hive of activity with cyclists, joggers and people having picnics.  We had lunch in the café overlooking the Swan River which was delicious and walked through the park seeing 3 bridal parties having their photos taken by the picturesque pond settings.  We also saw the Giant Boab Tree that was transplanted from The Kimberley’s by road to Kings Park.

THE GIANT BOAB TREE

TUESDAY 18TH JUNE   -   We drove to The Margaret River Chocolate Factory in the Swan Valley for morning tea.  We couldn’t contain ourselves gorging on the free tasting bins of white, dark and milk chocolate tasting pieces and looking around at all the goodies for sale and wanting them all.  There was such a variety it was impossible to decide.  There was also a viewing window to watch the chocolates being made.  We sat outside on the verandah and had hot chocolates and yummy cakes for our morning tea.  Just when we thought we were so full we couldn’t move, we discovered a free wine and cheese tasting at a vineyard opposite and just had to try it out.  The wines were delicious.  My favourite was a Lancaster chenin blanc, $20 per bottle.  There was also a good selection of cheeses.  I really liked the chilli cheese.  We ended up buying 6 wines and a block of the chilli cheese, perfect for future happy hours.

We next headed for Mundaring Dam, set in the Perth Foothills. We stopped at the sculptures in the park which were quirky, some better than others.  We then headed to Mundaring Dam and walked across the dam wall.  The water levels were extremely low and we could see the old steps directly underneath the main wall where people used to be able to step into their boats to cruise the dam or to swim.  We had a picnic lunch in a gazebo on the grassed picnic area and were surrounded by lots of beautiful ring necked parrots.  They were really cheeky and took food from our hands and stood on the handrail around the gazebo.  They even flew onto the table for titbits and flocked together on the grass.

THURSDAY 20TH JUNE   - Karina and Kieran flew back to Sydney today.  We had lunch at the café in Kings Park again.  I was so sad and teary saying goodbye to them as we’d all had a lovely fun filled week together.  Hopefully we’ll see Karina again for Christmas in Perth.

We had to take the caravan in for warranty repairs for one day as the shower still leaked from the 1,000km service, and we had a few minor faults to rectify.  It still leaked even after they had replaced a leaking pipe, so Richard ended up taking it completely apart and replacing the silastic all around the shower himself.  Thankfully it no longer leaks now.

We bought a satellite dish kit from Access wholesale in Perth.  They really knew what they were talking about and were very helpful.  We bought the bigger dish which they recommended for better coverage and the upgraded model.  The kit came complete with dish, satellite finder, decoder and angle finder.  They assured us we’d have no problems further up the coast or in the bush.  The secret is to point the dish towards north and get it at the right angle for the area.  We’ve got a list of angles for each area we may be in. It works fine in Perth so we’ll let you know the outcome further up the coast.

Richard decided against the metal boxes underneath the caravan to store wood in. He couldn’t get them made to the right size that he could actually open the lid and put anything much inside.

MONDAY 1ST JULY   -   Our 35^th Wedding Anniversry and our last day in Perth.  We went out for dinner at North Beach to the Ocean Dragon Chinese restaurant with Daniel, Min, Richard’s Brother Bob, Shelly and AJ (alexander).  We had a lovely meal together which came to an end all too soon.  It was sad saying our farewells as it had been wonderful spending time with the family again.

The time has gone by so quickly and we’ve been pretty flat chat getting things done, catching up with friends and family and getting organised for the next league of our epic journey.

NEXT WEEK:    We will be heading north to Sandy Cape past Jurien Bay and Coronation Beach past Geraldton