Around Perth

31st July – 7th August 2017

Despite the weather being lousy – cold, overcast or raining, windy, we’re still around the south-west. I’m booked to fly to Queensland mid August and it seems a waste of diesel to head to the warm, northern areas just to head back again. Luckily we have lots of friends to catch up with and a few places we want to go to.

Monday 31st – Wednesday 2nd August

Fran and Rick, friends for many years, live at Dardanup on a farm with grape vines and cattle. We spent two great nights there catching up on family and events and reminiscing the old days. On Tuesday we went for a drive around the local area – beautiful, beautiful rolling hills covered with vineyards or pastures with fat cattle knee-deep in grass, then to Wellington Forest for a walk around the lake and through the forest where the wildflowers will soon be blooming and finally to St Aidan’s vineyard and restaurant for a delicious lunch.

Steve, Denise, Fran and Rick.

Wednesday 2nd – Saturday 5th

Leaving Fran and Rick’s we decided to head further north to avoid the stream weather but not before a quick stop in Perth to catch up with the Hinchies –  Terry and Chris. Only time for a cuppa here though with promises to spend more time later on.

We found a bush caravan park about 100km north, ‘Back To Nature’ caravan park. Yes I did look at the description closely to make sure it wasn’t a nudist camp – much too cold!! It’s being setup by the landowner with powered campsites in amongst the trees and good views from a 3km walk along the ridge. We were happy to spend 3 nights here. ($30/n)

The view from the top of the ridge walk at Back to Nature CP.

Saturday 5th – Monday 7th

Back to Yanchep National Park for a couple of nights. There are walking paths all through the park so Sunday, with the promise of occasional showers, we set off joining a few walks together to explore. Our 7km of walks took us from hillside bush where the magnificent wildflowers have begun to bloom to the wetlands around the lake and finally to the beer garden of the Inn where there was live music and lots of families enjoying a day out. And it didn’t rain.

A lovely day.

Early days for wildflowers. Growing wild alongside our path at Yanchep NP

We’re having problems with the stove. It’s a diesel stove and has been giving us great service until now. We’re getting a ‘Glow Plug Problem’ warning light and it refuses to turn on. Luckily we have a single burner butane cylinder cooktop for just such an emergency. We’ll call the Webasto agent in the morning.

For more photos from this week CLICK HERE.