A week in Perth

Monday 7th – Monday 14th

This week we’re spending in Perth, one night at the very good Karrinyup CP ($45/n – ouch!), 3 nights at the South Fremantle CP (functional, except for the tepid showers, $32/n) and 3 nights with our good friends Anne and Greg in Mt Lawley.

Anzac monument at Kings Park

The first few days of the week we wandered around Freo, had lunch one day at Little Creatures brewery and enjoyed walks in Kings Park, particularly the Botanical Gardens where many plants are flowering, went to the movies twice (The Magic Pill and The Big Sick), had really good tapas at Leederville and a fabulous dinner at Nina and John’s, which is where Ric and Gill are staying now. A lovely day was also spent at Kings Park.

Boab Tree at Kings Park. The story of the Giant Boab ‘Gija Jumulu’ captured world-wide media coverage during July 2008 as it journeyed over 3,200 kilometres, from Warmun in WA’s Kimberley region, to Kings Park in Perth.
Never before had a mature tree of this nature been transported across such a distance on land. The iconic tree, estimated to be 750 years old, weighs 36 tonnes and stretches 14 metres high and eight metres wide (branch span). Its trunk measures 2.5 metres in diameter.

At Anne and Greg’s we reminisced about the good old days, danced to loud music until the wee hours of the morning, solved the world’s problems, did a top bike ride around the Swan River to East Perth, crossing the Causeway and back again, lunching and coffee-ing on the way. Greg insisted it wouldn’t rain, which would be a miracle as it’s rained on and off for the last 3 weeks, and luckily for him the only time it did rain, and it pelted down then, was when we were in a café. Sunday they took us to the Swan Valley vineyards where we managed to sample our way through FIVE vineyards, lunching at Mandoon Estate.

A day of tasting wines. Steve, Denise, Greg and Ann

Bright and early Monday morning found me boarding a flight to Brisbane to spend 10 days with Laura and Olivia.

West Australia’s state floral emblem. The iconic kangaroo paw.

It seems we only took photos in Kings Park this week – remiss of us. Anyway HERE they are.

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.

Margaret River

21st – 31st July 2017

We spent a lovely restful 10 days in Margaret River with Ric and Gill. Unfortunately ill health slowed us down at various times – me with allergies and a heavy cold for the first few days, Gill shared my lurgy after a while, but Ric pipped us all by getting shingles!

However we did manage to visit cafes, beaches and Boranup forest, and Prevelly Beach, and the Margaret River markets a couple of times. We solved all the world’s problems, several times and planned our futures, only to change our minds the next day – something to do with the red liquid we were drinking, maybe.

Taken on a short beach walk.

 

Beautiful trees, Boyanup

 

Ladies who lunch! At the White Elephant Cafe, Prevelly Beach.

Lots of fun and thanks for having us to stay with you Ric and Gill.

A few more photos from this lovely week. CLICK HERE

Perth and my birthday

13th – 21st July, 2017

What an exciting week! Our daughter Laura and granddaughter Olivia have come over to spend a week with us. We’ve rented an AirBnB on the beach at Scarborough for the week and have plans to spend lots of time chatting and playing with Olivia. And that’s just how the week went. We went to the beach and the local park every day, cafes most days, a visit to our nephew Geoff and his wife Karin and their children another day, Kings Park one day and the zoo another. Absolutely fantastic!

Olivia loved the carousel at the Zoo, nearly as much as Laura and I did.

A very big surprise for me happened when we went to a lovely cafe for my birthday.  Ric and Gill turned up! They’ve only been back in Aus for a week and flew over for my birthday – what a wonderful gift for my birthday! Thank you so much. They’re staying down in Margaret River for another 3 weeks so we’ll head on down there after Laura and Olivia go home.

What a wonderful birthday! I had a magic day. Thank you everyone.

After farewelling Laura and Olivia we caught up with our good friends Kathy and Bob who we hadn’t seen for 36 years (that’s how long it is since Steve was last in Perth), went out for dinner with them and camped in their back yard.

Click here for just a few photos of this week – we took millions more of our granddaughter, but you’ll be pleased to hear I didn’t upload them all.