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| A quaint street in Perth |
And so on to PERTH, a lovely clean city, good climate, good transport, great cycle tracks, lovely caravan park and beautiful Kings Park overlooking the city.
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| The Bell Tower ... or cockroach? |
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| South Perth |
Give me the outback .... (I don’t believe I’m saying this) .... but I’m really struggling to write about a city after all the wonderful places we’ve been to.
We had a day in the city where we checked out the shops until I thought John had had enough so we took the 15 minute ferry to South Perth which is mainly a residential suburb and a great place to live if you work in the CBD.
We visited Rottnest Island for a day. This island is 18km off the mainland. The accommodation has just been refurbished and would be a great place for a relaxing holiday. The mode of transport is bikes and hundreds of them. No private vehicles or taxis. There are also hundreds of moorings available to rent where you can stay on your boat and enjoy the hospitality of the island.
Also had a ferry cruise to Fremantle where we checked out the markets etc. There are lots of old buildings and a lot of history but we think we’ve had enough history lessons for a while.
October 2006
From Perth we headed south east to CRANBROOK where my brother, Don, lives. We called at various tidy country towns, bushcamping along the way. Don was very happy to have us stay and also welcomed our caravanning friends, Glenys and Des, and Hilary and Ash whom we hadn’t seen for a few weeks, to stay on his large block. Our thanks go to them for their energy and enthusiasm in making Don’s property look so good during their stay. Many hands make light work - what wonderful friends.
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| Stirling Ranges |
We visited the beautiful Stirling Ranges and found some more lovely wildflowers. Thankfully the land in this area is not so barren and some of the crops look quite good.
After 10 days with Don we travelled over 700km in a large circle up to WAVE ROCK then over to MANDURAH, which is just south of Perth. Wave Rock is another amazing rock in this great country. Made of granite the wave has been created from the effect of wind and water over billions of years.
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| Wave Rock |
We travelled through many hectares of crops, some good and some struggling. Also drove by many shallow or dry pink or white salt lakes. The deeper lakes are a greeny/blue colour but most are dry, acres of them.
The wildflowers were great too.
But this country is so dry, now locusts are the next problem they face with spraying starting shortly.
We’ll call at Don’s again in a few weeks.
Driving south from Mandurah (south of Perth) we skirted the huge Peel Inlet, a marvellous water playground for locals. Canal projects are numerous on this coast with some properties just so big and so close it looks ugly.
And so on to BUNBURY and BUSSELTON, both on the coast and both tourist towns. Bunbury is WA’s second largest city and is on a peninsular surrounded by the Indian Ocean. It is a major port for exporting wheat from the area and also has a large inlet but nothing like the one at Mandurah.
Busselton has a 140 year old 1.84km long jetty, which is now used as a tourist attraction with an underwater observatory. From 8 metres below the surface of the water visitors can see the amazing sub-tropical and tropical coral and fish life in the open ocean.
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| Coral growing on the poles |
Each year during autumn and winter, the Leeuwin Current brings a narrow band of warm water down the Western Australian coastline. This warm southerly current is responsible for introducing an incredibly diverse array of tropical and sub-tropical species into Geographe Bay, resulting in coral growth at a latitude of 33 degrees south, a remarkable phenomenon when compared to the western coastlines of other southern hemisphere continents, which have no coral growth below 5 degrees south.
From Busselton to DUNSBOROUGH where we met up again with Glenys and Des. We visited the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse area from where we saw whales, dolphins and seals but our best whale citing was from the MARGARET RIVER entrance where we saw a whale leap completely out of the water several times. But it all happens so fast it’s impossible to get a photo. While in the Margaret River area we visited the “Cullen” winery but it felt a bit cold and I hadn’t taken a jacket. Also prices were beyond our budget for a lunch so we chose “Providore” which was lovely. We don’t eat out very often but it is nice to do so when in the wine regions.
The beaches along this coast are great for surfing, windsurfing, and kite surfing. We’re told the fishing is good too but when we ask how big the fish are we’re told about 8 inches so John hasn’t bothered to get his gear out. They do catch some big ones but very rarely, it seems. We visited Augusta and the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet but on the day we were there it wasn’t that obvious two oceans were meeting. Also checked out the Mammoth Cave, which was interesting.
The southern coast area has a large number of National Parks with beautiful karri trees. One of the highest, The Gloucester Tree, is/was a fire lookout, that the public are able to climb ..... if you dare. It’s 60m high with 153 rungs which spiral dizzily to the top. We only managed a short climb!
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| A friend kookaburra |
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| nobbly trunk |
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| A hollow tree trunk |
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| The tree top walk |
