Rock Country

 After saying farewell  to our friends at Wright's Bridge  we continued up the road to Ballingup and then onto Bridgetown. On our way there Lynn was not happy with the performance of the brakes on the caravan and after making enquiries,  he decided that a trip back to Bunbury was in order to get the problem solved.

 The auto electrical people there were very good but it took all afternoon to solve the problem and only after fitting 2 new brake units did they come up with a solution. In the mean time as Lynn was testing the brakes he backed into a low wall between their property and the one next door and managed to wreck a water container and its carrier. The container was about to be thrown out anyway as it was very brittle ( sun affected). The carrier was beyond repair.

 Because it took all afternoon to fix we opted to stay in a caravan park for the night rather than go looking for a free camp. It also gave me a chance to catch up on some washing and Lynn topped the water tanks up.

From Bunbury we went  to Collie where we stopped up on groceries and posted a parcel to Lisa with 4 dresses that I had made for the twins and 2 blankets that I had made from polar fleece and edged with patchwork binding and appliqued some  butterflies etc on to them.



 Gorge Rock Pool



 This was beginning of our trip around the rock country to places that our friends from Mandurah had recommended.  We were heading in an easterly direction but taking a bit of a loop to pick up the various  spots.
 At Narrogin  we stopped at the Info centre and got lots of information about the local area before heading off to Yornaning Dam. This delightful place  was quite pretty but the Flies were dreadful, ( time of the year).





 Helen on top of  Gorge Rock



 We then made our way to Kokerbin Rock near Shackleton.  There was a small campground there but there was also water and flushing toilets which for in the middle of nowhere was quite good. I had a bit of a look around the base of the Rock but it looked too far to walk to the top. As we drove out the road follows a loop around the base and it is quicker to walk from the other side.



Kokerbin Rock

  We then made our way via Bruce Rock ( A Town ) to Hyden and Wave Rock . Hyden had a great display of different things historical made out of recycled bits and pieces.


 Amphitheatre at Bruce Rock





Wave Rock





 Historical display at Hyden using recycled  materials





another part of the same display



Perth Plus November 2011

 Eight years ago I didn't study the camping guide well enough to pick a nice spot to stay in Perth so we passed through and went on to Burns Beach .So this time I was determined to see Perth , Kings Park, the Carillon and generally check out Perth and some of the surrounding area, including Fremantle.
 As we were coming in from Toodyay and Goomaling I chose a Caravan park out near the Swan Valley. We stayed at the Vineyard Park near Guildford.It was a short trip to the train station and then a quick run into Perth. It was also not far from major shopping centres at Midland .

Our first foray on the train was a trip to Fremantle where we ent to the Maritime Museum and saw Australia 11 among other displays. We really enjoyed it and the setting by the river.  After spending a few hours there we wandered up into the Town Centre . I found the most amazing shop near the Post Office which had lots and lots of  open bins with all sorts of things in them including spices, flours dried fruits, coffee beans  and also fresh vegies. It really was amazing!!!!.



 Fremantle



Australia 2



 As I have already mentioned in my previous  blog we celebrated my birthday with friends and after lunch we walked down to the river to the ferry terminal and the carillon, which I particularly wanted to see.

 Another place on my " bucket list" was Kings  Park and we spent an enjoyable few hours wandering around there too. Unfortunately the wildflowers were past their best but some of the different areas were still good including the elevated boardwalk with lovely views back to the city.



 Perth from Lookout in Kings Park

  Cats Paws and Kangaroo Paws in Kings Park

 Mundaring Weir

 Mundaring Weir was another place we came across when we went for a drive up into the Hills area. Lynn was very interested in the engineering of the place. We went for a walk across the dam wall.  Driving back to the Park we went via Kalamunda which looked like a town that needed more time to explore but as it was about 4pm on a Sunday afternoon not much was open. Maybe another time.

 As we had time to kill before meeting Martin and Christine  for our south west trip we ended up at Pinjarra as previously mentioned. While we were there we had a look around the historic village and walked along the riverbank with it's nice parks.

 On the day that we headed to Mandurah the weather turned awful with cold and rain. We had decided to take a circuitous route to get there via Waroona , Yarloop and Cape Bouviere, as our friends weren't expecting us till late in the afternoon.

 We stopped at Waroona to visit the information centre but it was closed so we had a cuppa and checked out the totem poles in the park.

 Totem Poles at Waroona

 Lynn has a real thing about steam stuff  and as we had a panmphlet on the Yarloop Steam museum we took the opportunity to check it out and He was suitably impressed. However because it was a weekday the Live steam engines weren't in operation. It really is an impressive display and so many engines have been  lovingly restored. The whole place is like walking aound in a time warp.



  Steam train and workshop

 Little engine







Big Engine

 A very happy Lynn!!!!!

South West WA Nov 2011

 


 Perth from Kings Park Lookout

  While we were in Perth we were able to catch up with some friends from our time at Barn Hill. Christine and Martin live in Mandurah but came up by train to help me celebrate my birthday and show us some of the sights of Perth that we wanted to see. Over lunch Christine and I developed a trip to the south west so that they could show us some different places.

We stayed a few more days in Perth and were then heading for Lane Pool Reserve when we came across a lovely place to stay in Pinjara. It's near the Information Centre just on the edge of town near the huge railway yard and\ and that is the only downside of the place is that lots of trains pass through carrying ore etc.

Anyway we had a nice stay there and I got to do some patch working with the Pinjara club . they were a very friendly bunch of ladies, who run a shop selling their wares in the old schoolhouse which also doubles as their work space.  While we were at Pinjara we side a trip out to Lane Pool reserve and also stopped at  Dwellingup   and checked out their really interesting Tourist information centre with lots of history.  The Reserve was nice and we took  morning tea with us to have by a lovely pool. We then continued on and found the only area that would have been big enough for us was near the old mill site., which is also the area fro groups.

 We were then due to meet up with our friends who had enough space out the front of their place at Mariner's Cove for us to park the van for the night. They have a large converted bus which they  store at a friend's place about  30 klms away. Martin had been and collected it that day so he had started to get things ready for our little  trip. the next morning we finished packing up and got some water which meant juggling the bus and van around but not long after 9am we were on the road.



 Mariner's Cove

  From Mandurah we headed south and stopped for morning tea at Harvey and then continued on to Capel for a lunch stop. Not far from Bunbury we turned off onto Sue's road and it was straight down to Sue's Bridge where  we planned to stop for the night.  After checking out the sites available we picked 2 fairly close together and managed to squeeze ourselves into them.

The next day we moved onto Alexander's Bridge and found it was rather busy and being Saturday morning we thought that it might get more difficult to get a spot as the day went on . so to secure a spot for us we unhitched the van and set up some chairs for a spot for the bus and asked people in the immediate vicinity to keep an eye on them for us ,as we wanted to go into Augusta. Having missed that section on a previous trip.

 On our way in we came across the Bikies with their National Rally and there were about a thousand of them. they had the road closed to allow them through.

 The bikies



  Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse



 Flinders Bay



  Lynn and the Cow he found



 At Augusta we had a cuppa and then Lynn and I went to Cape Leewuin to see the lighthouse. on the way we stopped at Flinder's Bay . The Lighthouse was quite good , not expensive to see like Cape Otway in Vic. After checking it out we stopped off   at the historic water wheel just down from the lighthouse and then it was back to Augusta to catch up with the others for lunch.



 Water Wheel at Cape Leeuwin



 We moved on again the next day to Nannup to check out the lovely shops and planned to have lunch at the pub but weren't inspired by their menu so had lunch at the beautiful Templemore Cottage. We then followed the Balckmore river along the Ballingup road . this was a very pretty drive . At revelly bridge we looked for a camping spot but  there didn't seem enough room for both of us . We decided to continue to Wright's bridge but just before there we found a Cheese place that had lovely cheeses for sale .

At Wright's bridge  we ended up parking in the parking area as the main camp ground was closed off.

 Campsite at Wright's Bridge

 The next day Martin And Christine headed back to Mandurah and we decided to have a rest day staying put.