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.









Wild flowers of WA

 Seeing as it  is such is "shitty " day I thought it was the ideal opportunity to catch up on my blogs. It is rather windy not quite blowing a gale and raining so nobody is out and about much. Often when we are stuck inside due to bad weather I don;t have Internet so it's a bonus at present.

 This blog is mainly about the lovely wildflowers we have seen on this trip. Unfortunately we don't have the names for many of these beautiful flowers.

 We started seeing them in the north of the state where Mulla Mullas and Sturt's desert peas were quite common and as we moved further south the variety just kept getting better and better. Mind you it was certainly the season for them.

 We had a very memorable camp at Tenindewa where we seemed to be in the middle of lots them and from there we were able to go to Pindar where there were plenty of wreath flowers this year.

  When we got to the "farm sit" at Dongara there were plenty of wildflowers on the property , big showy Grevillias and tiny little orchids  as well as lots of wattle and Banksias which the farm was named after. Banksia Dale Farm.

 White plumed Grevillia before flowering

Spider orchid

Geraldton Wax

 Daisies at Tenindewa



 Mulla Mulla  and smoke bush



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 White plumed Grevillia in flower 





Sturt's desert Pea

 We saw many more wildflowers and I took lots of photos but it would be boring if a whole blog was taken up with then so this is just a few of the more showy ones we saw. We also went to the  Wildflower show in Mullewa  and the big displays there were quite good but the specimens  weren't well marked with their names.

Banksia Dale Farm and surrounds Oct 2011

 After spending time with the Wildflowers at Tenindewa we finally arrived at the Farm on Sept 1 with a minor calamity as the windmill wasn't working  and so we had only rainwater that had to be carted from the tanks and then once it was fixed there was no wind so it took about a week  or more before the tank was filled. Leaking pipes didn't help.



 among the wildflowers at Tenindewa

  Once things settled down we also settled into minding the dog "Mac" and feeding the chooks and watering the potplants.  fortunately we also had quite a bit of rain which topped up the rainwater tanks and meant less watering of the plants. We also had a few hiccups with the bees swarming into places that werent' convenient.

 Australian boat first in at Geraldton in round the world race



 Generator shed and wind generator



 

 Peacok on chook house roof



 Lynn and Mac at smoko

  While we were there we took the opportunity to visit some of the surrounding area and even travelled out to Mingenew to the Field Day there. We saw quite a bit of Geraldton as it was our main shopping centre.

 In our travels we went to the Wind farm near Walkway and then out to Ellendale Pool. The wind farm could be seen from our farm/ property and was quite big as wind farms go providing most of the power for Geraldton and surrounding area. At Ellendale Pool there were a few other picnickers and campers being the weekend. However it didn't seem to be a very big area so would fill up quickly.

 The farm had lots of wildflowers when we first arrived including orchids and these wonderful colourful flowers that were a type of grevillia that came out after most of the other flowers had finished.

 On another occasion we went to Greenough and out to Lucy's beach. Depending on where we were going we often took the dog with us and she got so used to riding in the back that she used to look longingly at the back of the truck so that Lynn would lower the backboard down and the she would hop up and park herself for the day if we weren't going anywhere .

 The property owners  also owned the Little Starfish cafe at South Beach and "mac" apparently used ti spend her days at the beach with them so she really enjoyed a trip to the beach and chasing the Kitesurfers which the beach is renowned for. 



Little Starfish Cafe at South Beach Port Denison



Me and Mac at the beach





 Greenough looking towards the sea



Lucy's beach

Airing of the Quilts October 15th 2011

 I had been looking foreward to  going to this event since we passed through back in August.

I first found out about the event when we passed through Northhampton about 8 years ago and again we were  too early for it but being inthe area this time made a point of going.

 From the Banksia Dale Farm where we were looking after the animals, to Northhampton it is about 100 klms, so we left fairly early but made a couple of stops on the way to get some gas and I needed some stuff from Spotlight.  We also stopped at a rest area about 15 klms out for a cuppa.

 When we drove through the town looking for a place to park we were blown away by all the quilts that were hanging off various buildings. We were lucky to find a park next to the supermarket which was also across the road from a lovely park.

 We walked down the street  to just past the Tourist Bureau and then Lynn continued to the bottom pub where there was a display of vintage cars. I then walked back up the street stopping at more places on the way. Lynn eventually caught up wiht me and then we checked out the display of sewing machines  before getting some lovely hamburgers and eating them in the park.

 It was a lovely warm day but rather windy which made it tricky to take pictures of some of the outdoor displays.

Apart from the quilts hanging in the street the local quilters had set up displays and stalls in 2 of the halls. There were also a number of stalls in parks around the place. There were also 2 displays of related stuff. A display of lace in one place and a display of tapestry in a church which consisted of all the kneeling pads being covered in lovely tapestry.

 My favourite quilt

 quilts hanging in the street





 The local Convent with a double storey quilt display



 the blocks in this quilt are created by weaving pieces of material

 Even the blokes got roped in !!!

 A couple of quilts that caught my eye

Quilts hanging from the top verandah of the  pub

 A pattern I would reallllly like to make

 After visiting Northhampton we came home via Nabawa and Nanson 2 very small towns in the Chapman Valley. We also called into the Camping area at Fig tree to see haow many vans etc were there.