Regretfully it came time to move on, Perth is a lovely place and we had had a great time.
The plan was - after consultation with other travellers and locals, to travell to Esperance and see it now before the Christmas/Hollidays rush.
Through more and more paddocks of grains we went, touching on Lakes Grace and King and grabbing photos and gradually the paddocks started to contain more cattle and sheep.
In Kulin we found a caravan site, but were put off by how run down it was, we proceeded further down the road and found the new you beaut version, drive thru sites, gravel, new facilities, spent a comfortable night.
As we drove from the town next morning a feature was the 20klm Tinman Highway a series of inventive
'sculptures' made from pieces of farm machinery and hay, placed in the paddocks by the road by obviously
competitive farmers, trying to outdo each other, to the viewers benefit.
Overnighting in Ravensthorpe a quaint park surrounded by bush, it had a sandal/thong tree, toilet bowl planters and various 'artefacts', placed quirkily, murals on the amenities block, lots of pot plants. We noticed once again that a proportion of the occupants were working nearby, a phenomenon we are becoming used to.
Experiencing more and more cattle and sheep interspersing the grain paddocks as we pushed on next day.
We chose a beachfront park in Esperance which was very windy and bordering on cold, but that ensured the washing dried quick smart.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
CONTINUING PERTH
The weather gradually started to dry up and was somewhat windy instead, though not hot which was great.
We received a parcel of mail from home, some of which needed to be attended to and some just read, catch up on a few things. Meanwhile we continued to explore beautiful Perth using that brilliant transport system enjoying the beautiful architecture visiting the Asian Court food hall in Northbridge several times, it seems we both are hooked on Asian food.
On Saturday night we celebrated Penny's 60th birthday at her sister's home close to where we were living. One of the requirements as a guest was to wear a hat, so during the morning we went shopping, bought a phalanopsis orchid for Penny and managed to find a couple of interesting hats, diferent might be one way to describe them.
Penny's mother and sister in law had flown over from Hobart, there was a DJ playing catchy music, much dancing and after a yummy supper the birthday girl was serenaded, saluted, sparklers extinguished.
I had much pleasure catching up with Penny's handsome sons, Christoper whom I had known in Hobart and Stuart who was born in Perth.
We received a parcel of mail from home, some of which needed to be attended to and some just read, catch up on a few things. Meanwhile we continued to explore beautiful Perth using that brilliant transport system enjoying the beautiful architecture visiting the Asian Court food hall in Northbridge several times, it seems we both are hooked on Asian food.
On Saturday night we celebrated Penny's 60th birthday at her sister's home close to where we were living. One of the requirements as a guest was to wear a hat, so during the morning we went shopping, bought a phalanopsis orchid for Penny and managed to find a couple of interesting hats, diferent might be one way to describe them.
Penny's mother and sister in law had flown over from Hobart, there was a DJ playing catchy music, much dancing and after a yummy supper the birthday girl was serenaded, saluted, sparklers extinguished.
I had much pleasure catching up with Penny's handsome sons, Christoper whom I had known in Hobart and Stuart who was born in Perth.
PERTH
An uneventful trip and 2 hours later we were setting up in Karrinyup Waters a very nicely appointed c/park, clean amenties, a couple of picturesque 'lakes', containing some waterfowl and other creatures. some green grass areas and located in Gwelup. We set out our annexe and began to get to know our surroundings.
We deduced that a lot of people actually live here and go to work as sometimes there is 2 cars per site and they go off and come back at the same times.
The weather is patchy and thunderstorms are continuing, we drove to look at some of the many beautiful beaches but they were not at their best in the rain, the locals are assuring us that this weather is unusual, but it doesn' t bother us, in fact we like a bit of 'weather'.
A $1.50 (seniors rates) bus ride took us to the Stirling Railway Station and from there that ticket took us on trains and buses all the rest of the day, then in Perth City there are 3 different, free bus routes on which you can hop on hop off as often as you like. Well, we went around several times didn't we, looking at some of the beautiful buildings and marvelling at others, hopped on and off several times, had a nice lunch, then bus and trained back home, lovely, I particularly enjoy train travel.
We did something similar another day in Fremantle, also with 2 different free bus routes, then we hopped off and walked to see other things close up.
John has been to see some of his old friends at Capricorn Society and visited others at their homes.
My friend Penny and I have caught up by phone and have other plans.
Perth is a beautiful city, we observed it from several locations on King's Park which overlooks the Swan River and the city.
Tina and Andrew took us to lunch at Hillary's harbour on Sunday, a lovely location.
We deduced that a lot of people actually live here and go to work as sometimes there is 2 cars per site and they go off and come back at the same times.
The weather is patchy and thunderstorms are continuing, we drove to look at some of the many beautiful beaches but they were not at their best in the rain, the locals are assuring us that this weather is unusual, but it doesn' t bother us, in fact we like a bit of 'weather'.
A $1.50 (seniors rates) bus ride took us to the Stirling Railway Station and from there that ticket took us on trains and buses all the rest of the day, then in Perth City there are 3 different, free bus routes on which you can hop on hop off as often as you like. Well, we went around several times didn't we, looking at some of the beautiful buildings and marvelling at others, hopped on and off several times, had a nice lunch, then bus and trained back home, lovely, I particularly enjoy train travel.
We did something similar another day in Fremantle, also with 2 different free bus routes, then we hopped off and walked to see other things close up.
John has been to see some of his old friends at Capricorn Society and visited others at their homes.
My friend Penny and I have caught up by phone and have other plans.
Perth is a beautiful city, we observed it from several locations on King's Park which overlooks the Swan River and the city.
Tina and Andrew took us to lunch at Hillary's harbour on Sunday, a lovely location.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
THE GOLDEN PIPELINE
At Mundaring Weir in the Darling Range, is the No 1 Pump Station for the 'Golden Pipeline' which was designed and built by CY O'Connor in 1898-1902 to send 5-6 million gallons of water to the Goldfields of Kalgoorlie where water is very scarce.
There is a museum run by the National Trust and we enjoyed touring it and we marvelled at the enormous and very successful project.
There is a museum run by the National Trust and we enjoyed touring it and we marvelled at the enormous and very successful project.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
CHARMING BEVERLEY
Time to put all those wonderful granite rock shapes behind us, we tootled off to find a chemist at Corrigin, to get monthly medications, then Brookton council c/park, nah! not nice - up the road 30 klms was Beverley, clean, newly done up, well priced; so we have set up for a week.
Exploring the little township of 1300 souls including the surrounding districts, very quiet and peaceful and the next day is WA's Queens Birthday Holiday, so most of the very few shops were shut, anyway I took advantage of the free washing facilities and "washed up a storm".
Saturday the shops were open and we set off to shop and do the walking tour of the town, then drove out to the hang gliding fields and watched a glider being towed up in the air, detached, spend time circling in the sky then return, for half an hour it cost him $150 and he was ecstatic.
We spent the rest of the day driving across beautiful rolling hills to York, where the architecture was very beautiful and dated from 1853 to around the turn of the century.
Monday we drove 130 klm through the Darling Ranges to Perth to checkout and choose a caravan park for the end of this week.
The rest of our time we pottered around, doing chores, sheltering from 32 deg heat on a couple of days resting and reorganizing.
Friday off to the big smoke - Perth.
Exploring the little township of 1300 souls including the surrounding districts, very quiet and peaceful and the next day is WA's Queens Birthday Holiday, so most of the very few shops were shut, anyway I took advantage of the free washing facilities and "washed up a storm".
Saturday the shops were open and we set off to shop and do the walking tour of the town, then drove out to the hang gliding fields and watched a glider being towed up in the air, detached, spend time circling in the sky then return, for half an hour it cost him $150 and he was ecstatic.
We spent the rest of the day driving across beautiful rolling hills to York, where the architecture was very beautiful and dated from 1853 to around the turn of the century.
Monday we drove 130 klm through the Darling Ranges to Perth to checkout and choose a caravan park for the end of this week.
The rest of our time we pottered around, doing chores, sheltering from 32 deg heat on a couple of days resting and reorganizing.
Friday off to the big smoke - Perth.
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