We are now in Perth, staying at a very nice caravan park in Fremantle, just south of the city. We had a good look around the old port of Fremantle when we arrived yesterday, driving around all the narrow streets and looking at all the old buildings. There were people eating outside at the many cafes and restaurants, old warehouses are now art galleries and the whole area is now very upmarket and trendy. After lunch and booking into the caravan park, we then drove into Perth, going to the beautiful Kings Park and Botanic Gardens which overlook the city. I [View Full Entry]

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The morning kept improving, so by the time we'd packed up ready to leave, we'd decided we'd head back down to Busselton and see it in the sunshine. What a difference a day makes - and so great to actually get some vitamin D which we've been missing these last few days. We parked and went into the shops on the edge of the Busselton jetty where, not only souveniers of the better variety were sold, there was also a museum telling the story of the long jetty. It was built in 1865, taking 95 years to complete the total 1841 [View Full Entry]

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We'd heard bad weather was expected in Perth and surrounds so we bunkered down another day in Margaret River - very glad we did as they had a mini tornado in Bunbury with quite a bit of damage. We were tossed a bit and had some heavy showers but stayed dry. We took advantage of a window of sunshine in the afternoon and drove into town for a bit of relief from cabin fever before it all began again. Yesterday we left Margaret River and once more had a pretty drive through farmland and vineyards till we came to Busselton. It's [View Full Entry]

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The road from Albany reminded us of coastal NSW - the occasional green farmland but mostly edged in lovely tall trees. These were the karri (as opposed to the Q’ld kauri) trees, tall, solid, straight and beautiful. Between Denmark and Walpole there is the Valley of the Giants - a treetop walk amongst the tall karris which we had done on our last trip so we passed it this time - great walk though. We drove on till we came to the timber town of Pemberton. There is a big mill at the edge of town and most of the little [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Esperance, we had a longish drive, stopping overnight at Jerramungup - one of the many towns ending in 'up' in this area - in the aboriginal Noongar language, ‘up’ means ‘place of’. Then it was a similar drive the next day though cattle country, sheep country, and wheat fields as far as the eye could see. As we got closer to Albany, the country changed to tree plantations - mostly eucalypts but a few pine trees. It's nine years since we were in Albany and it seems to have grown no end. It is a pretty and neat town, [View Full Entry]

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We left Norseman yesterday morning, driving through bush until finally the land opened out to wheat and sheep country. The few little towns were by railway lines where there were big silos for loading the wheat onto trains. We finally got to Port Augusta and drove around the waterfront - two big ships were in port, a huge silo at the wharf and a big jetty out into the bay. After driving around town, we drove up the lookout. There was a platform we could climb up which showed a 360 degree view. There are something like 101 islands out in [View Full Entry]

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We are back in Norsman after driving to Kalgoorlie yesterday and staying there overnight. The beautiful gums with the bronze trunks were quite prevalent on the way and everywhere as we came into the twin towns of Boulder and Kalgoorlie. This is the main area of the goldfields - and my primary school lessons of Paddy Hannan finding gold there in 1893 came flooding back. The main street in Kalgoorlie is Hannan Steet and there is a statue of the man himself in front of the town hall. There are signs of what a wealthy town it was in those days [View Full Entry]

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We have crossed the Nullarbor and arrived at Norseman. It's 4.30pm - 2 hours behind Sydney - and at last we have computer service (no phone service for me, though Doug has with his 3G, thank you Telstra). It has taken us three days to cross the Nullarbor. The first day seemed endless with the very sparse terrain, lots of rain and a bit of wind - the front we'd been staying at Ceduna to avoid! Our first night was at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, on a flat, barren part of the Plain, where there was a motel behind the roadhouse and [View Full Entry]

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We have had a second day at Ceduna, mainly because storms are expected on the Nullarbor and so we thought we'd be better off here than there. The sky is darkening so no doubt we'll have some heavy rain tonight - it's certainly needed. When we were walking around Ceduna yesterday we saw the Australian and Aboriginal flags flying at half-mast. Today there was a huge funeral where cars were banked up on all roads leading to the cemetery. Three teenagers were killed in a car crash just out of Ceduna - the car was stolen and doing 160 kph but [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we headed south to Port Lincoln which is on the very pretty Boston Bay. A huge grain silo dominates the waterfront and we found many of the tuna trawlers in a harbour at the back of the town. In a park is a statue of the horse Makybe Diva who won the Melbourne Cup three consecutive years. We drove all around town to have a good look and, after having lunch there, drove on then around the bottom of the Eyre Peninsular to the western side and to Coffin Bay. We wondered if the Coffin related to the pioneering Coffin [View Full Entry]

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