Sunday 21st Our northward venture continued from Kalbarri eastward out to the Brand highway (Also known as the North West Coastal Highway) through the Kalbarri National Park. The countryside here is gentle rolling country and easy driving, with the usual for Australia, watch for Kangaroos and emus. The countryside here is again coastal heath as seen in many parts of Australia, only the plants are taller. More rain/nutrition, but not suited for agriculture. Marg was at the wheel and we were passed by a truckie who was unaware that his ice-cream truck back door was swinging open wildly. Marg flashed headlights, tooted the horn and I tried several times on UHF Ch 40 to make contact and alert the driver, but to no avail. About 20 Ks later we caught up with him as he had ... read more

BRRRRR, it was really cold this morning. The el-cheapo thermometer in the MH even refused to give a number for the temperature. Apparently this morning was the coldest morning on record this year at Kalbarri, and adding to the low temp was a steady breeze adding a chill factor. However, as intrepid seekers of photo opportunities, we rallied and the four of us went into the Kalbarri National Park. This park covers a huge area, but today we wanted to visit Nature's window and Z Bend. The road into the park has been closed for some time, and as a school holiday concession, it would be opened briefly today, Saturday and Sunday, then closed until October. The road (through sandy/rocky heathland) had badly deteriorated, and there was a need for new toilets and parking areas to ... read more

We have had a great couple of months in Perth before today heading off to tackle stage two of our trip around The Block. Our family have been building a new home north of Perth so we have enjoyed seeing the progress from a concrete slab when we arrived to a house close to lock up. Their home looks to be very spacious, and they have taken care with sun angles for their layout as they do have long hot summers here. We have spent weekends with them enjoying a great variety of different activities. Ben is a Lego Maniac not only building to plan, but adapting ideas creating some great items. He has been building houses over the last couple of weeks and has made quicker progress than Mum and Dad. Beckie is a potential ... read more

Travel is full of surprises, and we had one this week that has adjusted our planning a little. We had planned to leave Yanchep (Perth) on 10th July, but we have found that the Kalbarri National Park road is closed for major upgrade, but provision has been made for access during the WA school holidays. So we will stay here for another week or so. During the week we made good use of the Perth transport system. We took an early bus from Yanchep to Clarkson station, and then two trains to get us to Fremantle - about 2 hours as the bus does an amazing Tiki Tour. Sorry, maybe Cooks Tour might be better understood. The days travel was marred by the writer leaving the small rucksack on the bus. (Fortunately we were able to ... read more

Do you like visiting the zoo? I do, Marg does, but we had one grandchild that was a little uncertain, but came along anyway. Most major cities, and indeed some smaller centres run zoos, some formal, some more like a safari park. Perth Zoo is formalish, located in beautiful park lands with well signposted paths and maps pointing to the various types of animals/birds etc. You do need to put aside a whole day for the visit. We walked for 5 hours and still skipped big chunks of the park. Many Perth families become 'Friends of the Zoo' and can come and go as often as they wish, but for visitors that's not practical. We were impressed by the park even before we looked at the interesting creatures in their displays. The trees and shrubs are ... read more