Geraldton to Perth and beyond

Geraldton was a car stop, ie, service for the car and some front suspension work (a rubber thingy needed replacing). Monday the car was in town bright and early but first dropped off the tvan awning to get repaired. Wally gave us some sight seeing suggestions: 'the Dome' for brekky on the foreshore…mmmmmmm thoroughly recommend it and watched the tug boats pull in the ships to get loaded with iron ore, then walked along the foreshore to the museum, also worth a look - settlement information, ship wreck history and the story of the Kormoran and the HMAS Sydney (II) back in 1941.

Then onto the Northgate shopping centre to have a bit of a look and I got a hair cut, grabbed a bite for lunch and the car was ready but the rubber thingy has to come from Perth so they need the car again tomorrow. We picked up the awning, $100 for one eyelet repaired and the other five to be reinforced…we were happy with that. Went around the corner and got a stone chip repaired for $66 and that was our day. Tuesday not so early but back to Mitsubishi for the rubber thingy to be replaced and we went for a walk to the HMAS Sydney (II) Memorial that was quite beautiful; a steel dome made up of 645 seagulls, one for every person who was lost at sea, a bronze statue of a woman looking out to sea waiting for her loved one to return, and a granite wall with all the crew's names, very well done.

 

 

 Back down to the mall and do a bit of window shopping and bought a few bibs and bobs and then picked up the car and went out to the aquarena, I swam a few laps of the pool while Steve sat on the laptop with the free wifi and had coffee. (He didn’t have his cossie). That arvo back at camp Steve cooked up another roast in the saucepan, he’s got it down pat. I got the clothes off the line and they were covered in Lady bird beetles…I have never seen so many. I had to fold up the clothes outside, shaking everything and turning everything inside out and back again, even the pegs were covered. Back at the tvan, the canvas was also covered with the lady beetles, so many we swept them off with the broom (they were every where). Another windy night and we got up earlier than normal this morning, because it was blowing an absolute gale we could not put anything down outside for fear it would blow away. We packed up as quick a possible, flicking off lady beetles here, there and every where and we were out of there!
We are sticking to the bitumen for a while now south to Perth and down through the south west and probably till we get back to the east. A stop at Greenough to have scones and tea, a look at the historical area and the leaning tree.

I think this is the most photographed tree in the area maybe in the state, just shows how the predominent winds affects the landscape.  We didn't go through the historical precinct today mainly because it was very hot and the flies are so bad...the alpacas don't help and the flies are in your ears, up your nose, sit on your eyelashes and in your mouth...pttttff!
Took a turn off to the east to look at Alinta Wind Farm - 54 wind turbines and quite amazing standing beside one and hearing the noise it makes as the blades rotate.  there is plenty of wind around today to keep the blades turning...can't even keep a hat on!!!

one of the blades at ground level

Then on to Ellendale Pool (camping area here $5/night with toilets and picnic tables) that runs through its own little gorge, good for canoeing but not for swimming...if the water temp gets over 24C there is a risk of amoebic meningitis being present and there is no cure for that apparently.  So if you swim you don't want to put your head in the water or plug up every orifice on your person, lol.  We ate lunch here, started out on the picnic table with all the food to make a sandwich and ended up eating it in the car...flies!!!

From here we drove through the farm area on some gravel roads and turned on the GPS to find our way back to Dongara/Port Denison.  We started hearing a doink noise every so often along the gravel and more and more and we realised there were grasshoppers/locusts jumping up off the road and hitting the car, the windscreen and even the boxes on the roof but not too many that we had to get out and clean then out of the radiator...thank you God.
Got into Dongara and drove around - saw the old 4 storey wool store building that has been privately bought and has been getting renovated since 2008.  First 2 floors were finished by 2010 and now I think the top 2 floors are a work in progress.  Out to the water edge and the marina/lookout at Port Denison.

From here the drive down the WA coast was all lookouts and small seaside towns, we looked into a few and by passed a few.  The lookouts were all farmland out to the east and the Indian Ocean out to the west and little beachside towns in between...Leeman, Green Head, etc

We stopped at Sandy Cape Recreation Park, it was about 4 pm when we arrived (3pm is the latest we have found to arrive so we can get a better choice of camp spots) and not much to choose from but we are only here over night, $15/night, we took the turn off to the north end and parked at the base of the dunes.  Had a lovely beach for swimming and fishing if you wanted to stay for a while.

 

We shelter the kitchen from the easterly winds but no shelter for the flapping canvas and the flies...we are told now the wind is so strong from the east the flies are all getting blown out to the coast and we are also told the mozzies aren't too far away, from Perth onwards the mozzies will be in full force and Ross River can be a problem.
Caught  up on a few Zzzzzz this arvo and Steve had happy hour on his own, took some photos of the sun setting and cooked dinner.

 

I am still finding lady beetles in the tvan...I don't know what the gestation period is for lady beetles but I am starting to find little ones, now we have our own mobile breeding program happening in the tvan.
Well last night was no better, no sleep between midnight and 4am, I don't know if the wind eases or we just fall asleep out of pure exhaustion.  We are only 13km north of Jurien Bay so we head there and found a reserve by the beach and had brekky and then drove around the town to have a look, nice clear water here for snorkelling and diving I think.
Another 40km and we are at Cervantes and the place to go here is 'the Pinnacles', sand and limestone eroded by wind and water leaving cores of stone standing in a desert like surround.  the Pinnacles is in Nambung NP so entry fee ($12) for the vehicle unless you have a parks pass.  There is a 4km drive through and you can't tow anything we would have had to unhook the tvan and leave it in the carpark or a 1.2km walk to the Desert Lookout and a Loop walk back of 1.5km - we chose the walk(with our fly nets on under our hats).  We bought our fly nets in a big general store in Swansea Tasmania for $2 each, thinking that we may need them further on during our trip and its the best $2 ever spent.  The Pinnacles are quite amazing, haven't seen anything like this on our trip before.

 

 

Next we pulled into Nilgen Lookout -  we saw ppl waving their arms around and shooing flies...no thanks...didn't get out just drove on.  Past the turn off for Lancelin, Ledge Point and pulled into a roadside rest area for lunch.  Got out to test the 'air space' up at the picnic table and take a pic of a banksia - no way are we eating there...flies and we haven't even got the food out.  We got out everything we needed for lunch and hopped straight back into the front seat of the car. 
We are getting close to Perth  but we don't have to be there for a couple more nights so we stop at Moore River free camp and with two van already here the only place to park is near the highway so we made a cuppa...sat in the car to drink it...and while we were studying the Camp 6 book to see where to next one of the vans pulled out and left so we took his spot.
We set up fighting the flies and still finding lady beetles and I sit inside the tvan, in the shade of a tree with a slight breeze...please let it stay this way for the night, we need some sleep!  We chill out now and wait for the sun to go down and wait for the flies to disappear and then try and cook dinner with the night time bugs and moths haha.  Our neighbour traveller comes and tells us a local drove in to tell us a fire is about 3km down the road but the wind has died and changed direction but be ready just in case...great!
We had no fire evac and a peaceful, wind free night and off again this morning. 
Our next stop is Yanchep National Park,  this Np is a little different than the others we have seen.  Yanchep has a large area of park land with its own Inn for accommodation, a wetland walk, mountain walks, limestone caves, the only koalas in natural habitat in WA, visitors centre and Tea Room/kiosk and picnic spots galore.  Again you pay a vehicle access fee into the NP, we had lunch here and went for a walkthrough the wild flower area, the koalas and the bush and saw a bit of the bird life...beautiful place.

bees active in the koala area

 

 

We head straight into Perth after Yanchep and all the cars, trucks and auto mobiles, OMG, traffic lights and all that goes with city living; we make it to a top tourist caravan park in Gwelup and book in for 4 nights.  We have a lovely family camping next door, Mick, Kate and their lovely boys, Jack, Billy and Tom.  They are having an unexpected stop with car trouble,  and we can sympathize with them after our own in Port Macquarie.
Today is Saturday 26 October, and we sat around for a while and ended up going for a drive down the coast road along till Cottesloe but it was so busy we could not park anywhere and there was an ambulance blocking the road, we think a cyclist had been hit (everyone here are running, cycling, walking at 3.30pm...what the)  so we took a detour and ended up going to Kings Park and the Botanical Gardens in all its glory and that was busy too.

We saw 4 weddings going on with limos, hummas, ford custom line and mustangs all stretch vehicles.  It was such a beautiful day no wonder everyone was out.
Sunday was the first day of the Fremantle Festival so we went to 'Freo' on the train and walked our little legs off.  Went to the markets bought fruit and vege, The wharf where lots of cooking things going on for the festival, bought fish and chips and went and sat in the park and ate beside where they were setting up the fireworks for the night festivities, then on to the E Shed markets, there were buskers and entertainment in the mall and we just had a general nice day.

Monday we took our car to get tuned, this tune was done in Brisbane and Steve was not happy so after making comment on a 4WD forum online the company guy from Sydney replied to Steve's comment and rang us while we were in Pt Augusta SA and offered to get the job to get redone at no cost, first in Adelaide but as we had already past there we were offered Perth...so here we are.  We were driven to the bus stop after dropping the car off and headed into Perth CBD. I found myself getting a little bit impatient on the bus, stopping and starting in the traffic, city life...bah hum bug!
We spent another day walking our little legs off again in the CBD and we just roamed around, first found a croissant café for brekky and then just walked around the shops,

went to the Ferry Quay to the Bell Tower that was built as a Millenium Project in the year 2000 and it houses 18 bells of different sizes, the oldest inscribed 1727 from England and the bells are rung during 12 and 1pm by bell ringers.  You can go up in the tower for $14 each but today finding ourselves a bit short of cash, we watched the bell ringers and the bells ringing on a live feed video in the gift shop foyer.










Walked to the water edge of the Swan River and sat by the rowing club house and ate an ice cream.

Back up to the city to the post office

to send Scotty a parcel to Canada and sat there watching some kids playing in the water fountain until it was time to catch the bus and pick up the car.

Tuesday it was time to move on and were thinking to the Swan Valley region.  Mick and Kate got their car back and were heading off too.  We also met  Pascal, a lady in a wheel chair parked behind us in a coaster bus graffitied with the words 'Duct Tape Surfing'.  We had read on the front page of a newspaper in SA about Pascal being duct taped to the back of a guy and that's how she can go surfing...after that story she sort of went viral around the country in the newspapers and the Today Show.  She has a broken leg atm and is stuck in the Caravan Park and she can't wait to get back in the water.
We said our good byes and headed out of Perth, not really knowing where to go we headed...out.  We stopped and had lunch, once again in the car and decided to head back to the coast and ended up in Rockingham, south of Perth.

memorial for HMAS Derwent

more of our resources leaving the country

Looking toward Rockingham Foreshore

Rockingham has the largest grain storage in the southern hemisphere

Nice place, so nice Steve said he would live here...WHAT!!!  Its the only place I've been to that has a sign like this: bottom line!!!

Wednesday we went to the local aquatic centre and swam a few laps and then drove down to the foreshore and made our own lunch in the park by the beach and it a beautiful area and then we drove out to Cape Peron, out past the HMAS Sterling Naval Base, and watched some guys snorkelling, the water is so clear here we watched a cormorant swimming through the water, 

then we went for a drive south to the ferry for Penguin Island,

we missed the penguin feeding times for the day so we didn't bother going over to the island, we sat at the café and Steve had a coffee and I had an ice block...today has been about 35C but it certainly doesn't feel like it and finally no gale forced winds.  Our time since we arrived in Perth has been an absolute delight.
Thursday 31 Oct:  we are doing a bit of a clean up as we have found lots of sand and dirt that has obviously blown in to everything on our last month of travel.
Friday 1 November, and we are heading to Gidgegannup to see Steve's sister, Jenny for a couple of days.  Gidgee is in the Perth Hills and a beautiful drive to their property.  As soon as we met up with Jenny we also met her off siders; Currie and Honey

and soon after had a walk around to meet the horses, Libby, Dude, Missy and DJ and we were made to feel right at home.

On Saturday  Jenny and her daughter, Leanne, took us for a drive through the Swan Valley winery area and we did one better than wine; we did food!!!
We visited chocolate factories (free samples),

olive oils, jams and relishes,

lavender products, coffee houses and cafes, nougat factory,

 Morish Nuts,

German Restaurant for lunch,

honey factory for ice cream and more samples, a rum distillery,

and lastly one more chocolate factory. 

By the end of the day we were stuffed, we ate and tasted so many things I couldn't even try the chocolates I bought.
On Sunday Jenny had a marshalling job to do at a horse show so Steve and I went for a drive around the country side...firstly Noble Falls/picnic area

then stopped at a quaint historical town called Toodyay,

on through the Avon area on to Northam and finally through York; on our return I recognized a sign for a town called Chidlow and Lake Leuchenaltia so off we went to the Lake and found a man made lake where lots of families go and swim  in a beautiful picnic area with kiosk/restaurant and it has a camping area.

We walked around, bought ice blocks and we were back on our way to ... we had to stop at a real estate to get the directions for the short cut back to the property because we knew we were close.  The end of the day we walked down to Jenny's in-laws (Frank and Ida) house on the property to have a chat (while Jenny was checking their sprinkler system) and collected mulberries, the tree was chockers and I ate a few straight off the tree, haven't done that for a long time, and Jenny cooked them up and we had them for dessert with ice cream.....mmmmmm.
Monday, after brekky and meeting a friend of Jenny's, Karen, we had morning tea with Frank and Ida, Jenny whipped up some scones with jam and cream and then Jenny drove us to a town called New Norcia, this town was established in 1847 by the Benedictine Monks and monastery, church and housing was built.

There is a very grand guest hotel where we had lunch

and then drove around and looked at the buildings that make up the place.

There is more to see on a two hour tour and museum for next time; we had a huge day.
We have had a wonderful stay with Jenny, who has taken the time out of her busy life to look after us so well; thanks Jenny!!!

Tuesday it is time to leave and get ourselves sorted and back to Perth for a night...before we go to Bali...soon I will be half a century old and Steve is taking 'us' to Nusa Dua, to celebrate.
We will be back in Perth on the 15th November.

Till Then, Cheers

Andy and Steve