An up date of where we have been and what we have done.

Have managed to get really good internet access - so have uploaded photos for all blogs from Hutt River to today. YAY!!!!  Barb 12/9/12
We have had quite a few stops where the internet access has been fluctuating and pretty poor.  I have made notes for each day and this is where were are at now.  I will not be trying to upload the photos as it takes too long with the limited access.  Enjoy the diatribe anyway and when we do manage to get a good access I will go back and tryn and upload the relevant photos.
Sunday 5^th August.  Today we went to Alan and Julies place and spent a fantastic day enjoying their company.  We went for a walk around their neighbourhood and then spent the evening with them also.  On our way back to the house we noted that our front right tyre was going flat.  Darryl pumped it up but we will have to get it checked tomorrow.
Monday 6^th August.  Up at about 7.30 and off to Alan and Julie’s.  On the way we stopped in and had Darryl’s INR done and then went to the ‘tyrepower’ store to get the tyre checked.  It was very flat this morning and we had to reinflate it.  It turned out that it was just that the valve had worked loose and the guys tightened it and checked the tyre for punctures.  We then arrived at Alan and Julie’s at about 10.30am.  Into Alan’s car and off for a visit to the King’s Park [400 hectares of parklands, picnic areas and natural bush and includes the War Memorial]

Black Kangaroo paw

Qualup Bell

Banksia

 and is right in the middle of town.  We were able to take Buster along as well which was good.  We enjoyed rambling along the paths and checking out all the flowers and flowering trees.  Darryl and Alan went for a walk on the ‘skywalk’ whilst Julie and I took Buster down the Law Walk and then re-joined the guys as they came off their walk.

War Memorial

Eternal flame

We then stopped at the café for a coffee before heading back to their home and a BBQ tea.  As we arrived back at the house it started to rain and Julie said it was because she had said the BBQ words.
We had had a fantastic sunny day in at the park so we could not have asked for anything better.
Tuesday 7^th August.  Today we got the ‘housework done’ and then headed out to Hillarys boat Harbour to meet up with some Australian Baby Boomer [ABB] forum members.  It was really good to meet Vic and Carol, John and Irona.  We had a lovely 3 hours with them and then we got Buster out of the car and they also enjoyed meeting him also.  We will have to get together when we are next in WA.  Vic and Darryl had a good time talking about the RAAF and also finding out that they both know Brian – whom we are going to see tomorrow.  What a small world.
We left them so that they could get through the city before the afternoon peak hour traffic started.  We then headed back to the van park and I got the washing and drying done.
Wednesday 8^th August.  Up about 7.30 and then headed out to Tapping to meet up with Brian and June Hussey, whom Darryl had met on an exercise in Learmonth many years ago.  They are an over 50’s village and they have a lovely home.  They invited Buster in and he had a lovely time off his leash.  It is great having him with us, but it is sad that he has to be on his leash whenever he is out of the caravan or the car.  It is very difficult to find places that allow dogs to have an ‘off-leash’ free run.  We spent the full day here and got back to the van at 7pm.
Thursday 9^th August.  A free morning this morning and then we were joined by our friends Faye and Arthur.  They had arrived in Perth yesterday evening.  Was lovely catching up and trying to plan when next we would meet. J.
Friday 10^th August.  Today we went and did the shopping ready for moving on tomorrow.  We also bathed Buster. Our displeasure with this park has not dissipated. We KNOW that the cleaner goes into the amenities every day but I doubt very much that he mops the floors or sweeps them.  There are collections of grit in the corners of the toilet and shower cubicles and then laundry tubs have not been cleaned for the whole week.  At the cost that they are charging for us to stay here – they should be spick and span and gleaming!!!!!!
Tonight we went round to Alan and Julie’s and enjoyed a dinner at their home. photos of plants in their garden.......

It was great reminiscing about our childhood and Aunty Nancy and Uncle Billy. It was good to see Cameron again before we left Perth but sad that we could not see Erin or Michael and their partners/families – maybe next visit.  There is so much to see in this part of the country, that we will definitely be back.
Saturday 11^th August.  We headed south today to Mandurah and called into the visitors centre and waited to meet up with my crafting friend – Hanna. 

The original European settler of the Mandurah area was Thomas Peel who sold land, surveyed roads and imported stock.  He named the area Mandurah, derived from the Aboriginal word ‘mandjar’ which means ‘trading place’ or ‘meeting place’.

 The lake near the info centre

 a blossom at Pinjarra

We spent a lovely few hours in her company and she took us for a drive to Pinjarra and to her lovely home.  Buster got star treatment at her home.  Back to the caravan and then we headed south again.  At 5.30pm we pulled into the John Tognela Rest areas on the Forrest Highway and made our camp for the night.   It was coming over dark very quickly and Hanna messaged to say that there was a strong wind warning for the south-west.  Then the rain started. L.
Sunday 12^th August.  We were up at 7.30 and had breakfast listening to the rain that continues to fall.  We do not hate the rain – just thinking it would be nice if it wasn’t quite so heavy.  We headed south toward Bunbury and pulled into MacDonald’s.  We worked out how Darryl could get more books onto his Kindle using the computer – and just had to find a Wi-Fi hotspot to get them to download.  He managed to download two more before the connection kept dropping out.  That will have to do him for a while. J.  We then continued on our way to the south-east to Donnybrook and booked into the Transit Park for the next two nights.  We will spend the afternoon here in the van and then go sight-seeing in the morning.  We are going to go to Dardanup and visit Gnomesville.

Known as the Apple Capital of the South West, Donnybrook emerged from small beginnings as a goldfield to a giant in the fruit industry.  With thanks to an ‘Anonymous’ community benefactor and the great hearts of numerous volunteers, Donnybrook can now also boast about having the ‘Biggest Free Entry Fun Park’ in all of Australia.  The fun park caters to the young and young at heart; from the smallest feet to those whose boots we all strive to fit one day.

Monday 13^th August. Today we went to the visitors centre in Donnybrook and then headed out to the place called Gnomesville.  This started as 5 gnomes on the roundabout but grew and grew and grew.  Eventually vandals started to demolish the gnomes so a local farmer cordoned off part of his land and moved the gnomes.  They now cover an area that goes 600metres up one road and about 200metres down another.

Smurf Gnomes!!!

see the post of Gnomesville for more photos, please.

There are gnomes everywhere, up trees, in stumps, in the creek, on the banks, anywhere that you can think of.  It is absolutely fantastic.  Thousands upon thousands of gnomes.

We then went to the King Jarrah Tree but unfortunately someone has souvenired the sign that points to it.  We eventually found it and were a little disappointed with it but got photos anyway.
Back on the road to Dardanup and detoured to the Ferguson Falls Winery and tried their wines and jams and chutneys; hmmm got 2 wines and a relish and a jam. 

parrots know as '27's'

grass trees with 'drumsticks'

 Back on the road to Dardanup; then onto Boyanup, and got lovely pies and drinks for lunch.  Back to the Donnybrook and wandered the street and took photos of quite a few flowers in the main street.  Then Darryl went to the bakery and got Afternoon tea and dessert for tonight.

pea flower

grevillea

Back to the park and settle in with the rain.  Darryl then went and got Pizza for dinner.  Very well done Eagle Boys :)
Tuesday 14^th August.  Awoke to the sound of rain but then we had sunshine.  We connected the van to the car between showers of rain :)
Left Donnybrook at 10am and drove via Capel to Busselton and Margaret River.  This took just on 2 hours.  We had rain squalls on and off throughout the drive and when we arrived at the Big Valley Campsite we had a sleety rain.  Took us a little while to get set up for the five nights that we will be here and then we had lunch.

view from the van when we had set up

next morning

The settlement of Margaret River can be attributed to the Group Settlement Scheme of the 1920’s, when some 100 settlers found themselves setting up industries with the assistance of the Government Scheme.  The town is situated on the Margaret River approximately 10kms from the ocean and lies amidst lush green pastures and forests.  The area also boasts ‘Australia’s Most Magnificent Caves’ with over 350 limestone caves scattered. 
Wineries – Margaret River is one of the world’s great winemaking regions.  There are reportedly 200 wineries and boutique breweries in the Margaret River region.

I started to get a headache behind my eyes just after lunch (2.45) and then went to lie down.  It eventually went away.
Buster is enjoying it here as it is on a sheep station and he has a whole paddock where he is able to run free amongst the lambs and the sheep.  It is beautiful and green and lots of lovely lambs.
The showers look rustic but when you open the corrugated iron doors the amenities are spick and span and new.  There is a nice laundry and dryer and then a large BBQ area with gas stoves as well as BBQ.  Nice big tables to sit at and there is also a communal fire pit where you can have a fire after 7pm - weather permitting.  They also provide the wood for you to burn. 
We are only 11 km out of Margaret River and down a 2 km dirt road, quiet rural setting - lovely.
Wednesday 15^th August. Faye and Arthur contacted us to let us know that they too are in Margaret River.  We are to meet them in town at Yahava Koffee for morning tea.

a guinea fowl roaming around the paddock behind the van

a panorama of the view behind the van

We headed into town early to have Darryl's INR done and then to meet Faye and Arthur.  By the time we had the blood test done it was to find Faye and Arthur near the car.  They are staying at Gracetown Caravan Park about 10minutes NW of Margaret River.  We wandered the street and had a nice long visit at the visitors information centre and then we wandered back to the car - got Buster out for a wander and then stopped and had lunch.  We then headed our different ways and will meet up tomorrow at the Lake Cave at 10am.
Darryl and I then went for a drive up the road toward Busselton and through Cowaramup (we have been told it is pronounced core-am-up) where there are lots of lovely cow and calf statues throughout the town. 

Buster saying 'hello'!

Waiting, waiting......

MuKau (moo cow)

 Apparently all down this part of the country they had a ‘cow parade’ and these are some of the cows that were on display; we also took photos of Beckett's flat and Beckett Road :)

 

Yucka Lily

driving into Big Valley Campsite

 

and then we stopped in at the Margaret River Diary company and got some cheese for happy hour and tomorrows nibbles.
Back to the van and Darryl made a lovely beef and vegie soup for dinner whilst I did some washing and tried to get it dry in the dryer.  I will hang the heavy stuff out tomorrow whilst we are out - as it is supposed to be lovely and sunny.
We spent about an hour and a half chatting to the couple next door and enjoyed their camp fire.
Thursday 16^th August. We left home at 9.30 this morning and made our way to Lake Cave to meet up with Faye and Arthur.  They were already there when we arrived.
We went on our tour DOWN, DOWN, DOWN into the cave.  325 steps DOWN to be exact!!!!!!  It was pretty dark down there and I was thankful that I had taken my head torch with me just in case.  It was an interesting cave and the 'floating table' was amazing.

down, down, down.......

Lake cave, which recently celebrated its 100^th year as a tourist cave, has been entirely refit to fully show off its delicate formations and famous reflective lake, and the floating table formation.

Floating Table - can you see the reflection in the water under the 'table'???

Once the tour was finished we had to walk the 325 steps BACK UP to the top! :P
 Going down was bad for me because it was quite steep but coming back up gave all of us our aerobic exercise for the day. 

found this little critter on the way up

moss everywhere.........

We then went to the coffee shop for MT.  Back into the cars and headed to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin.  This 40 minute drive took us just on an hour.  Some very pretty Karri Forest through this area and lots of Yucca lilies growing wild in the forest.

Karri trees

Augusta was settled in 1830 and is situated on the banks of the beautiful Blackwood River and Hardy Inlet where it meets the Southern Ocean.  Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is 9kms south of Augusta on the most South-western point of Western Australia.  The lighthouse provides a vital link to the navigational and meteorological networks in Australia.

We called in to the old water wheel just before the lighthouse.  This old water wheel used to be powered by a natural spring that would turn the wheel and make power for the light house. 

Now the wheel has got so much calcium deposit on it that it looks like it is turning to stone.  We stayed here long enough to make our lunch, boil the kettle and eat lunch. 
Back into the car and up the short distance to the lighthouse.  Here it cost us $5 each to wander through the grounds to check things out.  We could have climbed the lighthouse and its 176 steps but our knees and hips were still letting us know about our earlier effort that we gave that a miss.  We found some lovely flowers here which we have yet to identify. 

?Orchid ?succulent ?????

They look like they are growing either from a bulb or from a succulent and they are black.  Lovely flower though. The ladies in the front office didn’t know what we meant until Faye showed them a photo.  The weather today has been very overcast and the occasional feelings of a rain spray but otherwise dry.

Faye checking out the cow

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Daz and Me - the wind was Bl--dy cold :D

 

Buster was left at the van with plenty of food and water but when we returned it was to find that he had NOT eaten or drunk anything.  A couple of the other residents said that he was a good dog all day and sat in his chair and watched them work the sheep and lambs.  He is now sitting in his bed at my feet and snoring loudly after eating dinner and drinking his water bowl dry – twice! :P :D
Friday 17^th August.  Today we up the highway toward Busselton and went to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. 

 red flowering gum

 

a grevillea

Lovely chocolate with a lovely price also – which was a bit disappointing. A small block of Chocolate was $12 – so we decided that our taste of their chocolate drops would be enough to suffice. J We saw some flowers growing along the path to the front door and are not sure if they were Kangaroo paw or Cat’s paws.

 Red Kangaroo Paw or Cat's Paw???

Busselton was one of the earliest settlements in Western Australia in 1830.  The town is named after the Bussell family, and soon established itself as a leading port with the export of timber.

 Will have to try and work it out.  From here we went to the nuts and cereal farm and got some lovely biscuits and muesli.  We then went to another chocolate shop called Gabriel’s.  This was nearly as expensive as the first but dealt with specific chocolates from overseas and mainly dark chocolate. They had some lovely black Kangaroo paws growing in their front garden and in the field next door there were lots and lots of Yucca lilies.

Yucca lilies everywhere through the field

  There are fields of them all along the Caves Road down to Augusta.  We went for a drive to Yarringup and found it very disappointing – you follow the road down and around to the cove, there are houses sprouting all up the cliff face, and then there are buildings and – nothing!!!. 

So we turned around and headed back out to the main road and then towards Busselton.  It was at this time that we realised that we had ¾ hour to get back to The Berry Farm, near our campsite to meet up with Faye and Arthur for afternoon tea.  So off we went.  We made it with five minutes to spare.  The ‘cottage’ that houses the café had a lovely bush of Daphne growing out the front in a lovely pot. 

Daphne flower

 I stood in front of it and inhaled deeply several times and relived the aroma from my childhood, when Mum had a large Daphne outside my bedroom window.  This is one plant that I have tried to grow but have been unsuccessful.  The other is a vine called ‘pyrostegia’ and it is growing everywhere over here grrr…
When we finished AT we headed back to our campsite to show Faye and Arthur and we took Buster for a long walk up through the paddock with the orphaned lambs in it.  We had him running from Darryl to myself for about 10 minutes and really tuckered him out. J.
We then made dinner and joined the other campers at a campfire up near the BBQ area and found out that two of our new neighbours come from Beaudesert and Chambers Flat and then another couple come from Wagga Wagga.  It is such a small world.

Saturday 18^th August.  Today started out slow and there was a very heavy dew this morning.  The external temp got down to 3 degrees and we had condensation on everything – even dripping from the air vents in the van. L.  I got a couple of loads of washing done and then Darryl and I headed into town to do the grocery shopping and to get the gas Cylinder refilled.  Came back to the van and had lunch and Buster was quite happy to sit at our feet in the sunshine.  Yep - our first full day of sunshine in the past week. J.
Darryl and I then went for a drive to Prevelly – what a lovely piece of the coast but unfortunately it had been devastated by fire earlier in the year and there is only the new vegetation that has started to come up in the past fortnight. 

Prevelly

devastation from the fires

 We were lucky enough to see some small Mangles Kangaroo Paw on our trip though.  We then drove to Gracetown and called in and saw Faye and Arthur and had AT.  We will meet up with them again tomorrow when we start to head toward Pemberton.
We are having a quite night tonight sitting in and listening to the CD.  Buster is again in his bed at our feet and snoring….
Saturday 25th August.  We are now in Albany - we arrived today.  The park is one of the only ones that would take a canine and for the money that we have paid - it is not worth the money.  Overgrown grounds, trees need trimming so you can get to the sites and the amenities leave a lot to be desired. We were planning on staying here for almost a week but now we will move on on Monday and head toward Esperance.  We will probably have a free camp or two on the way and stay in Esperance a bit longer.

Since my last entry we have spent two nights at a low cost camp at Alexandra Bridge, 10km from Karridale in WA which was lovely. 

a friendly neighbour

the Blackwood River

Alexandra Bridge

native Wisteria

We had rain the two nights we were there but it was great sitting out in front of the fire under the tarp.  We had such a great fire burning that the warmth was lovely and Buster had a 'roasting' time sitting in his chair in front of the fire too.  We spent the time here with our friends Faye and Arthur.  This camp ground was right on the Blackwood River and had flushing toilets and one COLD shower. We could have fires and they provided the firewood.  Excellent.

nice hot coals coming here

us in front of the van

Our 'tent' setup so we can enjoy the fire

our fire

 

Buster enjoying the warmth :)

On the Tuesday we moved on to Pemberton.  We did not stay in Pemberton itself as the one and only caravan park does not take dogs.  Well their loss not ours :)  We did stop in the town and had morning tea with Vic and Carol whom we met in Perth.  They were spending the next two nights in the local hotel - after being given a gift voucher. 

 'Cabbages' :)

'Cabbages' and snapdragons

We then travelled another 27km to Quininup.  A very small village that made us and Buster very welcome.  The park has lots of kangaroos roaming around [and quite a few of them had joeys in their pouches] and some emus going through the park also. 

both distracted :)

hmm yes, thank you

hiding from the rain

education time

The amenities were very good and clean.  From here we drove to Manjimup and the Diamond Tree. 

the tree behind the fence is the Diamond Tree - a fire lookout

 Darryl climbing the rungs

A tree that has got rungs in it that you can climb the 50 plus metres to the fire tower at the top.  Back to Pemberton and out to the Gloucester Tree and another Climb if you want too.
We left here and headed toward Walpole - a whole 88km away :).  We actually stayed out at Peaceful Beach for two nights as they took dogs and the name appealed.   Well the amenities were very old and the water pressure almost non-existent, but we were comfortable for the two nights and the rain had actually stopped.   We went for a drive along a 'Flora Road' and found some lovely wildflowers

 

 and then went to Conspicuous Cliff, into the Tree Top Walk [up 40 metres in the air], onto the Giant Tingle Tree and circular pool before heading back into Walpole and then out to Peaceful Bay again.  Buster spent the day at the van as he was not able to go into the parks. :(.
We are now in Albany.  We found out today that the LIFEuphoria boys are back in Perth as Tommy got sick and has bee admitted to the Royal Perth Hospital.  They are awaiting blood test results to try and determin what is wrong with him.  The other three lads will wait in Perth until a diagnosis is made and Tommy is given treatment. GET WELL SOON TOMMY.