April 2011

April 2011

Well, it looks like we are finally going to be getting back on the road again after an 8-month stop in Perth. We are going to do a quick trip down to Margaret River/Albany before coming back to Perth for a final packup before heading off across the Nullarbor to head for Mildura where we will look after my cousin’s farm for three months before heading back to Port Macquarie for Christmas. Sorry I stopped abruptly for the end of the trip but everything happened at once and I ran out of time! Basically we made our way down to Perth and decided to stop for a while and work as Ross got a job at Harvey Norman again. We stayed in a caravan park for a few days while we looked around and we found an ad on a housesitting website that looked promising. We met up with the lady – Roz – we all seemed to get on well and we moved our caravan onto her property. We all get on famously and make sure we have happy hour ever afternoon on her verandah. She has a couple of old geriatric dogs – Brontie and Nerah (or Bronnie and Piglet) – Bronnie is a Blue Heeler and Nerah is a Staffy and the girls and Boris get on just fine apart from the occasional altercation over food. There are also the chickens (The Terrorists) who are allowed to roam fairly freely except for on the verandah and of course – because they’re not allowed on there that’s where they always want to be so we are forever hearing Roz yelling at them and shooing them with the broom. Roz’ son also “came home” while we were there – Ryan – he had been touring with his brother who is in a band in England – Pendulum – and thought he better come back and get a job and stop bumming around!!

We had a great say in Perth – got to see a lot of the sites, made some new friends, loved going down to the Parkerville Pub for FREE, yes, FREE meals on a Wednesday and Friday night and got to stay on a great property with great people – we are definitely coming back sometime!

For Christmas last year we gave Ross’ parents (affectionately known as “The Oldies”) a present – a return flight to Perth to come visit us as we knew his mum was just dying to come over and visit not only us but Perth too as she had never been over here. We expected them to visit for a week or so but they had other plans! Ross had bought a cheap Land Rover while we were here and redid the head on it and was planning to sell it but The Oldies offered to drive it back to Port Macquarie for us – tagging along with us on our camping tours.

Before they came over we were a bit worried about what accommodation we could offer them for such a length of time as it would be a few weeks of them staying in Perth before we set out on our trip so we went and bought an old caravan and did it up for them and the boys (Ross and Ryan) made a shower and toilet in the shed nearby which they had been wanting to do for ages anyway so it all worked out quite nicely in the end.

12 April 2011

We decided to go visit Mandurah today as a day trip – what a beautiful spot! We had a lovely time walking around looking at the markets at the marina and then walked over to the boardwalk on the water and had lunch at Cicerellos which claim to be the best fish & chips in Perth and although we haven’t tried all of the fish & chip shops in Perth they sure were great fish & chips!!

On the way back from Mandurah we went to Penguin Island and saw Fairy Penguins being fed – what a treat! There are also HUNDREDS of seagulls nesting on the island and although seagulls aren’t my favorite bird, it was nice to see them in a setting where they weren’t used to being fed and weren’t harassing us constantly. There were also a bunch of pelicans nesting on the island and we had a lovely afternoon looking around.

27 April 2011

Off to Rottnest Island today!! What an absolutely beautiful place!! We had perfect weather and had a fantastic day looking around the island. It would have been good to bring the bikes but we did the hop on hop off bus tour instead which was really crowded but it was a good way to get around. We had “wild” quokkas come up to us to say hello, one even licked my fingers!! Lester and I went up Wadjemup Lighthouse (the other two chickened out) – what a view and the guide was great too, telling us all about the history of the place. You would really need at least a few days there to see everything there is to see and really get to apprentice the island but we only had the day so we made the most of it.

29 April 2011

We hit the road today – we were late getting started as there were a lot of last-minute things that needed doing as there always are and then we stopped to do a bit of last-minute shopping down in Midland before finally getting on the road after lunch. We picked a free campsite that we wanted to head to near Donnybrook which had toilets but no shower. We got there in the dark, having left so late so when we arrived we were the only campers there and it was pitch black and didn’t look very inviting. Lesley (Mother) wasn’t thrilled about it as she was worried about bugs, etc, as the place was really in the forest and there were hundreds of millipedes about but that was about it – we didn’t come across any other bugs. It was getting late and we were out of options so we camped the night a little uncomfortable but we all made it through the first night in one piece.

30 April 2011

We went into Bunbury today to have a look around and went to the Dolphin Discovery Centre which was absolutely fascinating. Sometimes you can be lucky and have dolphins swimming in the water at the centre but there were none there today unfortunately. They have this amazing room where you go in and there is a 360° screen with some footage of wild dolphins doing various things – it was great!

We had a bit of a wander around town and then headed off looking for our next campsite. We saw one at Alexandra Bridge which is south of Margaret River that was showing a cheap camping fee with showers and toilets – unfortunately I didn’t think to ask if the showers were hot or not and when we got there we discovered that the showers were cold!! The weather has been beautiful but not beautiful enough to take cold showers! Never mind, we will get out our pop-up en suite and heat up water and do it the old fashioned way!! It’s a beautiful spot, right on a river and the water is spring water – crystal clear and tastes great! It started raining right when we were trying to set up – aagh!! Setting up a tent in the rain isn’t my idea of fun – I think I forgot to mention that we are in the caravan and the oldies are in the “OzTent” which is a 30-second setup tent that Ross and I recently bought. We offered for them to sleep in the caravan but Lesley didn’t like the step so they are in the tent. The boys made a pod to go on the roof of the new Land Rover to take the tent and the mattress. Anyway, we finally got camp set up and we all huddled around under the shelter of the tent awning to have dinner followed by an early night.