Perth 2009

October 6th, Left Geraldton and decided to go down the coast road (Brand H’wy, Indian Ocean Drive) to Jurien. Booked into Jurien Bay Caravan Park (Top Tourist) for an overnight stop. It’s was a pleasant drive, the scenery was so different to the northern part of this state.

October 7th, Moved on to Perth to-day. Val took a lot of photos of the wildflowers along the way. We booked into the Perth Vineyard Holiday Park, in the heart of the Swan Valley area. Val was overjoyed, our site was on the fence next to a Vineyard, now she can sit under the awning sipping on a wine and watching the grapes grow.

October 8th, We drove into Perth City and cruised Foreshore Drive, which runs along the shore of the Swan River. The entire waterfront is very attractive parkland with gardens, picnic areas and playgrounds, we were very impressed. We parked outside the Entertainment Centre and walked around the shops in the CBD.

October 10th, The day started with a light shower of rain then out came the sun, so we decided to do a tour of the wineries. They put out a guide which shows a 32 klm circuit, sounded good to us. From the first winery, next door to our Caravan Park, we found Security Guards, loud music, heaps of young people, some in fancy dress, having a ball & drinking. There was a Police presence everywhere. We had to ask at the next winery and found out that this weekend was ”Spring in the Valley” celebration at Swan Valley. We elected to leave our wine tour till Monday, when things will be back to normal and we can simply go wine tasting. The rain started up again and looked set in, so we went to the Margaret River Chocolate Company and tasted their chocolates, absolutely great. Val had to buy some for the Family. We called in to the Information Centre and picked up a list of the wineries that are open on Monday and have free tastings. We finished our days outing with a walk along James Street, Guildford, where there was a collection of Antique Shops for us to browse through.

Geraldton 2009

September 30th, Went to the Information Centre to enquire about self drive wildflower trail and was advised that they came early this year, so were now finished and going to seed. We still picked up a map as we will do the wildflower drive on our way to Perth. We looked through the Old Geraldton Goal Museum and Craft Display, very interesting. We walked the Town Shopping Mall then back to the Van and Val baked me a Carrot Cake, very nice.




October 1st, Washing morning today then after lunch I went to visit the Western Australian Museum in Town. It was an informative and very interesting display covering Indigenous and European Culture, Shipwrecks and the discovery of HMAS Sydney II and HSK Kormoran in 2008.

October 2nd, Dropped Val off at Spotlight and I did a spot of sightseeing. Started with the impressive HMAS Sydney II Memorial perched on a hill overlooking the City. The roof of the dome is made up of 645 seagull cut-outs representing the lost Sydney Sailors. A commemorative wall lists all of the lost Sailors and the story of the tragedy. I went on to tour the Old Lighthouse Cottage, which was very interesting, and the site of the old Lighthouse which was a timber structure, left to fall into disrepair when it was left unused, eventually burnt down.

October 3rd, Val wanted a sewing day so I drove south down the Brand Highway heading for Greenough and stopped for a photo of the famous “Leaning Tree”, which is growing horizontally. Next stop was an old Settlers House, which after many additions became a very large building that now is a Pioneer Museum, with many historical artefacts and local information. Further on is the Central Greenough Historical Village, a restored and preserved group of buildings built in the 1800’s now under the control of The National Trust of Australia. There was a Wedding taking place in one of the Churches, while I was there.

October 4th, Grand Final Day for Sydney Rugby League, Parramatta (my team) played Melbourne. Sadly Parramatta lost,16 to 23, but it was a great game and the better team won on the day.

October 5th, Pack up day, we leave in the morning heading to Perth, with an overnight stop at one of the Roadhouses. We will be in Perth on Wednesday 7th October.

Denham, Shark Bay 2009

September 25th, To-day we did our own self drive Plantation Tour of Carnarvon. Buying direct from the Plantation Shops is a great way to get top quality produce. Val was able to buy “Green Tomatoes” fresh picked and asked for 2 kilos and was given 4 kilos, for the price of 2. So, I now have heaps of Green Tomato Pickles. There are 176 plantations around Carnarvon which supply 70% of WA’s fresh fruit and vegies. I went to have a closer look at the OTC Dish, which could be seen from our Caravan Park, built in 1983 to track satellites for the NASA program. Now a huge monument to the past, the site also looks over the Plantations.

September 26th, Left Carnarvon for Denham and took a morning tea break at Wooramel Roadhouse, where they make their own pastries on the premises. They were delicious. Booked into the Shark Bay Caravan Park, went to the Visitors Centre and drove around Town. A small Town but the water views over Shark Bay are fantastic.

September 27th, I started the day with a tour of the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre, at the Visitors Centre. Excellent display covering all the events related to the development of this area. Shark Bay was the place where Dirk Hartog was the first recorded white man to set foot on Australian soil, in 1616. After lunch we went for a drive to Little Lagoon where Val paddled in the clear, clean salt water. Then it was on to The Shark Bay Ocean Park for afternoon tea in the Café followed by a guided Tour of their Park. They had tanks with most of the marine animals from the Shark Bay area, from Tiger Sharks to small fish. Well worth a visit.

September 28th, We left Denham this morning and drove out to Monkey Mia, to see the famous Dolphin Feeding. The Dolphin Resort is built on a National Park at Monkey Mia. There is a small charge payable to enter the area but you have access to all the Resort facilities and activities. We arrived around 10am just in time for the 3rd and last feeding of the day. I estimate there were around 100 people there to watch the dolphin feeding. The guide was extremely knowledgeable about the dolphins, knew them by name and told us that she identifies them by the unique shape of their dorsal fin. We were visited by 9 dolphins which came into shore slowly swimming around the area for some time and checking out the crowd. We were given all the dos and donts of how to let the Dolphins come to us to be fed. They are the most amazing animals to see up close. Unfortunately only a few people got to feed a Dolphin and they were selected at random by the helpers. We weren’t that lucky but still enjoyed the experience. We walked around the Resort and checked out the shops where Val bought a few souvenirs.

We headed off to Eagle Bluff. This is a vantage point where a walkway and viewing platform has been built so that visitors can see fish, birds and hopefully sharks and Dugongs swimming in the clear waters of Shark Bay. Although there was some activity in the water we didn’t get a clear view of a shark.

We moved on to Shell Beach Conservation Park. The beach is a brilliant white and is the build up of small shells that die out at sea and then get washed in onto the beach, by wind or incoming tides and over centuries has built up to 9 metres deep. The beach is 110 klms long and at one end there is a shell mining operation that supplies shell grit for chook feed. Val went for a paddle in the shallow edge of the water but had to retreat and put her shoes on to go back in the water, as the shells were hurting her feet.

Next stop was Hamelin Pool where after having some morning tea at the Kiosk, we walked out on the viewing walkway to view the Stromatolites. The oldest Stromatolites are 3.5 billion years old. They are formed by the build-up of communities of cyanobacteria. They are the known as a living rock and are reported to be responsible for providing the oxygen needed to support animal and human life.

We drove on to The Overlander Roadhouse to re-fuel and spend the night.

September 29th, We drove on to Geraldton, stopping at Northhampton for lunch and a walk around Town. This is another Town that has retained its original buildings. We drove through heavy rain most of this trip and it was very windy and cold out of the car. A real temperature shock, as we had not encountered rain or cold, since we left Rockhampton in June. We booked into Sunset Beach Caravan Park (Big4) and went for a drive around Geraldton.

Canarvon 2009

September 23rd, Arrived at Carnarvon and booked into Wintersun Caravan Park (Top Tourist). Nice Park with very clean amenities and only a few minutes out of Town. Went to the Visitors Centre to check on the local sights.




September 24th, I went to the Historic Precinct to-day which included the One Mile Jetty. 2 years ago a section of the wharf was destroyed by fire, and is still being rebuilt by the Historical Society, so now you can only go out about ½ mile. You can walk along the Jetty but I opted to ride on the small train called “The Coffee Pot”. There was a strong wind blowing today and was very cold out on the Jetty. The view from the Water Tower Lookout was impressive. Went through The Railway Museum which included the Shearers Hall of Fame and a display with video covering the recent discovery of the wrecks of the warship “HMAS Sydney II” and the German Cruiser “Kormoran” found off the Western Australian Coast.

Roebourne 09

September 21st, To-day we drove to Roebourne, which was built after the cyclone destroyed Cossack. A train track was built between Roebourne and Cossack, originally using horse drawn carriages, to move supplies between the town and the port at Cossack. The visitors Centre is in the old goal, so we looked through the old goal while there. Its hard to imagine that this building was in use up to 1984, when the new Roebourne Regional Goal was built out from the Town. We had dinner at the local Tavern, just across the road from our Caravan Park at Point Samson and the meals were excellent. We are all packed up and ready to leave in the morning for Nanutarra Roadhouse and on the way we will drive into Karratha to look the Town over, as this is the place we had originally intended to stay.

Sandfire R'house to Point Samson 09

September 14th, Last minute shopping then packing up to leave was our intentions for to-day. However fate decided otherwise, as we were leaving Town to return to our Caravan Park, I was flashed by an oncoming Police Car, who proceeded to book me for doing 79 kph in a 60 kph zone. I just had my mind on other problems, not even thinking of the speed limit. So $150 later and a loss of 2 points, caused me to be in a very dejected mood for the rest of the day.

September 15th, We left Broome and drove to the Sandfire Roadhouse. We were driving into a strong headwind, so used a lot more fuel than normal and had to top up the tank with the spare fuel we now carry in the boat petrol tank. The cars computer said we had 2klms of fuel left when we stopped at the Sandfire Roadhouse Petrol Pump. There was no other fuel stop along the way.

September 16th, Booked into Cooke Point Holiday Park in Port Hedland and could only get 2 days. So, off to the Information Centre to get brochures. Booked myself on the BHP Mine Tour, 9.30am Friday. We took a drive around Town and took a few photos.

September 17th, Had a look through Dalgetty House, the local Museum, which was involved with the early development of Port Hedland. Very informative display, but you need a lot of time to read through all the information, and the assistant was very knowledgeable on all the local developments. After lunch we drove to South Headlands to check out the area and stock up at the Shopping Centre.

September 18th, Packed up and left the Caravan Park early. Dropped Val at Woolworths Shopping Centre and went to meet the 9.30am Tour Bus at the Information Centre. The Tour involved all the BHP operations from the arrival of ore trains to the loading of the ore onto the huge Tankers. It was a very interesting and informative tour and is an eye opener when you realise the immense size of this project. By the time I had picked up Val and we set off to our next destination, our next stop had been changed. A recommendation from the Service Station attendant, had us travelling to The Cove Caravan Park at Point Samson. We liked what we saw and booked in for 4 nights. After setting up we walked across the road to The Tavern and had a couple of drinks and enjoyed the ocean views. While talking with the locals we were entertained by a pod of whales frolicking in the ocean, unfortunately about 1 klm off shore.

September 19th, Washing day, how exciting! Saw whales from the CP again to-day. They were a little closer in, so actually saw a flipper out of the water from a side roll movement, very exciting. After lunch we drove around Point Samson and checked out the Jetty, Fishing Fleet and Honeymoon Cove Beach. Don’t know how it got its name but it is the local place to swim. We drove out to Wickham, a small workers settlement, and found that they had a Woolworths Supermarket and a Service Station, handy to know. Next we went to Cossack, a Heritage Town. It was the first Port Settlement in this area and lasted until 1904 when a jetty was built at Point Samson to handle the bigger ships. Cossack was supported by the Pilbara gold rush and the thriving Pearl Industry. Most of the original timber Town houses were lost in Cyclones but of the remaining stone building, some have been restored. There was a Wedding in progress at the old Customs Building and the food smelled great.

Broome 2009

September 1st, Arrived in Broome and booked into the Broome Caravan Park. Took a drive around Town and went to the Visitors Centre. First impressions, this looks like a nice clean Town and only a few minutes drive from our Caravan Park.



September 2nd, Quiet day just settling in. No need to talk about the weather up here as it is HOT &DRY every day.



September 3rd, I went to the Broome Museum to-day, run by the Historical Society, and found a small display featuring the Pearling Industry, WW2 Air Raid, Shell Collections and Local History. Next I went to the Old Lock Up, which housed 3 cells, nicely painted out and displaying Aboriginal Art & Didgeridoos. I timed my visit perfectly and blended in with a Bus tour Group and listened to a very good talk on Didgeridoo making and playing.



September 4th, Did a bit of Retail Therapy with Val to-day.



September 5th, Went to the Courthouse Markets in Town, and was surprised at the size and variety of stuff to see. Val found a few things to buy and we had lunch there on the Courthouse verandah and listened to the entertainment. At 5.30pm, we went to Town Beach to view the Staircase to the Moon and more Markets. There were some clouds blocking the Moon, so this was not the best night to get the full effect of the moon rising over the water of Robuck Bay and then shining across the mud flats to light up like a staircase. We took a bottle of wine and our fold-up chairs and enjoyed the outing anyway.



September 6th, Fathers Day. Had all my FD phone calls in the morning. After lunch we went to the “Pearl Luggers” in Chinatown, for the 1 hour Tour. It was a very interesting and informative dialogue covering the last 100 years of the Pearling Industry in Broome. 6pm we drove to The Mangrove Resort Hotel for drinks and dinner, it was a joint Fathers Day present from Steven & Greg. First we armed ourselves with a glass of wine and sat in the outdoor viewing area to view the “Staircase to the Moon” again. No clouds to-night, so the staircase was much better than last night and was serenaded by an aboriginal playing the didgeridoo. Unfortunately my camera would not take a decent photo of this event, so will have to rely on sending postcards to everyone. We enjoyed a lovely meal in the Resort Restaurant and finished off the night with a glass of port under the light of the full moon.



September 10th, We rang Jessica to wish her a Very Happy 8th Birthday and were very pleased that our present, posted from Broome, had arrived to-day.