Ravensthorpe, Esperance 2009

November 5th, Left Albany for Ravensthorpe and booked into Ravensthorpe Caravan Park for the night. The sign at the front of the Park promised clean amenities, and they delivered. We were met at the Office by a very friendly woman and certainly a character. She was covered with tattoos and had 2 thongs that didn’t match, they were different colours. We set up and walked around the Park and were amazed at the number of old junk that was re-used as decoration around the gardens and buildings, as you can see in the photos. Our Host proudly admitted to being the Queen of Recycling. She didn’t throw anything away if she could find a use for it.

November 6th, Travelled on to Esperance and booked into Esperance Bay Holiday Park, for 3 nights. After setting up we drove around Town, to check out the shops and call into the Information Centre. We were impressed with the beach, so scenic, white sand and clear clean water.

November 7th, I walked into Town to visit The Heritage Village and took a few photos. All the building are being used as shops. I went to look through the Museum only to find that it didn’t open until 1.30pm so left that for to-morrow. After lunch we did the Scenic Coastal Drive, starting with the Rotary Lookout. What a terrific 360 deg. view over the whole Coastline and Township. The drive took in the following beaches, West, Blue Haven, Salmon, Forth, Twilight and Thirteenth. We passed a Hang Glider floating around above the cliffs who caught our attention, then headed inland to Pink Lake. We were disappointed to find that the Lake wasn’t pink at all and found out later that it hasn’t been pink for the last 18 months, due to the influx of fresh water. We stopped off at “The Yabbie Farm” and bought some live yabbies then “Tenticles” to buy fresh live mussels, on our way back to Town. It was a really nice enjoyable tourist drive. Val enjoyed her evening meal of fresh yabbies with vinegar, lemon, salt and pepper and reckons that they are better than prawns.

November 8th, Val was busy sewing to-day so I went to look at the Museum that I missed yesterday, alas, it still wasn’t open. I then walked the Tanker Jetty, 842 metres long and was built in 1935. It was missing a short section that had to be cut out due to rotting pylons. A Seal entertained me, swimming around the jetty in the shallows and the fishermen were catching squid off the Jetty. To-morrow we move on to Norseman for an overnight stop before starting our first crossing of The Nullarbor Plains.

Albany 2009

October 30th, Arrived in Albany and booked into the Middleton Beach Holiday Park (Big4). Drove around Town and went to the Visitors Centre. This Park is more like a Resort, with a great swimming pool, spa, theatre and rock fountain at the entrance. The Beach looks great, very long and white sand.

October 31st, Started my sightseeing with a visit to The Old Farm called “Strawberry Hill”, claimed to be the first Farm in WA. The gardens were nice but unfortunately the Farmhouse was closed for repairs. Went to look at the Dog Rock and get a photo, then headed out to Fishermans Bay to see The Gap, The Natural Bridge and The Blowhole. The Bridge was good but with all the cracks in the rock you must wonder how long will it hold up. It was long walk down to The Blowhole, with a strong wind blowing, and unfortunately the Blowhole wasn’t working to-day. The weather condition have to be “just right” to get it working.

November 1st, Its Sunday, so not many shops open (would you believe that the only large Supermarket to open on a Sunday in WA is IGA. Even Spotlight was closed.) We went to the Albany Boatshed Markets, although very small we thought they were very good. They had fresh seafood, fresh vegies, fresh eggs, fresh bread, hot food and hot coffee, and a live band playing. Next to the markets they we building an interesting shaped structure, which was to be their Entertainment Centre. We took a short drive along the waterfront a stopped for a quick look at The Brig Amity, an old Sailing Boat. I will go back another day to look through the Ship see what its historical story is. Back up Town we found a Warehouse open called “Inkyfinks” so had a look through before driving out to Emu Point, where we had lunch at the Café. It was a nice lunch and the view over the water was great. We drove around to the Marina and found a statue of Sam the Seal, a local Legend and checked out the Squid Shack. They only sold cooked food and Val was hoping to buy fresh seafood. On the way home we bought the paper to start selecting our Melbourne Cup picks.

November 2nd, Started sightseeing to-day with a visit to the Patrick Taylor Cottage Museum. It didn’t open till 11am, so will have to come back later. Next it was the Old Goal, built by the Convicts in 1850. I enjoyed this tour and found a great display of Miniature Doll Houses set up in one of the rooms. I then went back to the Brig Amity that I’d seen yesterday, to do the tour through the Ship. My first surprise was that this was a full size replica of the original ship, as I had expected to be told it was a half size model. It looked too small to be sailing the high seas from England. The Ship tour was very well set up as it was self guided using a hand held recorded message that corresponded with numbers displayed around the Ship. Very informative and easy to use. Nearby was a bush tucker garden, created by the local Aboriginal (Noongar) Community, Mouchemore’s Cottage, built in the 1850’s, The old seawall built along the original shoreline, a One Teacher School and The Residency. Originally built to house the Magistrate, it is now a Museum for Indigenous, Local and Natural History. After lunch, we went into Town to Spotlight (Val’s favourite Shop) and next door we found The Albany Drive In Mart, a second hand dealer. Great shop, full of antiques, furniture and books. They had heaps of the westerns that I like to read and Val found some miniature furniture for Joan. We finished off the day by placing our Melbourne Cup Bets on at the TAB, ready for the Big Event to-morrow.

November 3rd, Melbourne Cup Day, at 11am we head up to the recreation and theatre rooms, at the Caravan Park, to watch the race. We went into the $2 & $5 sweeps and settled down with a cuppa to wait for the race, it was a bit early for a wine. Our race start time here in WA was 12.10pm. What an exciting race, on the big screen, and particularly when my horse hit the front coming down the straight. I had a $10 e/w on Shocking which returned $135. I also drew 3rd place in the $5 sweep. The CP put on a great bbq sausages and salad lunch. I went in to Town to collect our TAB winnings and then on to the Patrick Taylor Cottage Museum that I missed looking through yesterday. I was impressed with what I saw. The house was fully furnished and full of displayed items, including clothes, of that era. An antique collector’s delight. The doorways were obviously built for short people. The gardens colourful and well kept. Next stop was the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, worth the climb as the view over Princess Royal Harbour and King George III Sound was fantastic. Last stop for the day was the Princess Royal Fortress, on Mount Adelaide. The Fort was opened in 1893 and was the first Federal Defence of Australia (ie, All States agreed to its need& contributed). It was closed down in 1956 and the buildings used for many local purposes until being turned into a number of Museum Displays. Well worth a visit as I found out that this was the assembly point for the Anzac Forces to gather before its movement to Gallipoli. What a sight that would have been, to see all those Warships line up in King George Sound. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of the Fort as the camera battery went flat on me. I must buy a back-up battery for my camera.

November 4th, Last day in Albany and very windy, overcast. To-morrow we move on to Ravensthorpe, for an overnight stop then on to Esperence for a few days.

Denmark 2009

October 27th, Moved to Denmark and booked into Denmark Rivermouth Caravan Park, for 3 days. It was raining when we left Busselton but had cleared when we reached Pemberton, where we stopped for a cake & coffee. Another quaint untouched Village. Lots of wildflowers along the way which made travelling very pleasant. We topped up the fuel and had lunch at Walpole, then went on to Denmark. This is a great CP, we are on a waterfront site, looking over Wilsons Inlet, so the view is very pleasant.

October 28th, To-day was a wet day, so went into Town to look the place over. Started with a run out to Howard Park Winery, just 2 klms out of Town. Val did the tasting as I was the designated driver. We added another bottle of wine to our “under the bed” collection. Next was the Visitors Centre, where they have on display the Bert Bolle Barometer. It stands 12 metres high and is water filled. It is in The Guinness Book of Records. It was interesting to watch it going through its reading cycle.

October 29th, We decided to do our own wine tour and also take in the Valley of the Giants, Tree Top Walk. I can’t believe it but we took off and I was driving in the wrong direction, heading for Albany, until Val pointed out my error. The first opportunity to turn around was the entrance to The West Cape Howe Winery, so I turned in and said to Val, guess we might as well start with this one. So, now heading back to Denmark to take the road towards the Valley of the Giants, we stopped off at the Toffee Factory for some tastings. Not really interested in Toffee, we drove on to The Valley of the Giants. The size of the giant “Tingle” and “Karri” Trees were incredible, 60 metres tall, up to 20 metres circumference at the base and can live for up to 400 years. We did the Tree Top Walk, which was quite daunting. It is a suspension walkway, 40 metres off the ground at its highest point, sways when you are walking across it, with signs all the way along saying “Max. of 20 people on each span, at the same time”. Fortunately for us it wasn’t that busy, so No Problem. It was truly fascinating and we can recommend it to everyone. We had our photo taken at the highest point. We then did the Empire Walk which is a walk at ground level and highlighted how the trees were affected by fire or disease that caused the root area to open up and form shelters. Look at the pictures to see what I am saying. On the way back we stopped at The Old Kent River Winery and found that they also sold live “Marron” at $48 / Kg. They are similar to Scampi, I’m told. Our last stop was the Lake House Winery, which impressed us with its outlook over a lake and their beautiful gardens. While Val was doing her wine tasting, I had to have a Cappuccino, in one of their beut pottery mugs and a very generous serving of apricot & almond tart with both cream & ice-cream, worth every cent that Val paid. We headed off home with our collection of wines after a great day out. To-morrow we head for Albany.

Busselton 2009

October 19th, Arrived in Busselton, after travelling down the coast road and stopping at Bunbury for lunch, we booked into the Kookaburra Caravan Park. This is a Council Park, very well kept, clean amenities and very cheap. Originally booked in for 3 days but now staying for 8 days. We walked across the road from our Park to look at The Jetty. The Jetty is 1.84 klms long and has an underwater Observatory at the end, to allow visitors to view the great variety of fish in Geographe Bay. Unfortunately, due to rotting pylons and a fire that burnt a section of the jetty down to the waterline, you can’t get out to the Observatory. They are currently working on a replacement jetty walkway, so a lot of pile driving being done, but it will be some time before the repairs are completed. We enjoyed a look through the Jetty’s Interpretive Centre Museum and Gift Shop.




October 20th, A very quiet relaxing day, caught up on the shopping and washing. We joined our new friends, Nerrida and Rob for a few enjoyable drinks at their Motorhome, before having a late dinner.

October 21st, To-day I went to the Busselton Museum which is at the Old Butter Factory. The Heritage Butter Factory building has ten display rooms packed with photographs, equipment and memorabilia covering everything from Agriculture to Whaling, with a display of the 1920’s Group Settlement Scheme.

October 22nd, We met with Nerrida and Rob at the Caravan Park Office at 9.45 am to go on a Bus Tour of the Margaret River Wineries. Our Tour Guide was Gerry from Cellar d’Or Tours and after picking up all the group we had 10 people, a good sized friendly group. We visited 5 wineries, had a platter lunch at a micro Brewery, visited an Olive Farm, the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, a Cheese Factory and were given a souvenir wine glass, a bookmark and a biro pen. The final thing was a chance to win a bottle of wine, we weren’t the lucky one. What a great days outing we had.

October 26th, I’ve spent the last few days writing up the period of our travels from January to June 2009, I have posted the update, so if you wish you can go back in the Blog you can read it. We packed up to-day ready to move on to-morrow. We expect to stay overnight at a Roadhouse before moving on to Albany.

Perth, Fremantle 2009

October 11th, today we decided to shout ourselves a night out, so it’s off to the Casino for us. Val punched the address into the navigator and off we set. 45 minutes later we arrive at the address to find that it’s a short dead end street, at a northern coastal suburb. After getting directions we find that the suburb that has the Casino Complex is Burswood, not Birdswood, so with the correct suburb now in the navigator, 30 minutes later we arrive at the Casino. It’s an impressive building that is an Entertainment Complex, with Resort, Theatres, Conference Rooms, Restaurants and a Casino. 24 hour parking was only $6, very good. We went to the Emporium for dinner, Val had Chinese and I went for the Roast Beef, with pecan pie and coffee to finish up with. All the food was very good and reasonably priced. No poker machines as we know them, but they had hundreds of Card Machines, Bingo machines and all sorts of variety of different games to take your money. I enjoyed a stint at the Blackjack table. We had a very enjoyable night, not a winning night, and we were back home at our Caravan Park in 12 minutes, can you believe that.

October 13th, The Territory went in for its 75000 klm service this morning. Not usually a problem but when I went to pick it up I’m given the REPORT. 9 problems plus 2 front tyres needing replaced, 3 marked as needing immediate attention at approx. $2200.00. Spoilt my day, I can tell you. After a late lunch we did a short Wine Tour of Pinelli, Sandalford and Lancaster Wineries. To-morrow we leave for Fremantle.

October 14th, Booked into Coogee Beach Tourist Park and then had a drive around Fremantle.

October 15th, Val went to The Esplanade Hotel to see the China Painting Exhibition. They had entries from all over the world. A caravanning friend from Queensland, we met recently, is a China Painter and had some of her work in the exhibition. I went off on my own and Toured “Bathers Beach”, Whalers Tunnel, The Round House, The Maritime Shipwrecks Museum and the War Memorial.

October 16th, Today we were picked up from the Caravan Park at 9.15am to do a Bus Tour of Rottnest Island. We had a 30 minute Ferry ride out to the Island, a very nice lunch at the Dome Café followed by a 2 hour 40 klm Guided Bus Tour of the Island. We were able to get up close to the Quokkas, there are 10000 on the Island. We were dropped back to Caravan Park at 5pm. What a great day we had, Val did the shops and I did the historical stuff and the scenery on the Bus Tour was fantastic.

October 17th, I went to Fremantle Prison for the “Doing Time Tour”, it runs for 1.5 hours and follows the life of the inmates from booking in through to being discharged. This is a huge complex and was till recently the Maximum Security Prison for Western Australia. The Tour was interesting and informative. After lunch we went to a new estate, called “Port Coogee”, being built just up from our Caravan Park. There were 2 Exhibition Homes open for inspection, so we had a look through them. They were 5 bedroom, 2 storey, furnished in a modern style and both absolutely mindboggling. We didn’t ask the price but would expect it to be in the millions. Some of the features were indoor/outdoor kitchen, huge rooms, ensuites with spa bath included, built in Pool, large verandah with views over The Indian Ocean. We then went into the City to the Queensgate Markets, which impressed Val. They had everything but not lots of the same thing, as we have found at a lot of Markets. On the way home we called into The Chocolate Factory to do some sampling. It was very hot today, on the news they said it was the hottest October day (at 37deg.) in a lot of years (forgotten exactly how long ago).

October 18th, Today I went to the Western Australian Maritime Museum, where they have an excellent display of all types of boats that were used for industry and pleasure, in Fremantle. There prize exhibit being the Yacht “Australia II” with its winged keel, that WON the America’s Cup, which had been held by America for 132 years. After lunch, we decided to take our last look at the city and have a coffee and cake at the “Capuccino Strip”. Little did we know that the middle of the City was blocked off for a Parade for the “Blessing of the Fleet”. We had been to a Blessing of the Fleet Ceremony in Nelson Bay but it was nothing like this one. A Big Parade with Police escorts, that was preceded by daytime fireworks and the streets were very crowded. Parking was almost impossible. I did get to have my cappuccino and a slice of the best carrot cake while Val had a glass of wine. To-morrow we move on to our next stop, which is Busselton.

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.