Fremantle

25th-26th  September

After a couple of days in Perth we made our way to Fremantle and we both liked it instantly.  What a lovely atmosphere it has.  The old buildings are just beautiful and there's a bit of history here too.

The Round House is WA's oldest building and was used as a gaol before the arrival of convicts.  We were able to go into a couple of the old cells, barely big enough for 2 people but which at times held 6!  It's right near the signalling station, where a welcome flag is still raised for visiting ships.

Outside the Round House

Inside the Round House, with the signalling station outside

  

We spent ages in the Shipwreck Galleries museum, which contains heaps of relics from various WA shipwrecks.  The Geraldton Museum had a couple of canons from the "Batavia", along with bricks, coins and individual items but this gallery holds the pieced-together planks from the hull of the ship.  This was pretty exciting, having read the story of this shipwreck and mutiny.







The Maritime Museum was great too - we visited there the next day.  One of the main exhibits is the America's Cup-winning yacht from 1983, Australia II.

Again there was a lot of history displayed in here.

Cappuccino Strip in Fremantle

Greg James' sculpture studio was an interesting
visit, especially as we got chatting to him about
the techniques he uses.  It's quite a process!  He
does them in bronze.

We spent a couple of hours at the Fremantle Market yesterday,
which was fun.  It was a lovely warm day so we bought some
delicious food to eat out in the courtyard.

Just one of the many really good stalls - watermelon shoes, among others

After spending up at the market, Phil had to take
to busking!  (Okay, just kidding)

We feel like we did heaps in Fremantle, there's so much to see and do.  With rides on the CAT buses we got to see all over the town but mostly we walked.  And walked.  And walked.  Oh yeah, we did ride on the ferris wheel!  I've never been on one believe it or not, so we thought it was a good thing to do on my birthday.  We had great views over the harbour and it was fun.

Being my birthday we thought we'd better have "happy hour" and where better than in our faithful troopy.  Pink bubbly, nibbles, a candle, Phil's rendition of Happy Birthday ... great fun.

 And that brings us right up to date.  We ended up driving through to Mandurah last night and the weather's very wet and very windy.  So rather than keep heading towards Bunbury this morning, we're in the library where it's light, bright, quiet, full of books and free fast wifi.  We have to do our tax so will get onto it before hitting the road a bit later on.

Kings Park, Perth

23rd September

Well here we are - in the big city.  Both of us wanted to see Perth but both were also hesitant about having to re-enter the 'real' world.  We've had so much wide open space, at least until about Geraldton.  Still, if we have to visit a city then at least Perth's a nice one:)  And we did visit Yanchep NP and also the Swan Valley en route.

Our first stop was Kings Park, overlooking the Swan Brewery
and Swan River here.

Great views from near the War Memorial

 Of course September's a beautiful time of year to be here with so many plants in flower.

We've seen so many of these Prickly Plume grevilleas
further north, growing in the wild.  Love them!

The black kangaroo paw

We spent all afternoon in this beautiful place - then we managed to find our way to where we were staying in Ferndale.  A friend (the one we caught up with in Onslow) has a house there and while he wasn't there, he offered us his room and a place to park the troopy.  So we had a real bed and bathroom!  

Next day we caught the train into town and spent the day exploring Perth.  It seems so clean and organised, not too big and of course being by the water is always an added attraction.  Phil wanted me to choose a ring for my birthday so we chose one together ...

... I love it!

We went to the art gallery where we saw pretty much everything.  It's great that we're interested in the same types of things, makes travelling together SO easy.  The free CAT bus is a good service too, we were able to get a bit of an overview of parts of the city.  Yep, we really like Perth.  

London Court arcade

Sidney Nolan's "Desert Storm" in the art gallery

Signs signs, everywhere a sign

Sometimes we wonder whether visitors are really welcome?

  

These are just a few signs we thought to photograph yesterday

 This one's typical of many shires in WA, making it hard for campers who don't want to be stuck in caravan parks.  Apparently the caravan parks put pressure on the shire to support their businesses and force the closure of any nearby bush camping spots.  It's sad for the true campers who just want to be out in the natural environment though.

Even the dogs are warned ...

Wildflowers and monks

Leaving the coast we soon came across paddocks of sheep, cows, wheat and canola, highlighted by the native shrubs and flowers along both sides of the road. Then there were the grass trees – so many of them!  As we reached the edge of the Badgingarra NP the hillside appeared covered in them. 

Grass trees are fantastic plants - love them!

Moora is the largest town between Geraldton and Perth and has some very nice old buildings.  It was show day today.  We had a brief look around and continued about 20mins north to the Coomberdale Wildflower Farm that we’d read about.  This is a residence and working sheep and wheat farm (14,000 acres) with another 4000 acres growing banksias and other wildflowers.  It was a good visit.  The owner showed us around the sheds where she dries and preserves the flowers for export to about 12 different countries.  She even gave us tea and coffee while we watched a dvd about the farm and WA wildflowers in general.

Our favourite kangaroo paw

Our next destination was the monastic town of New Norcia, where we got a permit to camp by the oval for $10 and booked the town walking tour for tomorrow.  We decided to go to the ‘hotel’ building for a drink and lo and behold were followed in by Helen and Jurgen whom we met yesterday at lunchtime.  

Later Phil and I walked over to the monastery chapel for the opportunity to join the monks at their evening prayer session.  It was a good experience.  There were probably about 20 visitors in all and it was dead silent in the chapel.  Then the 5 monks walked in with heads bowed, followed by a younger monk who sat at the organ.  They chanted the prayers in turn.  The session was ½ hour and we’re so glad we took the opportunity to experience this.

The 2 hour tour of this Benedictine Community was really interesting and informative.  We were able to go inside most of the buildings, which was just as well because within 10 minutes of starting, the wind and rain arrived and it was a bit wild.  In fact the weather remained like that for the rest of the afternoon.  As we were driving anyway, it didn't matter too much.  

We headed across to the coast again as we wanted to visit the Moore River area and Yanchep NP.  This area through the Chittering Valley was more like Tasmania or even Victoria whereas everywhere further north has been quite different.  Fortunately we found a spot to camp that was reasonably sheltered from the wind as it ended up being a pretty wild weather night with constant rain, wind and at times thunder and lightning.  We were snuggled up in the back of Troopy with the pop up roof closed and slept really well.

The Pinnacles - Nambung National Park

19th September

Because our campsite was only 15 minutes away, we were able to get to the national park nice and early to experience the Pinnacles in the morning light.  We'd seen pictures of them, but like many places you have to be among them to appreciate their size and number. 

There are SO many of these huge limestone pillars rising from the shifting yellow sands.  There’s a 4km loop drive among them with plenty of chances to stop and walk anywhere you like. There are views of the ocean from the western side of the park.

 

Next we visited Hangover Bay which is on the other side of Indian Ocean Drive.  We followed the 4WD track and this enabled us to climb up a white sand dune to discover more dunes at the top.  It was fun,  these dunes are amazing.  

He made me do the Toyota jump ... 

Also in this national park is Lake Thetis which is known for its stromatolites.  We saw these for the first time up at Shark Bay but they were a different formation to these.  Again the water is super-salty, the only conditions that support their growth.

Stromatolites in Lake Thetis, Nambung NP

We then went to the Hansen Bay lookout for great views of the bays that are collectively Jurien Bay Marine Park, the township of Cervantes right on a point, Lake Thetis and the surrounding country.  There’s a great deal of sea grass in these waters, which is why it’s so rich in marine life and supports such colonies of sea lions. 

We liked Nambung NP, it had a great feel about it.