Part 2 of Pemberton to Bremer Bay

 When I was doing the last edition of the blog not all the photos I wanted loaded so I've added them now. The photos above and below are at the tree top walk near Walpole as we could walk around the ground amongst the trees and see the huge holes in their trunks. The tree below was called Grandma Tree as it does look like an old woman's face.(You need some imagination)

 This is a King Skink and there were plenty of them living in the bushes next to our campsite in Albany. The boys loved watching them and made up some names for them.

                           The views of Albany from this lookout were great.          

The boys doing some maintenance work to their bikes in Bremer Bay. These bikes have been invaluable during our trip as it gives the boys some independence to ride around campsites together. It keeps them entertained for hours. There was hardly anyone camping near us at this caravan  park and at night many kangeroos would come and eat the grass. Jake went to the toilets during the early hours of the morning and found two big roos outside the mens toilet. He decided to visit the ladies toilets instead.

Pemberton to Bremer Bay WA

 This is the tree top walk near Walpole on our drive from Pemberton to Albany.

 One of the squids the boys caught. We enjoyed eating them for dinnner but Steve found it a chore to prepare them as the ink bag would put ink everywhere. Very messy work but we all enjoyed eating them.

 We had a good look over the Brig Amity in Albany. It was a replica of the boat that brought the first British settlers to Albany.

                         The boys look very proud of their catch of squid!

 Our visit to Whale World in Albany was very interesting to find out about the whaling industry. It was a relief to me that they don't kill the whales anymore and hack them to pieces. (So PC Sue). It's interesting that the Japanese kill about 990 minkie whales for research, oh by the way they just happen to eat them as well. Anyway, Japan have their hands full re their natural disaster.

 These whale skeletons were from beached whales. The huge jaw bones were from a blue whale. Seems ridiculous that they only ate krill and plankton with those huge jaws. It makes me look like a dwarf standing near it (in aqua jacket).

 Wind farm in Albany. We walked right up to one and marvelled at the immense size of one. The stand was 64 metres high and each arm of the windmill is 34 metres long.

                                   We found Bremer Bay a very pretty little coastal town.

This was a squeaky beach at Bremer Bay and the boys enjoyed making the sand squeak under their feet. We have rejigged our itinerary to include Wave Rock and Kalgoolie. Some extra driving but I'm sure it will be worth it. Over the last few days we have all come down with a cold. Hopefully the first and last one for the year. Looking forward to some sun in Esperance.
Stay tuned for the next installment of our adventures.
Sue.

Busselton and Margaret River

 The boys loved the Big 4 caravan park at Busselton and made good use of the jumping pillow, swimming pool, water playground and go carts. We had lovely warm weather the 5 days we were there.

 The beautiful 1.8km Busselton Jetty. It's the longest wood piled jetty in the Southern hemiphere. Below is the view from the jetty at sunset. The boys tried their hand at fishing from the jetty and I enjoyed watching the sunset. Steve caught a small squid which he threw back. No other catches for the night which was disappointing.

       We all enjoyed a train trip along the jetty to the underwater observatory at the end.

 You could see so many fish from the windows of the observatory.

 We enjoyed a tour of the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. The lighthouse is not one of the tallest around as it is perched on very high ground. Great views from the top and we watched whales not far from shore.

 Ngilgi cave, close to Dunsborough, had a striking display of stalagmite, stalactite, helictite and shawl formations. Very impressive.

          Lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin near Augusta.

 The dirt roads around the Margaret River region were beautiful and we enjoyed driving through them. The above photo was taken near Hamelin Bay in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park.

 We stayed at a Big 4 caravan park which was on a farm near Margaret River. The boys loved to feed the farm animals every evening. It was so rainy and miserable weather wise when we arrived that we wimped out of setting up the camper trailer and we found a comfy 2 bd cabin at the caravan park instead. Staying in a house for over 3 weeks in Perth has made us soft but we will try to toughen up and get back to camping. I have always found camping to be great in fine, warm weather but when it's cold and rainy it's nice to have a solid, non leaking roof over your head. I'm pretty sure most people would share my feelings.

 Some of the beautiful wineries we visited. They all had nice views and were surprisingly so child friendly. Most we visited had some type of activity ready for kids like a playground, mini soccer goal with ball, chalk board and one even had a free lucky dip for the kids! Two of the wineries had lovely natured dogs which the kids delighted in playing with and patting and wanted to take them with us on our travels. We have been having many discussions on what type of pet dog we'll get on our return home and the kids are really missing having a dog. Jake is also asking if we can have a chicken, a rabbit and a bird. He doesn't want much does he?

 Below is a picture of our visit to the Chocolate Factory in Margaret River. It was such a hit with all of us that we went back the second day. They had free samples of dark, milk and white chocolate and Liam says that it's even better than Cadbury's. The boys couldn't fit in much dinner after these visits- not too surprising!

 Well that's all for now. We have fallen behind a bit on our blog as we keep pretty busy with sightseeing and trying to squeeze in some school work with the kids so it can be hard to find the time for the blog. We will tell you about Pemberton and our current location of Albany soon. Stay tuned....
Cheers, Sue.

Perth

Compose

 Well our long stay at Perth was very busy. Thank you to Joy (Sue's mum) for putting us up for so long. I'm sure Joy is now enjoying a quite house, the boys did enjoy seeing you again and looking  forward to seeing you more often when you move to Melbourne. As seen above we visited the picturesque Kings Park on a lovely Perth day. Great views and also a great bbq area which we all enjoyed.

 We also visited the Perth Zoo, for the boys nature and animal fix. We were lucky to follow one of the elephants on their daily stroll around the zoo.  We had a great day and all the boys really enjoyed the orangatangs, gibbons and the sun bears plus all the usual tigers, giraffes and lions.

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 We also visited adventure world for the day. On a lovely 30 degree day we played on the bumper boats, many rides such as the pirate ship (my least favourite), go carts, water play area and many and varied water slides. The kids and adults were all pretty tired by the days end. The boys favourite was the go carts and the bumper boats. (see above)

We were lucky enough to have the Endeavour replica return to Fremantle for the first time in 10 years from Sydney. We had a one hour tour that we all really enjoyed. It was a tiny ship considering the 100 plus crew and live animals on board during its travels. The ship lacked head room for Sue and I which I thought just accounted for the smaller statured people in those days.We were amazed to hear from the guides that Captain Cook was 6 foot 2 tall whilst Charles Darwin was 6 foot 4. This would have made their stay on the ship extremely challenging. Benjamin had a  very funny question for one of the guides it was, "Is this captain Hooks ship"?  Priceless!!!!!

 Sue joined the 40's club whilst at Perth. She requested lasagne ( Sue's dads receipe) and garlic bread and Joy chose a beautiful black forest cake. Liam was very helpful with blowing out Sue's candles. Sue had selected a few presents for herself during her travels and we served breakfast in bed for her. She also requested a cooked brunch of bacon and eggs which we had not eaten on our holidays.

 We also visited Rottnest Island a couple of days after an American tourist was taken by a shark whilst swimming near the island. Luckily it was not swimming weather when we visited. Prior to this shark attack WA had 2 other shark fatalities all in a space of three months. Rottnest was very beautiful and the ferry ride was very calm, no sea sickness. Maybe sea sickness is like the common cold once you get it you are immune for 2 years. I'll wait and see. The boys also enjoyed meeting the quokkas which are unique to the island. They spent at least 30 minutes picking berries and feeding the adults and babies.

 The boys and I went fishing in the Swan River after I spent many hours on google trying to find the best fishing spot. We caught over 30 fish but they were all puffer fish. Maybe the recent shark attacks had scarred the whiting and flathead away. Nontheless the boys had a ball catching the puffa's, Benjamin is now proficent in casting his line and reeling a fish in. Originally he wasn't too fussed about fishing but with his big brothers encouragement he is quickly catching the bug.

After a long and enjoyable stay we left Sue's mum's house and headed for Busselton.