Days 57and 58...to Busselton

Today we left Perth and headed south. It was a pretty wet day, and took a couple of hours before we had truly left suburbia. There are heaps of new suburbs south of Perth now. The train goes down there, and there are big parking areas near the stations for travellers.

Driving towards Busselton, the trees were bigger...very pretty in the rain.

 Under the trees were heaps of white lillies.

We found a caravan park in Busselton and set up Rosie. As you can see it was a pretty wet spot!...however, , it drained a way pretty quickly once the rain stopped.

The following day, the rain hadn't stopped, so we decided to go to the library where it would be a bit more peaceful. While we were in there, it started to hail!!!

Later in the afternoon, we went for a look down at the beach...it was still pretty stormy,

 but the clouds were starting to clear.

We decided Indian was the go for dinner tonight, seeing it was such a cold, miserable day.

 It only got up to about 8 degrees today! As well as rainy, it was very windy!!!

 

Dave saw this cute frog in the caravan park.

Day 56...Perth and Fremantle

Today we caught the train into Perth, then the free bus up to Kings Park.

 The wildflowers were beautiful....so were the views of Perth Harbour.

 From here we went back to the station and caught the train to Fremantle.

We walked from the train, through some markets at the wharves,

 then along to the Maritime Museum.

It was great walking along the wharf looking across to the other side at the container ships.

 The one in the photo was called Yangtse Happiness. It must have just unloaded its containers and was heading back to China empty, because when we were inside the museum, we saw it leaving the harbour, and it didn't appear to have loaded anything on..

Inside the Maritime Museum, there were lots of full-size boats of various kinds,

telling the story of boating in Fremantle.

 This photo is the winged keel from Australia 2, when it won the America's cup back in the 80s.

 The yacht is in the museum at one end.

 It has manequins in the various positions onboard doing their various tasks.

After the Maritime Museum, we went around to the Shipwreck Museum, where there was a lot of info about the Batavia, Dampier and other Dutch mariners who visited WA shores in te 1600s.

This quirky sculpture was along the wharf...there was a series of about nine or ten of them.

I like the way Dave caught the seagull standing on the seagull!

As the train left Fremantle station the sun was setting over the docks.

 The cars in the foreground are all new ones, presumably off one of the ships.

Day 55...Spring Day

Today, being the 1st September, is our spring day. Each year we do something different and special on this day. Today we decided to go for a drive east of here...firstly to Toodyay.

This is the Avon River alongside the picnic area in Toodyay where we had a picnic lunch.

The canola paddocks look beautiful...the colour is brilliant.

We stopped at York and had afternoon tea alongside the river. This suspension bridge was nearby....it moved quite a lot when walked on !

This is the view from the bridge...very peaceful.

We saw lots of beautiful old historic buildings in our travels today.

Day 54...Perth

 

Today we decided to catch the train into Perth for the day. It worked out really well...easy, inexpensive, no parking spots to find and pay for. The trains are different here. The seats run lenghthwise along the carriages...it seems really strange sitting opposite people all the time when we're used to NSW trains.

These lovely, healthy vegetable gardens are right near the station. It's a great area...no graffiti or rubbish lying around....really well maintained. They have security cameras to keep an eye on things.

We went to the museum. You didn't have to walk far or cross any roads to get to it. As you walked from the station, past the vege gardens, you walked across a plaza, and there were the museum and art gallery. Dave took a photo of what I think is his favourite animal..the thylacine...he'd love to find one somewhere in the wilds of Tasmania!

Day 53....Swan Valley

This morning we set out to explore the Swan Valley....not far from where we're staying at Midland.

We discovered a place called Whiteman Park. It's quite amazing...a family-friendly, inexpensive place, with lots of things to see and do for children and adults. The land was originally donated, then the WA govt expanded it and looks after it.

This is in the Print Shop....it has old printing machines in excellent condition, and samples of all sorts of printed materials.

Dave liked this poster...and bought one!

Another shop was an art gallery. The artist and his wife made all the items for sale...not as expensive as elsewhere but really good. Above is one of his little paintings.

This bird is an example of his ceramic work.

There was also a car museum with all kinds of cars...you can see some FJ holdens at the back.

These old trains were in another museum, that had the history of transport in WA, from walking, to riding camels, trains, trams, buses, etc,, etc, etc.

On the way back we stopped for an icecream at Oggie's Ice Creamery....delicious!

Day 52....to Perth

We left Perenjori this morning and headed for Perth. On the way we stopped off at Caron Dam where we saw some native orchids.

This is typical of the scenery on the way...the wildflowers at the sides of the road are so beautiful.

We stopped at New Norcia and had a picnic lunch.

There were lots of very old building built by the Benedictine monks

There is a lot more agriculture now, the main crops being canola and wheat. Each town that we passed through had huge silos and grain bunkers. They have a pretty good railsystem over here, that transports a lot of the minerals and grain to the coast.

We ended up at Midland, a town on the way into Perth, just past the Swan River Valley, where there are lots of food and wine outlets to explore.

Day 51....Perenjori

Dave was up early this morning looking for parrots...I love this photo!

We went and had a look in the local Perenjori museum...it's in the old bank. The rooms were all set up as they would have been a hundred or so years ago. I liked this recipe!

After lunch we went for a drive to look at more wildflowers. On our travels we saw this camel soak....used by camel drivers in the old days to water their camels.

 

The Rabbit Proof Fence was along the road near the camel soak.

Dave found these Twenty-eight parrots in the caravan park. We've seen quite a few of them now.

Here is one of the beautiful flowers from today...there are heaps of them along the sides of the road as well as in the bush.