Day 62...Windy Harbour

Dave was out early again with his camera.

These dotterels were really cute running in a pack along the beach.

Windy Harbour is well named, as you can see by the waves.

There are some spectacular drives and walks around the various headlands and beaches.

Windy Harbour consists of the caravan/camping ground, and lots of beach huts built over the years. The houses are owned, but the land is on a 20 year lease. The huts are really quirky.

We met this couple who showed us around their hut. This is the view from their bedroom window!

They are a really nice couple who invited us back for dinner to share the afternoon's catch with them.

Day 61...to Windy Harbour

We left Busselton this mornign and headed south towards Albany. We stopped at a sheep cheese farm near Nannup, and had a taste...it was delicious.

The forests along the way were amazing...lots of tall trees...Karri, Jarrah....

some old forests, others in plantations.

At Pemberton we saw a marron supplier, so we went in for a look. This guy gets the marron from locals who catch them in their streams and dams, keeps them in tanks for a while, then sells them...mainly to restaurants.They're similar to yabbies but bigger and more expensive.

We bought a couple to try for tea.

This is one of the marron after it has been cooked...it was delicious.

Day 60...Margaret River

Today we went down to the Margaret River area to check out the vineyards and gourmet foods.

We had a tasting at this vineyard.

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We went through the township of Cowaranup, where there were several statues of cows along the main street. There were also dairy herds on the surrounding farms.

One of our stops was at a nuts and cereal place. The smell was great as you went in the door to the shop. We bought a packet of blueberry lupin cereal.

 You could taste the various cereals, jams and pickles they had for sale.

We stopped at the Margaret River Dairy, where we had a taste of several of their cheeses.

 They were delicious, so we invested in some as well as some yoghurt.

Wine tasting at Tassel Park Winery.

Another interesting stop was at the Silk Road. They have this lovely shop with some beautiful clothes, hats, bags, etc. At the back of the shop, they show you the various stages of the silkworms. They have thousands of them. When they reach the cocoon stage, they roast the cocoons and take them to a village in Cambodia, where they give them to the locals to help them out. When the silk has been spun off the cocoons, the locals eat the pupa inside, often in a stir-fry.

Further down the road we came to the Margaret River Chocolate factory. It was the same as the one we went to last week in the Swan Valley, so we had a few yummy samples of dark chocolate and left.

The vege garden is at the providore behind the chocolate factory.

Behind the chocolate factory, and part of the same complex, there is a providore. They have samples of lots of differrent oils, sauces, jams, pickles, etc, that you can taste. They're all made on the premises from their own produce...vegetables, herbs, olives...make their own olive oils...it was all very delicious! We bought a bottle of Spicy Shiraz Sauce...yum!

 

A little further on was supposed to be the lavender gardens. When we arrived, we found there was a shop that sold various products made using lavender, but they no longer grow the lavender there. We bought a big lavender-flavoured scone which we had with a cuppa when we got back to Rosie.

When we got back to Busselton, we went and tok a few photos of their famous 2km jetty. It's supposed to be the longest timber jetty in the southern hemisphere.

 It was pretty windy still, so we decided not to walk it.

This is some of today's produce!

Day 59...Cape Leeuwin

Today we went from Busselton for a drive to see the sights. Firstly, we went through Dunsborough to Cape Naturaliste to see the lighthouse, then back to Dunsborough and had pies for lunch.

We've seen a lot of these lillies along the way. They're a pest to the farmers around here, but they really look great. There are thousands of them along the sides of the road,

 in the bush and under the trees.

On the way back from the lighthouse, we drove into one of the bays along the way.

 This is Bunker Bay. It's pretty rugged, but quite beautiful as well.

Driving south now, towards the Margaret River region, the were heaps of wineries, all with manicured lawns and lovely entrances to their cellar doors.

The trees through this area were very tall and beautiful.

When we got to the bottom of the road, we drove through Augusta to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse.

We got there at 4:45, so had to rush up the hill to get a close look, as it closed at 5pm.

It was a great view. It is where the Indain and Southern Oceans meet....it was extremely windy!!!

Along the way we stopped at a venison farm and got some venison salami and cabana.

There are heaps of wineries and all kinds of foodie places...you wouldn't have time to see them all.

We also stopped at a chocolate factory and had a taste.

This is Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, down in the bottom corner of Western Australia.

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.