Ravensthorpe/Hopetoun

Thursday it didn't stop raining all day and we were stuck inside reading, playing computer games and watching TV. It's the best rain the area has had in years, so it was hard to be unhappy about. So far 40ml has fallen very steadily which is making all the locals happy (including a family of ducks in the dam behind us here in the park).




Friday (yesterday) by 10am we'd had enough so got in the car and drove to Hopetoun for a look. The NP was closed (they do it to stop the spread of a mud carried disease "die back" in plants) but we drove along Southern Ocean Road and out to the NP gates and saw some lovely scenery and plants anyway. The rain was more showery there, so we could get out and walk on the beaches and take photos.

Ravensthorpe

Russ and I left Cranbrook on Tuesday morning after 5 nights there. It was quiet, but we enjoyed that a lot. What we didn’t enjoy was the bitter cold wind and rain-we found it almost impossible to get warm on a couple of nights even though we rugged up in long pants, jumpers, socks, slippers and put the heater on.

On the Monday, we took a drive out through the Stirlings again, then on to the very different Porongorup Ranges and home through Mt Barker. The Porongorups were much lusher than the Stirlings with Karri trees and creepers through the undergrowth.


It was nice to drive to Mt Barker and see the pastures looking so good. I lost my sunglasses somewhere in the Porongorups so was pleased to find a pair I liked in town. We saw lots of shingle back lizards, racehorse goannas and a snake on the road as we drove around-they must like the heat of the sealed roads.



Tuesday we drove to Ravensthorpe and booked into the caravan park for two nights intending to head to Salmon gums or Fraser Range Sheep Station Caravan Park on Thursday. The guy in the office was very friendly and immediately suggested a couple of drives we could do-one out through the Ravensthorpe Ranges and the other through Fitzgerald NP to Houptoun. We’d have had to do the first really quickly that night and the second the following day. We quickly decided to stay an extra day. Then Russ realized we’d be somewhere on the Nullabor when the AFL grand final was played, so we decided to stay on another two days-so our two nights is now 5.



I am enjoying it here although the park is odd. The female half of the pair running the place is a keen gardener and has lots of broken toilets, old stoves, boots , toilet pans (remember them), teapots, wheel barrows etc. etc. etc. filled with flowers and plants and scattered throughout the garden beds. The toilet blocks are crowded with live plants, home made mobiles, old stuff hanging on walls etc etc etc. All this stuff has seen much better days and must have been picked up at the tip. She has one garden bed called “Barbie is a slut” and it’s full of Barbies and Kens doing very rude things!!! She has painted murals on the office walls, toilet blocks and laundry and she is THE most heavily tattooed woman I’ve ever seen. Plus she looks like she did too many drugs in the 70s. But she’s really friendly and loaned us lots of books on local wild flowers to take on our first drive today.



The Ravensthorpe Ranges were beautiful, a real surprise with their huge variety of flowers and shrubs. We drove up a dirt track to a couple of lookouts (over the NP and out to sea) then down and back into town and couldn’t get over all we had seen. The only pity was that the wind was blowing so hard it actually spooked me at the first lookout. It was howling though the guy wires of the radio mast and the car doors were in danger of being ripped off as we opened them!




Tomorrow we are off to the NP if it doesn’t rain tonight. We are expecting 20mls and that will cause the dirt roads to be closed in the park

Stirling Ranges

At the moment, we are staying in Cranbrook in the South West just near the Stirling Ranges. We were only going to stay 3 nights, but the weather has been pretty lousy and we haven't been able to get out into the ranges as much as we expected we would. So, we are staying on a couple of extra nights as the weather looks set to improve.



Yesterday we took a drive through the ranges, stopping to look at flowers and orchids in between showers. It was cold, but still a good day out. We took along a few snags, bread, tomato etc expecting to find a BBQ to cook on-after checking out the first four picnic areas and finding no fires we ate a tomato sandwich each. We found a BBQ at the last place and finally (around 3pm) ate our sausages!!

Cranbrook

We left Perth on Tuesday, and after a couple of nights with Brice in Bunbury have moved on to Cranbrook near the Stirling Ranges. It was very sad to leave Todd, Kobie, Verity and Dan in Perth as we have had a fantastic time with all of them. Dan and Verity sent us off with a wonderful hamper of goodies for looking after Kobie (not at all hard to do) which we'll enjoy as we travel.

Cranbrook is a tiny town in the wheat belt (although I reckon we saw more canola than wheat getting here yesterday). We've stayed here before in the park in the one cabin the shire provides. It was a pleasant surprise to find our van site was only $14 so it will be a cheap few nights. On arrival, we set up, then followed a series of signs down to the local supermarket to pay our site fees.

The weather has turned foul-rain and really high winds yesterday that dropped through the night but are back with a vengeance this morning. I don't think it'll be much fun out in the ranges looking at wild flowers. We can have a quiet day today and stay an extra day or two if need be though. Russ has no plans today after 4.30 pm.to be anywhere but in front of the TV cheering on the Saints.

Recipezaar

Dan and Joy at rear, Pat, Terese, and me at the front.

Today 9 of us went to Saigon Restaurant in Northbridge Perth for a long lunch. Joy and Simon are here from Wales and Chris and Pat, Terese, Dan and Verity came along too. It was lots of fun, the food was good and it was relatively cheap.

Pat, Joy, Terese, Dan and I all belong to Recipezaar-a US based recipe site and Russ and I have met all of them before in different states and Wales.

Russ and I leave Perth on Tuesday for Bunbury and a couple of nights with our fishing mate Brice. Then we are heading to the Stirling Ranges. Unless we hear very quickly about a couple of jobs we've applied for with the grain board out of Geraldton.

Joy and Simon

We had our friends Joy and Simon over for lunch today. Joy belongs to Recipezaar and we visited her at her home in Barry Wales two years ago. It was lovely to see her again and met Simon for the first time. They're trying to tak us into visiting Wales again and I have to say it all sounds tempting!

It's been a beautiful day here in perth, so we sat out on the deck by the pool with a glass of wine, then had a seafood pie and salad for lunch. We've all talked and talked and had a wonderful afternoon. Sunday a group of us are off out for lunch and I'm looking forward to that.

Latest Photo of Kobie

Perth

It's been a really busy time for us in Perth this time round. We have both seen our dentists and had quite a lot of work done, we've had the car serviced, Russ's seen the doctor, we cleaned the van of a ton of red dust and bought a new freezer which we've managed to fill with meat already. We've also been sitting Kobie on Wednesdays and Fridays so Verity can work and she's had a night out with her sister. Todd took us out for a great dinner at Divido's-an Italian restaurant on Scarborough Beach Road last Tuesday and we've been to Saigon for lunch with Dan and Verity.


Tonight we are sitting again, and expecting Leah to call in for a while, then tomorrow we are off out with Blair and Leah and Chris and Carly etc as Blair had some work to do over here today (Friday). Sitting Kobie has been the best fun and we really feel like we know him so well now (as well as you can know a 5 month old). he really is the best baby and a dream to care for.





Yesterday we drove out to Roleystone to Araluen Botanic park for a wander around the beautiful gardens and especially the 100,000 tulips in bloom at the moment.


Next week we are having lunch (probably home here) with friends Joy and Simon who are home in Wales, then a few of us are going to Saigon with them on Sunday. Monday or Tuesday we'll start to make our way back to Warrnambool.