Port Smith

5 nights have passed very fast at Port Smith. We have both loved it here as much as anywhere we’ve been so far! I’m not saying this would be the place everyone HAS to visit, but if you don’t mind the 20k drives in and out again on the dirt, don’t need shops, a pool or many facilities, this is a great place. We are amazed that people will drive in; stay hitched up and drive out in the morning without ever getting the feel for the place. Much easier to overnight at one of the roadhouses on the highway.

It’s not a big park-there are 95 powered van sites and we reckon they have only been just over half full all the time we’ve been here. The sites are large and shady, but on red dirt. The boat launching area is 600 metres down a red dirt track passed the bird park. The caravan park and bird park are a little island in the middle of 3 aboriginal communities and there is nothing else here.

Port Smith is actually a large tidal lagoon, but was used in the early days in bad weather to keep the pearl luggers from 80 mile beach safe, so they called it a “port” At low tide it is amazing to see the small channels amongst the sand, amongst the mangroves. As the tide rushes in through the entrance, the sand and channels disappear creating a beautiful lagoon for a few hours until the tide leaves again. Fishing is best done a couple of hours before and after high tide- if you leave it too long, you risk not being able to retrieve your boat!

Fishing at Port Smith


One of the nice things about the park is the mix of people. It’s mostly out-of-staters and mostly people travelling on their own. We have found parks where the people “have been coming here for 30 years” with their same group of friends to be not so outgoing. Right now we have Victorians over the road and are surrounded by NSW and Queensland couples this side. Russ reckons it must be a park rule that you have to speak to everyone at least once during your stay. I think it’s because everyone is here to fish and are so interested in what everyone else has caught. It’s really nice that the park managers, staff and everyone else is happy to tell you where and how they caught whatever they got too.

Launching the Boat Through the Mangroves

The park is full of tinnies as you would struggle to launch anything bigger and if you don’t have a boat, the park operates a “ferry service”. Every two days, they take groups of people by inflatable dingy to one of the islands. 4 hours later they go down and collect them. All of this is done for $2 per person which is then donated to the RFD.

We have been catching enough fish for a feed although Russ is doing better than me so far. It’s fun to see different types of fish and we’ve had a lot of fun catching fairly decent sized Gold Trevally and Russ caught a couple of Queen Fish yesterday. They both tasted good in a curry last night and the trevally smokes really well. Gold Trevally is considered a better eating fish than most of the other trevally species which we think make very good bait Mike and Mary across the way from us caught themselves two enormous flathead yesterday! They were fishing about 100 metres from us when they got them! Another couple Chris and Nicole were about 50 metres the other way when their son caught a small shark. It’s amazing the variety of fish in such a small area.

Karratha, Sandfire Roadhouse and on to Port Smith

Sunday morning in Karratha was one of the only windless days we were to have, so we bolted our breakfast down and headed out to Dampier with the boat. Last year we couldn’t get out once in a week, so we really wanted to put the boat in the water and have a look around as I suspect we may never stay any length of time in the place again!

I think we launched off the wrong boat ramp (we used the private one at the yacht club) but no one shot at us, so it was OK! We got in about 4 hours fishing-it was slow for the first 3, then on the change of tide we caught 3 types of cod we’d never seen before, a stripy sea perch, bream, yellow fin bream, and bald chin gropers so it was pretty interesting. Our freezer is full, so we kissed them and put them all back!

It was so nice to drive back into the park after fishing and see my BIL Peter walking to the office. After a shower we spent a nice afternoon catching up, then cooked a yummy dinner of tuna we caught in Denham and had been saving for them. Glenda and Pete are travelling in the opposite direction to us, so have come down through the Kimberly and Broome. It was good to hear their recommendations of parks to stay in and interesting places to see!

Monday, we all changed bed linen and did our washing, then headed out to Dampier and the Burrup Peninsula. Burrup Peninsula is famous for Aboriginal rock art. Last year I read 40,000 paintings had been catalogued, now I hear it’s 5000000! Whatever, it’s very interesting. We took a wander through a little valley along a creek and found heaps. The iron rich rocks lay in huge piles looking like leftovers from the mining process and the art can be found like early graffiti on many of the rock faces. We could see turtles, boats, kangaroos, fish, people etc. After a walk around them and a drive to the lookout over Dampier, we headed down to the pub for lunch. It was windy, but still pleasant to sit out (by ourselves) in the beer garden overlooking the harbour. Back in Karratha, we went up to another lookout then did a bit of shopping before heading home. We had dinner at Glenda and Pete’s that night.

Glenda, Pete and Russ at Burrup Penisula


Tuesday we took Glenda and Pete’s car and went out through Roeburn to Cossack. Cossack is a ghost town with a few buildings, the cemetery and a tiny museum remaining. It’s got plenty of signs recalling its history though and is a nice walk around. On then to Point Samson where we had lunch at one of the two cafes in town. Afterwards, we took a walk down to the beach and a drive to the boat harbour. It’s such a pretty place. Pete had a van tyre repaired for a slow leak and had to pick it up on the way home. Glenda, Russ and I left him at home fixing that and headed back into town to do some shopping for dinner and the move on to 80 mile beach and Port Smith. Karratha was established about 40 years ago for the mining industry and has a pretty large and good shopping centre. We especially needed to stock up as the next two stops we planned to make are in quite remote locations.

Wednesday, we headed North (planning to stay 4 nights at 80 mile beach) and Glenda and Pete were off to stay at Exmouth for a couple of days.

The Road out of Karratha


About a month ago, I called 80 mile beach CP to be told they don’t take bookings, but they had plenty of sites and all would be fine!! We drove just under 500ks, then turned off the highway and down a dirt road-not a whole lot of fun with our strictly onroad van! We arrived to find that they only had un powered sites left and would put us on one of those, then we would be able to move onto a powered site when it became vacant (probably in the morning). We can’t do that, we need power, so we walked out, went back up the dirt road and headed another 40ks to Sandfire roadhouse for the night. The 80mile beach CP had a sign at the start of the dirt explaining pricing of various accommodation, facilities, no dogs etc. I think it would be a courtesy to send someone out to the sign to put up a notice when all powered sites are gone. Grrrrr. I have been told they don’t take bookings due to too many no shows, but I would have happily paid in full. Who looses out then if we don’t show up?!

Sandfire roadhouse was a scary looking place-the actual roadhouse burned down 13 weeks ago and they were using transportable offices. We camped out the back behind all that and had a really nice quiet night-even though we counted 26 geese, at least 60 peacocks of various sizes, a huge Brahman bull, two horses and a friendly chook! The ablutions block had seen better times and was in need of a clean, but I can live with that for a night. We were booked in at Port Smith 3 nights later, so gave them a call about arriving early-which we did yesterday.

A Spacious, Shady Site at Port Smith


What a pretty place this is at the end of 20ks of red dirt road. The van made it in fine with only one cupboard open and a few things upended in the fridge when we arrived! We’d made it in time for the dinner they put on every Thursday, so no need to cook tea that night.

A camper trailer followed us in along the dirt and we said hello to the couple down on the beach later on. I saw them again at the dinner and they sat and joined us. Russ had gone back to get our chairs when they asked what he did for a living. It turns out Mark is one of his former Chemical Users Course attendees that he (Russ) did for TAFE. Mark and Leah are from Hamilton on 4-6 weeks holiday to do the Gibb River Road. This is the second time we’ve met someone who did the course-the first time was on day one of this trip in Mt Gambier (that seems a long time ago).

Dinner was well attended by easily 100 people. The park put on chicken and veg soup followed by a sausage sizzle. They had raffles and games and a local band that played almost non-stop for 3 hours. The local band was called the Shoveller Family Band and came from the Aboriginal community about 40ks away. It consisted of dad, son (maybe 25), son (almost 14) and nephew (almost 13). The 7 year old sister Peta sat with us and got up and sang about 4 songs, the other sister Lalaine just watched and chatted a little as they didn’t bring her piano. Dad is a music teacher at the community’s High School and father of 7 children. He wrote a lot of the songs they sang and they sang a lot! The teenage boys break danced; they played pipes for didgeridoos and all in all put on a wonderful show. It’s nice to see kids with such high self esteem. Mum wasn’t there as she had taken her mother into Perth for an operation. Perth is 2000ks away now, so quite a drive!

Today we went out fishing on the lagoon. It’s quite amazing to see everything under water as we saw it last night when the tide was out. We are in the areas of large tides now and it was about 6 metres higher than we saw yesterday. Tomorrow it will be 7 metres difference and by Tuesday it will be 8 metres. The tides go out very fast and there is only a fairly narrow window of opportunity to retrieve your boat. If you leave it too late, you just leave the boat and get it as the tide starts to come back in. We had put the car into 4WD and let a lot of air out of the tyres to get the boat out of the water.

All that was very interesting, but the lack of legal sized fish was a bit of a disappointment! We caught many cod, but had to throw them all back. It could be to do with the full moon tomorrow night, we’ll have to wait and see and hope it improves. At least we have enough meat, fish and chicken in our freezer to survive!

Tonight Leah and mark are coming over for a drink and chat before dinner, and then Russ and I are having a curry.

Exmouth and Breaking Up at Nanutarra

A Beautiful Spot for Sunset Drinks

It was a slow first few days at Exmouth with me still sick with my cold. It managed to hang around for 2 weeks and made me very teary and miserable by the end of it. I’m happy to say it’s gone and I’m feeling much happier now!

Last Sunday night the park put on their weekly roast. It’s not a flash meal, but it’s cheap and generous. We were lucky to be seated with a NZ couple - Mike and Meg, who were just passing through and Hana and Rick from outside Mandurah. Rick and Hana will stay at the park for another 2 months.

Mike and Meg are from eastern North Island and they came to Aus where they bought a campervan and are travelling around WA sightseeing in between working on organic farms. They also own a B&B in NZ and are very interested in birds and bugs and are loving their time here in WA. They stayed on another night and Mike encouraged me to finally backup all my photos and they borrowed our snorkeling gear to go check out the reef.

The other couple Rick and Hana was interesting too. Rick is a Viet Vet and Hanna a Czech. She and her husband came to Aus in 1991 but he left her two weeks after arriving for his younger girlfriend he had also brought over. Hana is a physiotherapist but couldn’t practice here. She had to work in a factory to survive and read children’s books to learn English. Eventually she decided WA was a cheaper place to buy a house (well it was then) and moved here. 4 years ago she met Rick at a street party and they married 2 years ago. Her ex husband’s younger girlfriend left him for a younger man about 2 years after they arrived in Australia!

Anyhow, meeting these two couples and our nice neighbours behind s worked wonders cheering me up. I’ll be sad to move on now. Carl behind us is a Maffra boy, so we have spent a lot of time talking about Gippsland. When we move out, their daughter and family are taking our site.

Unfortunately, it is cooler and windier than we remember last year and it’s been a bit difficult to get the boat out fishing. We’ve found it pays to wait until about 2ish each day when we see the wind drop and then go. It’s been to cool to think about snorkeling which is a pity and the pool here is freezing. I’m looking forward to moving north to a bit warmer weather! Maybe we’ll leave all the moths behind too. We have been inundated with moths of all shapes and sizes-something I can’t remember from last year either.

We’ve managed to catch a few good feeds of fish. Mostly Charlie Court Cod, but they are my favourite fish, so I’m not unhappy. Most CCC are caught around 30cm, I caught a 37cm one the other day. They have a huge mouth which opens and fills with water when you bring them so he felt like a whale when I landed him in the boat. Last year the park had a CCC comp and he would have been right up there with the biggest. Russ also caught us an octopus on the same day. He brought him in with the landing net, and it was amazing to see him squeeze himself through the little holes in that and stick himself to the bottom of the boat. I think they are amazing creatures. It’s a shame for them they make such good bait.
Rick, Hana and Jesse

Wednesday night, we went over to the beach with Rick and Hanna and dog Jesse and had a glass of wine watching the sun go down over the reef. We spent a lovely couple of hours over there watching the little fishing boats come in and Jesse (who is 10) play in the sand and water like she was a puppy again. It really was a nice time. We sat on the beach by a huge sand dune and were the only ones there-it was beautiful.

Sunset Over Ningaloo Reef

Thursday was windy again, so we packed up at a fairly leisurely pace, then had a farewell drink with Rick and Hana. I almost wish we were staying on a bit longer now we have met a few people.

Yesterday we left Yardie Homestead CP and headed to Karratha. We made it as far as Nanutarra Roadhouse just before 3pm. I hate kangaroos and wandering stock, so we decided that was far enough for the day. We’ve stayed at the roadhouse before and really enjoyed it. Everyone is just staying for the night and always on for a chat-last night was just the same! Lots of friendly neighbors travelling north and south and all happy to talk. We met a nice couple Dale and Maureen who suggested we look them up on any Friday night at Broome RSL. They assure us the meals and drinks are all cheap and it’ll be a good night.

Hopefully better than our night at Nanutarra started out!

I’d packed our wine glasses away in their box in an overhead cupboard, so when Russ went to get them they fell to the floor and broke. Then I sat in one of our much used chairs and it broke, last I moved the TV off the bed where it travels into its normal spot and it fell to the floor and fell to bits! We bought a new one today the minute we got to Karratha and when the sales assistant was carrying it to the checkout, the box broke and the corner off it hit my leg, breaking the skin and giving me a good bruise!

On arrival here and as he was making up the boat trailer, Russ stubbed his toe and ripped back a huge chunk of skin-talk about a sad pair. Now we are here for 4 nights with my sister and BIL arriving tomoorw.

Yardie Homestead CP

Yesterday we travelled from Coral Bay to YHCP 33ks outside Exmouth. It's an old cattle and sheep stationbetween the Cape Range and the Ningaloo Reef. The stockman's quaters are converted to cheap accommodation and the old wool shed is quite near our van. It's got a pool and tennis courts, but it's sandy. Lots of people play bocchi in the sand though which is good to watch. We bought a cheap set after Christmas and might have to take them out and have a try!

Last year we stayed back at the Lighthouse CP-it was closer to town, but we spent a lot of time driving 16ks down and back to the boat ramp at Tantabiddy. Now we are 3ks from it which is much easier.

When we arrived, the guy at the office asked if we had been told about the electricity when we booked in. No, we hadn't! It's available 24hrs a day, but you can't use anything with a heating element, so no toaster, jug, elecric frying pan and hotplate, sandwich toaster and no aircon. We have really had to rethink the way we cook and are finally happy we bought a portable BBQ. Once again like Coral Bay, we have to go get our drinking water from a tank, but the bore water here is much less salty than it was there.

Today we went out fishing. It's easy to catch a feed quite close to shore which we did-a nice feed of cod. We hooked half a dozen other fish that seemed like they would be good, but had them bitten off by a shark. He was about 8 or 9 feet and seemed to wait until we had a bigger fish then took the lot. We shifted three times, but he seemed to follow us. Eventually we gave him the slip or he gave up! He would grab the fish, then throw himself in the air sideways like they do, sending up a huge spray of water! Apart from him, we saw so many turtles I couldn't believe it, and a dugong who stayed about 30 metres from the boat sunning himself for about an hour.

A Cold in Coral Bay

As planned, we headed out fishing on Monday morning. Conditions weren't quite as good as promised, s we didn't go as far as we initially planned. I woke with waht I thought was a bit of hay fever, but by the time we came in from fishing, it had turned into a very nasty cold which I am almost over today (Friday). I spent a couple of miserable days just sitting in the van with the aircon on when it all got too much for me and only once managed a swim in the pool. Lucky for me that Russ is such a good cook and looked after me so well, I think I got better much faster. I also think the luxury of not having to drag myself to work sped things up too.

I loved this park the last time we were here, but being sick has made it feel noisy, crowded and sandy-not the same place I remember! It has sort of isolated us a bit from neighbours we might have got to know too. Last year we had the best time with Kath and Ron and then James and Beth (who we'll be meeting in Broome in a month!).

Today, Russ informs me looks like the best fishing day so far, so we are off to try our luck at catching a few spangled emperor. A nice neighbour has given us directions to his "secret spot" so we'll see how that goes.

I've been very saddened to see the new marina being built and a couple of wind generators laying waiting to be erected. This was such an unspoiled and remote place and it seems a tradgedy to change that and turn it into a rich person's playground.

Coral Bay Hooray!

We spent a couple of very quiet days in Carnarvon stocking up on fresh fruit, veg, groceries and a few other things like new undies, pillow and fishing gear. We stayed in the Big4 there and although the park was really quite OK, management was so laid back they were almost comatose. They just didn't seem to care much about anything. The biggest entertainment of our stay was the couple who had started packing to leave just as we arrived and pulled out about 15 minutes before us after our 2 day stay. It took them about 4 hours to tie down a load under a cover on their roof rack and about 20 minutes this morning to hitch the caravan to the car.

Today we drove on to Coral Bay. It's only 220ks and last year it was dry and barren looking. This year they must have had more rain as it was looking very lush today. Although after lots of places, that wouldn't be difficult.

On arrival, the girl at the desk looked very blank when I said we had booked and paid a deposit for a week. In the end, she found us arriving tomorrow for 8 nights (which was right I found on checking my diary!) so now we are here for 9 lovely nights.

Our site is quite large and right beside the pool and resturant and not far from the tiny shopping complex. It's very hot today and there are more flies than I remember from last year, but the notice on the office door says tomorrow at 8am will be good conditions for small boats. So I guess it is fishing in the morning and snorkelling in the afternoon.

Denham to Carnarvon

Russ and I left Denham this morning and headed to Carnarvon. It's just over 300ks and we only have two days here, but it's the best shopping we'll have for 2 1/2 weeks. We arrived here, st up the van, drove up North River Road, back down South River road and got a car load of beautiful fresh veg and herbs. Then we hit Woolworths! This morning, we used our last two teaspoons of coffee bought in Perth for $12 per 500g can. In Denham, that can was $24! Tonight we paid $13 at Woolies Carnarvon for another two!

It was so very sad leaving Denham this morning. We've had 2 weeks and two days there with Brice and some lovely neighbours. I cried when we left as they are all quite elderly and we can only hope they will still be there when we get back in two years-particularly Brice who is really quite sick with bone cancer.

It's been a lovely couple of weeks that have flown by. It's amazing how much happens when you are supposed to be doing nothing. We have done lots of fishing in our tinny and managed to go out 4 times with Brice in his boat. The first two days in it (Brice's boat) were a bit lean fish wise, but the third and last were great. Our second trip out was really just a sightseeing tour-over to see the salt works and the private town of Useless Loop. It's 121ks in from the road to Denham on dirt all the way, or about 25 nautical miles from Denham. It was a lovely day and great to finally see the place. On our third trip last Saturday, 4 of us caught 21 quite large fish, and yesterday (our last) was the best.

Just the 3 of us headed out and the sea was absolutely "boiling" with tuna feeding all over the place. Brice doesn't like tuna, but knows we do, so stopped the boat and we started to trawl with lures. Brice caught a fish, but lost all his gear-a few minutes later a tuna circled the boat with his bright orange lure in its mouth! Then Russ caught a nice one which we got into the boat so we were happy! Russ filleted it and we have 6 feeds (inclding a big one to share with my sister) in the fridge and freezer. We ate one tonight and I reckon it is the best feed of fish I've had so far.

We left then and went on to catch a couple of good black snapper, a big pink snapper, 5 red throated emperor, 2 big Charlie Court cod, and just as Brice said we should head home, Russ caught a huge Morwong. A shark (at least 3 metres) spent a long time circling the boat grabbing fish we caught and released, we saw sea snakes and dophins and all those schools of tuna feeding-it was a wonderful day.

When we got home, Russ and Brice filleted and packed the fish while I went down to the butcher and picked up a ROASTED leg of lamb I'd ordered for our dinner. All I had to do was cook some vegies, make some gravy and we had a wonderful dinner.

The night before last, Brice bought 10 green crabs and I cooked him his first ever chilli crab which he loved. We really have had some wonderful meals together!

When we weren't out fishing with Brice, we would take our boat to Monkey Mia and target Flathead. We've got very good at finding enough nice sized ones (about 50cm) for a good feed. Or we would take the boat to Eagle Bluff where we could catch ourselves a feed of snapper.

Last time we took the boat to Monkey Mia, Russ headed off without the lights and rego attached to the trailer (something he often does!) A cop passed us going the other way, then next minute I saw him in my side mirror with the lights flashing. I told Russ he better pull over then asked if he had his licence "NO"! I said he better act dumb (not real hard to do I think!) anyhow, the nice boy gave him a warning on both counts, talked a lot about fishing and sent us on our way-how lucky was he!!!!

I've decided that Denham is the place I have enjoyed the most on this trip so far and I'm looking forward to coming back in the not too distant future.

Tomorrow, we are off to the farmer's market in town here,then Sunday we will travel to Coral Bay (only about 230ks) where we will spend a week swimming, snorkelling and fishing. Then it's on to Exmouth for more of the same.

Denham

We have been back in Denham for 3 days and are really enjoying some warm, windless weather. A lot of you would remember we spent 7 weeks here at various times last year after June, so you can imagine we are really happy to be here. Monday we begin our 16th month on the road and are happy to say we are still loving it.

It was a great feeling to drive into this park on the 16th and be remembered by the staff, nice to have an ensuite site for our stay this time and lovely to recognise Brice's vehicle arriving yesterday afternoon as he begins his 3 month stay. We ar between two couples who have been coming here for many, many years and remember us from last year also. Rather than make us feel like Victorians who just blew in, they are all going out of their way to make us feel welcome.

It had started to get very cold down south and although Perth was quite a bit better than that, we are trying to avoid the cold so it was time to move north. We spent a windy week in Dongara before moving on here, so the 28c days, 14c nights and lack of wind are wonderful! Perth was great though as we had 4 of our 5 boys there in the week we were there. It's very rare to see so many of them at once, so it was certainly a special time for Russ and I. My youngest Dan is over here working in a mine near Leonora and he flew his brother Mick over to see us as Mick leaves for London again next month and who knows when we will see him again.

The day we arrived we got the boat and trailer organised and have had it out fishing twice already. Friday Russ and I headed over to Monkey Mia and although we only came home with a good feed of flathead, it's one of the most beautiful places we ever get to fish so it was a good day. The Gascoyne region is famous for the beautiful red dirt meeting the white sand, meeting the vivid blues of the ocean-it really is spectacular.

Saturday, one of the women from my recipe club arrived on a site near us and she and I spent the day talking while Russell and her husband Chris took the boat out to Eagle Bluff. They came home with a no anchor (the shackle came undone) and a nice feed of black snapper and assorted fish which we enjoyed for dinner last night. After dinner, Brice and Phyllis popped over for an hour, so it was a very nice social night! Today, Russ and Chris are off out to Monkey Mia fishing, and then they head home tomorrow. Chris and Pat are from Perth and because of responsibilities to an elderly mother and autistic son, this is the first holiday longer than 2 days they have taken in 27 years so they are making the best of it.

Dongara

It's been a quiet few days in Dongara. The ensuite part of the park has been pretty quiet but the cabins and powered sites have been booked out most nights. It suprises me as it only costs $27pn for the ensuite and they really are nice.

We've had the boat out 3 times, but it's pretty open out there so we don't venture too far, therefore we haven't seen many fish. I actually think Dongara might be an old aboriginal name for "place with few fish"!! We just seem to catch enough little ones for a bit of bait in our crab pots and then the crabs are a bit scarce too. Russ came home with 4 last night but at least they were a decent size.

The other night we had a pleasant suprise. A large motor home pulled in on the site behind us and asked if we were Jan and Russell Sessions-it was a woman I "know" from the recipe club-Pat, and her husband Chris. We were to catch up with them in Denham, but they left Perth late and decided Dongara was far enough so stopped at the park. It was only after they had been allocated their site (right behind us) that they thought to ask if we were in the park! We had a very fun night getting to know them sitting outside over a few drinks. W'll be seeing them again in Denham in 3 days which is good.

Our Week In Perth

Well, we left Perth yesterday after a great week there staying with Blair Leah and Todd. We arrived on Wenesday 2nd and left Wednesday 9th. Dan (my youngest son) has just started work cooking in a mining camp and flies in and out to the camp with the same company as Blair. It was good to be able to pick them together from their planes Thursday night (and the planes were considerate enough to land within wo minutes of each other!) Leah and I picked them up, Russ cooked us a big feed of whiting we had brought with us from Walpole.

Friday Mick arrived-Dan arranged and paid for that as a birthday/mother's day present for me and a birthday present for Mick. It's not very often we have as many of the boys in one place at one time, so it was a wonderful few days for Russ and I.

It's been a busy week though with planes being met and departing (Mick on Tuesday) kids taken out for lunch and brunch, new tyres on the car, a visit to the doctor to have a benign growth cut off my leg, I've moved into the NEXT G with my phone and internet connection, so have had take delivery of them and nut all that stuff out and we had a lot of washing of things that only get washed occasionaly that needed doing before we moved North. It was nice to go out for yum cha on the Sunday morning with all the boys, Leah, nephew Tim, kurt and Holly and my ex Allan. We'd also taken Dan to a cheap Asian restaurant in North Bridge befor Mick arrived, so he asked to go back there with Mick before he left-it serves the best and cheapest duck soup you'd get in Perth I reckon.

We also like to do a big grocery shop when we are in a major town, so that was done on the Tuesday. Without realising it, it was senior's day for a 5% discount, double rewards points and there was huge meat discounts at the super IGA we had decided to visit-honestly it was like Christmas Eve and there was quite a lot of pushing and shoving at the meat counter as the pork came out!

Yesterday (May 9th) after saying our goodbyes, we headed off to Dongara. I felt so sad as we pulled away from the house as this is the first time in 12 months that we haven't left saying "we'll see you in x amount of months". I was quite teary at the thought of not knowing when we will see any of the boys and Leah again! Amazing when I checked the archives of the original blog to find May 9th was the day we drove out of Perth and headed North the year before-Russ reckons it must be a good Leaving Perth Day. It was nice to pull into the parke in Dongara and have the managers say "welcome back" (and no, they weren't at the computer whcih would probably tell them we were returning guests!!) This is the park they suggested we might like to manage next year 9and we have been considering that pretty seriously), but now he (manager Kevin) has bought himself a new Ford 250 truck thingy, that plan has been put back another year. So wwh knows where to for us after Darwin in August now.

Back in Perth

We left Walpole on Monday and went to Bunbury for 2 nights. It poured rain as we started to pack up Sunday night and continued all through the night. Fortunately, that god of caravan parks allowed us a 2 hour window Monday morning to put the boat on the roof, fold the trailer up and finish packing. We had a fine hour or so on the way to Bunbury, then the skies opened up and off it went again. The wost of it was some road works near Donnybrook where we thought we would have to put the car into 4WD to get through. We had a red car and van at the end of that 10ks of road!

Monday and Tuesday night were spent with Brice and Phyllis-mostly trying to keep out of the rain and stay warm. Last noight, the 4 of us went out for Chinese_I really loved my roast duck!

Today we are "home" at Blair Leah and Todd's for a week. Dan is flying infrom the mine tomorrow night and I'll be meeting him at the airport. It's almost 15 months since we saw each other last. We brought Phyllis back with us, and it turns out her house is about 1 kilometre from here!

Right now we are catching up on all our mail and then we'll grab something to cook for Todd and Leah for dinner. I'll also post a few photos to the blog to brighten it up now I have the luxury of the wireless connection here.

Steam Shoes and Knickers

On Thursday night we got talking to a nice couple-Bernie and Leanne from Perth. They have not long bought their van (in Melbourne to save paying stamp duty) and are pretty new to caravanning like us. They custom built their van and suggested we go look at their battery set up for free camping the following morning. It looks simple and was added after the van was built, so it seems a pretty good choice for us. Anyhow, I noticed the car next door had Traralgon on its number plates and a Yepoon Hash House Harriers sticker on the back. (I met Russell through HHH).

Ross and Joy (Steam Shoes and Knickers) have been to many Latrobe Valley and Warrnambool HHH runs, we remember them from the Balls Up at Dallas Brooks Hall and a good friend of theirs went out with a good friend of ours. We spent a lovely couple of hours with them reminiscing last night and were a bit sad to find out they would be moving on today. Hopefully we will catch up in Perth although they are not too fond of cities and may move on fairly quickly.

Bottle Brush on the Bibulum Track


Yesterday, we took the car into town for its 30,000 km service (poor thing looks more like 300,000), then walked home along the Bibulum track (part of a 1000 km track that snakes from Albany to Perth). It was a lovely 3k walk through town, then over little creeks, through groves of tea tree and past quite a few wild flowers.

The Tinny Waiting to go Fishing


We’d launched the boat before taking the car into town, so headed out and did a bit of fishing. We moved around for a couple of hours not catching anything, so I finally said to Russ it was time to go home-I was a bit bored. I said we should cast our lines out one more time then go. I thought I had caught an octopus at first, but I pulled in the biggest bream I have ever seen personally. He was 41cm. Legal size is 25 and we only keep the ones over 30. He made the other 4 we caught look like babies. We had him for dinner last night and gave Ross and Joy the other fillets.
Big Bream, Bad Hair Day


It’s Saturday now and Russ is in paying for the car service. We offered to go get cash for them yesterday, but they said “no, just drop in and pay with your key card tomorrow morning”. I couldn’t believe they could do business like that-I would be standing by the eftpos machine (with my hand out waiting) when dealing with strangers passing through. They really only had our word that we are here until Monday. Russ said we must look honest, but I’m sure jail is full of people who “look” honest.

Still in Walpole

Amongst the Tingles

Another few days have slipped by in Walpole. It certainly is a relaxing time here! The weather has been getting cooler still-we had the heater on for a while last night and I got a blanket out to watch TV. There has often been rain through the nights and the days are still clearing to sunny but cooler. Our original plan was to stay a week, but we quickly extended that to two. The park is pretty empty and the fish are plentiful so it seems a good reason to hang around.

Mandalay Beach

Last week we drove out to Deep River and on to Mandalay beach (very beautiful)so it was great to see it from a different perspective. We also took another trip to the Giant Tingle tree with our camera this time!
In the Giant Tingle Tree


Russ promised me a fish smoker for my birthday and we finally bought it at the supermarket here. We tried to make do with our wok, but it was a waste of time. We've been having a great time with the real thing and it gives us more ways to use that seeminly endless supply of fish we have.
Down at the Boat Ramp

We have been limiting our fishing time as we are catching too many! Yesterday we headed out with our lunch at 11.30 and came back in at 2.30 having caught 10 King George whiting (averaging 33cm), a good sized trevally and salmon. Russ filleted them all and our neighbours (a couple from Shepparton) scored themselves 6 beautiful whiting fillets for their dinner.
The Fish


We kept the trevally and salmon to smoke as they are almost the best fish we’ve been catching to do that with. I phoned Brice yesterday and suggested he needn’t think of defrosting anything for me to cook us Monday night as we’ll have plenty of fish with us that won’t fit in our tiny freezer. And Blair, Leah, Todd and Daniel can expect a few meals of fish and crab while we are there! When we were smoking our last lot of fish, a kookaburra flashed through the caravan awning within 30cm of me and stole a raw (but spicily rubbed) fish fillet off the rack waiting to go into the smoker! I found too, that when we were near the BBQ using the smoker, they swooped even closer. I think it is to scare people so they’ll step back and the birds can have a go at meat on the barbie. They really are very bold and quite aggressive!
Coming in Before a Storm on Nornalup Inlet


Today we did a couple of loads of washing early in the hope of getting them dry on the line. After we’d done that, we packed a lunch (fresh rolls made with our own home smoked chicken and avocado) and went for a drive to Mt. Clare where we ate our lunch before walking to the summit. That sounds more strenuous than it actually was. It was a 2.4km round trip, gently uphill all the way to the top, but downhill all the way back to the car! The walk through the tingle and karri trees was pretty and peaceful and at the summit, we were rewarded with beautiful views across the Deep river valley to the coast at Mandalay Beach.
On the Summit of Mt Clare

I had some great news today. We met a couple (James and Beth) when we were in Coral Bay last year. They got as far as Broome on their travels but I had an idea they were moving on at the end of June. I got an e-mail today to say they'd be there when we arrive on 7th of July. We were only to stay a week, but I called and extended that to a second week when I heard the news as I'm sure we will be able to fill in two weeks with them there for a bit of company occasionally!

Tomorrow we are taking the car in to be serviced, so will walk the 2 ½ ks home from the mechanics. That walk takes you round the inlet and it’s very pretty at the moment with lots of orange bottle brush in flower.

Walpole the Second Time

We ended up spending just over two weeks in Bremer Bay and really enjoying it. Like I said it’s small and quite isolated, but it has a nice feel to it and plenty of fish!

Now we are back in Walpole where we’ve booked for a week. We feet like we’ve gone far enough east and don’t need to go back to Esperance as we’ve been there twice before. Walpole is a lovely little town; quiet, but slightly better off than Bremer Bay for groceries, price of fuel and a few cafes.

The day before leaving Bremer Bay, we caught a big blue swimmer crab in a fishing line (we had no idea there was crabs in the estuary) and after a chat with our neighbour John, found out they are just starting to run. That and the fact they are catching prawns by the mouth of the river made me want to stay another week. That night, we had a very loud and spectacular thunder storm with 40mls of rain. It’s always louder in the van, but it was pretty amazing. We reckon we have seen about 8 days of rain since we left home (not including Bangkok in the rainy season). 15 months ago, so we always enjoy it.

It was really windy travelling here on Monday-mostly a head wind, so we used heaps of fuel. It’s just on 300ks, but it took us 6 hours including a stop to shop and lunch in Albany. I was so excited to shop in a big supermarket after Bremer Bay and the prices seemed so cheap after the little supermarket we’ve been forced to shop at. We met some locals on our last night. They moved to Bremer from Barwon Heads for 2 years work at the Abalone farm and have now been there 7. They shop once a month in Albany and if a friend is shopping in the mean time, phone through an order and someone else collects it for them. It was nice to see that the rain we had over Easter has started to green things up. It was so dry when we drove into Bremer Bay two weeks before and although it is only painted on, the new grass made it look so much better on the way out. There are a lot of wattles and some gums and hakeas in flower too so it all looked good.

Yesterday we had a day out fishing in the estuary here. I keep trying to remember to take my camera as it’s one of the prettiest places we have ever been fishing on. The water is really shallow (mostly under two metres) and bright blue and green, it’s crystal clear and full of fish and stingrays (some as big as table tops).
Finally Took the Camera

Week 2 Begins in Bremer Bay

The Largest Site We've Had on the Trip


Today we begin week two at Bremer Bay. It’s been a quiet time for us with Easter and all. Easter has brought lots of campers to the park so there is always a queue for the toilets and showers which is something we are not used to. Also lots of feral children wandering later at night and lots of them have motorbikes and four wheel bikes that they ride out of the park to the dunes.

We did a bit of fishing before the hordes arrived, but even that becomes more difficult in the busier times as long queues form to go in and out of the water at the boat ramps. Most of our time has been spent reading and doing puzzles tho Russ has fished a couple of times off the rocks and once managed to catch us a big, beautiful breaksea cod which was delicious. We’ve also had a good look around the town-it has 4 lookouts at various high points that give really amazing views over the river and bays. The town has one wind turbine on top of one of the lookouts and it was pretty amazing to be able to park the car RIGHT under the blades. Those things are enormous!

Another thing we've had a bit of fun with was making ourselves a smoker we were happy with! They are available from hardware and camping stores for very little cost, but we can't afford the space for more gadgets. We decided our big Scanpan wok might do the trick. Anyhow, first attempt we brined the fish and used the wok with a foil lid on our electic hotplate with so so results. The second time, we rubbed a salt, sugar pepper mix on the fish, put the wok on the BBQ flame and used the BBQ hotplate as a lid. This gave us a much better result. We are smoking herrings over mesquite chips and will keep trying until we get it right.
A First Attempt at Smoking

It’s actually raining quite heavily this morning (Easter Monday) and has been for 24 hours, so we are feeling the cold a bit and looking forward to another day spent indoors! I hate to be a sook, but it’s nice to see some of the campers heading home. Although it’s still school holidays, I’d guess the park will be a quieter by lunch time. The toilets will appreciate that-they have been having a hard time keeping up with the crowds and aren’t flushing properly now.

Bremer Bay and Point Anne

Monday, we had a sleep in then a lazy morning and early lunch of soup (which I’ve been dreaming about), then went fishing. We looked at putting the boat into the bay but decided it was a bit rough so decided to go back to the river instead. Neither of us was too keen as the river at Molloy was a bit sad, but this one was great. It’s shallow around the boat ramp for about a kilometer any way you leave it and we didn’t want to go too far so we ended up anchoring in about 1 metre of water. Just as we were about to give up and move from our first spot, it went nuts. We were pulling in fish after fish. Most were undersize, but Russ caught 4 good size bream, I caught 1 bream, 2 snapper and 1 whiting we could bring home.


Royal Hakea Fitzgerald NP
Today we woke to a beautiful morning so decided to take a picnic out to Point Anne (about 60ks away on a gravel road). It would have been a perfect day for fishing, but you can only eat (or freeze) so much fish and it really is nicer to eat it as you catch it. Russ made a smoked trout pate and we took the makings of really yummy sandwiches (smoked lamb pastrami, avocado etc). We couldn’t leave though until the fresh bread arrived in town at 11 am!


The Road in to Point Anne

Point Anne is in the Fitzgerald National Park and is very remote and spectacular. There are a few small mountains rising off the plains and several more further along the coast towards Esperance. The water is very blue and the sand hills very white. The sky was very blue and was criss crossed with jet trails heading to and from Melbourne and Perth. It looked a bit like the skies over London.

Point Anne

The woman that runs this park said FNP wasn’t really worth the visit as it is dry with the drought (she forgot to mention burned out by bushfires too in much of it) but arriving at Point Anne and Mary’s Inlet is worth the drive. On the way home we went via Quaalup Homestead then back into town the short way over a 4WD track and across the river mouth back into Bremer Bay. What a great day out!

Walpole, Albany, Bremer Bay

Don and Judith left front, Joan back left and Brian on the back right

We ended up spending a full week in Walpole and could have happily have spent another one. It was one of the nicest parks we’ve stayed in and once again we were a bit sad to leave. Still, it’s good to leave feeling like that rather than vowing never to return!

After leaving Walpole, we went to Albany where we’d arranged to meet our friends Don and Judith. By the time we got there, they’d met the neighbours Brian and Joan from Taree NSW and the 6 of us had a great time. We met Don and Judith in Streaky Bay last year, and they have just come from there again. This is their first trip to WA and so far they are having a wonderful time-they’ll be away from home for 10 months this trip. I think we’ll be able to catch up with them again further up north or even in Darwin towards the end of July.

Yesterday after a visit to the best farmers market we’ve been to so far, I spent a nice couple of hours showing Don how to set up the blog he wanted to start, then in the evening the 6 of us went out for Japanese. It was the first time for the other 4 (eating Japanese) and luckily everyone enjoyed it a lot.

Russ and I arrived in Bremer Bay about 1.15 today. Bremer Bay is about 180ks east of Albany and about 350 west of Esperance. About 5 years ago, we drove our car over to Perth and called in here to eat our lunch and have a look. It’s somewhere I have always wanted to come back to. Now with 2 weeks here, we can see if it was really such a good idea. The park is nice (with a pizza restaurant lots of travellers have recommended to us) and our site is very big and reasonably private (which will be good over Easter). We are right by the pool, but I don’t think I (or anyone else) will be wanting to use it as the days are getting much colder.

Walpole

Friday we left Molloy CP and moved on to Walpole. It was a bit sad waving goodbye to the last few guests and staff as we left as we had so much fun in the park and on the river. It’s a beautiful drive to here though so we enjoyed that. We took a detour down a dirt road for 7ks to buy a smoked trout and some veggies from a roadside stall outside Pemberton. The few corrugations caused a jar of olives to tip over and black olive juice to spill all over the bottom of the fridge-the fridge I not long cleaned of mould! We got some nice organic veggies, herbs and apples for our trouble though.

We’ve driven through Walpole once about 4 years ago but never really got off the road to have a good look-the place is beautiful! I also think we were tired and arguing at the time about where we would stay and decided to push onto the bigger town of Manjimup. The park we had been recommended to book into is especially nice-it’s just like a big bush park with heaps of native plants and big private well spaced sites. The ablutions blocks are spotless and there is 3 of them. The park sits up fairly high above the inlet so the views over the inlet are pretty special. Our original plan was to stay 3 nights and move on to Denmark and Albany but it didn’t take much to convince us to stay a further 3 nights. We’ll bypass Denmark and just head straight to Albany for a bit of shopping before we go on to Bremmer Bay for Easter.

Saturday we took the boat off and went fishing. Launching the boat, we got the car bogged to the axles on the beach (in front of every yacht club member in town) and had to have one of the guys bring us a pressure gauge so we could let the tires down and get it out! Not a very good start to our fishing. We had headed out pretty late mostly for a look around, but took our rods along “just in case”. I caught a trevally the moment I put my rod in the water (and ended up catching 3 more around a kilo each). We caught 10 King George whiting legal size (threw the 3 smaller of them back rather than fillet them) 1 35cm bream and a couple of tommy ruff. We released 2 of the trevally and kept the other 2 for bait!

Yesterday we headed out again and caught ourselves 2 bream, 3 whiting and two tommy ruff. Russ asked was measuring one of my whiting and asking (again) what the legal size was. I told him 28cm and he said that was a bit sad as he’d thrown my 29 ½ cm fish back. That’s still a bit small to be bothered filleting!!! We found a secret spot on the other side of the inlet. If we line up a large farm hedge over the centre of the yacht club rooms, then three large stingrays start circling the boat, we are there. We have tried in other spots but haven’t caught a thing!

After fishing and cleaning the fish, we went for a drive to a lookout over the inlets and town then on to the Giant Tingle Tree and Circular Pool. We were the only people out there and the drive through the forest of giant karri and tingles was beautiful. The walk out to the Tingle Tree was beautiful with plants and birds. Tingles are a species of eucalypt that only grow in this corner of WA. They are enormous and early photos of the Giant show cars parked inside the hollow at the base.

Last night we had beautiful fresh fish, salad and chips (bought in town) for a lovely dinner.

This morning we went out fairly early for us and caught enough fish to make ourselves a curry for dinner. We both just had our showers and are now doing a bit of laundry before heading out for a drive to Denmark.

Molloy-more fishing and crabbing

Wednesday 21st was another lovely day in Molloy. We got up early (for us) and said goodbye to Irene and Ron who were off home to Bunbury for their daughter’s engagement party. After they left, we headed up the river for a bit of fishing and crabbing. We came home with one big bream and 4 of those monster crabs. The second bream meant we were able to have a big feed of fresh fish for dinner last night which was lovely.

At 12.30 we came home, cooked our crabs, ate our lunch then headed into town for a bit of shopping-most important was a fishing hat for me as I lost mine in the river on the way home the night before. It sank before we could fish it out!!! We got back from town, picked our crabs and froze the meat, then headed out again to fish in the late afternoon. It wasn’t very successful-I caught 1 legal size bream and Russ a crab. I released the bream when we didn’t catch another. So home for a late dinner of fish, chips and salad, then another crab to deal with. I headed for bed exhausted at about 9.30.

Today is a bit rainy, so it is nice to sit and have a quiet day. Tomorrow we head to Walpole for a week or so.

Daniel (my son) made it to within 250ks of Perth before his car died. Lucky for him his dad could get a trailer and drive out to get him and the car last night! Oh well Dan, you almost made it ;-)

The legal size for crabs is 127mm across the shell; the ones we are catching are around 170mm. Blue swimmer crabs grow to a maximum of 200mm and 1kg, so the crabs in this river really are BIG.

14th weddding anniversary

It’s our 14th wedding anniversary today (Tuesday 20th). We were going to go out for dinner tonight in Augusta, but a $406 repair bill for our boat motor’s bent shaft put a stop to that idea! The shaft was nearly $300 and the labour very little-it just totalled more than we expected. Amazing to think we spent our 13th wedding anniversary in Streaky Bay and were only a month on the road. Today is the end of our 13th/start of our 14th month away.

Russ went off fishing this morning, leaving me at home to tidy the van and do a bit of laundry. I don't do it often so quite enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed being almost the only person in the park for a few hours. He came home with nothing, but we went out again this afternoon and he caught a big bream. I lost a monster crab out of my net and caught a small bream-not a very exciting days fishing. Now we are about to have a couple of anniversary drinks with Ron and Irene next door. Ron is the West Aussie who thinks I am pretty nice "for a Victorian"! They leave tomorrow but will be in Coral Bay when we are there in June, so we will catch up with them again.

Yesterday after we picked the motor up, we went and did a bit of fishing and crabbing. We caught 3 just under-sized bream, so threw them back, and managed to catch 3 monster crabs. There was enough meat in them to freeze half and keep half out for our anniversary dinner tonight. We’ll be having Thai crab and prawn cakes (our favourite way to eat crab).

The park was quite full when we arrived back. There was a huge and extremely noisy group camped near us who fortunately left on Sunday. The mothers sat and drank, the fathers boated and drank and the kids ran wild. At one stage the 4 husbands were out front the park here yelling and carrying on, doing circles in the river until the boat nearly capsized. I almost went and helped them all pack up to leave. Now the park is empty. There are 3 vans, one tent and one couple in the cabins-it’s so peaceful. Last night Russ and I lit a fire and sat out til about 10. We had every person including the new manager stop by for a chat, so it was very pleasant.

The biggest drawback in the park now is the birds-they are quite used to being fed by a number of people. Now those numbers are down, we are inundated by ducks, 28 parrots, magpies and seagulls, all looking for a handout!

I got a message from last night from my son Daniel who had made it as far as Port Pirie on his way to Perth. I’m keen to see him as he’s the only one of the 5 boys we haven’t seen yet since we left.

3 weeks holiday

It’s March 17th (St Patrick’s Day) and Russ and I are back in the van at Malloy Caravan Park. We’ve had a wonderful 3 weeks away and got back to find the van and boat pretty well just as we left them. The fridge was very mouldy (might have forgotten to leave it on the slightly open latch) and a chair in the boat the same. It was annoying to have our money box and replacement water heater for the van stolen from under our noses whilst packing to leave from Leah, Blair and Todd's. Luckily I had banked the money box before we headed home so we only lost about $10. Cheeky buggers!

It was great to catch up with family and friends in Gippsland, Werribee, Warrnambool and Portland.

On Wednesday 28th (after 5 nights in Perth and Leah's birthday celelbrations) we arrived in Melbourne at 6am then caught the train to my sister Glenda’s in Traralgon. I got to meet Great niece Charlotte for the first time and catch up with Marcus, Fiona and Jacob as well. They all seem to be going along just fine It was also nice to see some rain. We saw a really spectacular storm from Glenda and Pete’s lounge windows. It caused a bit of flooding, but was needed, so I don’t think too many complained. Thanks to BIL Peter for introducing me to Sudoku. I now have a computer version so can feed my new addiction as often as I like with "infinate variations"!

The four of us headed to Yvonne and Paicey’s wedding at Werribee Mansion on the Saturday. We called and had lunch with our Aunty May on the way which was good. Aunty May is the last mum’s 6 brothers and sisters and at 87 is still driving a little and still selling a bit of Avon. She is amazing.

The wedding was fantastic-one of the best I have ever been too. It was in the formal gardens with the reception in the polo pavilion and was relaxed and fun from start to finish. It was lovely staying there and all getting up for breakfast and a tour of the mansion in the morning.

Sunday we went back to Paicey and Yvonne’s in Yarraville where we had some lunch and saw all the presents opened, and then Joy and Hans (bride’s parents) took us back to Geelong for the night and put us on the bus to Warrnambool and Portland on the Monday. We enjoyed a tour of Geelong and lunch out with them on the water front in Geelong before the bus left.

The train from Geelong broke down, so we ended up bussing it to W’bool, then (as we’d missed our connecting bus), we took a town service to Port Fairy. It was the longest trip to Port Fairy I have ever made.

Port Fairy and Ryan and Kirstyn’s B&B (The Merrijig Inn) was a great time. They are working hard but doing really well and it was nice for us to see the business running and meet all the staff. Extra nice to catch up with them too of course. Our room was large and comfortable and we had 3 nights of very beautiful meals in the restaurant-all of which is a real treat for us two tight wads. On night two, Mick, Jill (Kirstyn’s mum) Deb and Pete (from Portland) Ryan, Kirstyn, Russ and I had a really fun night in the restaurant and let all the others do all the work for a change. The food was great and the wine Ryan produced pretty great too! I was shocked when my son Mick ordered the egg and lemon broth with spiced prawns- I have never seen him eat soup since he was old enough to spit it back at me! On the Wednesday we took Kirstyn’s car into Warrnambool for a bit of a poke around, caught up with Janette (our neighbour) at the Vic Hotel and visited some of the people at TAFE. It was good to see everyone, but we think we will leave it a year to visit so they are so pleased to see us again ;-)

Thursday we went on to Deb and Pete’s in Portland. Deb cooked a lovely meal and much talking was done over a few bottles of wine. It was good to see them but a pity to miss Deb’s mum Marg who was holidaying in NZ.

Friday we dropped our stuff at David’s (Next door neighbour) and headed to the Warrnambool hotel for a very long lunch. We had let people know we would be there if they wanted to see us, so it was good to catch up with quite a few. We ended up staying on for dinner which we had with Jo, Graham and David. Another good day. We had two nights with David and really enjoyed a coffee and cake at Fish Sails followed by an extended tour of the town checking out new building going on and changes made in the past year. We visited our house and all seems to be going well there-they are great tenants as far as we are concerned anyway. It was a bit annoying not to be able to open the door under the house due to a faulty lock and check our furniture and the baits and bombs we left. Mick has assured me he will fix it, replacing the whole door if need be. It’s good to have a carpenter in the family.

Sunday we took the bus and train to Melbourne where we spent two nights with our good friend Henry. We tried a new Indian restaurant our on the Sunday for Russell’s 61st birthday. It had only been open 5 nights so we forgave it the slow service because the food was so good. Monday morning we went to Yum Cha for brunch (only my second time so I love it) and for Italian on Monday night.

Tuesday we flew back to Perth arriving just as Leah knocked off work near by. It was lovely to be welcomed home by her and taken home for a family meal of Spaghetti Bog, crusty bread and a lemon cheesecake (for the birthday old boy). Wednesday night they shouted us to our favourite Thai restaurant (Tamarind in City Beach) for our birthdays as we won’t see them for mine. Kurt and Holly came along too, so it was lots of fun and excellent food as usual.

Thursday we drove to Bunbury to spend 2 nights with Brice and Phyllis. That was also lots of fun with Brice taking us to see places we didn’t know existed in the town. The place has really been tidied up since we visited it last about 4 years ago, so I like it a lot more now. On night one, we shared some of our crab meat we had frozen (Russ made crab and prawn cakes) and Brice brought out some of the fish we had caught in May at Denham when we first met him. He has a food saver and the fish was as good to eat as the day we caught it.On night two, Brice produced a home grown leg of lamb for dinner. I hadn’t had lamb for months and this one was especially yummy. We had it with heaps of veg, gravy and it was so good.

And here we are back in Malloy after a pleasant 1 ½ hour drive from Bunbury this morning.

Leah's Birthday Weekend

We’ve had a lovely weekend with Todd, Blair and Leah-it was great to be here for Leah’s birthday celebrations. On Friday we arrived back from Malloy and went with them and about 15 others for a really fun night at the Oxford Pub in Leederville. It was a warm night and we were lucky to sit outside in the courtyard where there was a bit of a breeze. The food and company was great!


Saturday we went over to Midland Market for lunch, a few veg and a couple of big pot plants for Leah’s birthday. We managed to find two beautiful ones that will suit a couple of pots she has already. Saturday night, all of them went out and Russ and I had a nice quiet night home alone.

Sunday we went with Blair and Leah to visit Leah’s parents John and Christine in Mandurah. It was really hot, but we all enjoyed a family BBQ for Leah and her BIL Tim’s birthdays, before coming home for a swim. The only down side of things was I tripped coming out the back door in Mandurah, fell over a fan and into a garden bed. Luckily I missed the table edge on the way down! And no, I hadn’t had a drink! My leg is feeling very sore right now.

Right now it’s Monday morning and Russ and I are sitting listening to a huge amount of thunder with very little rain. I just hope we get the rain to clear a bit of the humidity. I just saw a big flash of lightening too.

1st anniversary

Monday we took Brice’s boat up the river for a picnic. We travelled as far as you can go to a campground just passed the Alexander Bridge on the Blackwood River, where we tied up and had a nice lunch of fresh salad rolls and fruit.


It’s a beautiful boat to travel in and I felt a bit like royalty cruising at 8 knots past all the little tinnies out fishing. It was fun to get into the ski zone where we could open it up and speed!

We had a BBQ dinner with Brice and Phyllis to finish off a wonderful day. I was very touched when Brice said how glad he is he invited us over for a drink the night we arrived in Denham back in May last year! This makes me think of another funny thing one of our neighbours said on Sunday night when we were having a casserole tea with them. He said in all seriousness that we were the friendliest Victorians he had ever met-that some of them are very snobby or grumpy and rude, but we are OK!!!!!

Yesterday we went out in the ocean (“ocean’s” actually because when we went behind one of the islands, we crossed from the Pacific into the Indian!) looking for fish. All we caught was 6 small sand whiting and 2 tommy ruff (or herring if you are from WA). Still it was a nice day, although a bit rough for Phyllis who got quite icky so we came home about an hour earlier than planned. I used to think I got sea sick, but seem to have grown out of it which is good. Last night we ate venison steaks for dinner with mash and veg. It was good, and good to have a night at home alone. We opened ourselves a very nice bottle of wine to celebrate our 1st anniversary–it was 1 year yesterday we headed off from Warrnambool on our trip.

Today is a day of rest for us; we are doing our laundry and house work. Tonight we‘re having curry with Phyllis and Brice (Phyllis is Indian so her pork Vindaloo should be good). I’m making a chicken one.

This time in a week we’ll be in Traralgon and I have to say I’m looking forward to it a lot.

The Festival of the Pig

Last night was the annual Festival of the Pig! It’s a pig on the spit organized by a group of people in the park every year that we were lucky enough to get a guernsey to. It was $10 a head and I took along a salad for Russ, Brice and myself to be shared with everyone. There were 45 people and some really wonderful salads to go with our very delicious pig. After our delicious pig, there were some very nice desserts too. And after all that, there was a bit of joke telling, singing, and our neighbour Bob played his electric mandolin which was really good! I was pretty impressed that he actually made the mandolin himself too as it was beautiful. It was a fantastic night that I’ll always remember this lovely park for.

On the way home from the Festival, some of our neighbours were still up chatting around their fire, so we spent an hour with them before heading to bed. They will be in Denham in May when we are there, so we have made arrangements to catch up up there.

Today, we rose very late and sat and had a cuppa with Brice before heading out crabbing in our boat. It was all going very nicely until we hit a log and damaged our motor. It will have to go into the marine place here for repairs in the morning which is a bit of a bummer as I had my heart set on a few more crabs. We caught ourselves 3 big beauties and planned to make chilli crab with them (which we did and it was fantastic).

When we got home from crabbing, yet another neighbour invited us over for a casserole tea, saying we didn’t need to bring a dish as they’d given us such short notice. Not to worry, we just took our chilli crabs and rice that we had planned to eat anyway. The people who ate crabs and chilli loved them and I got asked for the recipe, so they must have been OK.

Brice’s Indian lady friend Phyllis arrived today to spend a few weeks with him, so we are looking forward to a curry night with here before we head back to Perth on Friday. This has been a really enjoyable place to stay!

Malloy and Crab Pots

Feeding the Neighbours

We are having a wonderful time at Malloy. The weather has been great-not too hot and good for sleeping at night. The wind can get up a bit, but we find places out of it to fish and crab. Not many fish in our part of the river though, but we did catch a nice feed of whiting closer to the mouth the other day. There are crabs up this end and although we never catch many, they are a good size so that makes up for it.

The other day when we went down to the river mouth, we noticed a crab pot that looked to have been abandoned. No one ever puts out one pot. On the way home we pulled it up and saw it had the remains of a fish head long eaten, but threw it back. Two days later it was still there so we rescued it (pinched is not a nice word!). Yesterday we took it crabbing and lost it when its rope came undone (that’s what you get for “rescuing” something). Today we went crabbing in almost the same spot and caught it again! Talk about a saga.

Brice arrived yesterday-he’d been down in Perth having tests so his boat and caravan were already here. He had dinner with us last night. For entrée we had 3 huge crabs and then lamb chops in onion gravy, mash and veg. It was all pretty yummy and the crabs really were so big they were enough.

He thinks we’ll get a fish out in the ocean tomorrow which will be good, and he said we should pack a picnic and take his big boat up the river as far as we can go which would be fun.

There are also lots of other nice people in the park. Many are here together and have been coming for a gazillion years, but they are friendly and have invited us over for drinks before dinner whenever they are sitting outside. Everyone has a small boat (except Brice and the odd other person) so all are keen to talk fishing and fishing locations. It’s one of the better parks we’ve been in so far.

Russ and I will have been on the road 1 year on Tuesday 20th, it certainly has been a wonderful year.

Malloy and Crabs!

The park in Busselton “looked nice” but it was really scary. It was full of old people who all looked the same-they all drove sedans that they covered at night, about 1/3rd of them rode push bikes and many called each other “mum and dad”. The park put on water aerobics every morning (so it was a rush to get to the showers before it finished) and boot scooting once a week and as a special treat last night, they had a brass band on the common for all to enjoy! I was pleased to get out of there before I was brainwashed into joining the festivities! As we were leaving this morning, our neighbours raced out to ask if we had been their neighbours in Denham in May which, as it turns out, we were. We’ll also be meeting them there again this May

We had to drive about 90ks to Malloy (through Margaret River), so arrived here bright and early and are now well set up. Malloy is near Augusta which is where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet. We’ve been there before a few years ago, but it was lovely to go out there for a drive this afternoon.

The park is lovely-a bit sandy, there is duck and kangaroo poo everywhere (the ducks circle the vans like Indians around the wagons) , but we are only 70 metres from the beautiful Blackwood river (and the park’s boat ramp) where the park manager tells us we’ll be able to catch black bream, whiting and blue swimmer crabs so big we’ll only need two each for a feed. I nearly wet myself with excitement when she said that.

This park is small and not particularly full right now. Everyone drives a 4WD and has a boat so we think it should be good fun for 2 weeks. Did I mention there are BIG crabs to be had? Of course it will be good. Our friend Brice (from Denham with the big boat) is here, but has had to go back into Perth for a few days for some more treatment for his bone cancer. He and his daughter should be back Tuesday. The park manager has kindly agreed to store the caravan and boat for us when we fly home for Yvonne and Paicey’s wedding which is great-the boat doesn’t have to go back on top of the car now for about 6 weeks.

There is no TV reception here, so I guess all those books we bought at garage sales and op shops are about to come in handy, I can also see us playing a bit of scrabble and Canasta too.

Busselton

We ended up staying an extra night in Nannup and leaving today-Wednesday. On Monday we went for another drive to Donnybrook and along the way bought ourselves a heap of tomatoes, nectarines and plums on the side of the road. Yesterday we went out to the local recyclers and got ourselves some jars and turned the tomatoes and nectarines into a couple of chutneys. Over the past few days we had bought a nice lime and date chutney ($12.95) and a beetroot and cranberry one ($6.95) and figured we could make ourselves a year’s supply for the price of those two. Funny too, when I read the ingredients of the beetroot and cranberry one, there was no cranberries listed! At least we know what we put in ours.

Today we tidied the house, said goodbye to the chooks, frogs and baby magpies and headed into Busselton where we’ll stay for 2 nights.

This is the first time we’ve been in a park since the end of October. It’s a big full one with nice amenities, friendly people and a beautiful pool that we swam in for a couple of hours this afternoon.

Still in Nannup

It’s Monday 5th and we are still in Nannup-we are heading to Busselton tomorrow for 3 nights, then on to Malloy for 2 weeks. The caravan park there has been kind enough to bring our booking forward so we can be in and out two days earlier. That means we can be back in Perth in time for a days sailing on the Leeuwin and for Leah’s birthday.

Nannup has been great. Christine and John arrived down Friday night (early, while we were out touring around) and it was really nice to have their company for two nights. We cooked the rack of venison for Christine’s birthday, and had stewed nectarines fresh from the tree for dessert. John cooked a great BBQ Saturday night, then we had BBQed bacon, eggs, sausages, homegrown tomatoes etc for Brunch on Sunday. Very delicious.

There were 2 couples staying in the house two doors up, so we went and had drinks with them Saturday night. One of the couples is friends with the house owners and has been doing a bit of electrical work on an extension there in return for a bit of use of the place. They invited Russ and I up again last night after John and Christine headed home too, so it has been a lot of fun. We went for a drive to Bridgetown which is a very pretty little place with not much open on a Sunday which is a bit of a shame. It seems the smaller places are a bit keener to cater to tourists and Sunday drivers. There was nothing in the way of interesting foodie things either (not at all like the other two drives) so all we came home with was 3 very nice bottles of wine from a tiny vineyard we visited.

It was a much cooler day yesterday and perfect for sleeping last night. I think I had the best sleep I’ve had in a month! Today we are just having a quiet day before we move on tomorrow.

Nannup

Yesterday (Wednesday) we made a few sandwiches and headed to Pemberton about 80ks away. Along the way we visited a waterfall (not much water at the moment) then stopped at an avocado farm (9 avocados for $2) and an organic food stall (beautiful chillies and kaffir lime leaves) then on to the bicentennial tree for lunch and a photo opportunity of Russ climbing the tree.


After lunch we stopped at the Pemberton wine centre and bought a couple of really nice local wines (a yummy Riesling and a verdelo) then stopped at a trout farm where we bought a smoked trout for dinner Friday night. We had a look around Pemberton, then drove on to Manjimup where we did a bit of shopping in Coles, then went to the local op shop and bought ourselves 9 books ($1.50 in total) and a wine glass (expensive at $1.00).

At home again, we cooked ourselves a delicious green curry including our chillies and kaffir lime leaves. Yum.

Historic Waterwheel Near Margaret River


Today we went to Margaret River, driving through the lovely forests and past lots of vineyards. It’s been about 6 years since we were here last and not a lot seems to have changed in that time. After a drive down to the mouth of the river, we had a walk around town, bought some Turkish bread for our lunch and some lovely local veggies (beautiful sweet cherry tomatoes, basil, cucumbers etc etc). We ate our lunch in a pretty park outside town-only problem was about 10 very cheeky ducks expected a share of my sandwich. I don’t think so duckies!!!

Margaret River Mouth


The venison farm was just as good as last time we visited-they make the best salami I have ever eaten. We also bought a rack of venison to roast for Christine’s birthday dinner tomorrow night, steaks, sausages, pastrami, prosciutto, cabana and pate. Then we went to an olive farm for a tasting (bought some lovely chutney and olive tapenade). We came home through Busselton, arriving here about 4.30. It was another great day out.

Hot, hot hot in WA

We moved out of the flat as planned on Friday 26th. It wasn’t a good plan though as it was so hot we couldn’t believe it. I think we drank about 5 litres of water in the three hours it took to do it. Afterwards we went back to B, L & T’s and spent the rest of the day in the pool (only coming out to cook dinner for our Aussie Day celebrations After entrée and mains we walked up to Mt Lawley and watched Skyworks over the city and Swan River with about 400 other locals. It was pretty spectacular, but still hot (about 38c by then), so we came home, got in the pool and finally had our dessert watching the Skyworks replay at 11pm.

Saturday and Sunday hovered around the 40c mark again, Monday cooled to about 35 and today it is probably 40c again.

Todd Leah and Blair off to Their Party!


Saturday night everyone went out to a 40th birthday party so Chris and Carly had diner with us. Russ cooked quail and we polished off the leftover salads from Friday night then we had ice cream, fresh fruit and Leah’s homegrown passionfruit. We also did a lot of swimming. Sunday was again spent in the pool.

Monday we got the car, boat and van ready to travel (pretty much a full days job with all of them needing a good clean and tidy up and a few minor repairs to the water pump and tank of the van. I don’t think vans like just sitting around.

Today (Tuesday) we have driven to Nannup (about 60ks east of Busselton) to spend a few days at Leah’s parents holiday house there. It’s a beautiful spot, but it’s very hot and smoky today. Still it was a really nice drive and it feels so good to be back out in the country. We stopped in Harvey on the way for a counter lunch in a beautiful old pub (had Harvey Beef steak sandwiches) and passed lots of foodie places on the way we’ll pop back and visit in the next day or so. Tonight we’ll sit outside and BBQ some turkey sausages and have a salad-it’s too hot to think about much more than that.

3 more sleeps in the flat.....

Thursday was spent with Leah doing our laundry. It’s nice over there using the wireless Internet and watching Food TV on the big screen! After we’d washed and dried all our dirty stuff, we headed to Ganeesh, and Indian grocery store close by. We bought a heap of stuff for $14 (spices, curry mixes poppadums etc), it’s clean and orderly and cheap!

Friday we woke and sat watching TV wondering what to do for the day. An ad came on for Midland markets, so problem solved. It’s a fair drive out there, but it got us out seeing other suburbs and the fruit and veg we bought was probably the best we’ve got in the whole 3 months we have been here.

Friday night Leah cooked us a yummy dinner and we stayed over in the van. It’s silly to drive home after even a drink when we have a very comfy bed of our own sitting there! Saturday morning we got up and did a round of the Garage sales and a church fete, stocking up on books, magazines jam and pickles.

Sunday was a quiet day. Russ walked to Freo, but I stayed home as I wasn’t feeling too well. Sunday night we gave in and had a drink before dinner with landlord Ramesh and his Korean Harem. There’s not much choice when they are sitting right outside our front door.

Monday was the start of our last week in Perth, so we did a bit of running around (post office, hardware, battery world) then visited Leah and put a few things in the van. I wanted to try Nando’s chicken before we left so off to there for a late lunch. When we got home, the neighbour came over and made herself known to us. She had shot an arrow over the back fence and needed to retrieve it! We had to promise not to tell Ramesh she practices archery in the backyard aiming at the flat’s kitchen window. It’s the first time she’s missed. Anyhow, we ended up over there having a glass of wine before dinner with them and I’m sure she and I would have been good friends. It’s sad to meet her in our last week.

A busy week

Our look around Perth was good-we went to Harbour City (an outlet shopping centre) in West Perth and bought ourselves some new clothes and shoes which always entertains me! Dinner with Allan was good too-he brought me over some recent photos of Daniel when he visited him on Hamilton Island.

Now we see the end in sight, we are rushing to do a few things we had planned while here. Friday we went to the aquarium at Hilary’s Boat Harbour. It was expensive, very fishy smelling but still ok as we saw quite a few of the fish we’ve caught up north and been unable to identify.

Saturday we did a few garage sales and came away with 14 books, a fishing knife (Victrinox) for me, and a crab pot, so we were pretty pleased. The two of us a huge readers, so garage sales and op shops are an essential source of cheap books.

Saturday night we gave in and had a BBQ with our lunatic loser of a landlord. He really is a tosser. He is the biggest know it all, know nothing, I have ever met! And I’m serious about that.

On Sunday, we slept late, had brunch, and then went over to Blair, Leah and Todd’s for a day of swimming followed by a BBQ with them and Chris and Carly. What a difference it makes to spend the day with pleasant intelligent people (as opposed to our landlord!).

Monday we took our caravan for a service and a few minor repairs, Tuesday we picked it up and returned it to the kids place. Tuesday night the two of us went to Latasha’s Place in Leederville for an Indian meal. I’d give it high marks for value for money, but pretty low ones for service and somewhere in the middle for the food. In other words, it was OK!

Today (Wednesday, we have been over to Freo on the train for a day at the Maritime Museum there. It was fantastic-must have been, it took us 5 ½ hours to see all we did! Included in that was a 1 ¼ hour tour of the Submarine Ovens. It was great and made even better by a former crewman from QLD (who had served 7 years on it) taking the tour too. He was really entertaining and pointed out lots of things the guide didn’t. I especially loved seeing Australia II on display along with lots of memorabilia from it.

Tomorrow is laundry day, so we’ll spend it doing that and swimming.

Perth

Only 2 ½ weeks left here in the flat. My sister is always worrying we will fall in love with Perth and never leave, but you know what, I am looking forward to being back on the road, seeing new places and meeting new people. We have really enjoyed our time here (although I don’t much like our old woman of a landlord!) and I’ll always remember it as a wonderful time, but let’s get going!

The past couple of weeks have been really good fun. We’ve managed to take the boat out a couple more times on the Swan (not that there are any decent fish in it). The fun of it is more just fishing in the middle of the city and seeing all the different spots from the river.

On December 30th, we (about 40 of us) had a picnic/BBQ and cricket in the park to farewell Ange and Graham who are off to Sydney to live and work. They hired a spot in the park, so we had a playground for the kids, a key to the toilets, plenty of shade and space to play cricket and botche.

We had a great NYE over at Blair, Leah and Todd’s. About a dozen of us had a very relaxed dinner by the pool and it was possibly one of the nicest NYE’s I’ve put in. New Year’s Day, Leah Russ and I packed a picnic of leftovers and took it to the 20/20 match at the WACA. It’s the first major cricket match that Leah and I have ever been to, so we both really enjoyed it.

Saturday night we went over to Curt and Holly's for a BBQ. They bought a really nice unit in Yokine and it was the first time we had visited it. Tim (Russ's NZ nephew) came along and a cousin of Curt's who has just arrived from Warrnambool. There can't be many people left there now! Tim does a bit of work with Curt at the bookbinder's but it looks as though he has a job out in the mines now which is good.

Early this week we got new tyres for the Navarra which pleases me. I hate dodgy tyres on a car. The price didn’t please me, but these are guaranteed to last 60,000 ks (which should nearly see us home!). Next week, the van goes in for a service.

Leah is in between jobs at the moment, so she has cooked us a couple of lovely dinners over the last two weeks. She was a bit run down as she finished work, so it’s nice to see her enjoying her home, pool and garden for a change.

Today we are off by train for a look around West Perth, then tonight we have my ex husband coming over for dinner.