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.