Rabbit Proof Fence on the Great Eastern Highway.

The journal continues.....

Part of the Rabbit Proof Fence.

WYALKATCHEM - TOODYAY - JURIEN BAY - PERTH

15-09-2007 - Day 22

We had a quiet undisturbed night at the Wyalkatchem CP (Cmps3 # 507) and packed up and left about 9am. Wyalkatchem is a historic wheatbelt town that came into being in 1908. The area surrounding it is mainly wheat and sheep farms. It lies on the Goomalling - Merredin road a less travelled alternative route to the Goldfields and Eastern States. The Spring wildflowers are particularly attractive along the route. We continued west towards Dowerin where there is a large tin dog called ' Rusty' that guards the western entrance to town near Tin Dog Creek. We stopped there to take some photos and then continued to Goomalling where I could not find any LPG outlets ,although there was a sign that it would be there soon. Continued on to Toodyay where I finally was able to refill the LPG tank after some manoeuvring with a rubbish truck and a couple of vehicles at the local Roadhouse. We then headed to the local CP on the banks of the Avon River and about 1 km from town. After set up we walked along the river bank to town and had lunch at a local cafe before looking at the attractions and taking photos. We then walked back to the van park and picked up the car to drive around the district looking for wild flowers. The location suggested at the Information Centre did not have any flowers that we could see so we headed back to town and had an afternoon sleep. In the evening we watched the AFL semi finals between Kangaroos and Hawks. Below are some of the 'wildflowers' that we saw along the road today.

16-09-2007 - DAY 23

We left Toodyay at 8:30am and drove towards the Great Northern Highway and New Norcia.. There were lots of different wildflowers along the road and I took photographs of them to add to my growing collection. At New Norcia we stopped to look at the beautiful old buildings that were the St Benedictine Orphanage and the Jesuit Monastery. The Orphanage is now closed ,being used for a Museum and an Art Gallery. We spent about an hour walking around the buildings and then headed back to the van for morning coffee. We then continued through Moora and Badgingarra. Neither towns had LPG so I topped up with ULP in Moora to make sure of getting to Jurien Bay. Just before Badgingarra we stopped at a small native flora reserve for lunch. There were more interesting specimens of wildflowers there so I took some more photos.

We continued on our way to Jurien Bay and arrived there about 2pm. Jurien Bay lies about 260kms north of Perth and is the largest sheltered bay on the Central West Coast. The main industry here would be fishing and building retirement housing for the baby boomers. We set up at the local caravan park and then had a quick look around town and had a beer in the local Tavern. In the evening we had a cheap meal there as well. At sunset we made our way to the beach but there was cloud about so our first sunset over the Indian Ocean was not spectacular.

17-09-2007 - DAY 24

Today we drove to Cervantes and Nambung National Park which is where the 'Pinnacles Desert' is found. After paying the entry fee ($10) we drove the 3km sandy track around the Pinnacles stopping to take photographs and to walk around the area. We spent about an hour there looking at the formations. Thousands of limestone pillars rise up to four meters tall out of a stark landscape of yellow sand. The original limestone came from seashells broken down to rich limestone sands that were blown inland to form high mobile dunes. The limestone leached over the millenniums and concentrated in the lower parts of the dunes cementing together. Over the millions of years these formations were formed by erosion leaving the hardened pillars exposed. We also looked at Hangover Bay a nice little swimming beach and picnic area nearby. Afterwards we drove back to Cervantes about 17 kms away and had a coffee at the local cafe. We then headed back to Jurien Bay for lunch and a rest. In the afternoon we walked to the local shops and bought some fruit and vegetables. Later the wind came up and it started raining for a while. In the evening we stayed in the van and watched tv. Geraldine cooked a nice batch of Nasi Goreng which made for a delicious dinner.

18-09-2007 - DAY 25
Today was a rest day as we have both caught a cold and are desperately trying to overcome it. Geraldine has a dry cough and sniffles and I have a runny nose. Down to the local pharmacy to get some medicine to get rid of the symptoms. Spent most of the day resting in the van . Went for a drive to look at the Marina and then watched the sunset over the ocean.

19-09-2007 - DAY 26
We took a drive up the coast to Green Head and Leeman today. Both Green Head and Leeman are smaller fishing villages but appear to have housing booms in progress. There didn't appear to be any commercial fishing going on in all of the fishing villages that we visited. Must be the off- season at the moment. We spoke to a couple of caravanners stopped in Leeman and they mentioned that they had to book into Perth CPs and that there were few vacancies. So when we returned to the CP we made some inquiries and finally managed to find a CP that had a vacant site for us tomorrow. We will be staying at the Big 4 Perth Holiday Park in Caversham. Three other CPs were booked out.

Birds roosting on asmall island in the bay at Leeman WA.

20-09-2007 - DAY 27
Last night the spring in the awning mechanism unwound just like in a roller blind. I hope it isn't damaged and that we can re-tension it. We left Jurien Bay by 8:45am and drove towards Perth along the Brand Highway until we rejoined the Great Northern Highway heading towards Caversham an outer suburb of Perth where we were booked in at the Big 4 Perth Holiday Park for 4 nights. Once we were set up on a nice grassy site we drove to the Bassendean shops and bought some food items we had run out of. We spent the late afternoon talking to fellow vanners about our journeys and obtained some good information about how to get about in Perth. The weather has been good and dry for the past few days and hopefully it will stay the same for our stay in Perth over the weekend. We are planning to utilize the public transport system for our travels around the city.

21-09-2007 - DAY 28
This morning we caught the train from Guildford to Perth and then walked around the city Malls and had a late breakfast at Hungry Jacks. Afterwards we jumped on the Blue Cat bus (freeby) and made our way to the Swan Bells precinct on the shores of the Swan River. These Blue,Red, and Yellow Cat buses are great because they are all free and enable you to get around the Perth CBD with ease. We decided that we would catch a ferry to Fremantle and spend the day there looking around the port precinct and the Maritime Museum. Fremantle is the oldest port in WA and is steeped in history and much of it has been lovingly restored. The ferry took about 45 minutes to get to Fremantle. We walked around the shops for a while before catching another Yellow Cat bus for a tour of the Port. We got off at the Maritime Museum and had lunch at the Fishing Boat Harbour where there are an assortment of restaurants. We then wandered over to the HMAS OVENS exhibit next to the main Museum building. OVENS is an Oberon class submarine and for $8 each you can get a guided tour of her. We joined the last tour of the day and had an interesting hour looking through the boat. As it was getting late we made our way to the Train station and caught the electric train back to Perth and Guilford before arriving back at the CP just before dinner time.

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