Perth

Ok...lucky I saved money yesterday...cause I spent another $2000 today. Are you freaking kidding. Roger...you are going to be the death of us. A new clutch and an oil leak from the top of the sump. Lucky we could extend our credit card because we're going to need it! A quick call to NRMA to extend the hire on our gutless little Prado that won't tow our van (insert swear word here). The best news is that we booked our van in to have it re-screened before we get into midgy territory. We're just lucky that poppy can tow our van :-( tomorrow we have no home & no car!

Enough of the pity party. We headed out to find some fun in the sun. We drove by Cottlesloe Beach & Scarborough Beach. They even have a stadium built for seating. I'm glad it's not summer...I think it would be very busy.

In the distance is one of the American warships we saw at the dock yesterday. Our very generous Hawaiian sailors may be on that ship.

We drove through Sorrento. I'm thinking that the homes there are WAY out of our price range. We ended up at Kings Park. WOW! It's huge & so beautiful. 

It's quite beautiful & quite minimal high rise buildings which is a nice change for a cityscape.

Glass sided overpass in Kings Park, overlooking the Swan River.

Incredible bridge & two of my favourite boys.

A fairy river???

Groovy sculptures

Freemantle

Hmmm.....I hate to be ripped off. We got a call from Toyota to say that the car was going to take another 5 hours. They didn't realise it was an engine lift to access the turbo. This got me thinking...are we being charged a fair price. I called another city WA dealer gir a quote. It appears that we were being overcharged by about $900. I think I have the right to question this....so I did. Amazingly our quote was adjusted by about $900. That was worth a phone call.

I headed out for an early morning jog. It's time to get my self organised. It wasn't pretty & wasn't hilly, but it's a start. I backed it up with a two hour bike ride towing Charlotte to see the sights of Freemantle. 

We ended up at the docks where a couple of American army ships are moored. 

A lovely day & an even lovelier afternoon. Dinner at Cortlesloe pub with some lovely gals. Paula, Kate, Lisa & Jenny. It was so lovely of you all to fly over for a catch up (lol). 

A bar wall tiled with cassette tapes...too funny. 

I never get sick of beautiful sunsets :-)

A round of drinks from some very lovely American sailors. Such lovely young men. 

I miss this lovely lady :-)

Another day to be very thankful for. So many laughs. Thanks ladies!!!

Freemantle

Ok...what a mission for poppy today. Not only did he have to tow his caravan to Freemantle BUT he turned around & drove all the way back to hitch ours & tow it back to Freemantle. WHAT A LEGEND!!!

It seems strange watching our van from behind. Our Toyota Prado wouldn't tow our van :-(  I'm looking forward to getting our truck back. 

What a fabulous pub...."Little creatures". I met some FABULOUS gals there for an afternoon bevy. So strange to have lovely Ms Ritchie in WA. The kids were awesome. The pub even had a sand pit to keep the kids entertained. Dinner tomorrow night gals :-)

We went for a little wander around Freemantle markets. Fantastic fresh produce but I have no room in my itty bitty fridge. Michael put Charlotte on his shoulders because we were worried she was going to get lost. We came across a street performer who drew attention to us..."excuse me sir, go you realise you have a small child growing off your shoulders". 

Nan & pop went amiss finding a parking spot. They were wandering around & ran into Paula & company after we left them....RANDOM???

A quick cuppa & a play for the kids & home for dinner & more loads of washing through the dryer. Oh how I miss having my own washing machine :-( 

Luckily, the kids helped dry up tonight. They can be such good helpers when they want to be. 

Off for a biking adventure tomorrow, after an early morning shuffle.

Mandurah

I could think of worse places to be stuck. What a beautiful part of the world. We headed into town for some sunshine & a picnic with the kids. After such a shitty news day yesterday we decided that icrcream might do the trip. We spotted Baskin Robbins when we were in town yesterday & knew the kids would be thrilled. 

I made sandwiches for our picnic & then surprised them with an icrcream.

I think they enjoyed them. 

We stopped on the way home for grocery shopping. Michael took the girls to Big W & Isaac came shopping with me, nan & pop. I snapped this beautiful picture of Isaac & nan. 

We're grabbing all the cuddles we can because I know it could end at any time :-(

Oh dear! The kids have been busy digging ditches all afternoon with the caretakers kids. The black sand is fabulous....NOT! Lucky we're in Perth for 4 nights. It'll take me that long to catch up on my washing (lol). Isaac should be scared with the look on those two sisters of his :-)

No news on Roger :-( I just hope the new  turbo arrived. 

Car trouble

We had Roger booked in for a service. We thought we had an oil leak. Lovely nanny & poppy said they'd stay with the kiddies so we could have some grown up time. 

We headed into Mandurah to drop Roger off. We walked & walked. We decided to splurge and have a yummy lunch & a glass of wine. We were like silly teenagers.

View from our lunch! So yummy. The nicest salmon I've ever had. Michael had pork belly & a beer.

We still hadn't heard from Toyota so we decided to find dessert & coffee.

Churros & coffee....mmmm! Lucky we'd walked about 6km. 

Hmmm....then Toyota phoned :-((((

Roger needs a new turbo. $6,000-$7,000. Buggar...lucky we had lunch first.

I wouldn't give up NRMA for the world. We managed to organise a hire car until Monday. It won't tow our van which sucks. Anyway a few wines were had last night & we met a lovely family who are travelling from Mildura in the same direction as we are. We chatted around the campfire until all the kids were done :/)

Busselton

Today Lynns on the loose Institute of Fine Learning completed Week 10. We are on holidays :-) woo hoo! We are halfway through years 1, 3 & 5 & also preschool for 2015 & I'm still alive...and not drinking excessively.

We headed into Busselton for a visit & to see their famous jetty. We arrived and I thought it was very pretty. Mum & dad were disappointed because they thought the changes were not an improvement. I have a love of jettys & boardwalk so I was really excited to see the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. 

There was an admission fee. An admission fee of $3.00 per head to walk along a jetty...are you serious. I'm sure it's a fabulous jetty but I won't know. 

We grabbed a coffee, and a walk around town. Michael picked up some caravan supplies to repair broken things. I bought myself a pair of happy pants on clearance. Now I look like a real gypsy. 

We did a scenic your home in search of these elusive whales. Apparently, 35000 pass the coast every season. We have not given up on a great sighting yet.

A puzzle shop we found on the way home. We bought a few card games to play during game nights.

We met a lady the other night who knotted the girls a blanket for their teddy. The kids decided that they would like to learn to knit. It's CHAOS!!!! We've been freezing our buns off and now, as we're headed up to the warmer weather, we'lol have lots of knitted scarves. 

Margaret River

A big morning of school & work. The kids are on a mission to finish their week 10 work & start school holidays. 

Homemade sausage rolls for the kids lunch & then off for an afternoon of adventuring.

This is Oliver the donkey. He just roams around waiting for the kids to feed him.

Fitzroy Bay. The kids were on the end of the jetty waiting for a big wave to crash on the end. It did, they got wet feet, but I missed it on video.

The surf was pretty wild & it was blowing a fail but Charlotte didn't seem to mind. No jumper again.

Point Leeuwin....near the lighthouse. There was an old water wheel that's all calcified. 

Margaret river. It's not great beach weather, as you can see.

This is the point where the river & the ocean meet. Apparently, when the two meet a static wave is formed, making it a great spot for surfers.

Margaret River

Well...the rains are here! Apparently the weather channel forecasted this weather event BUT, we don't have television or radio to get this information. Forecast tonight of wind speed up to 100km/hour. It's lucky we're not surrounded by trees & sleeping in a canvas fold out bed :-(

These are our neighbours John & Phyllis. Phyllis is teaching Charlotte how to knit & ended up knitting a blanket for Charlottes kitty. 

This photo was taken whilst we were, AGAIN, waiting for washing to finish so we can put it in the dryer. I look forward to warm weather so I can get washing dry.  Grrrr....another $30 in gold coins that had to be found. One positive...we found good coffee!!!!

I found a fabulous children's store....clothing, games, footwear. It was called Hopscotch & we bought another card game for games night. The lady told me that Margaret River gets 6months of this weather & six months of good weather. I don't think it's our new home :-)

Valley of the Giants walk

We left our little home. A big day was planned...360kms to Margaret River. We've found a camp 5km out of town. This will be somewhere we can leave our vans and day trip around. 

As usual, our first stop was for water refill & waste disposal. This is the story of our life! We stopped at a lovely place called Denmark. We drove through very heavy rain for the next leg of our travels. I was a little concerned as to how successful our walk would be.  The rain gods smiled upon us & it only began to rain a few hundred metres from the end of the walk. 

A real opportunity to walk among the giant trees. At the highest point we were 40meyres above the ground. The platform does away, although I was assured it's completely safe. Hmmm... I am a bit scared of heights. I was nervous but warned to it. It was a 600m walk in the canopy & then a small base walk so you can look up & see the true height of these amazing trees.

They are naturally hollow at the base. You can walk right through this one.

 

Thus is supposed to be the old grandma tree. The kids thought nan should get a photo next to it.

This is a tree that had fallen over. Keira shows the size of this giant.

A huge bushfire came through about 12montgs ago but, in true bush style, the trees are re-generating. 

A great new section of road we travelled on today. It was up & down like a roller coaster though. Roger is enjoying a rest tonight. The rain is torrential. I think we may extend our stay...because we can't leave due to possible flooding.

Roy's place

Found a great little spot just out of Albany, with a mechanic opposite. We arrived on Thursday, gave him a call & he squeezed us both in for a service. In true troopy form, it's never that simple. It appears that we have a hole in our main fuel tank. It has been previously repaired but, not successfully. Glad we have a 2nd tank until we can get it sorted....grrrr!

After that we headed out for a look around town. I found a Coles & did a HUGE shop. It's so nice to be paying reasonable prices. Groceries are killing me :-( that & washing clothes!!!

This is Misery Beach. Wild old surf, I tell you! Apparently it's a great salmon fishing spot but we took their word for it.

A walk to the blowhole! It was blowing & we even saw a few whales.