After a couple of beautiful days in Dunsborough in the Margaret River region we headed for Bremer Bay which was approximately 500km drive.

Bremer Bay is a on the coast close to Albany.  It is a small tourist and fishing village with one shop that sells everything and a resource /tourist centre / library.  The highlights were catching the waves at Native Dog beach and playing in the sand and collecting cuttlefish shells for our budgies.  Another day was spent fishing on the jetty and snorkelling at the Fisherman’s beach.

Catching fish we had our catch for dinner plus a few prawns from the fisherman a coop.

The power was generated from disel generators and a large wind turbine.  Of course there was a good wind blowing.  We enjoyed our rainwater from Dunsborough house tanks rather than the town water.

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We travelled to see one of mum’s friends in Northampton.  She was previously in our reading group together.  Northampton is a pretty little town, first established in 1864 as there was a lead mine.  Now it is mostly gains its money through agricultural and tourism.  They are involved in running the Anglican Church in town and we stayed behind the church.  It was a lovely community to visit.

One day we ventured to Kalbarri National Park, which was approximately 1.5 hrs drive north west of Northampton.  Looking out for birds we saw emus, wedge tailed eagle and a flock of red tailed black cockatoos.  As it was going to be over 30 degrees in the gorge we headed out early and walked down to the gorge and murchinson river.  The gorge is stunning with multiple colours and many large swimming pools.  We all enjoyed a cool off in the pools.  There were many jumps and we found a beautiful arch.  We spent most of the morning mucking around in the gorge.

For our walk out we got all wet from a swim, took splashing bottles with us.  My friend baked a chocolate cake and the first person back to the car received the largest piece.  There was a lot of motivation to make it back.  But more fun and refreshing was the ice water bottle challenge where icey water was poured down your back.  JGD even got an head freeze from it.  When we were resting at the top a fairy wren popped out of the bushes and hopped around.  Very cute.

Thanks to TR we had a fabulous time and then she drove us home in a car of sleeping family.

Wishing our family and friends a very merry Christmas.  Normally I would write a Christmas letter but do not know what to write in a Christmas post when you know about all our news and travels.

It will be a quiet Christmas for us and we are looking forward to spending some time with extended family and visiting a new church.

love us

“Bonjour” “oui” and “merci boquet”

In Geraldton we meet some  friends with three girls and one boy who were French.  We stayed at their house for 3 nights.  It was fun to stay with them and we spent a lot of time at the beach.  The water was warm rather than freezing cold and the waves were a perfect size for jumping into and catching waves.  As they were attending dance classes, they had just a final performance with 3 sets of costumes each!!  Hence the kids made up an arobatic dance  routine family show which was amazing and included professional costumes.

An educational highlight was the lobster processing factory.  The lobsters can be transported in 30 hours from Australia to Bejing!! They could sell them at $90 per kilo and they send them alive after putting them through 5 degrees Celsius water to let them hibernate for the trip.  Once upon arrival they put them back into salty water between 19 and 25 degrees and they become active again.

Amazing rock formations greeted us at the Pinnacles National Park.  We were travelling with friends so we played 44 home around the rock formations.  There were lots of racing around, hence it took quite a while to walk the couple of kilometres loop walk.

The pictures make it look stunning.  Certainly there was a very blue sky and little chance of rain, but windy western Australia showed itself when were away.  The sand blew up into our faces and eyes.  We hid behind the rock formations and out of the wind.

Interesting fact – scientists are not sure how the pinnacles were formed. There is 2 theories about whether they are the roots of trees or the tree stumps and they were only revealed from the sand 6,000 years ago.

Camping with friends was very special.  The kids enjoyed having company and also playing spotlight with no one else to bother.  There was a sizeable pool where we found a frog.  It previously was an emu farm but no sight of one could be found and only high fences in places.  Our friends were reading a book about a boy for advent and he had many adventures.  JGD put on a show with her special friend to the frozen songs and bought a friendship necklace with her friend.

Adventures in Perth

Velodrome at Midvale

We spent 2 weeks in Perth and had many fun adventures. One place that JWD liked was the velodrome.  The first visit was spent learning how to ride on a track bike without brakes and in unison with the other riders.  The second week involved learning the different types of races.  JWD was able to keep up with his friend’s group.  Also the boys were able to meet a world champion and see awards given for the longest distance that could be ridden in one hour.

Zoo with friends

We also enjoyed visiting the zoo.  The elephant show was impressive with the trainer being able to get the elephant to kneel, recline as well as paint.  We were sprayed with water but we did not get as wet as at the Singapore zoo.  The new orangutan enclosure was impressive and they were climbing high and so did the kids.

John Forrest National Park

In the NP we walked along the river to Hovea Falls, which was a pretty place.  There had been changes made to the forest by way of improvements that were now falling into disrepair and also included a tavern in a national park!  However the falls were pretty and fun to scramble over rocks.  We also spotted a splendid fairy wren – all blue with a harem of girls (small brown birds).

Kalamunda Water Park

An energetic day was spent at the water slides.  There were 2 large slides which the kids had a tremendous time riding down on mats.  It was a lovely warm day and we spent most of the day mucking around here.

Como Church of Christ

Attending church with my Aunty was another highlight.  There was great worship, a challenging sermon,  a terrific kids program and youth who were doing stunts to raise money for their charity in Asia.  It was an inspiring place to visit.

Thanks for being patient. We are having too much fun to write a post, but the summary was that we spent 2 weeks in Perth then north to Pinnacles, Geraldton and Northampton where we drove to Kalbarri National Park. In the Margaret River at  Dunsborough will be our Christmas destination.  More stories and pics to come soon!!!!

Arriving in Perth, we drove straight to our friends house in the Eastern Hills of the city.  There is a bush block next door.  It was lovely to see our friends and kids to play with.  Mum was excited about a real washing machine rather than a caravan park one!!!

Dad visited us here for birthdays which was very exciting to all be together.  JGD had a mango cake whilst Dad had an ice cream one.  We had a picnic dinner beside the river.

Another highlight was visiting the Camel Farm where there is a small farm and beginning of 22 km mountain bike trails.  We explored a few of the trails including skills track, pump track and kamikaze!!!

Cape to Cape Walk

Seeing a waterfall in the travel brochure, we headed out to Moses Rock which was part of the Cape to Cape walk.  The ocean was beautiful and large waves rolled in along the coast.  We headed north for about 2km and found small water falls with water flowing over.

Trip to Busselton

Moving on quickly, we drove to Busselton which is 3hr or 300km South of Perth.  Here we caught up with friends who we had met at Esperance, which was fun and great for the kids to play with friends.  A trip to the library to do homework and catch up on reading.  Possibly some horse riding and visit to the beaches is planned for the rest of the stay.

We camped on Caves Road where there was a strip of Youth Camps from each of the denominations.  We stayed at the Seventh Day Adventist one right on the beach front.  On the morning walk we spoted rays in the water.

Protecting the beach from the surf are a number of large granite rocks.  This creates beautiful pools and gentle swimming areas.  We swam out to the rocks and jumped off.  JWD was buried in the sand.  As we had a good time, we went there the next day as well.

On the drive through the Shannon National Park, we walked through the bush and heard frogs.  This is the tall forest area in WA with a strong timber industry.  Arriving at Diamond Tree we started the climb up the 52 metre tall tree, but not all the way to the top!  At night we camped at Fonty Pools which is a natural spring.  There was a swimming area with large tyres and a jumping board.  A highlight was beautiful green grass.

Ringwould is a goat and pig farm with a cheese factory between Albany and Mount Barker.  Here we were involved in milking the 67 goats each morning and feeding the 3 orphaned kids with a bottle.  The kids enjoyed it tremendously.  The produce was yummy and included goat’s cheese, yoghurt, milk and bread.

LMD