So after leaving Sandy Cape, we travelled north to Geraldton and then onto Horrocks which is about 70 k’s north of Geraldton on the coast. Horrocks Beach is a small town/village with basically a general store and caravan park. It’s a small holiday village but its amazing the size of the homes here, particularly on the cliffs overlooking the town.

One thing that has stood out so far on this trip in WA is the amount of money that seems to be about. Everywhere we have been, there are new houses and major road infrastructure projects. The houses are all significant sizes and I’d suggest its all mining money that is playing a major part of the “affluence” we are seeing. Even here in Horrocks there a huge houses that are obviously holiday homes that I would be happy to have as our main residence, let alone a holiday home.

We had a quick visit to Northampton which is on Highway 1 and the junction for the turn off to Horrocks. Like Cowaramup or “Cowtown”, Northampton has a theme and its sheep. Sheep are all over the town just like Cowaramup, I hope there are no other towns in WA with similar themes. Thankfully Elephants aren’t a major animal species in Australia and that Wolverhampton is not a town here.

Tomorrow we head further north to Kalbarri and then Denham for a date with the Dolphins at Monkey Mia. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us as a storm front has been predicted. If it isn’t COVID, its the weather that is conspiring to upset our trip.

Stay safe and well everyone!

Back on the road again after our 6 day hiatus in Perth. We travelled north via Bullsbrook to visit the RAAF Base. RAAF Base Pearce is were my RAAF career really started, up to then I had about 2 years of training. So when I stepped out onto the tarmac at Pearce I felt I was a true “RAAFie”. We also drove thru the married quarter patch and boy had that changed but I keep forgetting that it’s been 40 years, so you have to expect significant changes. Bullsbrook was basically just RAAF housing back then, now its basically a mini outer suburb.

From Bullsbrook it was off to the Pinnacles at Nambung National Park. The Pinnacles are rock formations that are around 500,000 years old and for most of that time have been covered by the sand around the area. In fact its stated they have only been uncovered for the last couple of hundred years, before that it was at least 6,000 years they had been covered. When you seen the expanse of land they cover, that’s a hell of a lot of sand.

From the Pinnacles we called into Jurien Bay, a nice little seaside town about 230 K’s north of Perth. From Jurien Bay we travelled a bit further on to Sandy Cape camp area for a bit of freestyle camping. No power or water, so this is were the self containment of the van comes into play. With solar panels we can charge our batteries, although the microwave and heating are off limits (need 240V for them). Of course the gennie can be used but that’s only if we have no sun to charge the van’s batteries. It’s really the amount of water you have that defines how long you can stay “off grid”. We’ll be here for a couple of days before we head off again.

Keep safe everyone!

Well today was our last day in Perth, we head north tomorrow morning. It has been a very good week in Perth, whilst we did not do a whole lot of sightseeing we did get to see a lot of our old haunts in the town.

And we enjoyed the “downtime” as well, the next few months will be fairly hectic as we make our way up the WA coast, across into the Northern Territory and then hopefully into Queensland. Mainly 2 or 3 day stays until we hit Darwin in late July, we plan to spend about 5 days there.

So on our last day we went out to lunch at a winery in the Swan Valley. There were 8 of us at Sittella and I can highly recommend the food and the wines. In fact I consider it the best food we have had on the trip so far. The name of the winery is in recognition of a local bird. So if you get to the Swan Valley, I suggest you go to Sittella. Thanks to John for organising it, it was a great way to finish off the week.

We’ve been in Perth for a couple of days now. Funny, at one stage we didn’t think we would get here at all. Monday was spent driving around the old stomping grounds and being very surprised at the changes. It has been 40 years since I lived here and about the same for Susan, as she left Perth and then moved to the south west. First place was King’s Park, where you get a great view of the city and the Swan River. It was always the place to go when I lived here if you were showing visitors around. Certainly a great park and a showpiece for Perth.

Obviously the city has grown but its a modern city now, with an abundance of arterial freeways and highways with something different, no tolls. It’s very easy to drive around but like most cities, once peak hour is on you realise how much we rely on our cars. We haven’t been down to Fremantle yet, that’s on our to do list but we have covered most of the north side.

Yesterday was a rest day although Susan and Vicki went shopping and I went to the golf range. Steve enjoyed himself at home in the van. Susan and I had a lovely dinner last night with Anne & Nick and Margaret & John, who we met on or European River cruise in 2016. It was great to catch up, hard to believe the cruise was 4 years ago, certainly proves time does fly.

We have a few move days in Perth before we finally head north. We’re all looking forward to it. Hopefully as the days go by more facilities and attractions will open, as the restrictions on C19 are reduced, certainly the tourism industry is loud in its requests to get the sector back operating. Although the WA Government is remaining steadfast re opening the border, so we expect it to be a little quieter than normal.

Yesterday I played the Busselton Golf Course, which is basically a Parklands course set amongst the tall trees of the area and pretty flat. It reminded me somewhat of a combination of Rowville and Morack with the conditioning of a Sandbelt course such as Woodlands.

The fairways, greens and green surrounds where in great condition, the members told me the course was in its best condition in 15 years, so I was lucky to play it at its optimum.

So here is my CRAPP rating:

Design 10 out of 20

Condition 18 out of 20

Cost. 12 out of 20

Visual Appeal 12 out of 20

Facilities. 7 out of 10

Ambience/Appeal 4 out of 10

The final rating is 63, not a high score unfortunately. It was a “nice” course but it just lacked something which I can’t determine after one outing. The course conditioning was its main plus but it did fall away in other areas in my opinion.

So onwards to the next course!

We left Pemberton on Wednesday morning and travelled up to Busselton via Nannup, which was a very nice little town. If we had known more about it we probably would have stayed there for a night.

We decided to centralise ourselves in Busselton for a few days. This would allow us to go north to Mandurah and south to Augusta/Cape Leeuwin. We had a look around Busselton on Wednesday, the jetty is the longest jetty in Australia and city is planning major work to enhance its appeal to tourists. Thursday we visited Bunbury and Mandurah. I had not been to Mandurah in over 40 years, about the same with Susan. It was a small holiday/fishing village then but now its a major city with multi million $ properties all around the estuaries, very much like Broadbeach and the Gold Coast in Queensland. Certainly a lot of money in Mandurah now!

Friday we travelled down to Augusta for our Whale watching trip which was fantastic. Unfortunately the photos don’t fit the format well on the blog but you’ll get the picture. Also we went down to Cape Leeuwin to see the lighthouse which is the tallest lighthouse on the Australian mainland. Cape Leeuwin, is the most south western part of Australia and is where the Indian and Southern oceans met.

We drove thru Margaret River but there was major roadworks going on all thru the centre of town which made it difficult to stop and walk around. It looked a nice town obviously with a German/European influence but unfortunately you can’t stop everywhere.

Other than the Whale watching, the highlight was a small town about 10 K’s north of Margaret River called Cowaramup, known as “Cow Town” which you can tell by the photos below. It was a little gem of a place, we really enjoyed our lunch and walk around the town. Today was just driving around the local area and we finished off with a bite to eat and drink and the Busselton jetty. Now that hotels and cafe’s are opened, we joined the throng that had all come out to get some normality back into their lives.

We are leaving Busselton tomorrow, heading up to Perth for 6 days before we head up north and hopefully the warm weather. Although it hasn’t been that cold down south yet.

Until next time, stay safe and well everyone!

Left Albany this morning heading northwest to Pemberton. Travelled thru Denmark (yes WA is a big state), Walpole and Shannon National Park. It was a spectacular drive thru the Karri forests, with the trees right on the roadside edge.

Pemberton is a timber town, with many small wooden cottages, a reminder of the town’s heritage. We visited the Gloucester Tree which is a giant Karri at 53 metres high. You can climb to the lookout tower at the top, which was originally used for fire spotting in the local area.

Heading off to Busselton tomorrow. We have booked a Whale watching tour for later in the week at Augusta and we’re really looking forward to that.

Well its the first day of winter and our last day in Albany. We’ve enjoyed our stay here but we have been disappointed that the main attractions for coming here, have been closed due to C19. There has been a lot of contradictions over what has been or should be closed and unfortunately we’re missing out on a lot of “must see” places or attractions but there’s not much we can do about it other than “whinge”.

Yesterday we took a drive north of Albany to Mt Barker (where Nathan was born, Susan’s youngest) and the Porongurup National Park. Mt Barker was very quiet, basically no movement at all but then it was Sunday, so I suppose that could be a reason under the current circumstances. Then to Porongurup where we had some lunch at a quaint little tearoom. The fresh Pumpkin soup was really good but the Caramel Rum Banana was superb. It’s amazing how you go to a place with out any expectations and come away with a big smile on your face and that was the Porongurup Tearooms.

From the tearooms we drove into the National park and did a couple of the walking trails. I would have loved to have spent more time in the National Park but unfortunately we didn’t have the time to do so. We had a date with Susan’s ex boss when she lived here in Albany 32 years ago. Mick and his wife Kerry welcomed us with open arms and we had a great couple of hours with them, once again wishing we had more time.

Today we took a quick drive out to Nanarup about 30 K’s east of Albany. Basically its just a beach but it had many surfers there and once again we found ourselves at another of the fabulous surf beaches scattered all over the south west of Western Australia. We leave Albany tomorrow for Pemberton, then onto Busselton before getting to Perth next Sunday.

I’ll leave you with a saying that you might recall from TV hit show, Hill Street Blues back in the 80’s. “Be careful out there”!

The weather has been pretty willing over the last few days, plenty of rain and high winds but we did manage to get out and see some of the treats that Albany has. Unfortunately a lot of the tourist attractions, such the the ANZAC Centre and the old Whaling Station are still not open due to C19. So we were off to see the outdoor attractions and we weren’t disappointed. The lookouts at Mt Adelaide, Mt Clarence and Mt Melville are all special giving great views of Albany city centre and surrounds. Also the views of Middleton Bay, King Georges Sound, Princess Royal Bay and Frenchman’s Bay are pretty special as well.

For you information, King George’s Sound was were 36 Australian & New Zealand ships holding 30,000 troops and nearly 700 horses left from Albany on the 1st November 1914, bound for Gallipoli and on the 31st of December 1914 a second convoy of a 30 ships left. So began the ANZAC, hence the building of the National ANZAC Centre here in Albany.

The Blowholes, the Gap and the Natural Bridge in Torndirrup National Park were also great viewing. Unfortunately most of the indoor attractions are not going to open until after we leave next Tuesday, which is very disappointing to come all this way and not see them.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos below.

Well the last few days has had us locked up inside as we went thru “the storm of a decade” (that’s what they are calling it over here in WA). We are hopeful of getting out and about over the next few days but unfortunately all of the main tourist attractions are closed because of C19. The border restrictions are being eased this Friday for the long weekend so we are hoping that the Whaling Station and the ANZAC Memorial, amongst others will open. Otherwise it will be disappointing to come all this way and not see them. We are both fit and well and already looking forward to warmer weather when we head north in a few weeks time.