Lancelin to Bunbury

Its been a bit of a rainy time on this side of the globe, we’ve had bouts of intermittent rain for the last few weeks now but luckily with some nice weather in between. We left Jurien and headed to Lancelin to take our last look at the beautiful turquoise sea before going on to Perth City.

Lancelin Beach and jetty

Having a stop at Lancelin Pub

Lancelin

 We had 2 nights at a place called Karrinyup that is a northern suburb of Perth. We really scored with the caravan park there, being in the city pretty well, we thought it would be a bit average. However we had a fantastic site which, as you will see from the photos was right on the lake. Pippa got to feed all the wild birds including a HUGE pair of black swans, which frightened the living daylights out of her (at first). 

can you see us through the trees? nice spot

Pip escapes the swan

View from our site Karrinyup

We took the bus and train into the city and checked out a few of the sights. Pip was very impressed with the Perth Mint. She saw them pouring gold bullion which she thought was pretty cool and weighed herself on the $ scales converting her weight to value in gold. Apparently she is worth 1.143 million.

the Perth Mint

We stayed over with Haydn and Teresa for the remaining 4 days we were in Perth. They took us to the races, good shopping, and fed and wined us. We had a couple of days by ourselves to navigate the wine, chocolate and microbrewery trail, and the art galleries, museums and fore shores such as Fremantle. Perth is a really pretty and we’d imagine quite a nice city to live in.  

testing the chocolate at Swan Valley confectionary

Perth Museum

Pip n Heath at  Ascot Races

We left Perth yesterday for Bunbury. Now this is actually a beautiful spot! I could live here. Bunbury has great beaches, all the infrastructure of a large town, and great coffee and fine dinning precinct. Sadly we didn’t pre book a caravan park and due to the long weekend for CHOGM (the reason we left Perth) EVERYONE is booked out. We managed to get 2 nights at a park on the highway, which is very noisy. So a dinner out at Bianco gourmet Pizzas, a quick look around the town a few groceries and we are off tomorrow morning to Busselton, a whole 30 min down the road. I think we were actually lucky to get a site there too with everyone flooding away from CHOGM and the street closure chaos.

Jurien Bay

We have been at Jurien Bay now for nine nights and intend on departing here on Thursday, which will mean we have spent a day short of two weeks here.  This is the 43rd time we have stopped on our journey since leaving on the 13^th of May and hence our 43 post. It is Sunday after noon; Teresa and Haydn (friends we made in Point Samson) have left us once again post a weekend of fun. We have not been staying in the van on this stop as Teresa and Haydn have very generously offered up their holiday house for our use. I still can’t quite get over how fantastic they have been to offer this to us. We have met so many genuinely generous people on this trip its actually quite humbling. They have driven up from Perth (two and a half hours) for the last two weekends to catch up with us here. 

More generous people, drinks with Roz and Pete

It’s been nice to sit on a lounge (with foxtel) and sleep in a bed for a change but its back into our little van Thursday night as we head to Lancelin for a night or two before arriving in Perth on Saturday, where Teresa and I will go SHOPPING and Pip can once again catch up with Heath whom she got on with like a bomb.

Also we fortunately caught up with another family (Barb Rog Jack and Lily) we have been playing tag with on our way down the coast. We managed to catch up and do a bit of fishing, Jack very pleased with his first REAL catch (his other first catch was a puffer fish caught at Kalbarri, this one a whiting) good on ya Jacko! We won’t catch up with them again for some time as they head a little faster on their journey to get home to Victoria for Xmas. Pip sadly said her good byes to 8-year-old Lily who has been her best “friend” since they met at Coral Bay.

Jack's catch

The weather has been pretty good to us here with only a few odd showers earlier in the week. Pip has tried out every playground in Jurien including the skate park. The council has really put some money into the fore shores here with playgrounds galore, and all very new looking at that. It’s a really clean little town ( no ciggy buts )that pretty much has everything you need including some things you don’t need like FLIES! FLIES! FLIES! We have never seen so many flies as we have seen coming down the lower west coast. I think they started becoming a major pain in the butt at about Denham and have slowly gotten worse. They are annoying as they try with all their might to fly themselves UP your nose and in your mouth. Eeaakkkkk!!!! 

We took a short drive on Wednesday out to the Cervantes Pinnacles, which were quite amazing to see. Unfortunately we weren’t there at sunset but it was a grand sight all the same.

Catch you later in Lancelin XXXX

Oh and I almost forgot..... We all decided to head off to the beach this morning to do a spot of fishing. We took the cars to carry the drinks and fishing gear and headed to a beach the other side of the Jurien Marina.  As we entered the beach and  hit the very soft fine white sand I said to Mike, "should we let the pressure out of our tyres?" Nahh Haydn hasn't was the reply.. Seriously 20 meters later we were bogged. I hate to say I told you so, so I didn't knowing full well Haydn would make fun of us. Haydn and Teresa did a u bolt to see what was going on.. "I thought you said your car goes alright in the sand" says Mr J? Ha ha and on that he buried himself in the soft sand to the dif too. What a sight... Teresa, Pip and I got out of the cars in embarrassment and left them to sort it out. All in all it was funny and it amused a few people passing by in their NOT BOGGED cars.. I was so annoyed with myself as I forgot to take a picture of the two of them. hahahahahahahahah Hey Haydn! YOU GO ALRIGHT DON"T YAH!!!!!!!

Dongara Pt Denison

Well we didn't find Okabella, the haunted house until we were about 50 klm south of Northampton and on our way in the pouring rain to Dongara. It was a dirt road or should I say mud road due to the rain they have had over the previous couple of weeks so we gave it the big miss. Its our last night in Dongara which is quite a historic town, a great surf beach, a small marina and friendly little shopping precinct. Dongara Denison as its named sits alongside the Irwin river and port Irwin no longer used as a port mainly due to the treacherous reef that lies close to the shore line. There have been many a ship wreck and mariner mishaps along these shores. An old local tells us of how dangerous these waters can be even to the most experienced mariners, as this area is known for its rogue waves that can tip a lobster trawler on its side in the blink of an eye. He then points out a memorial of 3 men whom where his friends, all drowned in a boating mishap. Mother nature is definitely in charge around here. The winds here are also bound and fierce. There are trees permanently flexed or growing north facing due to the prevailing southerly s. Any hoo! enough of all that we have had a nice time here an are of to Jurien Bay tomorrow to catch up with our friends Haydn, Teresa and their son Heath. We are looking forward to having their company a few drinks and some good feeds. (Lobster season officially starts here on this coast line from Juiren up... on the  15 November, they say, imported internationally! must be good eh). Well guys here are a few pics of Dongara Denison. Catch you in Jurien Bay.

Denison Marina

Denison Dongara sunset

Sunset at Grannys Beach where we are staying

talk about a windy day!!

Horracks

Yet another move to another beautiful spot on the coast, water is of course so blue and clear. We will stop here for 2 nights on our way to Dongara. On the way here we called in at Port Gregory, which is home to the Pink Lake. Yes it is actually PINK!!!!! It’s pink hue is created by bacteria (Dunaljella salina), which becomes trapped in the salt granules. We are going to have a day trip around the area tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a chance to capture the beautiful wild flower images. (We are alos going to sus out, Oakabella Homestead if possible!! WA most haunted house............. Pics to follow in next blog ohhhaaaaarrrrrr).  

This last picture is of Mikes big breakfast.. Check out the SLAB of egg he made us eat hahahaa

So sorry about the previous blogs pictures we were having a major problem with down loading. I think we were just on the brink of being in a NO SERVICE area. So here are the remaining photos of the lovely Horracks.