Sat 10 Sep 2011 Perth

0930 (15508 km) Happy Birthday HM! Had toast and croissant for breakfast. Went to Miss Maud Shop Outlet to buy some pastries. There were some good sausage rolls and cakes. Bought pieces of Black Forrest and Chocolate Mud Cake and White Chocolate Cake for birthday cake.

1030 (15516 km) Had treasure hunt which the kids in particular, MK, organised for birthday. The hunt went all around the house, inside and out.



Kayaking on the Swan River

1315 (15524 km) Went out for picnic at Brown Street park. It is on the Swan River, so we brought fishing gear and kayaks. We cooked BBQ sausages and brought pastries that we bought earlier in the day. There was a playground and quite a large grassy area so the kids could run and play around the area. MH caught a Tarwhine. No one else caught anything but there were quite a few bites. The older kids went out kayaking. At one point MH's fishing hook got caught and CK went out on the kayak to free the line. It was a great location to have a picnic and we had wonderful friends to spend the day with and the weather was gorgeous.

1640 (15524 km) Left the park.





1650 (15532 km) Back at Jimmy's. Started repacking the car as it was our last night at Perth and we had made ourselves so at home at Jimmy's that we had stuff everywhere.

1850 (15533 km) Dinner at Royal Thai Restaurant. It's our family tradition that the b'day person gets to choose the restaurant, and HM has been missing good asian food. Had Toong Tong (money bags), Panang Curry, Grilled Pork Salad, Ka Prow Chicken and rice. The food was good, highly recommended. Even bought some takeaway for Jimmy.

Fri 9 Sep 2011 Perth

0900 (15244 km) Breakfast of toast. CK went to have a hair cut.

1045 (15346 km) Went to drive south.

Thrombolites (cyanobacteria concretions)

1215 (15373 km) Lake Clifton. There were so many mosquitoes! Had the insect repellent spray out. Saw some thrombolites but they weren't very impressive. They were mostly under murky water so it wasn't easy to see them. Thrombolites are similar to stromatolites, they differ by the way the 'lumps' are formed but they are the same cyanobacteria.

Beautiful spot for fishing

1230 (15398 km) Fishing at Port Bouvard Marina. There were some huge stingrays that were swimming past. People were catching herrings, lots of herrings. We didn't catch anything. It appears everyone had a burley cage on their fishing line. Had homemade pizzas for lunch.

1530 (15399 km) So we went to get some burley cages for our next fishing trip. Had a quick look at Mandurah.

1730 (15499 km) Back at Jimmy's.

1745 (15503 km) Filled up. Had noodles and beef casserole for dinner.

Thu 8 Sep 2011 Perth

0930 (15161 km) Breakfast of raisin toast. Went shopping.
1000 (15167 km) The car got fixed, centre display now working and we can see the trip computer and radio controls.

1115 (15178 km) Left Jimmy's house for Fremantle.

1150 (15201 km) Fremantle Army Museum. Took some photos with the tanks.
1230 (15210 km) Fremantle Chocolate Factory. The workers were at lunch so there was no demonstration. We had some chocolate samples. We left and planned to return later.

1300 (15210 km) Took the free Blue CAT Bus to the marina. Had fish and chips from Cicerellos and Sweetlips Restaurants, so that we could compare them. There were several fish and chips joint at the marina, all purporting to be 'the best', 'the original', 'voted the best'. Cicerellos had a number of huge fish tanks with fascinating marine life - corals, marine fish, starfish, sea horse, rays, etc. Even in the toilets, there were fish tanks to watch while you did your business. HM's vote was for Sweetlips having a light crunchy batter and very tender squid rings.

1400 (15210 km) Shipwreck Galleries. Saw stories of shipwrecks including the Wreck, Mutiny and Murder of the Batavia.

Has CK been naughty??

1500 (15210 km) Round House. This was the old gaol. It still had a set of lock up stock and we had a turn at being locked up with our head and hands.

1530 (15210 km) Back at Fremantle Chocolate Factory. Tasted more chocolate, saw some chocolate making and bought some chocolate.

1600 (15210 km) Left Fremantle.
1715 (15236 km) Back at Jimmy's. Had sang choy pau for dinner.
2030 (15240 km) Filled up.
2045 (15244 km) Pack car.

Wed 7 Sep 2011 Perth

0930 (15161 km) Had croissant for breakfast.
1045 (15161 km) Caught the bus into the city. Went to check out the visitor centre.

Ringing the Swan Bells

1145 (15161 km) Went to the Bell Tower which houses the Swan Bells. There's 18 bells, 12 of them over 300 years old from St Martins-of-the-Fields church in London. We went to the demonstration and got to see how bells are rung and we got to ring some of the bells too! Even MH got to ring a bell that was 241 kg, it was much, much heavier than him. There is quite a bit of skill involved in ringing bells. It was quite impressive to see how a bell was rung in a full circle. The volunteers who ring the bell have to spend at least 6 months in training before they are 'safe'. There were groups of people who had rung the bells continuously for 3 hours! From the top of the tower, we had a good view of the Swan River and the city. There were lots of interesting history of bells and clocks in the tower. There were also electronic carillon bells that were computer controlled to play popular tunes.

1300 (15161 km) Went to the food court to have lunch. Had sushi and rice and noodle dishes.



Outside the Perth Mint, no photos were allowed inside because of the high security



1500 (15161 km) Went on the free Red CAT Bus to the Perth Mint. There was a tour that explained about the gold rush that became the reason for the building of the Perth Mint. There was also a demonstration on pouring a gold bar. The furnace was set at 1300 degrees Celsius to maintain liquidity of the gold. Then it was poured into the mold and left to cool. When it was cooler, probably 800 degrees Celsius, it is removed from the mold (still glowing) and placed into water. At the end, there was a pretty heavy block of gold, costing around $300,000. That would explain why a security guard had to be present during the demonstration. We also got to hold a gold bar, it was heavy and expensive, probably around $600,000. There was also a special scale that provided the weight of the person in dollars of equivalent weight in gold.

1615 (15161 km) Caught the free bus back to the bus station in the city and found our bus bay to get back 'home'.
1830 (15161 km) Dinner - rice and pork with potatoes.

Tue 6 Sep 2011 Perth

0915 (15151 km) Left the house for Mitsubishi dealer/service centre.
0945 (15161 km) Mitsubishi. Left car with them to check out the blank centre display. Went shopping.
1230 (15161 km) Had roast chicken for lunch. Catch up on washing and blogs. Having a quiet day - no rushing around doing sightseeing. The kids played Wii games with Jimmy's kids.
1830 (15161 km) Had lasagne (kids had been missing this for the last 2 months, because there isn't an oven to cook it) for dinner.

Mon 5 Sep 2011 Cliff Head North Rest Area to Perth

Cliffhead campsite - Indian Ocean frontage and free!

0940 (14806 km) Left Cliff Head North. Tried to find Pebble Beach at Greenhead but couldn't find it so we drove on.

1115 (14908 km) Jurien Bay. Beautiful beaches. Unfortunately too cold for swimming. Had lunch at Jurien Jetty Cafe of nuggets, fisherman's basket and souvlaki. The kids played in the playground in front of the jetty, naturally.

1250 (14914 km) Checked out the marina for fishing. Didn't look as if we could get onto the marina's jetty.

Jurien Bay Jetty

1310 (14916 km) Went back to the jetty near the cafe and fished. MJ and MH caught a fish each. They were quite small so we let them back into the water. MK caught a cormorant (bird) that went for his bait. Fortunately, the bird released the bait and flew off. Not sure what we would have done with the bird.

1415 (14917 km) Filled up. Left Jurien Bay.

The Pinnacles

1500 (14959 km) Nambung National Park. We went to see the Pinnacles. They were extraordinary ancient rock formations that protruded from the ground. It felt as if we had just landed into some strange moonscape. There was a walk that wound around the Pinnacles. In fact, there was a drive path around the park where people could actually drive around them.

1610 (14959 km) Left Nambung National Park. There were lots of white sand dunes along the coast. Scattered amongst the vegetation were some black boys plant. Didn't expect to see those.

1815 (15151 km) Perth. Arrived at Jimmy's. Had nasi lemak for dinner. Yummy.

Sun 4 Sep 2011 Kalbarri to Cliff Head North Rest Area

0845 (14506 km) Happy Father's Day! We had pancakes for breakfast.There was supposed to be a daily pelican feeding session in Kalbarri. However, there was a pinned notice that said pelicans were on holiday at Lake Eyre. We waited for a while and sure enough, there were no pelicans. Oh well.
0930 (14506 km) Left Murchison Caravan Park.
0945 (14507 km) Kalbarri marina. Fishing again and some crabbing too. However, there were no bites so we packed up and left.
1050 (14507 km) Visited the National Park Headquarters but the Ranger was out and there was no one there.
1110 (14511) Filled up. Drove to Kalbarri National Park. First stop was Red Bluff. From the vantage point, we saw a whale not far from the beach! It was just frolicking in the water. Next stop (200m away)was mushroom rock. Yes, it was no mistaking that it was mushroom rock. It looked just like a mushroom. A short drive further and we came to Rainbow Valley. The rocks had amazing colours and there were vertical pipe rocks which were supposedly fossils of a type of worm from a long time ago. We could not take the camper trailer to Pot Alley so we skipped it and went to Eagle Gorge instead. This area reminds us so much of the Great Ocean Rd except all the sites are so close together.


Natural Bridge



1330 (14533 km) Natural Bridge. Had ham and pastrami for lunch. Then walked to Castle Cove to look at Island Rock. From Natural Bridge lookout, we could see a bridge formed from the cliffs. In time, bridges like that will erode and will be left with islands of rock. Drove to the next area to look at Shellhouse and Grandstand. Grandstand really looked like a grandstand. It is incredible how mother nature creates these features in the cliffs.

1430 (14533 km) Left Kalbarri National Park.

Pink lady at Pink Lakes

1545 (14606 km) Pink Lakes. For best photos, we had to drive to Port Gregory. We got very close to the water and the lake was definitely pink.

1645 (14698 km) Geraldton. Filled up. Shops were closed, so no shopping. In Greenough, we saw the sideways trees. The prevailing constant southerly wind has blown many of the trees so that they are all leaning. There is an actual photo point with a landmark tree as seen in all the brochures and an explanation on why the trees around the area were leaning.

1815 (14806 km) Cliff Head North. A nice freestay camping spot. Had mens and ladies long drop toilets. We were about 20 metres from the Indian Ocean. Could have been closer but someone else had already taken that spot. Had meatballs on spaghetti for dinner.