Sat 24 Sep 2011 Ceduna to Point Lowly Rest Area

0900 (19060 km) Breakfast of cereal. Left Ceduna.

0915 (19061 km) Filled up.

At Murphy's Hay Stacks

1100 (19218 km) Murphy's Hay Stacks. These are Inselbergs. They are granite that has been weathered and formed into interesting shapes in the middle of the paddock. Apparently the name of Murphy's Hay Stacks was from an Irish agricultural expert who saw this landmark in the distance whilst travelling on a coach. Apparently the learned Irish gentleman was very impressed and informed his fellow passengers that the farmer must have harrowed his land to produce such a great abundance of hay! Well, by now you must have guessed it! The original farmer of the land was a Mr. Murphy and to this day the landmark is known as Murphy's Hay Stacks.

1200 (19258 km) Filled up.

"Ahhh! Don't feed me to the shark, I promise I'll be good"

1215 (19258 km) Streaky Bay. Visited gallery with the replica life size replica of the world's largest white pointer shark caught on a rod and reel. The 1520 kg shark was caught in April 1990 by a young local fisherman after a 5.25 hour struggle. The mature female shark was estimated to be 16 to 18 years old. Had lunch of hot dogs.





Squidding at Pt Lowly

1400 (19405 km) Wudinna. CK had a look at the Australian Farmer's granite sculpture. It looked quite modern. Everyone else was asleep in the car!

1500 (19506 km) Kimba. Saw the Giant Galah and all the tourists taking photos! So we joined them in taking photos. HM was still half asleep.



1700 (19683 km) Point Lowly Rest Area. Quite a nice rest area, right next to a small marina. Flushing toilets were also close by. Went squidding. Suddenly a seal jumped out of the water. We got a fright and thought we better reel in our squid jigs in case it gets caught by the seal. Had dinner of tau yew bak.





Pt Lowly Lighthouse at dusk



Fri 23 Sep 2011 Ceduna

1015 (18969 km) Toast for breakfast.

1045 (19014 km) Smoky Bay. There was a jetty with a shark-proof swimming enclosure adjacent to it at Smoky Bay. Didn't see any sharks. Must be scary swimming metres from a man-eating shark. Had a walk along the jetty and saw people fishing but they weren't catching anything. Lots of cormarants hanging around, and a pelican too.



The boys trying to sneak up to the cormorants



1230 (19060 km) Lunch of crabs and soup. The blue swimmer crabs were better than the other unidentified crab. Novelty of eating crabs has run out for the kids, they had a few nibbles but CK & HM had to eat 6 crabs! It took a while. . .

1700 (19060 km) Went crabbing and squidding again. Kids were keen to take some crabs with us to our next stop where we meet up with friends.

1900 (19060 km) Had yummy homemade burgers for dinner.

Thu 22 Sep 2011 Ceduna

At the jetty again, with the crab net

1000 (18934 km) Had pancakes for breakfast. It was very windy. Put in additional pegs just in case.

1015 (18934 km) Filled up. Ceduna Visitor Centre. Drove around the scenic drive to Thevenard. Stopped at lookout at Pinky Point. From the platform we saw seals in the water. One seal was swimming to another that was perched on a rock. It climbed up and they kissed! From the platform, we could also see the huge salt piles. There was a tractor that was going up and down the salt piles. Drove further along and had a quick look at the fish processors. Nothing was happening so we drove on to Shelley Beach. Nothing spectacular so we went shopping.

1300 (18959 km) Lunch of Indomie.

1415 (18963 km) Ceduna Bureau of Meteorology weather station. He gave us a brief explanation about how all the weather stations around Australia send up the weather balloons at about the same time. The balloons are tracked by radar to make calculations about what the weather is like in the atmosphere. The balloons are filled with hydrogen because it is cheaper. Went to buy some oysters at the Oyster Bar.

1500 (18969 km) Fishing. It was still very windy, not good for fishing. Only caught crabs and small fish. Took back 4 blue swimmer crabs and another crab. Threw everything else back.

Blue Swimmer



Other crab

1700 (18969 km) Had Herring Mornay for dinner. The herrings were the ones we had caught the day before. Also had oysters - mixed reactions from the kids.

Wed 21 Sep 2011 Moonera Tank Rest Area to Ceduna






Nullarbor means 'treeless'



0800 (18174 km) Breakfast of cereal. Left rest area.

1000 (18343 km) Mundrabilla Roadhouse. Filled up.

1045 (18410 km) Eucla. Tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but has police station. Filled up. As we passed Border Village, we added another 45 minutes to our clocks.

1340 (18610 km) Town of Nullarbor. Only one short section of the Nullabor Plain was actually 'treeless'. Most had a fair bit of vegetation.



Southern Right whale with calf

 1410 (18636 km) Head of Bight. It was amazing. We were expecting to have to use binoculars to search for the odd whale or two. However, to our pleasant surprise, there were more than a dozen Southern Right Whales, many with a calf, just in the water. They would swim under at times, and because there were so many, we could never be sure if we had already counted them. There was also a seal that was swimming around. There were some small blowholes that blew water vertically into the air.

1815 (18933) Penong.

1830 (18934 km) Ceduna. Ceduna Foreshore Caravan Park. Site P12. Had sang choy pau with rice. Went fishing and brought back two crabs and two herrings. Threw the rest back for another day.

Nullarbor diesel prices

Norseman $1.549

Balladonia $1.872

Mundrabilla $1.780

Eucla $1.780

Nullarbor $2.039

Nundro $1.539

Penong $1.539

 Ceduna $1.499

Tue 20 Sep 2011 Esperance to Rest Area

0930 (17478 km) Breakfast of cereal, leftover Indomie and fried rice. Left Esperance.
1145 (17688 km) Norseman. Filled up. $1.529. Start of Nullabor. There is a really good information brochure on the Nullabor. Lunch of ham sandwiches.
1415 (17882 km) Balladonia. Filled up. $1.872. Start of the "90 mile straight". It is 146 km of straight road, the longest in the world. The road just kept on going into the shimmering distance. We couldn't see the end. Oncoming traffic starts as a tiny speck in the distance and takes forever to loom into a full sized vehicle. At Caiguna, the time zone changed and we added 45 minutes.
1745 (18174 km) Rest area. Traveled 700 km and more to go tomorrow. Starting to get dark, so stopped as we won't have electricity. Set up. Dinner of soft tacos. Kids lit a fire, naturally. We got out the marshmallows and toasted them in the fire. And MJ said 'this is life' with a matching sigh.

Mon 19 Sep 2011 Esperance

1030 (17423 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Went to Visitor Centre. Went on the Great Ocean Drive. Had a quick look at West Beach. It was very windy. Walked up the steps to Observatory Point. It was definitely a good view but very windy. We had difficulty walking down the steps. The wind was so strong that it was difficult to breathe! Stopped at Twilight Beach. Just a little offshore was an interesting rock with a large cave in it. If the water was warmer, we could have swam out to it. Had a quick look at 10 mile lagoon. There appeared to be a line of rocks about 20 metres from shore that created what looked like a lagoon. Then the rain started and we ran back to the car. Drove to Pink Lake and found that it wasn't pink. The pink is caused by a combination of an alga that has beta-carotene (same colouring that is found in carrots) and bacterium that is pink.

1245 (17466 km) Lunch of porridge.

1430 (17466 km) Adventureland. Climbed over the whale and ran around the maze. It was a small maze, nothing like some of the other big mazes we had been to.

1445 (17468 km) Tanker Jetty.  Went fishing and caught 3 fish. A Yellowtail Scad and two Herrings. Sammy the sealion, who lives under the jetty, was very excited and came to greet us when we were leaving the jetty. He swam around and poked his head up. Apparently he waits there in the late afternoon when fishermen leave the jetty with their catches. There's a fish cleaning station at the end of the jetty and he waits next to it waiting for fish or fish bits to be thrown to him.

1700 (17472 km) Cooked the fish we caught, some crumbed fish and hash brown for dinner. It was good to have fresh fish but the Herrings were not the yummiest of fish.

2000 (17475 km) Filled up.

2015 (17476 km) Fishing again by night. Caught 8 fish in 30 minutes. MH even caught 2 fish at a time on his 2 hooks. HM tried squidding again but there were still no squids. Fed 3 fish to Sammy the Sea Lion. Sammy was really animated and looked forward to his feed.

2045 (17478 km) Back at caravan park.

Herrings on the BBQ

Sun 18 Sep 2011 Esperance

0845 (17275 km) Had toast and cereal for breakfast.
0900 (17277 km) Filled up.

Lucky Bay sand was amazingly fine!

1000 (17344 km) Cape Le Grand National Park. Lucky Bay was beautiful and had really interesting sand. It was really, really fine sand. With water on it, it was a little like corn flour in water, hard if you stepped on it quickly but if stepped on slowly, you started to sink. It also squeaked so the kids started doing interesting dances & stomps. The colours in the area was beautiful - the white sand led to green sea that changed to deep blue that had white foamy waves crashing on it. The next stop was Thistle Cove. There were some rock formations called Whistling Rock. It looked like a surfing wave. On the beach, there was a huge rock to climb over and the kids started building a dam across a stream that was running on the beach. On the way back, we took some photos of the Frenchman's Peak. It looked just like a french beret.

1345 (17413 km) Back at the caravan park and had bacon, eggs, baked beans and spaghetti.

Thistle Cove

1600 (17418 km) Mermaid Leather. The shop made fish skin leather. Looks like a lot of effort to get the skin off the fish and make it into leather. It's pretty expensive too! It also the the mermaid legend that was quite good reading.
1630 (17423 km) Still raining back at caravan park.
1800 (17423 km) Had fried rice for dinner.

Sat 17 Sep 2011 Albany to Esperance

0920 (16782 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Left Albany.
0930 (16785 km) Filled up. The drive to Esperance were filled with canola fields. It was bright sunny yellow as far as the eye could see.
1230 (17051 km) Rest area. Stopped for lunch of Ritz, Cruskit and kransky.
1330 (17078 km) Ravensthorpe. Filled up.
1530 (17270 km) Esperance. Esperance Bay Holiday Park. Site 39. Had spiral bolognaise for dinner.
1930 (17273 km) Went fishing and caught four fish but one jumped away while at the fish cleaning station. Oh well, Sammy the Sea Lion, who lives unde the jetty, will have something to eat.
2100 (17275 km) Back at caravan park.

Fri 16 Sep 2011 Albany

1000 (16597 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Left caravan park. Filled up.

Greens Pool

1100 (16650 km) Denmark. Went to see the Visitor Centre. We were expecting to see the large barometer. However, apparently the donor had a disagreement with the shire and took it back. Oh well.

1130 (16671 km) Toffee factory. There were lots of toffee samples. The Chocolate Toffee was quite good. Then we tasted some apple and pear cider. Not really impressed. Could have been the toffee that we ate first. Next time, taste the cider first and then the toffee. There were also over 20 sauces/relishes to taste.

1215 (16676 km) Honey Meadery. First, we tasted the mead. The Honey Liqueur was very smooth and nice. Then we tasted the honey. The Moort honey was quite good. We found out that the "honey cappings" was unfiltered honey straight from the bees wax.

Waves don't bother us as we have no shoes on!

1230 (16682 km) Had lunch of sandwiches. Greens Pool. It was an amazing sight. There was a pool of clear calmer water. Just about 50 metres away was the mighty Southern Ocean crashing against a defensive row of rocks that protected the pool. Would have been great swimming and snorkeling if it wasn't so cold and windy. Went over to the Elephant Rock. We had to go through a narrow gap between two huge boulders and the waves intermittently washed into the gap. So we had to time our passage through the gap. We took some photos and it started to rain. We had to get back to the car quickly. Everyone was through the gap except CK and the waves filled the gap. Suddenly the water flowed out of the gap and CK rushed through without getting wet. But the rain had started so everyone ran back to the car and got wet anyway. Next time, CK should just take his sneakers off!

1430 (16759 km) Back in Albany. Went up to Mt Melville. Couldn't see much due to the rain except the wind farm. Had a look at the marina - there was a fishing jetty. Drove out to Emu Point and saw road signs with turtles! We didn't see any turtles crossing though. Then we saw Dog Rock. And the rock was quite large and really looked like a dog's head - and this is right in the middle of the town, right next to a main Rd

1800 (16782 km) Dinner of rice and tau yew bak. Played table tennis.

Thu 15 Sep 2011 Albany

0930 (16543 km) Had toast for breakfast. Left Albany.



With a 11m sperm whale skeleton



0945 (16566 km) Whaleworld. Went on a tour where we were shown the grisly whaling industry. The whaling station was closed in 1978. After the tour, we went around taking photos of the huge whale skeletons and watching the short movies. The Giants Exists was a 3-D movie with 3-D glasses about whales. The Sharks movie used props in the back of translucent screens to illustrate the story. The Whaling Industry movie had us standing on a high platform looking down. A Day of a Whaler had little projected people amongst whaling items. The movies were quite innovative in the use of technology and were quite enjoyable. After lunch of Ritz and Cruskits, we went on a Walk on Wild Side. It is an animal enclosure with nocturnal fauna such as possum, quoll, flying foxes, etc. There was also a very friendly kangaroo named Angus that gave MH a big cuddle. So cute!

On the shipCheynes IV

1420 (16566 km) Left Whaleworld.

1430 (10571 km) Blowhole. Walked down the path and the steps to the blowhole. MK and MH nearly got blown away by the blowhole. It was intermittently making loud noises and spraying mist into the air.

See the fine mist upper left part (the fuzzy bit)

1530 (16576 km) Natural Bridge. It is amazing how the huge bridge was being held up by itself. It looked as if it could fall at any time. Apparently there has been quite a number of accidents in the area and people have been swept off. The Gap. It is a narrow gap where the wave rushes in and creates a huge splash. Don't want to be caught swimming in there.

1605 (16597 km) Back at caravan park. Played in the playground. Had dinner of steak. It rained.

Wed 14 Sep 2011 Busselton to Albany

0915 (16114 km) Had cereal for breakfast. Left Seventh Day Adventist camp. Went shopping.
0930 (16126 km) Filled up.
0945 (16126 km) Left Busselton.

Bicentennial Karri tree

1130 (16265 km) Pemberton. Bought some smoked produce from Holy Smoke. Looks and smells good.

1200 (16278 km) Bicentennial Tree. Had rolls for lunch. This tree was launched on the Bicentennial Year 1988. CK, MJ and MH climbed up to the middle platform.  It was already quite high. MK & HM chickened out after 7-8m. HM's lack of exercise meant that her thighs were already feeling the effort and didn't want to risk wobbly legs on the precarious steps! The steps were just pegs driven into the tree. The top platform is 75 metres from the ground and on windy days can sway 1.5 metres either side. It was supposed to be used as a lookout tower for fires. The view was very good but the climb was scary.

 

1500 (16431 km) Valley of the Giants. We went on the Tree Top Walk. This was much easier than the Bicentennial Tree. This walk was a gradual climb on metal spans amongst the giant Red Tingle trees. We almost had our heads in the clouds. It was quite interesting that we had recently listened to the Roald Dahl story Giraffe, Pelly and Me where the Giraffe only ate the flowers from the Tingle Tingle trees. When we came back down to Earth, literally, we went to the Ancient Empire walk. The walk took us through a forest of Tingle and other interesting trees. The old Tingle trees had their base hollowed out by insects, fungi and fire. Some trees were so big that we could go into the base of the tree. One tree just formed an arch and we could walk right through it. In the past, there was a tree so large that a Ford car could drive into it. There is now a life size picture of a car where the kids could jump into back and appear to drive it.

1630 (16431 km) Left Valley of the Giants.

 
 1745 (16543 km) Albany Gardens Holiday Resort. Site 39. Had dinner of crabs, lasagna and Indomie. Showed the kids how to eat crabs - messy but fun. The pliers came in handy.

Tue 13 Sep 2011 Busselton

0930 (16066 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Left camp.

Busselton Jetty

In the Underwater Observatory

0940 (16078 km) Busselton Jetty. Bought family tickets for Busselton Jetty Under Water Observatory. We went on a train to go along the 1.8 km jetty, the longest wooden pile jetty. Along the train ride, we got to see dolphins! There were also some people fishing and crabbing along the jetty. The train sure beats walking. At the end of the jetty was the Underwater Observatory. It had really good information about marine life. There was also explanation about how tides are formed and how the Leeuwin current influenced the marine life. We climbed the spiral staircase 8m down into the ocean. At each level, there was more information about the marine life at that depth level. There were barnacles and lots of corals on the piles that supported all types of fish and marine life. At the bottom, we also saw a sea star. Some of the marine life we saw included a school of Skippy Jack, Silver Trevally, Mosaic, Cuttlefish, Sea Combs and Puffer Fish. Apparently the corals become more colourful in summer when they 'bloom'. It is a fascinating place, could have spent hours there but because of the limited space, every group only gets about 45 mins. 

View from Underwater Observatory

1215 (16078 km) Left the jetty and went to the Busselton Visitor Centre.

1305 (16091 km) Went back to camp and made toasted sandwiches for lunch. Explored the beach since we were right on the beach.

1700 (16091 km) Early dinner of pasta carbonara, so that we can go crabbing.

1830 (16102 km) Busselton Jetty. Under the lights of the jetty, we caught 2 trumpet fish in the crab net. And 5 legal sized crabs. We threw back a few that were under sized. It was fun to see the crabs swimming in the water and trying to catch it with a drop net. It wasn't easy. The drop net was quite effective in catching the crabs on the ocean floor. Highly recommended to go crabbing when in Busselton.

2035 (16114 km) Saw a possum on the drive back to camp.

Mon 12 Sep 2011 Busselton

1000 (15814 km) Left camp.



See the seals sunbaking? There's one in the middle sitting up



1030 (15842 km) Cape Naturaliste. Went for a walk. There was a place known as the Other Side of the Moon but it wasn't very interesting. Saw Western Shingleback Lizards, Humpback Whales and seals. Had sandwiches for lunch.

The waves were huge and very turbulent, gushing into the canal - you can see how high it is in the back

1320 (15874 km) Canal Rocks. It is quite interesting how the gneiss rocks (metamorphic rocks) have been formed with cracks and joints and then weathering created the canals. Water was being forced through various canals and gaps in the rocks so there were huge waves. At one of the gaps, the water build up is so great it looks like a horizontal waterfall. We crossed a bridge to go over to the 'other side' of the canal. The waves were surging under us, we were getting worried that the waves would wash the bridge out and we would be stuck on the other side.

1405 (15896 km) Margaret River Chocolate Company. Very nice new building with lots of yummy looking chocolate. We had our fill of very nice smooth chocolate samples- white, milk and dark chocolate. Fonti Farm Cheese Factory. Tried a whole series of cheeses. According to HM, the Emmental Swiss Cheese would have been sublime on her potato dauphinois. There was even some yogurt to try.
1515 (15907 km) Candy Cow Lolly Shop. There were a number of fudge flavours to try. Kids were allowed two flavours and adults were allowed five flavours. Of course, the kids had to try the bubblegum fudge. We bought 45 cm of pucker sucker sherbet. Quite a novel way to sell the sherbet. First buy a length of tube. Then fill it with whatever flavours.
1615 (15971 km) Cape Leeuwin. Saw the lighthouse and took some photos of the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. Had a look at the old water wheel. It is now salt encrusted and so it is not spinning anymore but the structure is still there. The kids found some crabs hiding in the gaps.
1800 (16066 km) Back at camp. Had chicken fajitas for dinner.

Sun 11 Sep 2011 Perth to Busselton

1015 (15534 km) Had croissant and toast for breakfast. Left Perth.

A group of dolphins swam past

1130 (15627 km) Port Bouvard Marina. Went fishing. MH caught a herring but lost it. MK caught a large salmon. It was so large that it swam very quickly and broke the fishing line. There goes the hooks and new burley cage. If a salmon is found with hooks and a burley cage still stuck to it, it is MK's. Had to make up a new line for MK. Suddenly, we saw some dolphins right in front of us! They were jumping around and playing. We saw them leap out of the water and spun in the air. Just like in Seaworld. And all this right in front of us and for free. Had sausage rolls for lunch. In the morning, the tide was going to the left (into Peel Inlet) and by afternoon, the tide was going the right (to the sea).

1420 (15627 km) Left Port Bouvard.

1645 (15791 km) Busselton. Seventh Day Adventist Camp. Site V2. There was only one other couple staying there. We were right by the beach - fantastic location and so peaceful with the sound of waves lulling us to sleep. Dinner of spiral bolognaise.

One of the undersized crabs we caught

1945 (15802 km) Busselton Jetty. Went fishing, squidding and crabbing. MH's line somehow caught a flying sea gull. Tried to bring it to shore to free it but it broke free. Hope it is OK. We caught some crabs and threw them back since they were under legal size. There were lots of crabs swimming around - it's an amazing sight seeing crabs swimming, they don't seem to have the right shape for swimming around.

2145 (15802 km) Left the jetty.

2200 (15814 km) Back at camp.

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.