We made it !

What a trip

Sunday January 16

Day 32 Saturday January 16

AQWA

This is a lovely place we spent all morning looking at fish. Aquarium of Western Australia.

Friday Rottnest Island

What a day. Lovely calm ride over, brand new Giant Boulder with suspension and disc brakes, lots of empty roads, heaps of beautiful coastline, the cleanest water in WA, friendly Quokkas, Snorkelling trail was great. It was in a marine sanctuary, the fish just followed you around we saw colourful coral lots of fish and even a gummy shark. The ride home was very entertaining the bow splash was spectacular . We then had a wonderful dinner by the water.

NationalOutdoor Education Conference

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Notre Dame University Fremantle. Great people from all over Australia doing wonderful things. Kathleen, Ian Boyle and my raffle win were my highlights. I have plenty of notes and lots of goos ideas on how to awaken and enlighten my students.

Poor little blue butterfly

crash, splutter,splutter grrrrr, BANG

Today the car decided to break! It started off ominously,,,just a little extra squeak under the bonnet and within 10km was gone, totally broken. The water pump fan had broken off the water pump. I was monitoring the development of the wobble in the fan hoping we could limp to the closest place and the red alt. light came on and so there we were beside the Bussel Hwy. Still a long way short of Freeo.

We rang the trusty RACQ and the RACWA and 7 hours later we were in Fremantle Village. I am sure the phone bill will cost more than the tilt truck trip from Margaret River to Fremantle some 250km. But as usual our trip had its lighter sides like the last leg was by golf buggy. Our car is in the carpark out the front of the village . Some distance from P24 our tent site so the night manager kindly allowed us to overload his golf buggy and transport all our gear to P24. Then there was the mystery tour of Margaret River. The truck driver got a taxi to collect us from downtown Margaret river and ferry us to his depot so we could sign the fax for the RACQ so he could get an order number to take us to Fremantle [250 km ]. Then there was the RACQ operator who needed us to give her the name of the mechanic and estimates of the repair while we were beside the road before she could authorise the tow???????

So now Carol will have to get the car towed again ,get the waterpump replaced, the windscreen replaced the oil changed and go shopping for a new swimming costume . I know she can do it all and while balancing the washing ,cooking and car washing. She is really fantastic. Don't you just love women who CAN.

Ooooopps I would help if I could but I will be at the conference ,,,thinking of how wonderful she is and how much I love her.

Saturday January 9

Today is our last day in the WA wilds , on Sunday we will be in Fremantle. Tonight we are camped at Boranup Forest in the Leewin Naturaliste National Park. Today we started with a half day hike through the Shannon National Park forest, Karri, Jarrah and Marri trees. We then went on to the David Evans Bicentennial Tree . Carol climbed to the top of the highest treetop lookout in the world. I tried three times but didn't get to the top.

Friday

We travelled from Manjimup to Shannon NP. We came to see the trees and do the Great Forest tree Drive. It is a 48 km self guided drive that takes you through the most spectacular old growth Karri forest in the South West, we saw Marri, Jarrah, Karri, sedgeland, heath and granite outcrops. The drive has a series of FM transmitters broadcasting on 100mhz telling you about the forest. Our day was going well till Carol discovered she had lost her glasses! NO. We quickly turned around and headed back down the one way road to check the last known location. No luck there, we continued on and reached a point where we realized we had passed one of the likely locations. We turned around and backtracked our backtrack and pulled up at tree HT 88. Carol got out to check around the tree and I decided to roll the car back a little and WOW. Carol found them on the road, we had driven over them twice ,,,,so the moral of the story is always drive to the left and you will always miss her glasses.

Thursday

Wednesday 6th

Today was a fantastic day. We went on a cruise just us the Skipper and the deckie to Fisherman Island, South of Green Head. We swam with Sea Lions, in the ocean, they were so inquisitive and playful. It turned out to be the best day and I ended up exhausted.

DAY 22

Today we travelled from Kalbarri to Green Head and what a fantastic day it was . We started with a walk on the beach and a swim followed by some sight seeing. Today we met His Royal Highness Prince Leonard of the Hutt River Province. We also bought the most beautiful pearls in the world from Latitude Pearls. Sunset was the most beautiful so far on the trip with local prawns and a lovely Margaret River white.

TUESDAY 5TH KALBARRI

SECRET US NAVY SPY STATION[ AFP]

Thorny Devil and Street Walker Exmouth

Carnarvon Jetty

EH Holden

Elbow grease ,,,,, is all you need ,,,,I never had an EH ,,,I had an 1956 EJ with the grey side plate motor, push rod valve lifters,,,The EH came with Holdens NEW Red Motor with hydraulic lifters and it had the lay flat seats for sleeping etc

January 1st

You wouldn't bet on it ,,,the only people in Hamelin Pools are all from Queensland. Shane the diesel mechanic come fix all from Barcaldine, Len & Marion the round Aus travellers come part time shop keepers from Brisbane and Carol and Lozza the romantic roamers from Burnett Creek. Today was one of those unforgettable days we went snorkelling at Coral Bay and found both a passport and later the owner hundreds of kilometres away as you do. I was walking around our campsite in the morning when I came across a passport and after having checked whose it was thought I had seen a person who might have been the owner,,, we handed it in and went on our way,,,hours later after chatting with some backpackers at Coral Bay we were driving out of the carpark when Carol noticed a man in an information booth of the same nationality as the one in the passport and his girlfriend had red pants on ,the same coloured pants on as the girl that morning who was with the man. Well that was enough for me ,,,I got out and walked up to him and as soon as I saw his face I knew it was him....wow So I said "I found your passport",,,'yes it is you' . I have handed it in,,, you better ring and gave him Len's phone number and said goodbye

Stromatolites [Blue Green Algae]

There was a $1000 fine if you got in the water near these little fellas.

Do we go ????

Our trip came to a fork in the road here where we had to decide. Do we take local advice or not and as it came from the ranger we took it and didn't proceed. Our beautiful under cover camp, we took the tables/chairs out for the night.

December 31, 2009

Our journey on the last day of 2009 started with an old favourite The Yellow Submarine , included the HMAS Sydney and ended with a lovely dinner at Hamlin Pools the World Heritage Listed site of the Stromatolites officially the worlds oldest living creatures.