APRIL 2007
BUSSELTON TO PERTH.
Busselton is a very nice city, like the rest of W.A. there is much development happening. It seems there are just not enough houses to go around and serve the current population growth.
The caravan park was very comfortable with large sites and very clean amenities. Walking distance from the town centre and the waterfront.
We drove down to Augusta on day 2 through Margaret River which we thought was a bit overrated and were pleased we had decided not to stay there, lots of wineries just like the Hunter Valley, a bit too yuppie for us. Anyway we at least had coffee and a walk around the shops fo an hour or so before heading south to Augusta where we were pleasantly surprised... Augusta is a favourite holiday destination for Perthites and it's not hard to understand why. It's right on the coast and the scenery and the town are very attractive.
We drove out to Cape Leeuwin for a lighthouse tour which was amazing. The tour guide told us that the weather and conditions on this day were as good as any he'd experienced in many months, as you already know the wind very rarely stops blowing over here and on the day there was not a breath, the sun was shining and the ocean was like a millpond.
Cape Leeuwin is the point at which the Indian and Southern oceans come together and due to the calmness of the day, we could actually see the two currents coming together about 500 metres offshore. As the two oceans currents rotate in opposite directions we could see the small waves coming together at about 45 deg to each other and at that point the water just welled up about half a metre and rolled into the shoreline.
From there we drove around for a while to look at the other sights and when we were parked at one location, a N.S.W. car pulled up behind us so we started a conversation with the people and they turned out to be recent neighbours of cousin Wendy and her family from Glen Innes.
(you could never try and hide in this country)
On the way back to Busselton we stopped off at a Venison Farm where we bought lots of delicious Venison products including some mouthwatering fillet steaks...Sorry Bambi!...... and then on to the Chocolate Factory (Yum. )Then to the Bootleg Brewery which has just recently won a major award for Boutique Breweries in W.A.... Nice area amongst all the wineries with very nice picnic areas around a large dam.
Next day (Wed) we stayed close to town to catch up with the shopping and in the afternoon,walked the length of the Town Jetty (1.8km)
This is the longest timber Jetty in Oz. Again the weather was perfect and the walk was very pleasant. There is normally a small tourist tram runs the length of the jetty but is out of action at the moment for maintenance, but I think we would have walked anyway as the weather was so nice. (and we probably needed the excercise.
We headed to Mandurah on Thursday where we had planned to tuck ourselves away for Easter.
Mandurah was probably not the best option for Easter as everyone from Perth who hadn't gone to Margaret River & Augusta were in Mandurah
for the weekend.....Very much like the Gold Coast or any major tourist destination, wall to wall people and cars, we probably should have headed inland away from the hustle..... Anyway we had a quiet Easter, walked around the waterfront one day, checked out the marina and all the flash real estate. New estates and housing everywhere, they say this is currently the fastest growing area in Australia.
Monday a lot of the visitors were heading home so we went to a miniature village, much like Cockington Green in Canberra, not quite as expansive but very nice just the same, we successfully negotiated the maze so we were pretty happy with that.
Tuesday we drove up to Perth for 10 days where we were expecting a 5 day visit from Karen, Todd & Brant, arriving Thursday so we had a spare day to catch up on the housework & washing, plus car & caravan washing (believe me it was long overdue)
Lovely caravan park at Karrinyup, right on the bus route, very clean and quiet.
We had a nice few days in Perth with the family, the weather was fairly good except for the Sunday when they had their monthly rainfall average (40mls) in one day however it didn't stop us doing what we wanted as we'd planned to drive to Fremantle for the day where we found some markets, the maritime museum and the old Fremantle prison which was very interesting.
The previous day we spent in and around the city using public transport, buses & trains which seem to be a pretty good system. We visited the Perth Mint where they handle all the gold mined in Australia as well as Indonesia. We travelled around the city on the Tourist Tram and ended the day with a visit & tour of Kings Park which is one of the largest city parks in the world, bigger even than Central Park in New York and Hyde Park in London. (I think something like 600 hectares)
Before we caught the train back to our park we walked around the city centre for a while and found London Court which is a very old shopping arcade built in 1937 in Tudor architecture and either restored or maintained in its original form to this day.
Perth is a very nice city as we've always been told, a lot slower in pace than Sydney & Melbourne, more like Adelaide which we love, lots of development again as the resources boom over here continues and it seems everyone wants a piece of the action. New estates and new suburbs being created everywhere, we drove out to a new area north of Perth called Joondalup on Tuesday morning and the entire area appears to be no more than 10 years old yet it is a very busy and obviously thriving area. Anyway we found the Spotlight store so J was happy and the Teddy Bear box has now been refilled....( that should keep her going till Darwin)
Karen, Todd & Brant flew home on Tuesday and we packed up ready to leave the next day to continue the journey.
That's about it for now so will send this of into the ether and hope it arrives safely at your house.
We hope you are all well, we are and looking forward to the next stage of our adventure "around the block"
Love to All
D & J.
BUSSELTON TO PERTH.
Busselton is a very nice city, like the rest of W.A. there is much development happening. It seems there are just not enough houses to go around and serve the current population growth.
The caravan park was very comfortable with large sites and very clean amenities. Walking distance from the town centre and the waterfront.
We drove down to Augusta on day 2 through Margaret River which we thought was a bit overrated and were pleased we had decided not to stay there, lots of wineries just like the Hunter Valley, a bit too yuppie for us. Anyway we at least had coffee and a walk around the shops fo an hour or so before heading south to Augusta where we were pleasantly surprised... Augusta is a favourite holiday destination for Perthites and it's not hard to understand why. It's right on the coast and the scenery and the town are very attractive.
We drove out to Cape Leeuwin for a lighthouse tour which was amazing. The tour guide told us that the weather and conditions on this day were as good as any he'd experienced in many months, as you already know the wind very rarely stops blowing over here and on the day there was not a breath, the sun was shining and the ocean was like a millpond.
Cape Leeuwin is the point at which the Indian and Southern oceans come together and due to the calmness of the day, we could actually see the two currents coming together about 500 metres offshore. As the two oceans currents rotate in opposite directions we could see the small waves coming together at about 45 deg to each other and at that point the water just welled up about half a metre and rolled into the shoreline.
From there we drove around for a while to look at the other sights and when we were parked at one location, a N.S.W. car pulled up behind us so we started a conversation with the people and they turned out to be recent neighbours of cousin Wendy and her family from Glen Innes.
(you could never try and hide in this country)
On the way back to Busselton we stopped off at a Venison Farm where we bought lots of delicious Venison products including some mouthwatering fillet steaks...Sorry Bambi!...... and then on to the Chocolate Factory (Yum. )Then to the Bootleg Brewery which has just recently won a major award for Boutique Breweries in W.A.... Nice area amongst all the wineries with very nice picnic areas around a large dam.
Next day (Wed) we stayed close to town to catch up with the shopping and in the afternoon,walked the length of the Town Jetty (1.8km)
This is the longest timber Jetty in Oz. Again the weather was perfect and the walk was very pleasant. There is normally a small tourist tram runs the length of the jetty but is out of action at the moment for maintenance, but I think we would have walked anyway as the weather was so nice. (and we probably needed the excercise.
We headed to Mandurah on Thursday where we had planned to tuck ourselves away for Easter.
Mandurah was probably not the best option for Easter as everyone from Perth who hadn't gone to Margaret River & Augusta were in Mandurah
for the weekend.....Very much like the Gold Coast or any major tourist destination, wall to wall people and cars, we probably should have headed inland away from the hustle..... Anyway we had a quiet Easter, walked around the waterfront one day, checked out the marina and all the flash real estate. New estates and housing everywhere, they say this is currently the fastest growing area in Australia.
Monday a lot of the visitors were heading home so we went to a miniature village, much like Cockington Green in Canberra, not quite as expansive but very nice just the same, we successfully negotiated the maze so we were pretty happy with that.
Tuesday we drove up to Perth for 10 days where we were expecting a 5 day visit from Karen, Todd & Brant, arriving Thursday so we had a spare day to catch up on the housework & washing, plus car & caravan washing (believe me it was long overdue)
Lovely caravan park at Karrinyup, right on the bus route, very clean and quiet.
We had a nice few days in Perth with the family, the weather was fairly good except for the Sunday when they had their monthly rainfall average (40mls) in one day however it didn't stop us doing what we wanted as we'd planned to drive to Fremantle for the day where we found some markets, the maritime museum and the old Fremantle prison which was very interesting.
The previous day we spent in and around the city using public transport, buses & trains which seem to be a pretty good system. We visited the Perth Mint where they handle all the gold mined in Australia as well as Indonesia. We travelled around the city on the Tourist Tram and ended the day with a visit & tour of Kings Park which is one of the largest city parks in the world, bigger even than Central Park in New York and Hyde Park in London. (I think something like 600 hectares)
Before we caught the train back to our park we walked around the city centre for a while and found London Court which is a very old shopping arcade built in 1937 in Tudor architecture and either restored or maintained in its original form to this day.
Perth is a very nice city as we've always been told, a lot slower in pace than Sydney & Melbourne, more like Adelaide which we love, lots of development again as the resources boom over here continues and it seems everyone wants a piece of the action. New estates and new suburbs being created everywhere, we drove out to a new area north of Perth called Joondalup on Tuesday morning and the entire area appears to be no more than 10 years old yet it is a very busy and obviously thriving area. Anyway we found the Spotlight store so J was happy and the Teddy Bear box has now been refilled....( that should keep her going till Darwin)
Karen, Todd & Brant flew home on Tuesday and we packed up ready to leave the next day to continue the journey.
That's about it for now so will send this of into the ether and hope it arrives safely at your house.
We hope you are all well, we are and looking forward to the next stage of our adventure "around the block"
Love to All
D & J.
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