Bunbury to Margaret River

With a bag full of apples which we got from the owners of the farm we left towards Bunbury this morning. Bunbury turned out to be a lovely little ocean town. We visited some lookouts and drove around town for a bit.

Our next stop was Busselton. It really is top tourist season as we stood in a traffic jam to get into town. A bit further out of the town centre we found a more quiet little beach and as it was getting very hot we decided to have a swim. I’m actually still amazed with how clear the ocean water can be! Amazing!

We splashed around for a bit and had lunch. We made some toasties on the BBQ provided, Yum!

It was not far to Cape Naturaliste. Arriving at the lighthouse was very disappointing though. You had to pay to walk around. No way!

So we got into the car again and drove to Sugarloaf Rock lookout. This was an amazing lookout. The water was so blue, the rocks impressive and we saw guys jumping of the cliffs. Crazy but impressive! On top of that we noticed some happy dolphins jumping in and out of the ocean too! Loved it here!

Now the difficult task waited to find a camp site. There aren’t any free campsites around unfortunately so we had to go with a proper caravan park. But as it’s the busiest time of the year that isn’t easy either. On our fourth attempt we finally found a park that had a spot for us. Just to be on the save side we decided to book in for an extra night so we didn’t have to worry about New Year’s Eve!

So here we are in famous Margaret River. We heard so many positives things about this area and we are looking forward to explore it!

Perth

It was nice to have a little break from travelling and spend Christmas in a proper house. The house we were taking care of was beautifully located in the Perth Hills, with a private pool and heaps of kangaroos and birds visiting the front and backyard. We had to take care of some animals too (chickens, some fish and a really cuddly cat called Magic).

As always we did not really have a Christmas feeling but we celebrated it with some pressies and nice food anyway.

During our week in Perth we did a few half day trips into the city. We visited some Parks, the CBD, Leederville, The Perth Mint (where we saw the world’s largest (real) gold coin, weighing 1 tonne!!!) and East Perth.

All in all time just flew by so quickly.

Today we hit the road again. We drove south towards Bunburry and took some beautiful touristic drives. We wanted to stay at a National Park next to a lake but upon arrival we discovered it was already full. It’s the busiest time of the year and we already feared this would happen.

Luckily online we read about this farm stay just south of Bunburry. We called ahead to find out if they had availability and when we arrived there in the late afternoon we were the only guests staying at this little private property. Against all expectations we had a lovely quiet evening in the front yard of the owners of this little Macadamia Nuts Farm. 

Merry Christmas!

From today on we will be house-sitting for a week in the beautiful surroundings of Perth Hills.

We will be taking a little break from updating this blog during this week and will give you a new update after Christmas.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!

Midland to Karrinyup Waters Resort

About two weeks ago we applied for a house-sitting job in Perth and this morning we met the owners and their lovely cat, the chickens and fish we have to take care off. From tomorrow on we are house-sitting for a week.

Later that morning we visited Kings Park and the Botanical gardens. The view over the city was really good. We explored the park for a bit, bought an ice cream and then just relaxed in the park with a good book.

After lunch we drove into Perth city for a stroll around. Monique has never been here before so she enjoyed it thoroughly.

In the late afternoon we decided to go back to Karrinyup Waters Resor as we really enjoyed our stay here a few days ago.

That evening we caught up with Ian and Ann whom we had met before up North. We had some good laughs and with that some good fun!

Mandurah to Midland Tourist Park

We drove from Mandurah to Rockingham via the coastal route. We had a few stops along the way. One of them was near Penguin Island. It’s a very small Island famous for its penguins and sea-lion colony. We decided to drive on as it was a very hot day and hanging out in the sun all day didn’t sound too appealing.

We drove on and at cape Peron near Rockingham we had a nice view of the area. Between Rockingham and southern Perth there are a lot of industrial areas which we could see well from the lookout. The southern part looked much nicer though with rocky outcrops in the water and beautiful beaches.

Rockingham itself was way too busy to our liking so we only had a very short stop. 

We drove up north again along the coast doing some beach hopping and eventually ended up further inlands at Midland Tourist Park where we booked ourselves in for the night.

Although everything looked nice, new and clean we most definitely didn’t feel very welcome. This is one of those typical caravan parks that mainly hosts for permanents or guest who rent cabins / holiday houses.

Oh well, it was ok for the night but we certainly weren’t planning on staying another day.

Frank Lupino Memorial Park to Timbertop Caravan Park at Mandurah

This morning we drove to The Serpentine Falls. 

Well it most definitely wasn’t a spectacular waterfall. 

The ranger at the entrance at the park told us about two walks and we decided to do the Baldwin Bluff walk which took about two hours return. The track up was steep in some parts, which meant good exercise. Luckily the views were rewarding. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch in the Park before we drove on to Mandurah.

We didn’t know what to expect from Mandurah so we were very surprised to find it was a popular lifestyle alternative for Perth. The waters around the Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary form the center of Mandurah, with suburbs built around artificially created canal systems.

We found a campsite in the city. This allowed us to explore the estuary and to look at the expensive yachts and all the Christmas decorations on many of the waterfront residences. We ended the evening with a beer in the local Irish pub.

 After being in the outback for a while this was a welcome change to how we spend our evenings for a change.

Karrinyup to Frank Lupino Memorial Park

We drove to Fremantle this morning. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. It was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829. It was nice to see that a lot of the old historic buildings are still there.

We came past the ship wrecks museum and decided to check it out. To our surprise most of the museum was about Dutch shipwrecks, and the remains of the Batavia and the story behind it was the highlight of the exhibition. A lot was also told about the salvage operation of the ship, as well as all the items found from the wreckage.

It was incredibly interesting to learn and see more about our own history. We stayed in the museum for 3 hours and loved it. It was only when we became hungry that we decided to go back to the car to prepare some lunch. 

After another stroll around town we drove further south of Perth to find a free bush camp we had read about. It was a stretch of land just a bit off the highway and we were surprised to see people were actually living here permanently in caravans and tents.