Joy and Les Holidays 2014 Blog 4 – 24/8/14 to 31/8/14

Day 26 – Fremantle – 21 km

Had a very quiet day today and visited one of Joy’s friends mother. Back to the villa for lunch and a quiet afternoon. Les did the Blog and Trip Advisor reviews, Joy did cross-stitch. Later in the afternoon went for a walk down to the “beach”.

Day 27 – Fremantle – Rottnest Island – 0 km

 Caught the free bus from near the villa to Fremantle then a short walk to the wharf. A Rottnest ferry pulled in and we lined up but was told the ferry we had to catch would leave from further up the wharf. There were several dolphins in the harbour but they were camera shy! The ferry was coming from Perth and was running late (not that anyone told us that) and we finally got on board and on our way by about 10:00. It is strange but we were told that the trip to the island takes about 30 minutes so we would be there in approx. ½ hour. Sea was a little bit rough but not too bad.

Hired bikes on the island and after preparing ourselves (water, sun screen, map, etc) we headed off. Lots of beautiful coves and beaches and we found some quokkas at Parkers Point. 

Les has a new friend!!!

Osprey Nest which is about 2 metres high

As it was taking longer than we thought and the bike seats are not the most comfortable we only did 2/3rd of the island and gave the far west section a miss. There are also several steep hills on the island.

What is the Pelican on the jetty doing????

Pelican Fishing

Back to the settlement and handed in our bikes at about 2:30 and Joy had a coffee and Les and orange juice. Lined up for the ferry when it arrived (3:30 pm) and we were on our way back at 4:30.

Arrived in Fremantle at 5:00 after a smooth ride back and then caught the free bus home.

Day 28 – Perth Hills – 150 km

Heading off into the Perth hills today. First stop was Lesmurdie Falls (Munday Regional Park) where we walked up river to the Cascades and Les got to taking photos of the Cascades while Joy wandered off to take wildflower photos. 

Lesmurdie Cascades

More Weird Australian Flowers

We then headed downstream to the Waterfall Lookout with views over Perth.

Lesmurdie Falls

Next stop was “The Dell” for morning tea and then on to the Perth Hills National Park Centre and a walk to the Mundaring Weir Lookout.  

Had lunch at John Forrest National Park followed by a walk to Hovea Falls for more photos of the waterfall (more like Cascades) and wildflowers.

Hovea Falls

Then drove to a lookout with views over Perth and then down a zig zag road and back to Fremantle to the Villa

Ate out tonight at the Pizza Lounge. The chairs are very layback and the wait staff were probably new but the pizzas were great. They have alcoholic drinks on the menu but they do not have a licence yet!! Les had Tropical and Joy had Sanches (cream cheese, pumpkin, pine nuts, red onion and rocket).

Day 29 – Kings Park, Perth – 0 km

Decided to try public transport today so used the Free Cat bus from the villa to Fremantle, then a replacement train bus from Fremantle to North Fremantle, train to West Perth, free bus to Kings Park. Had a late morning tea before walking around the park taking photos of the views and wildflowers. Kings Park is absolutely wonderful when the wildflowers are out in bloom.

Boab Tree that was transported from the Kimberleys 3,200 km away

 http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/about-us/horticulture/wa-botanic-garden/the-giant-boab

Yes!! Les did walk over this!!

The accommodation is quite quirky as the shower is basically an enclosed area between the living area and the original old outhouse. The unit has everything we need with full fridge, oven, hotplates, etc with an upstairs bedroom.

Shower with toilet behind and laundry behind

Day 30 – Fremantle to Bunbury – 249 km

What a shock! We had to pack the car today. After 7 nights in the same place it was time to move on. We did well and were on the road at 8:20 am with the first stop at Araluen Botanic Gardens in the eastern suburbs of Perth. Spent 1 ¼ hours here but it is a poor cousin of Kings Park. The majority of the flowers are Tulips. The highlight was seeing 7 ducklings and their mother.

Next stop was Serpentine Falls where we had morning tea first and then walked to the falls. Les spent a fair amount of time photographing the falls and Joy wondered back and took flower photos.

After lunch  we went to Crooked Brook Forest and di the Wildflower Walk which is 3 km in length. More Flower Photos!!!! 

Took about 1 hour and then Les did the short (600 m) Forest Path walk. The weather had started to turn for the worst and it is now overcast and light showers.

Day 31 - Bunbury to Margaret River – 202 km

Heavy rain overnight and very heavy rain this morning. After we packed the car we decided that since it was such bad weather we would give the walk at Cape Naturaliste a miss so this meant a later start and a quick trip to Spotlight for Joy to buy some cross stitch thread. As we had some time to kill we went into the Harbour and spotted a dolphin(s) in the harbour. On the way back to Spotlight we had torrential rain. All told between 7:00 am and 9:00 am we had 14 mm (about ½ inch) of rain. We headed south and took the scenic route to Busselton where we planned to go out on the Jetty. On the scenic route they have a sign similar to the Bushfire Alert signs, which alerts you to the Mosquito Population from Low to High!

 The Busselton Jetty is 1.8 km long and as it was raining we did not want to have 3.6 km of miserable walking in the wind and rain so settled into the café for a coffee/milkshake and melting moments (huge!).  

Continued West towards Dunsborough and as the weather was starting to clear (even saw some blue sky!!) we decided to head to Cape Naturaliste. Stopped at Sugarloaf Rock and took some photos in between downpours. 

Then went on a scenic route to Eagle Bay where we sat in the car and had lunch (in between downpours!).

Decided the best option now was to do some indoor things so headed to Margaret River Silk Road where they breed silk worms and then send the cocoons to Cambodia where “Fair Trade” workers extract the silk and send it back to Australia to be made into silk garments. We were given a talk and also watched a video on how the cocoons are unraveled to the silk threads. Very interesting! Did not buy anything but as scarves were around $200.

Next stop was the Margaret River Chocolate Company where Joy was in 7^th Heaven!! She did the tasting, had a look around, brought some stuff and did the tasting again (probably thought she would do Les’ share of the tasting!!).

Next stop was the Nougat Company but did not buy anything as too expensive.  By now we had seen massive puddles on the road side from all the rain they had had. Several inches of rain in the last few days.

Stopped at Cowaramup and Les checked out the Candy Cow lolly shop but again too expensive!!

Arrived the Cabins and settled in and then headed into town for shopping. Found a butcher to buy our meat and he knew we were tourists as we wanted 1 fancy sausage, 2 plain sausages and ½ chicken breast. Got talking to him and found out he came from Nimmitabel!!

Day 32 – Margaret River Area – 131 km

Since the first thing we were planning to do today doesn't open until 10am, we had the luxury of a late start. Joy was supposed to turn off the alarm on her phone, and thought she had done so, but at 6:30am, off it went – aaarrrgghhhh! Back to sleep and then out of bed 8am. By that time it was not too wet or too cold to have breakfast at the table outside – it was undercover, so even if it did rain, we would stay dry.

Around 10am we decided we’d better get started sightseeing for the day. Eagles Heritage is a place where injured raptors are rehabilitated and either released back into the wild, or if they have permanent injuries, kept in aviaries. They also aim to educate people about raptors with the aim of getting people to see that they are not dangerous and should be protected.

The display started at 11am, so we did a quick walk around some of the aviaries – there was a wedge-tailed eagle, along with various other eagles, hawks and owls. The aviaries are all very big, so whilst the birds are still captive, they have enough space to at least spread their wings.

When the display started, there were only 8 people to see it. That meant we all had a good view. The man doing the display walked out from behind a number of aviaries with a barn owl on his gloved arm. The owl named Ivy, looked very calm, but she was probably taking in everything and watching everything and deciding that she trusted her human enough to stay with him – well, besides the fact that she was tethered with both leg things and a long strap! Still, she didn’t try to get away, yet!!.

The display consisted of the man giving quite a good talk about Ivy and birds of prey in general. Then we all had the opportunity to put a glove on and have Ivy stand on our arm. It was amazing to be so close to such a bird.

Once Ivy had had enough of us (she then tried to get away), she was taken back to her home, and the rest of the display consisted of 4 black kites free-flying around, and being fed titbits of meat as rewards, and to show us how they catch their prey. Again, it was quite amazing to see, and the birds got quite close to us.

After the display, we finished the rest of the walk around the aviaries. In general, the whole place has the feel of being a bit run-down, but all the birds seem to be healthy, and it is good to see that they are being looked after.

Had lunch at Prevelly  where  the kiosk (or café) that is open during summer was being renovated, but the outside bit had seats and benches that we could use to have lunch at – bread rolls with a hot cuppa, since it was still grey and miserable.

Les using the "Dramatic" function on his camera

After lunch we drove up to Canal Rocks – a most amazing rock formation on the coast up near Yallingup. It’s too hard to describe – check out the photos! And the waves crashing onto the rocks looked great. We were surprised to see a snake and a lizard when we walked along the boardwalk – since it was grey and cool, what were they doing out?

Locals at Canal Rocks. Which is the odd one out???

By the time we had finished there, it was almost 3:30pm, so we thought we could find somewhere with a view and have afternoon tea – easier said than done! After a few false starts we ended up at Gracetown – where we found a view that even had picnic tables, even if the picnic tables were gradually being claimed by the sand. 

Whilst we were sitting there, Les spotted plumes of spray being spouted by whales! They were quite a way out to sea, but still it classifies as a whale sighting.

Day 33 – Margaret River South to Augusta – 139 km

Woke to a sunny day with just a few clouds hanging around. During the night we had had stars and rain and stars and rain. We (Margaret River that is) has had 6 inches of rain in 2 weeks with 2 inches in the last 3 days. Had a quick trip into Margaret River to buy some bread rolls and newspaper and then down to Mammoth Cave at 9:45 am. This cave is a self-guided tour with a MP3 player telling you about the various aspects of the cave. The cave is very large (hence the name Mammoth Cave). You enter the cave and when you exit it on the other side of the road which is quite interesting. There were about 170 steps to get out of the cave so we got a bit of a workout with this tour. The tour took about 1 hr 10 mins and the other walk was closed as the creek was flooded.

We drove to Lake Cave and arrived at about 11:00 and booked on the 11:30 tour. This is a guided tour and we had about 30 people on this tour. To get into the cave you have to go down over 300 steps (which means over 300 to come back up!!). This cave is smaller than Mammoth Cave but has more interesting features including the “Suspended Table”. We also had a light show in this cave. After the tour finished it was time to climb back out of the cave and up those over 300 steps.

Suspended Table

Suspended Table - This is hanging from the cave roof and weights about 5 tonne

Some of the 300 plus steps. A few weeks before we arrived a French Tourist slipped near the
base of the stairs and they had to be carried in a stretcher up 250 steps by volunteers

 We then headed to Boranup Forest which is a Karri Forest and has some massive trees. 

We had lunch at the lookout in the forest at 1:20 to 2:00 before heading down to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse where we did the self-guided tour of the lighthouse precinct. By now the cloud has come over and the wind is very cold. While doing the tour we got light rain a few times. We decided to thaw out by having afternoon tea in the café. They are closing up so we can only have takeaway but can have it in the café room. Les’ milkshake was medium size at best and cost $8.00.

We now head for home but stop off at Water Wheel before arriving home at 5:00 pm.