THE END OF 2010 - PERTH AND BEVERLEY W.A.

Well, another year has passed and we are already into the end of the first week in 2011.





Following from our last blog, we are still in Beverley. Walter had his Triple heart By-pass at the end of November in Perth at the Mount Hospital. All appears successful but he still has lots of recovery to do. He has had the first check up with the surgeon the week before Christmas and he was happy with his progress so far. He has limitations on his driving and also what he can lift. Nothing over 5 kgs at this point at least for another 2 months. Walter has another appointment at the end of January with his Cardiologist and if he gets the OK then, we will commence travelling again.



Entrance to Kings Park


 Before we arrived in Beverley and whilst we had the van in Perth, Walter and I took a couple of sight seeing trips around Perth.  We did the Double Decker bus tour.  This took us up to Kings Park and around the city.  Kings Park is magnificent with its views out over the city.  We had lunch there before rejoining the bus and travelling around the CBD, including around Burswood the casino.  We also found that we could upgrade which gave us a reduced price on a trip the following day that took us on a ferry down the Swan river to Freemantle and then onto the Freemantle tram.  Similar conditions of being able to get off and on as you wish.

Maritime Museum Freemantle

  This trip was great, driving around Freemantle, passing the Maritime Museum where "Australia 2" the yacht that won the America's Cup is housed, the Freemantle Prison, the Markets, and the Seafood Marina and Round House (from the convict days).  It is a lovely trip cruising down the river, it takes about an hour and on the way home we were treated to a wine tasting!  Lovely Margaret River reds.....we were catching a bus back to the caravan park so having a couple of good reds wasn't a problem!



Photo from 1968 after Earthquake



Picnic on the Avon at Northam

Lorraine & Pete have been fantastic, allowing us to stay here in Beverley all this time. We have done a bit of sight seeing around Beverley prior to Walter’s op, including a trip out to Meckering where the whole town was demolished in an earthquake back in the sixties. Even today you can see where the ground was raised by about 2 metres over a 37 km section, buckling railway tracks and roads. We drove back around through Northam where we had a lovely picnic on the banks of the Avon River.



Peter ready to shear

Peter, before retiring, was a shearer who was born and bred in the Beverley area. But even though he is retired, he is often asked to shear smaller flocks of sheep. Walter has been out with him twice to assist him prior to his op. Some of the merinos were huge, even giving Peter difficulty in dragging them to be shorn!


Merinos ready for shearing

Harvesting Barley at Beverley






Barley Fields at Beverley

 Beverley is a small town of about 1200 people on the wheat belt area of W.A. Grain crops just as wheat, barley, millet and canola stretch away over the hills on all sides of the town. Pete took both of us out one day to a property where a friend of his was harvesting barley. Like two kids, we both had a ride in the harvester as it made its way through the waving fields of barley. Only half the grain silos are opening this year though as this area is in the middle of severe drought. Ironic, when you look at how much water is flowing over the eastern states. The computerization of the harvester is quite amazing. It can tell you when the storage bin is full, how much tonnage per acre is coming off the field, and can control the height and width of the cutting blade

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Cottesloe Beach

Whilst Walter was in hospital in Perth, we left the van at Beverley and I stayed in a cabin in a caravan park there. Friends have been fantastic with both of us receiving a lot of support. I took the opportunity to explore a bit of Perth whilst I was there. I took many strolls through the lovely CBD, took a tour of the Perth Mint, walked up the Bell Tower and with Val (another lovely friend met whilst travelling in the Pilbara) visited the aquarium.

Another couple that we met whilst staying at Cape Range, Tony and Vicki, picked me up from Mount Hospital and took me out to their place at Cottesloe for lunch. After dining, then drove me around to Cottesloe Beach and up the beautiful coastline to Scarborough and Sorrento. On returning they then persuaded me to stop for tea before driving me home.


Christmas Day



Ham & cheese Croissants with Moet!

 Preparations for Christmas for us were minimal but we still had a great day. Noddy (Lorraine) and Pete’s two adult children, Kelly and Baydon came home from Perth for Christmas and we felt really included. Santa came in the form of a friend of Pete’s who also arrived from Cardwell in Queensland. Moet champagne and Ham and cheese croissants for breakfast after the parcels under the tree were opened. Like most Christmas’es, we went from eating one meal to another, Lunch was punch, more champagne, crayfish and prawns followed by pork, duck, turkey, chicken and all the salads. Desert came as fruit salad and pavolva and trifle. Most opted for afternoon naps, but Kelly, Noddy, myself and Baydon played games such as Scattergories!
Then of course tea at night was late and we polished off some of the leftovers.

Next day, Noddy and Pete were up early as they were leaving in their van for a 12 month trip to the eastern states following a week at Cape Ritche between Esperance and Albany.

We are currently looking after the house and chooks until we leave when a neighbour will take over.



Harem Gnomes at Gnomesville!

Before Christmas, we received a phone call from Hazell &  Bill, who we met initially at Cape Range N.P. when they were camp hosts there. We have become good friends and they rang us up to ask if we would like to come down and spend New Year with them at Australind (near Bunbury). We took up to offer and left on the Thursday morning 30th, and drove down through Brookton, Pingelly and Collie to get there. All new territory. They like us, are actually of “no fixed address” but stay at their son’s place over summer. He had flown to Rockhampton for holidays over Christmas (a water logged holiday as it has turned out). Lovely brick open plan home on 5 acres. Bill and Hazel gave us a tour around the lovely city of Bunbury and Australind on New Years Eve. Their other son lives in the property next door, so they came over for a BBQ and we all sat up to watch the Sydney fireworks and see the New Year in.




Next day, we packed up a picnic and Bill told us he was driving us out to Gnomesville! I had read about it in a couple of travel magazines but seeing it was amazing! Literally thousands of gnomes placed here by people from not only of Australia but from all over the world! We were only disappointed that we did not have a gnome with us to leave there. If we ever go back we are going to leave our little gnome there too!

Honeymoon Pool

We travelled on up through a beautiful forest road and stopped to see a King Jarrah tree on the way to Wellington Dam. We had our picnic there and enjoyed the cool breeze as it came off the water. Water levels are way down but that didn’t stop a huge influx of New Year campers there. Then we drove onto Honeymoon Pool. Again, being New Year's day it was packed. It is a beautiful place but Bill told us if you come out of school holidays you can have the whole place to yourselves. Great swimming hole, fresh water, and the National Park has made a lovely timber deck and safe steps down into the water.

In the Pool with Lena & Mark

Time to leave, but we decided to drive home via Mandurah and drop into other friends that we had met at Nine Mile. When we arrived, Lena and Arthur insisted we stay so we had another 2 nights ways. They also took on the role of tour guide and drove us around Mandurah , the waterfront and down around the estuaries. Both days were very hot at around the 40˚C mark. Arthur had put up a small pool, so we sat in it to keep cool, with a glass of champagne! We then headed back to Beverley where we are beginning the “spring clean” before we start travelling again.

We hope you all had a safe and Happy Christmas and New Year and that 2011 treats you all kindly.

Rob & Walter