32. Perth and Surrounds

Month: June
Days Stayed: 4 weeks
Weather: Some rainy days, some sunny days and very cold at night.
Highlights:
Gerard:
Trigg Beach Cafe: We had breakie with Gerard. Oh yah Lovely! It was fabulous to catch up and see him again. Father was so excited he was telling everyone who wanted to hear that he was going to Perth to visit hi son! We arranged to meet again next weekend down our way and visit the 'cider tasting' farm.

The Wingelo of Perth
It was an hour and half from Perth. In the bush, grassy area and fire buckets!
Marringup Falls:
Gerard came to us the second weekend and took us for a walk to the falls- I was a tad dubious as it was a fair way to the falls. It had been raining previously so he was quite sure that there would be water. So... off we went! the track was quite wet and muddy in sections, however, Gerard, nicely went first and did all the slipping for me.
we went across this 'grated' bridge. Across I go stomping with my stick when all of a sudden on the upstroke of my stick I noticed that the stopper had fallen off into the gully! Thankfully it wasn't very deep and both boys dived under to retrieve the pesky little thing!
Finally we reached the falls and as expected the water was gushing down the rocks. Oh yah! Lovely!

The Steam Train- Dwellingup:
We went into the forest on the steam train- Oh yah Lovely!!!
Oh no- sot so lovely! what was a 2 hour journey ended up being a 4 and 1/2 hour journey. For us it was an adventure. For those with kids it was a marathon. for others: oh my goodness- NOT HAPPY JAN!- where is their sense of adventure??? It was all downhill on the way. And, when you go down you must also go up. On the way back the wheels kept slipping as the little 'sand do dah gadget that sprays sand onto the tracks was only working on one side. so we'd go 3 mins forward, then you heard an almighty bang, stop, roll back for 2 mins. After this occurred '50 thousand times' they decided to uncouple the last carriage and leave in the fore=rest. So we all squished up. It didn't really help as tooing and froing repeated all the way home. Finally when we reached the straight stretch, we thought we were right.- Oh no! We stopped right across the road stopping all

the traffic- we ran out of steam. The station was less than 1/2 min away! We stayed there across the road for about 5 mins and then finally staggered into the station!
We found out later via the Information lady that: - this had never happened before, this was the first time that they took 3 carriages and usually they had a diesel locomotive behind as well as the steam locomotive. Bet they won't do this again. They had to council the afternoon train s to that they could go down and pick up the carriage.

Oh My Goodness:
The bird Life:
The birds are very bold in the Forrest. One sat on the tow of my shoe while I was sewing! It was a small wren. A black bird came right up to the door and stood on the mat facing the door almost as if asking: Any food??? I put some crumbs on my knee and they came right up to eat!

The 'Hooners'
A school group came in and set up camp in readiness for their bike trek. (lots of bike trails here) During the night these 'hoones' came zooming around- stole an esky of food and one of the bikes! It was a Monday night- What is their problem!!!!

More Highlights:
Fremantle Gaol:
We went into Fremantle and visited the markets. We also headed off to the goal. Very interesting, however, such as shame that such a large facility is not used to day. Surely it must be cheaper to renovate than to rebuild new goals! Apparently it was still in use until not so long ago when the 'so-gooders' found out that inmates were still using a bucket for ablutions. They tried introducing chemical toilets however the chemicals were alcohol based and therefore created other problems.

POW Camp:
Right in the middle of the bush was the POW camp for Italians and Germans. Very interesting! A lot had decayed, however, you could still get a sense of what was there. Prisoners here were into timber for Perth. Some tried to escape. On fellow was found in Dwellingup in the pub having a beer- (that is the local town) Other fellow rode a bike to {Perth, went back to Italy, then immigrated back to Australia cause he liked the country. Sadly he was also picked up!

This was just up the road from where we were camping- amazing!

Pinjarra Library:
Because the reception where we were camping was nonexistent we often went into town to the Library! What an amazing place that was!
You return books via some electronic gadget!
Coffee for $2 (tasted like Maccas coffee) Oh yah Lovely!!!

Pinjarra Overnight camp spot!
We stayed the first night in this area at Pinjarra recreational park- free overnight camp. It had a dump point, water and TRAINS!! Toot toot toot- all night long!

Muapup:
Stayed here after Bunbury for 3 nights. It was an old mill site.Father dug a hole! (never thought he'd do it!)
This was a rest area on the side of the highway- a bit of noise at night, however, not too bad.Weather was lousy so we just stayed inside and went for short walks in between the showers.

Waroona:
They had 2 free spots, one at the showground in town and one at the wier, about 5 klms from town. We took the Wier option. Both of course were 24 hours only. Still a beautiful spot!