This was our spot in Busselton, was just lovely.

how about this for a (misformed) tree?

Left Busselton on Monday morning and on we went to Eaton, just above Bunbury, where John's cousin lives. It was only about an hours drive, so that was just nice. Found a caravan park in Australind, which is 5 minutes from his cousin, so that was good. We rang him and he came down to see us, had a talk of course and then he took us for a bit of a tour around the area. It is very nice here too. The camping is across the estuary, which is an inlet from the sea, it is like a really big lake. People fish and do watersports on there. His cousin and his wife took us out for dinner, which was lovely. So today we haven't ventured out, Gary came with a lot of photos from years ago and so on, so John really appreciated that.  Tonight we are having a barbie at their place.
Then yomorrow on to Fremantle, where we have booked a caravan place already, this one was recommended by some other caravanners and we can take the (free) bus into Fremantle and into Perth as well. So we will be staying there for a few days and hopefully go to Geraldton from there.

Went for a drive today into Fergusons Valley, very pretty, and there is a place on the corner of two roads named Gnomesville. The whole corner is donated with gnomes of all sorts, by people from all over Australia. It is quite extraordinary.

There are also a lot of wineries in this valley, and houses dotted in the hills.

When we got home we took it easy and soon enough it was happy hour again.......

Met some new nice people and chatted till it was nearly dark.

We just had biscuits and cheese for tea because we had a big lunch and we were both still full...

Had a bit of a lazy morning, still in Busselton, could really live here, just a lovely town.
Went on the jetty train this afternoon, jetty is 1.8 km long. (We took the easy way out.....)
Went into the observatory and saw the coral on the pylons, all different colours and lots of different fish swimming by. It was quite interesting, we had a good view, the sun was shining through, so it was double nice.
Also went for a drive along the beachfront and the houses were big and beautiful, most of them have very nice gardens.
Sorry have to go to happy hour with the neighbours, as you do......its that time of day......

I am back after a couple of drinks with fellow silver gypsies... and thought I put some photos on.

How about our treeman?......

Went for a drive today to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse via Dunsborough, and went right to the top. Saw whales frolicking in the distance, weather just glorious.
Dunsborough is a nice little town, located near the beach, with beautiful homes.
Then we went to Yallingup, also on the coast, lovely drive. The area here is just gorgeous so we decided to stay here till Monday and than go onto Bunbury and catch up with one of Johns cousins.

(Sorry about some mistakes I made, I am still learning how to do it all on my blog.....)

This is what we saw across our van when we came home yesterday.....

We went to Augusta yesterday, Tuesday, and went to the lighthouse there, it is also the point where the Southern and the Indian oceans meat. Nice little township. After that we went to the Jewel Cave. We did a tour through there, amazing. 250 steps down and 250 steps up, buggered after that..... But it was well worth it.

Bottle brushes are very popular here, you see them everywhere and in beautiful colours. 

We didn't have service for 2 days, because we were out in a bushy caravan park in Gracetown.
When we left Pemberton, in the rain, we headed to Margaret River. The road to there was lovely through the forest. Luckily  the sun came out after a while so that was nicer travelling. We got to Margaret River well before lunch, it was only a couple of hours drive. We ended up in Gracetown caravan park, just 10kms north of Margaret river. A beautiful bushy caravan park, and all the spots were separated by bush, so you were not like sardines in a tin.....
We had a look around town in the afternoon, it is ok, I  think the area around there is what attracks people. The countryside is just lovely. We went to a beer factory and John had a tatste of 5 different beers.

 

How about this for a big (tree) root.

The wildflowers are just so pretty.

Today we went for a drive around the area, very green and all the dams are so full. It really is forest country here. The weather was warm and sunshine, but I think rain is on its way for tomorrow. But after that warm and sunny again, so we really can't complain.

We saw this one in the Valley of the Giants yesterday:. The trees

 there were really "giants".....

I couldn't upload the photos before so here you are, hope you like them.

Well we got our first rain yesterday, Friday 19th of October, so we decided to do some sightseeing around Albany. Went to Emu Point, we were told they had the best fish and chips and pepper and salt squid, so we had that for lunch with a piece of local fish. They hadn't lied, it was delicious. The rain cleared and it was quite nice in the afternoon. We got ready to leave Albany in the morning to go to Pemberton.
Left Albany about 9am, through Denmark, very pretty place in the hills. We walked the Tree Top Walk, which was very interesting, trees so high. Onto Walpole and we decided to have lunch there. We parked and there was a small market......
John bought some tomato relish and ginger honey, as you do.....
From there on we continued to Pemberton. It was a really nice drive through lots of forests. Everything is very green and looks real pretty.
We arrived in Pemberton at about 3pm, set up and relaxed with a glass of wine, very sweet one.....
We had a whole menagerie of parrots and ducks with their babies, very cute. We were having some biscuits and John being John of course, he was giving half his biscuits to the birds. They were sitting on his shoulder, on his head and ate out of his hand. It was all quite cute.
Tomorrow we will have a look around this area.

Left Esperance yesterday after catching up with 2 of John's second cousins, Meagan and Donna, lovely girls in their late thirties with young families. When John rang them they were quite eager to meet us, which was nice.
We left at about 11 am on our way to Albany. As we left it started to rain, our first drops. It didn't last long and when we got further up the road the sun was shining again. The country side was all bushland with no houses. Then suddenly it was open country again.
We decided to go through the Stirling Range National park, it was a very pleasant drive, nbut long. We got to our caravanpark at about 5.45 pm. It was a long day and a lot of driving. We booked in for 2 nights.
Today we went to the whaling station, very interesting and the drive there was very nice along the coast. There was quite a bit to see, there were side roads in to spectacular views.
Big boulders as we have never see before, some of them were just hanging there on top of one another.
After that we went to a mountain lookout over Albany, was quite beautiful. We didnt know that there were so many islands off the coast here.

We decided to stay another day, there is quite a bit to see around this area.

Tuesday today and really not much to report. Washing day today, because tomorrow we will be on the road again on our way to Albany after a weeks rest, which did us the world of good. We didn't even venture out of the caravan park, only John went and got some fuel.
I did some reading in the sun, which is something I seldom do.
We will be sorry to leave, we had a good time and it is just lovely around here.
But there are places to go and see. Noel, a guy who lives here in the park and is a man full of knowledge of the area told us a way to go through the Stirling Range National Park, so from here to Ravensthorpe to Jerramungup to Ongerup to Borden and then down to Albany. He told us it is a beautiful drive through the National Park, so that is what we will be doing. He is a very interesting guy, lived in Kalgoorlie and Boulder, worked in the mines and is now living in the caravan park here,he is 73 and helps around the park and keeps himself busy.
You meet some interesting people, a lot of them have been on the road for either years or months and they all have some stories to tell and give you tips and advice. Some travel with little kids, before school age. What a way to go.
Well that's it for today, till next time. Will post some photos from our trip to Cape Le Grande, enjoy......

We decided to stay another 2 nights here in Esperance, we quite like it here and we thought to make this as one of our bigger stops. We did the Great Ocean drive today, it is just amazing, there are so many large and smaller islands here of the coast. They call it the Archapalego. Nobody lives on those islands, only animals and mainly snakes. Talking about snakes..... John drove over one and we went back and had a look. It was still wriggeling, so John picked it up by its tail and I took a photo as you can see.

When we came back from the drive, we did a bit of shopping, retail therapie, as you do.....
We are now sitting outside the van and having a drink before dinner. John hasn't done any fishing yet, sea too rough and too much wind, but hopefully one day.....

Well we are still in Esperance, weather still great, all though very windy today.
Have caught up with John's other cousin, which was very nice, they took us out for dinner and the next night we had dinner at their place. They have a lovely home in town, overlooking the sea. Their farm is on the way to Cape Le Grande, where we went yesterday. This is a National Park with the most beautiful beaches. Pure white sands and blue/aqua water. Have never seen anything like it. You could drive onto the beach and do some four wheel driving, which we did of course, John loved it.

On the way back we dropped in at John's cousin's farm. They still got 500 acres and have cattle on it. It is a lovely property, some cleared and some very bushy with beautiful bushes and flowers.
Today we stayed around town, John wanted to go to the cemetary to look up his
uncle and a cousin, which we found.
We don't know if we are staying another couple of days or if we going on the road again  tomorrow, it depends if it is very windy we probably stay.
Here are some photo's we took on the way.
These flowers grow just in the white sand.

My sister asked for some photos, I had to figure that one out, so I took some with my tablet, just to try. This is our setup in Esperance, weather still beautiful. So today is washing day.
Yesterday we caught up with one of John's cousins, 83 and going strong. She took us out to her farm, about 65 kms east from here. They left Vic in the fifties and settled here. They have about 3000 acres there, she and 2 of her sons.


We decided to stay another night here, because we havent seen anything yet. So tomorrow we will go to Cape Le Grand national park. apparently it has some beautiful white beaches. Then we venture on on Sunday towards Albany, might have a couple of stops in between though.

This is our set up in Esperance. Just trying out but I am getting there I think.....

Left Norseman today after we had a little look around "town", not very nice, old homes and very dry. And there wasn't very much interesting. So on our way we went to Esperance where we arrived around lunch time. Found the caravan park, which was recommended, found a lovely spot under trees.It was very windy though. After that we went and had a look around town, quite impressive and light industry. Even saw a scrap booking shop, so I will be checking that one out tomorrow.......Don't know if John will be doing any fishing here. The jetty is  not far away but if it is blowing a gail he will give that one a miss. we are going to visit one of John's cousins, who live here. Actually he has got 2 cousins here, so we will be visiting the other one as well. We will be staying here for 3 nights, after that we will be moving on to Albany.
Had a bit of a faux pas today, forgot to put the fridge on a certain dial for travelling, so the freezer part was nearly thawn out.......oops......Luckily the fish was all vacuum packed, so hopefully it will be still ok. Hopefully we will be doing some sightseeing, there are some interesting things to see around here.
Will tell you all about that next time.

Well here we are again after 2 days of no service.....We left Ceduna last Sunday morning, weather was great and all went well. We fuelled right up and also our 2 jerrycans  with 40 litres. We also filled our water tanks up, because we thought we would have to free camp. We finally got on our way. We drove that day for about 6 or 7 hours, stopped at the Head of Bight and did some whale watching, we saw a mother and her calf and some dolphins.
We went a bit further on and decided to free camp. Where we parked there was nobody else. I didn't like it very much, but we set up camp, had dinner and went to bed early. John was tired, but I couldn't get to sleep, I thought it was a bit spooky, pitch black of course. We won't do that again of course. The next day we went on our merry way again. Had to get some diesel, they think here that it is liquid gold, it is that expensive. We only topped up where it was still reasonably priced, weather still beautiful. Country side is really something else, nothing there, just some trees and salt bushes.
We free camped again, much better parking side, with quite a view vans there, so that was ok. This morning we left early, we gained 3 hours of course. Got into Norseman at about 12.30, rang John's sister, who was in Western Australia as well. They were on their way from Kalgoorlie to Norseman and arrived about an hour after us, how is that for organising......We had dinner together and some catching up, they are on their way back tomorrow and we will be going on to Esperance.

Spent today in Ceduna after a very stormy night. Luckily all was well, John had tightened the awning extra well, so it all stayed together, thank goodness. We went to the fishmonger and got fresh flake, whiting and a dozen oysters, which we had for lunch, very nice and very fresh. Came back to the caravan and vacuum packed the fish. I did some washing, John fuelled up and filled the water tanks for our trip across the Nullarbor. Its getting a bit exciting now. We had a good rest here, so that is good. We did our last bit of shopping and made sure we have enough food for the crossing. Apparently there are about 20 whales near Nullarbor township, so hopefully we will see some.Yesterday we bought a couple of breadrolls,, I nearly died $1.40 per roll...... I must have looked stupid at the man. Everything is quite expensive here. We went to the Ceduna hotel for dinner, very nice.
That's it for today.

 We left Port Augusta 9am Oct 4th to go to Ceduna, which is about 430 km driving. Hardly any traffic so that was good. Countryside was not very nice, very dry and nothing there but salt bushes. We stopped at Kimba for lunch and fuel. where we parked there were quite a few travellers,who had the same idea. John was talking to an older guy, as he does, and this guy told him to get fuel here, cheaper than up the road......he lied. When we passed another petrol station the diesel was about 10 cents cheaper, spewing.....But what do you do. We arrived in Ceduna at about 4pm. Found a nice park, Big 4. Clean amenities and large sites. We booked here for 3 nights. Hopefully John will go fishing and catch a few meals, that would be nice. We will venture into "town" after John has finished vacuuming and cleaning.....so much dust in the van, he can't stand it. Suits me fine, I don't have to do it.....only joking.Weather has been very kind to us, today windy and a bit of overcast. So till next time.

After 3 days of driving we had a day of rest today, yeah.... and no we didn't have to have the heater on last night...thank goodness. Weather absolutely glorious today, blue skies, sunshine and quite a bit of wind.
Went into Port Augusta this afternoon, small town, not much, so we did what we had to do and went back to the van, relaxed and did some reading. We met some people from Victoria,who have been on the road for some 14 months. They gave us some tips, which was really good.
We went and had a drink, happy hour, with them and some people from Queensland.
Just saw on the news the weather, 34 degrees here tomorrow. We will be leaving tomorrow to go to Ceduna, where we will be staying for a few days we think. Hopefully John can do some fishing there and catch some dinner.......
This is it for today, nothing much exciting, hopefully in the next few days.

Well after another cold night, yes heater on again in the morning, we left Kingston on Murray at 9.00 am on our way to Port Augusta. Weather absolutely glorious, sun, blue
skies, what else would you want. (watching Pink at the moment on X Factor, really good.....)
Where was I? Oh yes, going from Kingston via Kapunda in the Barossa Valley, Clare in the Clare Valley, all wine country. Vineyards looked absolutely beautiful. This is very pretty country, with all the canola fields in bright yellow and than a purple weed called Patterson Curse (JOHN TOLD ME THAT ONE), amongst it. Pretty as a picture.

Arrived in Port Augusta at about 4 pm, googled a caravan park at lunchtime, put it in the tom tom and voila here we are. We booked here for 2 nights, so having a rest day tomorrow and having a look around Port Augusta.
Till next time......

After a freezing cold night, yes even John got out of bed at 3am to put the little heater on, we left at 9.30 am. Weather was just beautiful, blue skies, but still very fresh, on our way to Mildura. Hardly any traffic, so that was good. We didn't stop there, but kept driving on our way to Renmark, where we thought we spend the night.  We had to hand in all our fruit and veg at the border, luckily we didn't have a lot, but it still hurts. Didn't think about it at all.....We were really travelling well, so we kept going and ended up in Kingston on Murray, nice caravan park, still quite full because of long weekend in SA.We walked to the river where people were rowing and canoeing. It is very dry around Mildura and Renmark, crops don't look very healthy.
Tomorrow on to Port Augusta we hope.
Will keep you informed, till next time.