Coming Home

Had a great time down south visiting Wave Rock, beautiful beaches in Esperance with kangaroos wandering around, lots of history and great beaches in Albany - including an excellent self-catering apartment, then Elephant Rocks, Tree Top Walk, Margaret River, Busselton and finally fish and chips in Mandurah - 8 days in all.  It was nice to have cooler weather for a while as when we came back to Perth it was 41deg.  Have just spent a few days showing Suzanne's friend Pamela the sights around here.

Now we are all packed and 10 hours before we take off. 2 nights in Singapore might help prepare us for the expected freezing conditions when we land in London!

We hope to see you all soon.
Thanks for following our blog.

Jean and Roger

It has been all too exciting since we last wrote.
We had a great time in Mandurah with Lynn, Aldo and the children. Lots of relaxing, going for coffee and cakes and meeting up with friiends from Suzanne's church. Suzanne did manage to spend a couple of days with us which was good.


We then moved down to see Andrea, Simon and their family down in Busselton. It was good to see where they live and we met up with some of their friends for a BBQ which was nice. Busselton has a jetty that is about 2 Km (1.5 miles) long which needs a train to get to the far end. We took the children up the, now unused, lighthouse to see the views - spectacular!






While we were in Fremantle the other day Roger decided he would like to spend some of his hard earned money on a new toy - but Jean had other ideas!!

Finally it was Australia Day on Saturday so we went up to South Perth foreshore for the celebrations, with some friends. They put on an airshow, but I think they need to come to Eastbourne to see how it shoutd be done!! We had a good time and so did a lot of boat owners as the river was nearly blocked with all sorts of boats.













We are now getting ready to go down south to Esperance and Albany on Monday and then we only have 4 more days left before we start our journey home.

Boats, Boats and more Boats

Yes we have been out on the water over the last week. Firstly all three of us, together with some friends, went for a river cruise on the Swan River.  We went upstream from Perth for about an hour and saw several of the historic sites relavent to the history of this part of Australia. Roger got the chance to take the wheel - but only for the purposes of the photo - apparently he does not have enough experience in handling boats!!
Secondly we, together with Suzanne, went south to Rockingham and then by ferry over to Penguin Island. This is a sanctuary for Little, or Fairy, penguins where they are protected from preditors. The only way to see round the island is by a series of Boardwalks which keeps the visitors away from the natural habitat of the penguins. We did not see any wild penguins but were privileged to see some tame ones being fed. We also saw Pelicans, Lizards and native birds.
After this we went on down to Mandurah to go and see the houses decorated for Christmas. This was a different experience to what we have been used to as we had to go by boat as all the houses were on canals. A lot of money had been spent, not only on the lights themselves, but also on the professional crews who had obviously put them up. There is only one word that can be said - STUNNING!!
We have also been to the cinema to keep cool as it has been very hot and more humid than usual.  We have seen Quartet (funny) and Les Miserables (amazing).  We have also been to visit and stay with friends - quite a busy time really!!!
We are having problems getting pictures onto this posting but hope we have mors success next time.

Christmas and it's HOT!!!

Just like two years ago we are having temperatures of 40C but it is very humid this time which is not so good.
We went up into Perth just before Christmas to go and see the outdoor nativity in the city centre - a very good production with lots of young wannabee actors, dancers and singers taking part. Real donkey, chickens, sheep and camels which added to the atmosphere.
Christmas day we spent with our friends Lynne and Aldo and family and some friends visiting from the UK. We started on the beach until it got too hot, while we were there we spent time trying to photograph a Ray - we don't think it was a Sting Ray which was reassuring - without too much success unfortunately. We then returned to their house for presents and a BBQ lunch which was very refreshing and then some finished the day in the pool - which was at a comfortable 30C - to cool off.
Unfortunately Suzanne had to go back to work on Boxing Day but she was able to spend the following two days with us - so we went to the Motor Museum of Western Australia in the Swan Valley, wine tasting and then to a party with friends.

We hope you had a good Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year - enjoy the celebrations - we are not sure yet what we will be doing but something will come up!

Lots of Love  Jean and Roger

Travelling to York Shire!!

We decided that we needed to see more of West Australia so we went inland, on Thursday, to the Shire of York. The first town we visited was Beverley which has changed very little over the years so is still quite small and generally unspoilt - which is nice. We visited its, miniscule, aero museum which gave quite a bit of information but the exhibits needed some TLC - will say no more.

We moved on from there to the town of York, which had also not been spoilt over the years. Much bigger than Beverley, and included an interesting motor museum, which Suzanne and Roger really enjoyed. It's not until you travel inland that you begin to realise what the early pioneers went through. We returned via a town called Northam and IKEA (well you do - don't you?).
On Friday we went to visit friends Mike and Mary which was nice - Mike and Roger were discussing issues with their caravan, so no change there then. In the evening we went to Carols in the Park at a place called Gosnells. Singing carols by candle light sitting outside with a picnic is a very nice way to start celebrating Christmas!

Continuing the festivities, we went to our friends Lynne and Aldo's church for a pantomime on Saturday. Both Alicia and Daria were taking part which was exciting. The show was very well done and very funny including all the normal panto responses.

Barossa Valley

After Adelaide we spent three days with our friends Gavin and Liz up in this wine making area of South Australia. It is very attractive countyside with some very pretty villages and towns. There is a very strong German influence which has its own charm. There are a lot of wineries here so we did take the opportunity to sample some of the wine and cheeses made locally. Temperatures have been up in the mid 30s which made sleeping rather difficult. We stayed in a chalet on a caravan site while Gavin and Liz used their own caravan.

We returned to Perth on Saturday and are now trying to get ourselves geared up for Christmas which is interesting wearing summer clothes, suffering the temperatures and no real sense of urgency we experience in the UK.  We are off this Friday to a carol concert in the park with a picnic so that should be nice (and different), then on Saturday we are going to a pantomime (whoopee) at Lynne and Aldo's church where their girls are taking part.

Wow - what a train ride!

This is the train that we have just spent 2 days in travelling across the Nullarbor Plain from Perth to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific - part of the longest rail journey in the southern hemisphere and includes the longest straight section of track in the world - nearly 300 miles with no curves!.  We first stopped at Kalgoorlie to see the deepest opencast gold mine in the world.  We passed wheatfields, trees, bush, dessert, freight trains, very small communities where only a handful of people live,  kangaroos and cattle.  However we only had reclining day-nighter seats so lacked a bit of sleep, but re were able to move about to the cafe car and a lounge car.  Overall it was an amazing experience and we are glad we did it!

We are now in Adelaide with our friends Gavin & Liz from Melbourne.  Today we went to the Fleurie Peninsular - great beaches and scenery - and tomorrow to go up to the Barossa Valley - wine tasting - can't be bad!  We return to Perth on Saturday.