Perth

Having fun in the Moore River

Our next major destination was Perth, but before that we wanted to check out a few spots on the way in. We found a great little camp spot on the Moore River near Guilderton, nice sandy bank with fresh running water. This was where we got our first rain since we were on Queensland’s sunshine coast back in April. What was this wet stuff falling from the sky – we had not missed the rain at all and it was also a reminder of how spoilt we have been with great weather. Between showers we managed to cook some dinner and even sit around the fire and have our baths. The girls enjoyed this spot, they had so much fun on the rope swing and also swimming in the river on their boogie boards. The next morning Darrin had just got out of bed and along came the council ranger to let us know that we were not allowed to camp this side of the river but on the other side, lucky for us he was really nice about it and just asked us to move to the other side to camp.

We spent the rest of the day at Yanchep National Park. We were lucky to be there on World Parks Day, so not only did we get free entry but there were extra activities planned. The first stop and the favourite for the girls were the snakes. They could touch, cuddle and play with the different Pythons. Then onto look at the owls, which you were not able to touch but they were certainly beautiful to look at. Then for a walk through the Koala enclosure, we found two Koalas having their lunch so we stood there for ages just watching them eat their gum leaves, then one climbed a bit higher and perched in a fork of the branches for a stretch and then a snooze. I just love Koalas they look so soft and cuddly, this way my favourite stop. There was so much to see and do here that the day just disappeared.

Hello snake

Would you like to have a cuddle?

Up you slide




Cuddle time



Emma's turn to have a cuddle

Koala resting after his feed

That night we found a clearing in a pine forest near the Yanchep turnoff to camp, it was a great spot. Through the night we were woken by the sound of the wind in the trees, but we were in the perfect spot protected from the wind. Then the early hours of the morning a thunderstorm passed, this is when we ended up with an extra two girls in our bed. We survived the night, no problems.

Braving the cold wind at Quinns beach

We planned to catch up with Darrin’s cousin Narelle and her family who live at Quinns Rocks today, Sunday.  As we arrived at Quinns Rocks which was about a 20 minute drive south of Yanchep and discovered the day to be extremely windy and wet. A great day to be indoors.

morning tea at Kings Park overlooking the city

We drove into Perth city centre early the next morning, it was a buzz with cars, buses and trains as everyone headed into work for the day. Driving along the freeway, which is also shared with the train with the lines running down the middle, the girls loved watching the trains and were keen to catch a train themselves. We arrived at Kings Park and had some morning tea overlooking the city. We checked out the Botanical Gardens which was excellent, it featured all the flowers of Western Australia.

Botanic Gardens walk

 

seeing the city sights

Parking on the outskirts of the city centre we walked into the city spent the next few hours catching the yellow, red and blue buses all over the city to see the sights.  Having explored the city centre we headed for Fremantle to stay the night. We had looked at options of different parks to stay in so we could catch the bus or train for the day and Fremantle was the best option. The park we stayed in had an awesome camp kitchen and television room so with the unpredictable wet weather it was great to be able to use the facilities.

catching the blue bus

The next day we walked a few hundred metres up the road to the blue bus route and caught the bus to the Fremantle shipwrecks museum, Darrin really enjoyed this museum and the girls enjoyed looking at all the bits and pieces that have been salvaged from the different shipwrecks. Learning about cannons, seeing the different currencies, the clothing the soldiers and sailors wore, different instruments used to navigate a ship and looking at the countries the ships travelled to and from on the world map.

Watching containers ships load at Fremantle port

Time for lunch so we caught the bus to the café strip to find a bite to eat, but ended up at the supermarket to buy a chicken and rolls to have lunch in the park opposite. After lunch we caught to bus to the Fremantle port to have a closer look at the container ships and the submarine at the Maritime Museum. Another bus trip to the Fremantle train station so we could catch the train into Perth city so the girls could fullfill their wish to catch a train, they enjoyed the train trip looking at the city sights.

 

Catching the train to Perth city



Smidt and Bauer family rigs



After a wonderful day experiencing the big smoke we headed back to the caravan park. To our surprise we found Tony, Tracy, Liam and Matt Bauer had turned up to camp the night also. We had a wonderful night catching up over many drinks. The next morning the heavens opened and the ran just teamed down continuously, so it was a very slow morning to pack up and we finally got going before lunch. We decided to get some retail therapy, its been quite a long time. Fremantle has so many op shops so we thought we would browse them in hope to find a bit of winter clothing to get us through the next month. 

Rockingham was our next stop, arriving there late in the day we found out about going to Penguin Island and Seal Island. Both islands are only about 1km offshore which was perfect for putting our tinny in. Deciding this would be a worthwhile trip we found a great bush camp for the night close by. There were so many wildflowers here and the girls enjoyed picking some of the lillies.



Having fun with the wildflowers





Seals on Seal Island



The next day we put the tinny in at Rockingham to have a look at the seals on Seal Island. They were huge but very lazy seals sunning themselves on the beach. We watched them roll over and stand up a few times and the girls thought that was fantastic.

Seagull eggs

Then over to Penguin Island, we launched the boat on the beach and walked up the boardwalk. The first thing we noticed were the nesting seagulls, it was great to see all the nests, eggs and baby seagulls - about the only time in my life that I found seagulls interesting. We did the walk around the island which is just full of seagulls nesting. We managed to spot two penguins in there nesting box. And there was a colony of pelicans who also nest on the island. Finally feed time at the penguin enclosure was excellent. We really enjoyed watching the penguins swim for the fish and walking around the sand.

Penguin feeding

It was a fantastic day around the Islands and a great way to complete our Perth experience.