Last day with Kate, Warwick and Norah

Saturday was our last day with Kate, Warwick and Norah so we decided to finish as we began with a visit to Little Creatures Brewery which we enjoyed as much as our first visit except that we didn’t have a week to look forward to. As you can see Norah really enjoyed her pizza crust!

Kate wanted Norah to at least put her feet in The Indian Ocean to complete her holiday adventure so off we went to Cottesloe beach (set amongst some of the most exclusively priced real estate in Australia) and duly dabbled our feet.

Sadly back to the van and cabin to pack ready for the trip to the airport in the morning. So no more playing “where’s Norah” or looking for her in the back seat!

What a fantastic time we’ve all had and now after a short trip to an auto electrician to have the air conditioner in the car fixed we are planning and looking forward to our trip onwards and upwards.

Friday - Swan Valley (again!)

Norah began her day with a lesson from Grandpa on how to use the computer mouse, including a quick rundown on the replacement costs involved when they absorb too much love from Norah.

We decided to revisit the Swan Valley area again today as some of the places we were keen to try were closed on Monday.

The weather here today has been the best we’ve had since arriving in Perth and it was lovely sitting outside at the various breweries, distilleries and of course the Margaret River Chocolate Company.

Norah is becoming very well travelled and enjoyed her visit to the Ironbark Brewery where we had lunch although I hasten to add that the cup she is holding was empty.

Only one more day with our visitors and then we’re on our own again. We had planned to leave on Monday morning but on the way home today the car air conditioner started to make extremely unfriendly noises so we have booked it in to be looked at on Monday morning so at least another day here before we head off as we don’t want to risk anything not working as we travel to much warmer areas.

Perth

The public transport system here is amazing!  How can it possibly be so hard for Victoria to have an efficient transport system, and a ticketing system that works, we asked ourselves. We started our day by catching a very clean low line, easy to load stroller onto, bus right out the front of the caravan park. For $3.70 each we travelled on the bus to the transfer point where we proceeded through a very clean (again!) no graffiti station and waited momentarily guided by very efficient signage on the platform from where we travelled into the centre of Perth! Fantastic.

We spent a very busy walking day looking and shopping around Perth which is a lovely city with many old buildings and plenty to see. As you can see Norah enjoyed her day and we took this photo of her with one of the many sculptures we saw.

We were able to make a couple of very good purchases --- is the whole retail world on 30% or 50% off? Anyway we were happy and left feeling very satisfied with our day.

Again, we caught the train back to the station and stepped straight on to the bus --- not even a moment waiting this time and everyone leaves the bus thanking the bus driver who actually has a voice and says “you’re welcome” in return! 

Hope someone in Victoria from the transport system has a holiday here and sees this!

Quiet Day

After our busy days we decided to have a quiet day and left the park late morning for some ‘retail’. Kate and Sue felt the need for some girl time so a manicure was called for as we seem to do on holidays. The men and Norah, as supervising escorts, amused themselves for a while with a short shopping session.

After lunch we returned to the park and then went to the spa and Kate, Norah and Suey had a lovely time. The pool and spa at the park are huge, the spa more the size of an average pool but so warm. We really enjoyed our swim and Norah demonstrated her new found skills from swimming classes and charmed everyone of course!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner back at the cabin joined by Justin and Felice, who are friends of Kate and Warwick’s and their two children Soolia and Rheef.

Thursday we think we’ll use the excellent (by reputation) public transport to go into the big city of Perth ---- maybe even do some shopping!!

Swan River

After our highly successful day at Freemantle we set off for the Swan Valley to imbibe in some splendid beverages and fine food.

Firstly, we went to the Margaret River Chocolate Company which we had highly recommended to Kate and Waz having visited this outstanding establishment in Margaret River. It did not disappoint and we were forced to sample many chocolate pieces and enjoy a hot chocolate. The ladies at the shop were even more obliging than the staff at Margaret River and Ian was just about force fed four chocolate apricots.  He had already devoured a whole packet from the Margaret River Store so it was not as if he was tasting a new sensation. However he took a hit for the team and soldiered on!

After that starting experience we felt it was now late enough (11.15am) to begin our research into beers having decided that we still needed to locate the beers owed to Warwick for the dismal football result. Somewhat disappointed to find that a number of breweries were closed on Tuesday, we settled on The Mash Brewery from where we bring you the first photo in the series “Where’s Norah (Wally)” as she shows the delight of Lamb Sliders which were mini lamb burgers essential accompaniments to beer sampling. Very nice beers they were too.

Onwards we went, to the Feral Brewery Company where we were able to avail ourselves of a sampling rack of different beers which we felt went very well with the various dishes Warwick and Kate purchased for our lunch including calamari, duck wantons and pork pate.

Norah snoozed through much of this visit but we did manage to get a photo nonetheless. However on the way home we discovered that the Chocolate Company again needed our patronage and from here we have a further photo!

A quiet night at home with a venison roast purchased at Margaret River and off to bed to plan the next adventure.

Little Creatures!

No we’re not talking about bugs or other nasties but a wonderful day spent at the Little Creatures Brewery!

We decided this morning on the recommendation of Warwick’s best man to try this place so off to Freemantle we went. Well as soon as we arrived we decided this was “the place for a village”. We settled on a table near the water and in the interest of researching the very best of ales available at this fine establishment began a small tasting experience together with some very tasty nachos and pizzas. As you can see we really enjoyed our day and Norah, although she didn’t try any of the beers, certainly did enjoy the pizza crust we offered her instead and seemed quite content to snooze afterwards whilst we went for a lovely walk .

We also drove along the coastline and admired the magnificent coastline and marvelled at the housing being constructed whilst dreaming of a jackpot in Lotto to fund our dreams.

On the way home we indulged in a little retail therapy having spied a Myer centre which needed our patronage.

A beautiful day which ticked all the boxes for us, now to plan for tomorrow!

By the way if you are familiar with the “Where’s Wally?, get ready because this week we’re playing “Where’s Norah?” !!

Perth (or thereabouts)

Now before anyone casts aspersions about Sue’s ability to navigate or to know where the hell we are we are staying in Perth at Karrinyup Waters Resort for a whole week! It is so unusual for us to put down the legs on the van and settle in I know you will all want to know why.

Here is the reason. We have visitors!  Last year we started our holiday with Pete and Dawn at Forster and later met up with Kate and Warwick at Townsville. This started a bit of a tradition and this year we visited with Pete and Dawn for a week just prior to starting off and now Kate, Warwick and…….. Norah have come to see us in Perth. It is just lovely and we are really enjoying having some time with them as Sue was getting just a little sad at not seeing Norah, and Warwick was not helping by suggesting that Norah might have forgotten who she was!

After leaving Margaret River we set off in reasonable weather to travel to this area to find accommodation for all of us. The weather on the drive was dreadful and Ian even stopped a couple of times as when the wipers don’t make any progress on full it really doesn’t do any good to keep on driving. It is quite unnerving when you see flashes of lightning and thunder very soon afterwards. Ian even commented on how close it was so it was time to stop.

We stayed a couple of nights in an average park in Rockingham to give us time to look around and discover that accommodation is not all that easy to get. However with the assistance of a very friendly receptionist in a park that didn’t have any vacancies we finally found a park quite close to the airport which was convenient for the night Kate, Waz and Norah were arriving. When I say quite close, we now know that the planes fly all night. However we have moved on and our new digs are great, central to all the things we want to do over the next week so we have extended to stay here until our visitors go back to cold Victoria.

We picked up the hire car seat and cot for Norah and it is a great service if you ever need to use it and quite inexpensive. It operates as franchises and Kate says there is one in Shepp too! Things you learn when you become grandparents.

Today we went to a couple of markets, one was a farmers market and we are finding these to be great, so much fresh produce and loads of variety and delicious stuff to eat. All good for us of course! Norah is quite happy to munch on different foods now and our photo shows what she thinks of venison sausage.  Yummy!  She even saves a bit for later down the front! The only trouble was when Grandpa lifted her up her bounty feel to the floor from where she would have retrieved it had we let her.  It is certainly going to be a fun week.

Tomorrow we are off to the Swan Valley to visit some breweries (still owe Waz six stubbies) and other foodie and wine places. Oh dear, I do hope this doesn’t end untidily!