Mandurah - Herron Point

We left Perth City behind and escaped to Herron Point – a little council camp on the back of Peel Inlet behind Mandurah. A lovely travelling family that go by the name “Trailer Park Trash” are caretaking here and Mr J in particular loved playing all sorts of boy games in the dunes around the inlet. We loved their artistic touches to the camp including the amenities, toadstool tyres, bush kitchen, various shell mobiles & tyre swing. What a peaceful & fun place to be! 

We drove into Mandurah from this camp and saw Emma Blyth’s art gallery. We had been admiring her art ever since we first saw it at Bungle Bungles. Amazingly she was in her gallery when we visited so we got to meet her and the girls were able to ask her some questions about her various paintings. www.emmablyth.com.au

The next morning we drove up to Rockingham and went on the Shoalwater Marine Park boat ride to see Penquin, Seal & some other island. We saw a dolphin & her tiny pup playing in the water and enormous male Sealions basking on the beach but the Penquins were all away or asleep. It was FREEZING but a very educational visit. 

"Aladdin's Cave"

Osprey's feeding their chicks

Lazy male sealions getting as fat as can be

Our car had developed a nasty wobble while driving the last 2 days so reluctant to tow with any steering problems we dropped into a Tyre Centre to get it checked. $1300 later we had new tyres (they’d worn unevenly so had to be replaced L) but a severely depleted bank account. Mr K took quite a few hours (and jogs) to get over that one. Lucky we visited the famous Miami bakehouse before the tyres or the kids may not have had this spesh afternoon tea!

Unfortunately for us folk who are used to quiet bush camps, a few interesting locals use Herron Point as their weekender – one family Jesse termed the “Swear-a-lot Family” and another family set up their camper right beside us with drills going at 10.45pm on the Friday night. Bit of a shame as the rest of the campers were so friendly & considerate. We’d had enough of the noise by then and moved on the next day. But not before I fell over a firepit (luckily not being used) in the dark and bruised my entire right thigh. Ouch! Next time – torches – regardless of short distances to amenities! So onwards south we moved for some restful time with our adopted travelling grandies…

Perth

We arrived in Perth late in the afternoon and were suddenly surrounded by PEAK hour! What a shock to the system after 5 months of no cities (sorry but Darwin does not count with its population of only 150,000). We limped through to a caravan park in North Perth with one flat tyre and a few car issues as well. (Going to be an expensive month to repair vehicles :( ) We met up with quite a few families we’ve journeyed with along the road which was great for kids & adults alike! The jumpy pillow certainly got a workout on this stay! And the ducks & Swans kept the kids entertained.

The first few days we chilled in the pool (making the most of Jesse’s waterproof cast as he wasn’t allowed to swim in the ocean), enjoyed evenings chatting with friends (thanks Lynch Family!) and caught up on some school work. We resorted to “reading eggs” for Tessa now we had internet service again to give me a break from intensive schooling.

Father’s Day we celebrated by visiting a local church where we met people we’d known in Brisbane! Small world! We then drove along the beach front but it was SO busy we turned around and used the caravan park pools again. That afternoon we invited our grey nomad neighbours over for a special afternoon tea – he’d mentioned to us that morning that he wasn’t even expecting a call from any of his 8 children. The kids thought that was terrible so they made him Father’s Day cards & invited him to afternoon tea. I think he was pretty chaffed that kids could be that thoughtful. It really doesn’t take a lot to make someone’s day.

The next day we dropped into King’s Park (not so busy on weekdays J) and while the kids played on the playgrounds we enjoyed the beautiful gardens. The kids raced us up the DNA lookout tower, we walked through the wildflower displays, saw the Boab tree that had been transported from Derby and played with the baby ducklings. For lunch we ventured into Perth city and had SUSHI (Mmmmm) – the first in a while! After that we browsed through arcades & shops and after a few purchases we headed home. I bought Miss T “Are We There Yet?” by Alison Lester so we read that and had fun remembering all the cool places we’ve seen and all the ones we’ve yet to see!

The next day was my birthday so we took a drive to a lovely Hilary’s Boat Harbour for lunch then later to Scarborough Beach – I wanted to swim but it was still too windy & cool AND the no swimming due to sharks kind of put me off a lot! That evening we had a great BBQ dinner with the Lynch Family in the camp Kitchen and finished off with cake & candles J. Never too old for that!

On Wednesday we put our car in for a service with a family friend (neighbours from when I was a kid in Blackburn) and walked to the Perth Mint. What a fantastic experience! We watched a gold bullion bar being poured and learnt lots about the making of gold coins. They were also able to try and lift a gold bullion bar – only Kieren could physically lift it. The biggest gold coin in the world was also on display – it was huge! The kids were lucky enough to “tag” onto the back of a school excursion and get a coin “struck” for them.

After a quick look through the cathedral we headed back to the car and spent a lovely evening with Don in Northbridge for dinner. It was so great to catch up as it had been 15 years since I’d last seen him and he hadn't met Kieren or the children. He shouted the children a night out at Timezone after dinner (I remember him doing the same for us 15 years ago!) and we had a lot of fun playing all sorts of crazy games J. Thanks Don for an awesome night out – the kids will remember your generosity for a lifetime!

To cap off the most social week of our entire trip, we were invited to The Rutland Family’s house for a dinner of Lasagne (thanks sooooo much Kim – we’re still talking about it!). The Dad’s watched footy while the kids played like long-lost friends (it had only been a few weeks since our Dongara meeting) and we all enjoyed being in a house (although strange at first). We are really most thankful to friends we’ve met on the road – hospitality is amazing!

Rainy day learning to play "Settlers of Catan" (Kelly you'll be impressed!)

After such an eventful week, all the girls came down with colds – our first in 5 months! With a week left till Mr J’s hospital appointment, we filled the time in with home days alternated with more outings to Fremantle to see the markets, Gaol, Roundhouse (original gaol) and submarine. Our tour guide at the Goal we think may have been a former prison warden! It was certainly an eye-opener for us all as this gaol operated up until 1991. We also went to Scitech (much like scienceworks) for a great interactive day filled with scientific learning!

Old Fremantle Gaol

Solitary confinement for you lot - together!

In the stocks for you lad!

Making a run for it!

 Perth Mint

Trying out the gold nuggets

Scitech - Miss E & T doing the infra-red dance

Scitech - Miss T driving a flight simulator

Finally the day of Mr J’s appointment came and the boys trundled off to the old Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (our 5^th hospital visit in WA). He was given the all clear by the Ortho regs after more x-rays!! WOOHOO! They were fairly happy that the tendon hadn't pulled the fracture out of line so it was off with the cast and Mr J came out beaming like a moon! And so we can leave the big city behind ;-)

The Pinnacles

The next day we woke up to a 3 degree morning – none of us wanted to get out of bed. It was a whole 8 degrees inside the van until 10am! We drove to Jurien Bay for lunch – what a gorgeous spot this was! Stunning beach, lovely pier & playground, a coffee shop right on the beach and beautiful parkland. Alas, no vacancies in the caravan park L 

Love this quote!

So we drove on through Cervantes (give it a miss…it’s very grey & drab) and then drove out to Nambung Station behind the Pinnacles National Park. We were just in time to see the last half hour of sheep shearing! That was quite an education for the kids – especially when one of the shearers had to stitch up a fairly big….mistake. We also got to see (and be spat on by an) ALPACA! They look so cute until their ears point backwards – then you know you’re in trouble!

There was a lot of baa-ing that night at 3 degrees with no wool coats!

We spent another cold night here – too cold & windy to even huddle by a fire. The next day we visited the Pinnacles National Park. It’s certainly more commercialised than it was 15 years ago but still a lovely walk through the strange limestone fingers. 

"how is this standing up?"

Where are those 4 Cheeky Children?

There they are!

Desert View

On the return trip I was startled to see my boy come an inch from stepping on a fairly long whipsnake! It tried to strike but luckily Mr J got out of the way. Close enough to make this mumma’s heart beat furiously for the next hour. Thankfully not another hospital visit. Phew. Next time Mum or Dad in front watching where they’re going! (Although I seem to recall telling a little lad this each and every walk!)

Looked a little like the above whip snake (c/o Google)

We would have loved to have visited Lancelin for some fun sandboarding down the sand dunes but thought this was probably not wise given the circumstances. Next time!

The next day we pulled up stumps (did I mention I reversed the van into our Nambung Station camp?! See Dad I can do it :P) Then drove the long route round to Perth via New Norcia – a monk run town North west of Perth. It was stunning – an amazing collection of monastery, orphanages, schools and work buildings. However, the Europeanisation of Aboriginals that occurred here saddened me. 

Wildflower Country

The next couple of days we spent looking at wildflowers. This area of WA in the Spring is stunning! We went through Mingenew and stopped at Depot Hill for a short walk to see a lot of everlasting daisy’s, blossoms, native orchids and many other flowers. Unfortunately Kieren & Miss E suffered with the pollen count! 

We then meandered through to Three Springs in search of the Wreath Flower – they grow by the side of the road but we couldn't find any in the area we were in. We did find a Talc Mine with a great view and lots of different rocks – chalk, bluestone flint and what looked like jade. We had fun writing on the big boulders and playing noughts & crosses.

We then pressed on towards Eneabba as we heard there was a mining camp with an open kitchen for travellers & a field in town where you could pull up for $10/night (including HOT showers & flushing toilets). The Miner’s mess was AWESOME (according to a certain young lad) – for $20 for the whole family we had a buffet of oven-cooked foods, salads & desserts served by the friendliest people we've met. Well done Eneabba!  We all enjoyed such a lovely meal and also talking with the miners – they must have a hard time staying trim with that banquet being served up every day!

Tessa now loves pressing wildflowers and is most put out when we are in National Parks where you can't take them! (Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints!)
Today I told her she was becoming 'quite the botanist' as she correctly identified a few plants. "Bottomist!" she argued! "I AM NOT A BOTTOMIST!" (Although some members of our family would beg to differ after living in the confines of a caravan :P)