Albany, Dec 2-6

We stayed a few days in Albany right on the beach but apart from the day we arrived, it wasn't beach weather!

One rainy morning we decided to go to an indoor playcenter. The girls had a ball.

 
We went for a drive to the Porongorup national park a bit inland: it is a little wine region with a lovely countryside. We had lunch in a quite remote Thai restaurant that some locals had recommended to us. Yum Yum.

The Sunday markets were one at the boatshed.There were beautiful fruits and vegetables, fish and great local produce.

We went for a drive one day and saw great views of the bay from one of the lookouts.

We drove to Frenchmans bay and had a look at a natural bridge formed by the rough sea and a blowhole.
We also had a quick look at the old whaling station, which is now a museum.

Pemberton, Dec 1-2

We stayed one night in Pemberton, nice village surrounded by forest. It's a great trout and marron fishing area.
Actually that evening we went out for a meal at the Pemberton hotel.
I enjoyed eating a whole trout. Yummy!

We drove to the Gloucester tree and Manfred climbed it (60 metres). A ladder has been built right to the top and firemen used to climb it to check for fires.

We drove to the dune at the d'Entrecasteaux national park. The dune looked amazing. You can drive on it all the way to the sea. It takes about an hour apparently so it gives an idea of how wide it is.

The drive through the forest direction Walpole was very nice. In Walpole we went to the tree top walk (up to 40m high). It was worth the visit. We could also see trees with a hole in the trunk. A few years ago there used to be a huge tree with a hole big enough for cars to drive through it. Unfortunately the tree ended up collapsing due to the many visits. The tree top walk center was then created to allow more visitors to come and see the trees without risk of harming them.

Margaret river, Nov 28- Dec 1

We stayed a few days in Margaret river at a caravan park with horses, cows and sheep. Every evening at 6pm the animals got fed some hay mainly by the kids. They all loved it.
Annabelle was a bit shy at the beginning and was a bit reluctant to get her hand close to the animals but then she got more confident and was very proud of herself.

It was lovely to revisit Margaret river again. The caravan park was right next to the Margaret river cheese factory, perfect location!

We had a look at the Cape Leeuwin national park. There were loads of flies so the girls weren't very happy and didn't want to walk anywhere. Manfred and I took turns to walk around while the girls stayed in the car-fly free zone.
We spent one morning at Meerup beach, beautiful spot close to the national park.

We also drove to the Cape naturaliste and realised when we got there that we had been there a few years ago.
It is the Cape where the Indian Ocean and the Southern sea meet.

Busselton, Nov 26-28

We stayed 2 nights in Busselton at the council caravan park and we ended up parking right next to some travel mates we met a few months ago (Renie and John) by pure coincidence. How funny! It was lovely to catch up with them.

I had a quick look at the markets that were on that weekend: I love those local markets as it's the perfect place to get local produce and that's where I generally buy our jams!

The famous jetty was unfortunately closed for renovations.

Fremantle, Nov 18-26

We stayed for about a week at Woodman point, very close to Fremantle.
It was nice to revisit the town that we had seen a few years ago. It has a lovely flair with its older buildings, cafes, restaurants and galleries.
I had a quick look at the Fremantle art center in its historic building and had a quick browse at the art shop.
We had a look at the famous Cottesloe beach.

We went to Rottnest island for a day and loved it. We hired some bikes and Manfred towed a bike carrier  instead of the caravan that day:-)
The girls had a ball and were giggling all the way.
The island has beautiful little beaches. A visit by bike is a lovely way to explore the island.
There were lot's of schoolies there as they were having their end of year parties!

Our friend Richard from Sydney came over to Perth and we could catch up with a good friend, which was great. It was very nice to see a familiar face.

We went to Perth city by train twice. We thought it was the easier option as it's very expensive to park in the city. The girls were very excited in the train, which was a bit of a novelty for them I guess.
We did some Christmas shopping at Myers while the girls had fun in the Santaland area that even had a little train.

On our way to Busselton we stopped in Secret Harbour to say hello to a family we met in Monkey Mia. Nina was very happy to see her friend Dakota again and Dakota was delighted to have some friends visiting her in her home. The 3 girls had lot's of fun.

Swan valley near Perth, Nov 14-18

We've seen remarkable landscape between Cervantes and the Swan valley, great white sand dunes and interesting vegetation.

We had a relaxing few days in the Swan valley and enjoyed driving through the wineries (much more concentrated that in the Hunter Valley) and stopping at a few "goodies" places like ice-creameries, nougat , chocolate factory, etc.
One afternoon we went to the Christmas sun downer celebration of a winery (Upper Reach). The girls played a bit with a box of toys and we tried some tasty wines. It was a lovely evening.

We did an outing to the Perth zoo, which we liked. The highlight was the orangutans and the rhinos!

The pinnacles, Nov 10-14

We stayed a few days in Jurien bay:  it was a bit rainy but the sun came out on the blessing of the fleet day.
It was a fun day where the boats of the lobster fishermen received a blessing before starting the fishing season. There was a fun fair for the kids. Nina loved the pony ride and Nina and Annabelle both loved the animal farm.

Due to the popular event, we couldn't extend our stay in Jurien bay so we moved to Cervantes, very close to the Namburg national park, also known as the pinnacles.

The pinnacles, limestone pillars that rise from the sand, looked like graves to us. You can get up close to them on a scenic drive and walk trail.There are so many of them, it is impressive. The girls had fun walking around them. Nina thought they looked like little castles.
It's believed the Pinnacles were created millions of years ago as seashells were broken down into sand and then eroded by water and wind.

We also saw some stromatolites not far from the pinnacles but this time in a lake (those we saw in Hamelin Pool were in the sea).

Carnamah farm stay, Nov 9-10

On the way to our farmstay in Carnamah there were some nice wildflowers and huge wheat and canola fields.

We parked our caravan near an old shed at the back of the house. You might find this funny but the first thing we did was removing the spider webs from the toilet that obviously hadn't been used for months!

Shortly after we arrived, Angela the farm owner drove us to her canola and wheat fields. They were endless.
She let me go for a ride on their harvester from where I had a great view. It was pretty impressive to be in it.

We also had a look at her sheep. One lamb was lying on the ground and unfortunately was dead. How sad!
We didn't tell the girls though, Angela removed the little lamb discretely.

Back at her farm house, Angela showed us her chooks and baby chooks.The girls liked the baby chooks a lot and wanted to hold them.
Annabelle got the fright of her life: she went in one of the chooks house to look for the eggs but there was a chook inside who got caught by surprise so he flew out of the house and Annabelle ran backwards and fell down. Poor Annabelle. Must have been funny for Manfred to watch though. I missed it!

In the morning we went to the back of the shed to look at the sheep. One sheep got stuck in a piece of  broken fence as he was trying to eat the grass. Manfred helped him to untangle himself. Poor sheep had some wool well stuck in it! We doubt he would have been able to get out of it on his own. Manfred got called "Diego" the animal rescuer that day!

That afternoon it was hot so Angela kindly offered for us all to have a dip in her pool which we all enjoyed a lot.
The next morning, while Manfred and I were having a nice chat with Angela , the girls were in heaven in her kids bedrooms with all the toys. I thought we would never be able to leave!

The farm stay was a lovely experience and the timing was perfect as it was harvest time.