Jurien Bay - Perth - Bunbury

Jurien Bay to Perth – Monday 3 October 2011

We spent a very wet night at Jurien Bay with torrential rain storms coming through all night, and woke to a cloudy, cool and very windy day.  Just an easy 200km drive to Perth, with a heavy head wind all the way. We have now had a head wind for the majority of the trip from Broome to Perth about 2200km.

Jurien Bay coastline, just perfect

Called into Cervantes on the way and bought to nice crayfish for dinner that night, then stopped at the Pinnacles to check out the limestone tombstones through a sand desert, one of nature’s true wonders.  We arrived Woodman Park just south of Freemantle mid-afternoon, the weather had improved as the day went on and we sat up to a lovely dinner of Lobster Mornay, you don’t rough it when caravanning.

Some pinnacles are well over 2 metres

They look just like tombestones through the desert

One of the friendly locals

Fresh Lobster Mornay - home cooked style

Perth - Tuesday 4 to Friday 7 October 2011

Today, Tuesday is day 100 that we have been away, another milestone.  We spent the day in and around Freemantle checking out the great architecture of all the old buildings in the area, also visited the Freemantle Goal and the Woolshed Markets.  We met up with Mark & Steph from our Kimberley trip and had dinner with them at the Little Creatures Brewery, great night and a nice catch up.

The buildings though Freemantle are just fantastic

Freemantle Goal

One of the houses near Freemantle Goal

Wednesday we were picked up at 9am for our trip over to Rottnest Island for the day, the ferry had us on the island by 11am.  We went aboard a high speed boat (900hp) to tour around the island to spot whales and fur seals. We soon came across 6 whales, 2 of which showed a lot of interest in the boat and swam back and forward under us, sensational to be so close. We were also lucky enough to see fur seals sunning themselves on the rock.  Back on shore we toured the island on a bus, and came across a number of Quokka’s, had lunch and caught the ferry back home, The weather was just perfect, warm and around 25degs with no wind.

Thompson Bay Rottnest Island

One of many Fur Seals found around the Island

A Quokka running around the Island

Thursday was car service day, so that took nearly all day, we visited Jayco Perth to get some chemicals and also visited some friends of friends ( Jeff & Janette) who live in Mt Hawthorn, we had a great afternoon chatting away.

Friday we caught the ferry from Freemantle to Perth, travelling up the Swan River.  A very spectacular river, spent a few hours in the city.  Perth & Freemantle are really nice places that you could spend some time in, but tomorrow we move onto Bunbury for a few days.



Perth City

Perth Bell Tower

Perth to Bunbury - Saturday 8 October 2011

Only a lazy 140km trip to Bunbury today, but we were on our way early, the reason being I needed to be setup before Top 10 qualifying at Bathurst.  The Bathurst races are televised live over here so everything is 3 hours earlier.  It’s a nice easy drive down the coast, freeway all the way so we were on site and set up by 10:30am, and you can guess what I did for the remainder of the day. Marlene’s a bit concerned as the race day telecast starts here at 4am, but the race is over 2:30pm, I can’t see the problem really.

Bunbury – Sunday 9 & Monday 10 October 2011

Well today’s race day, our boy is on the Mountain fully charged ready to go, he rang us at 5am, our time, make sure I was awake, “well I am now” I told him.  It was an easy day to watch Bathurst, the races started at 7:30 and was all over by 2:30, seemed very strange.  Not to worry it was an interesting race, even though it was a Holden win the last few laps were great.  The most important thing is Ryan had a great time on the mountain.

We went for a drive around Bunbury to check out the sites and surf, we climbed the Marlston Hill lookout, the huge Jetty and the massive black & white chequered lighthouse.

Bunbury from the Lookout

Another Bunbury from the Lookout

Marlston Hill lookout

The chequered Lighthouse

Monday was washing and clean-up day for another week, then a look around the shopping centre and town.  It really is a nice town, it’s been 20 years since we were last here.  We now move on the plan is to visit to Busselton, Margaret River, Augusta and Manjimup over the next week.

Trip Facts at our Fourth Milestone

We have now been on the road for just over 15 weeks, and we are still having so much fun. We have just headed south for the past 6 weeks, and are now thinking that we need to head east soon and that means homeward bound, but we still have 5 weeks to do that.

Distance Travelled: 16,943km                     Average Fuel Consumption: 14.93 l/100km

Fuel Used: 2,553 litres                    Most Expensive: $1.96                   Cheapest Fuel Cost: $1.31

Hours in the Car: 276.2 hrs

Nearly closed the gap