And Just Before We Leave the West Coast…

Posted on November 21, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

A lovely part of our travels has been meeting other families along the way. When the stars align and children and adults find friends in the same family, there is great pleasure in having adventures together.

Our dear friend Ali, with whom we explored much of the Top End, also celebrated a special birthday on this trip. Her kindness, her infectious spirit of adventure, fun and generosity has touched our family and as we were not too far down the road…

It was an all-afternoon-family-affair with cake...

...friends and treats...

...even dancing!

Happy Birthday Ali!

Posted in Kate | 3 Comments

The South Coast

Posted on November 16, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

Attention: No whales were harmed in the making of this blog. “OK, I will cut to the chases.” (as King Julian would say).

We are down South of WA and we are in Albany. The accommodation was good and the miserable weather suited our miserable moods.

The bow of Cheynes IV

On our first full day we drove to a whaling station. On the Cheynes IV, we first looked at the guns = boring, the tiller = boring, the radio room = some interest, the cabins = boring and the engine room = bor… hey wait a moment …. What’s the word I’m looking for?? best room? Bingo!!

The Tiller

The Cabin

The Engine Room

After we had looked at the whale chaser, we took a tour to see what whaling is about. I was disgusted to see what they did to whales and thought how sad the whales must feel. In fact, we sat down and blocked our ears when they were talking about boiling a whale. I still think that we should stop whaling forever all around the world.

axo1000 & I avoiding the tour.

At the end of the tour, the tour guide showed us a museum like room full of skeletons of big beautiful whales. At the entrance was a small whale and in the baleen section, there was a massive skeleton of a small!!! blue whale.

Small??

Later in the week we drove down to William Bay. It held Green’s Pool. At first axo1000 went in to test the temperature of the pool. He said it was warm. When I tested it, it was FREEZING! We convinced Dad to come in and we swam all the way out to the rocks. We jumped off them in several interesting ways!

Epic!

Green's Pool

A refreshing swim

That afternoon, we walked down to Elephant Rocks. The Rocks were named because they look like a herd of Elephants standing together. We built a dam to keep ourselves interested while mum and dad took pictures of Oyster Catchers and the Rocks.

Elephant Rocks

We enjoyed the South very much. Tune in next time,

BloggiE ©

Posted in BloggiE | 3 Comments

Cause for Celebration!

Posted on November 14, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

It certainly is when two dear friends reach a milestone birthday!

Happily situated on the West Coast of Australia, we were only too honoured to be in attendance on the night. There was champagne, balloons, special friends and fellow Sydneysiders – all celebrating 40 years for Sal and Nick. They have big hearts, generous spirits and beautiful children. It was a celebration of good times and great blessings!

Woven into the fabric of our trip will be memories like these, treasured friends and a celebration of life!

Posted in Kate | 3 Comments

A Walk in the Forest

Posted on November 12, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

We have been up north, out back and chilling on coral coasts for so long now that even Perth seemed to be teeming with greenery. Margaret River and our Cape to Cape explorations began to reacquaint us with the concept of lush verdant bush.  Apart from the many vines that inhabit the area, much of the focus of the south west is on the forest and with our vision for the trip to experience the diversity of Australia, checking out the bush was definitely another notch on the belt.

So we, from the eastcoast-know-all-about-large-eucalypt-bush set, embarked on an excursion around the forests. We had a bit of time to fill in between social engagements and some bush was going to be good to reconnect with our temperate lifestyle.

The joys of rainfall and soil.

The astonishing discovery was that the trees down here are really really large. The forests are on a scale of grandness way beyond your typical Blue Mountains bush. Terms like Valley of the Giants, King Jarrah, Forest Giants Drive, etc abound and are accurate. Even the highways do little chicanes around massive Karri trees left beside the roads.

WA, big state, big trees

Jarrah, Tingle and Karri trees make up the forests. The Karri, most abundant and most impressive tower straight up from the ground looking like giant broccolini. I would dearly have loved to have walked the forests before logging started but even now the scale and extent remains impressive.

The most famous of the trees are the ones used as fire watch towers. Dotted through the forests these trees have watch towers with precarious “stairs” built up to platforms. We personally believe it was just an excuse for adults to create and legitimise giant tree cubby houses. At least they now can be enjoyed by the masses.

Climbing trees made easy

Stairway to heaven

long, very long.

Rain in the forest is at least a natural combination, holding a bit of charm. This gave some character to our excursions and along the way we checked out the famed Beedelup Falls with its suspension bridge. Much was proclaimed about the falls. I would describe them as quaint!

Beedelup Falls

Bridge over trickling waters....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The King Jarrah was visited. Jarrah is not as tall as the Karri but definitely impressive. Logged very heavily, so we can all have lovely floors in our federation (and post) houses, there are few grand ones that remain. Old enough for two bicentennials to be celebrated in Australia and fat enough to get some exercise running around.

wide, very wide

One benefit we discovered was the beautiful camping to be had amongst the trees. .  Staying at Arboretum, near Pemberton’s Big Brook Dam we enjoyed the natural beauty at the other “bookend” to, say, Cape Range.  It was a delight to sit around the campfire in the forest and soak up the forest vibe. Arboretum was an experiment by WA forestry back in the 20’s and 30’s where exotic forest trees were planted to see how they would grow in the Pemberton area. Mixed among the Karris were some impressive Sequoia trees, famed in California’s forests.

Finally a shady spot to camp !

An afternoon circumnavigation of Big Brook Dam was easily conquered, even without the reward of a swim at the end.

Forest Walls.

Down Walpole way, in a defined area between Deep River and Bow River, is the Tingle forest. We tackled the Tree Top Walk through the Tingles via a wobbly walkway that ascends into the canopies reaching 40m above ground (11 storey office tower). No wonder the brochures say “open every day subject to weather conditions”. Maybe it is designed to sway like branches in the wind.

Ascending into the trees.

Treetops and swaying walkways.

Even wider

And, naturally, the Karri forests satisfied our recent status of “bird nerds”.  The chase for birdlife endemic to the forests took hold, with confirmed sightings of the Red Winged and Splendid Fairywrens.  So I will end with a few shots for fellow bird nerds.

An elusive Red Winged Fairywren

New Holland Honeyeater

and...Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree !

Posted in Spike | 1 Comment

Cape to Cape Adventures

Posted on November 7, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

Alex Rider is rushing through the tall, long grass. That man on the quad bike with the flame thrower would be back any minute. Suddenly a cloud of flame burst through the… “Will!” my mum calls across the camper, “Time to get up!”

We are in Busselton. The North of the South of the West…ish. We’re near Cape Naturaliste, where we had a tour of the lighthouse. We learned about the Lead crystal lens. BloggiE said it must be equal to 1000 Eveready Dolphin torches.

This is very much being the lighthouse of Cape Naturaliste

going up to lght the candles

One day we travelled to Canal Rocks, which are a bunch of big rocks on the coast. They are amazing. They are made of granite. Canal rocks had an opening where the waves came in. I called it “Cyclops Gate”. The waves looked like they were going to crash but then they spilled out without crashing.

Canal rocks. Can you spot Cyclops Gate?

We went to a maze. The maze had one of those corny marketing names. It was called Amaze’n. We did the hedge maze in teams. Dad & BloggiE made it out first while Mum & I were still puzzling over which way to go. After, we played quoits, and did more puzzling but smaller mazes. One was the turn left maze, and in one you had to follow the sequence of red, white & black.

Which way ?????

Look how extremely beautacious it is! Oh,and the maze is looking pretty good to.

Dad using a never seen before strategy in quoits.

(Mum’s note: We met the maze grower, who said the maze was planted in 1994 and based on the Hampstead Heath Hedge Maze in UK.)

We did part of the Cape to Cape walk between Yallingup and Canal Rocks. On the walk, there was a dead whale washed up on the rocks. It was really really stinky.

Red rocks and blue water........haven't seen much of that !

‘Twas bucketing down when we went to a winery, Vasse Felix, where Dad & Mum tasted wine, while El & I did school work on the table. Dad was uber excited. Dad even quoted that he could taste the “rich, apricot overtones” in the wine.

I can taste that rich, apricot overtone.

We also ventured to Ngilgi Caves. There were 3 paths and we took the longest one first. On the way, a lady in the cave told us all about all the crystals. There was one path called “The Kiddy Crawl”, where they had made a slide-y-ish thingymabob you could go down. The final path, was a short walk down to an amphitheatre where you could lie down and look up at the stalactites and they would look like missiles about to blow you up.

The "kiddy crawl"

Stallectites and stallecmites and hellectites

At the end of our Cape to Cape Adventure, we went to the most South West corner of Australia. We pulled our raincoats on and went to look at the lighthouse  and the ocean. Cape Leeuwin, as it was called, is where the Indian and the Southern Oceans meet. It’s a billowing gale with rain pelting our eyes like tears.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, dark & stormy where two oceans meet.

Can you see the line separating the oceans?

It makes me feel like Alex Rider standing on the ledge of a cliff about to jump into the stormy sea below. I think I’ll go back to reading my book now.

axo1000

Posted in axo1000 | 5 Comments

Homestay in Perth

Posted on November 2, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

Some parts of our trip have been very remote. One of our reasons for a trip like this was to spend time together, just us. It has helped us to appreciate each other’s ways and to embrace our differences (sometimes not voluntarily!). Being by ourselves is actually quite tricky to achieve in Sydney, but we have grown very fond of it on this trip.

On other days we have been very thankful to have time to meet new people. We have had an opportunity to develop new friendships and meet different people, who would never cross our paths in Sydney. Some of our most wonderful memories so far are shared with fellow travelers.

Almost four months in, as we drove into the outskirts of Perth, we were ready for a home stay with dear friends.

Some of the little things we loved included undercover walking to the bathroom, no set up or pack up, food cooked in an oven (and not always by us!), and watching a real TV. Then there was the really good stuff like not queueing for the washing machine and buying a coffee at a great coffee shop.

Barrandgirl’s kids, AB aged 3 & Jemmie aged 1, became brothers and sisters and the extra parents made everything much easier to achieve. Always on top of what’s happening in Perth, Barrandgirl steered us in the way of some great tourist & some great not so tourist places. But we also had the opportunity to just do some suburban living.

Hangin' in the burbs...Perth style

AB & The girls took a shopping trip via the Mad Men fashion exhibition, and ended up in the State Library of WA, where some of the best shopping was done. Previously loaned books are sold for about $1 there! Yippee! Together with our Vinnies finds and extended loans from the Stark Library, We have just about managed to stock up on enough reading for the rest of our trip.

Scitech – the WA Science museum was a hit for all. It wasn’t our first visit, but still held it’s audience, as we investigated all the exhibits and then watched the “High Voltage” show – all of which we figure covers science for this term…

Investigating sound waves.

Hang Glider simulator - all in the name of science.

We visited a Swanbourne School Church, a Perth Home church. We took in a movie at Freeo, even did a bit of school work and went to Heathcote park where we played on the most fantastic pirate ship. Axo1000 was heard to remark “This is the best engineered playground I’ve ever been to.” And technically, he has not been to the brilliant-brand-new Darling Quarter Playground in Sydney – engineered by his father!!

Another brilliant thing about boarding at Chateaux Barrandgirl was the trusted babysitting service. It was our first “just adults” dinner in 4 months. We had dinner at Steve’s in Nedlands and the kids spent the evening regaling long suffering Carms with stories of our trip. We were so appreciative.

A real highlight of our stay was a day of exploring Freeo with the aforementioned Proprietors of Stark Library. Our kids could not wait to hang out with their best friends in Perth, and we couldn’t wait to see our wonderful friends either. Nick selected a picnic park with sweeping views of Freemantle Port.

Yep, the old timer shot.....Spike & Kate, Nick & Sal

And next it was on to Freemantle prison.

Shady characters outside Freeo Prison, Ben & Josh with axo1000 & BloggiE

We took the “Escapes” tour. Our guide, John, was a marvellous storyteller who had us hanging off every word.

LIke the Pied Piper, the children were enthralled.

We particularly enjoyed the stories of the famous WA artist whose works are all in the State Art Gallery except for the ones on his prison cell wall, and Moondyne Joe, the bushranger who escaped so many times that they eventually made him a free man.

Moondyne Joes's reinforced cell. Didn't stop him!

Some gorgeous external prison walls - love that Heritage Listing.

Not only did we think it an excellent time to be in Perth this week, but so did HRH Liz II. While CHOGM disrupted the city (but let’s face it – a trip down Ryde Rd at 7:30 any morning would give you more grief!!) we queued for a glimpse of Her Majesty.

At the barricades...

 

Great Paparazzi shot by axo1000. Can you spot her? Phil is giving the wave.

Ending on a royal high, we went for one last group shot of Team Perth. Our heartfelt thanks Mike & Rach, AB & Jemmie!

In the backyard of our home away from home.

Posted in Kate | 9 Comments