PERTH - ESPERANCE - NORSEMAN

Wednesday 26.10.2011:  up to 25 degrees.  Rain/sun.  Drove from Gommaling to Northam and stayed in Van Park.

Thursday 27.10.2011:   25 degrees.   Rain and sun.  Had a nice lunch in the Café beside the Northam Visitors Information Centre, then went for a walk through the town and back along the rivers edge.

Drove to James and Mel’s home in Morley. James is Lloyd's nephew, James was working from home, so we had afternoon tea with him and then James collected the children, William (3 years) and Emily (14 months) from day care, they are lovely children and we had a lot of fun with them. Mel came home from her first day back at work and after dinner we spent time catching up.

Friday 28.10.2011:  27 degrees.  Sunny - no clouds.  Because the Queen was in Perth for CHOGM, a holiday was declared so James, Mel, William, Emily, Lloyd & I took the opportunity to go to Rottnest Island for the day we caught the Ferry from Fremantle which took about 30 minutes, we caught a bus around the island, found some quokas and had a walk along the coast, then we  found a lovely beach all to ourselves and had a lovely time, the children went in for a swim with James, Emily is a little water babe.

We had a very relaxing day .



Di and William on the wharf




Family at Rottnest





Di William and a Quokka




Sleepy Quokka's





Rottnest Jetty



Saturday 29.10.2011:  Sunny.  Had a lovely day playing with William he likes soccer, cricket and being a bus driver in Uncle Lloyd’s bus, we had lots of fun.  In the afternoon James and Mel went to a wedding and Mel’s Aunty Barb came to enjoy the children with us, so we had a Great time with two Great Aunts and a Great Uncle.



William the bus driver



Emily and Di



Mel and James -off to the wedding

Sunday 30.10.2011:  James and Mel had a BBQ with Mel’s Mum and Dad, Phil and Jill, her brother Michael and his wife Renae and daughter Holly also her Grandfather Phil and Phylis, we had a lovely day although James and Mel were a bit tired after the wedding the evening before.

Monday 31.10.2011:  Said goodbye to James and Mel, William and Emily and drove to Phil and Pat’s place at Quinns Rock which is 30 minutes north of Perth. 

Tuesday 1.11.2011:  33 degrees - sunny.   Phil drove us to Yanchep National Park - lovely park with lots of trees, golf course,  flowering gums.  We walked around checking out the wildflowers, kangaroos and koalas (from the east).



Tap tree ay Yanchep National Park




Perth coastline




Di and Phil at the Arts Centre





Main gate at old Perth Gaol




Seagull wondering what Bon Jovie was singing




Fremantle Harbour



Wednesday 2.11.2011:       34 degrees -  sunny very hot.  Phil drove us to Fremantle, went to the Old Goal, built by convicts.    Saw the Army Museum, then went to the Art Centre for lunch.   Walked down to the wharf where we saw the statue of Bon Jovi .  On the way back to Phil’s we called in to see Phil’s daughter Karen and her lovely boys Jezz (4 years) and Tayn (2 years), it was lovely to see Karen again and her boys are very happy, active children.



Karen and boys




Pat, Phil and Perky



Thursday 3.11.2011:  25 degrees - rain.   Said goodbye to Phil and Pat and drove to Rockingham to see Henry who used to work with Lloyd at Telstra. Henry has become an excellent wood carver winning prizes at shows and Lloyd was very impressed with his work. Henry showed us his carvings  and paintings which adorn his house and then we had afternoon tea with Henry and Merryl.  Drove on to Pinjara and stayed at a 24 hour rest area.

Friday 4.11.2011:  18 - 22 degreees.  Sunny.  Drove to Manjimup to visit with Jim and Sue, arrived late in the afternoon. 

Saturday 5.11.2011:  Sunny.  Sue and I went to Northwood to the markets and had a wander around, and coffee while Lloyd and Jim caught up on the past six years.   Went for a walk through the paddocks on their property, saw their horses and saw Edward, he was a foal last time we were there five years ago, he has grown into a beautiful horse, I called him and he came to me, he won me he has a lovely nature.  We walked up to Kin Kin which is a Resort on the next property and had a look around.



Jim and Sue with us




4 fillies and a colt





supervising the BBQ



Sunday 6.11.2011:  18 - 21 degrees.  Rain and cloud clearing later.   Jim and Lloyd went flying model aeroplanes with Jim’s mates in the model aero club.  These guys build some great models and are very adept at flying them. Back at the farm we took some photos of the four fillies and the colt as they came into the house yard, they are lovely foals. After dinner Jim introduced us to a new board game “Sequence” we had a lot of fun playing it.

Monday 7.11.2011:  17 - 20 degrees.  Sun and rain.  Said goodbye to Jim and Sue and headed south for Albany, the rain hung around all day and the wind was constant, we stayed in the Big 4 Van Park at Albany.

Tuesday 8.11.2011:  14 - 21 degrees.  Showery and sun.  Had a quick drive around Albany to refresh memories from when we were last here then drove east to Ravensthorp stayed in the Van Park.

Wednesday 9.11.2011:  12 - 23 degrees.  Drove east to Esperance and booked into the Van Park, we were exhausted after the long drive.

Thursday 10.11.2011:  13 - 27 degrees.  Went for a drive along the waterfront, saw the jetty and the Port, then drove around the bay looking at all the new development since we were here last time, the water in the bay was a beautiful turquoise colour, it was a bit windy, but lovely out of the wind, Twilight Bay was beautiful and we saw three brave people in the water.  We drove around and saw the wind farm then continued on around the Pink Lake and back to Esperance.    Like a lot of the towns in WA Esperance has new suburbs with modern housing and all the homes are BIG, the mining boom pays well!



Esperance Bay




West beach



Esperance Port



Twilight Beach



Friday 11.11.2011:  19 - 31 degrees - sunny.  Left Esperance and drove east to see Stonehenge, it has only recently been completed in October this year. 

Some 137 granite stones quarried by the Austral Asian Granite company adjacent to the Beale’s property have taken  14 months to complete.  It is a complete replica at full size scale of the original “Stonehenge” in the UK.  The 10 Trilithon stones in a horseshoe pattern weigh between 38 -55 tonnes each.  Standing with the 18 tonne lintel to a height of 7.7 metres.  Inside the Trilithon horseshoe stands another horseshoe of 19 blue stones.  The Trilithon stones are surrounded by a circle of 30 Sarsen Stones weighing 28 tonnes each and standing almost 5 metres high including the 7 tonne lintels on top.  Standing between the Sarsen and the Trilithon stones is a full circle of 40 smaller stones.  The altar stone lies in front of the tallest Trilithon stones.  The structure is aligned with the summer solstice-sunrise in the southern hemisphere- Esperance WA.  The heel stones are positioned on this line to allow the suns rays to pass through to the altar.



Stonehenge recreated at Esperance





Tight tolerances on stone placement




Late afternoon on shortest day



We continued on the Esperance to Coolgardie Road to Norseman, the temperature was very hot 31 degrees, we asked at the information centre, for directions to the Norseman Golf Course, but as it was very , very hot, we decided to book into the Van Park and play the two holes early tomorrow morning.

From here we will head off accross the Nullabour to Ceduna taking about a week or so to do the 1200 Km as we will be playing the next 13 holes of the Nullabour Links Golf Course. There is one hole at each roadhouse with two holes at Ceduna. We have collected wine bottle screw tops to use as tee's as we have been told that the ground is too hard to use regular tees, and we have the aeroguard ready to spray the golf balls so that the crows won't steal them.