After an overnight stop in Geraldton it was time to head inland to take in the famous WA wildflowers.   Due to the colder than normal winter there was not as many wildflowers in bloom as we expected but still enough to give a good idea of what the region would be like in full bloom.    Fields of pink and yellow everlasting daisies, wreath flowers, all types of wattle, banksias bottlebrush and ????????????.

New Norcia, Amazing .....   After an overnight stop in Mingenew we proceeded on to New Norcia.   This community was established in the Victoria Plains region in 1846 by the Benedictine Monks to care for the aboriginals in the region who were being mistreated by the white settlers.    In the 20th century it became a major education centre and boarding school for the district with both a boys and girls school capable of accommodating 280 students as well as continuing to pAt it's peak it had 100,000 acres of prime farming land, harvesting a wide variety of crops as well as sheep and cattle which was sufficient to support all the food requirements of the mission.   It also made it's own wine and olive oil and had it's n flour mill which is still in operation.   If you ever have the opportunity to visit New Norcia make sure you purchase some of the famous bread made by the monks.

After an overnight stop at New Norcia on the footy oval, as there is no caravan park, it was on to Perth.   12 days in Perth provided us with the opportunity to do the usual tourist things as well as catch up with a number of friends and relatives.  Unfortunately the weather during our time in Perth was very poor.   Don't let anyone tell you that Perth does not have a winter.  It does and it's cold, windy and wet.  After spending 15 years in Ballarat without a raincoat, we had to go out and pay an arm and a leg for two waterproof coats to fend off the constant rain and wind.

Rats Nest, No Rottnest,  Read On...... We took a trip out to Rottnest Island.   Named by the dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh, Rottnest is dutch for rats nest and was so named because he saw quokka's, small marsupials like baby kangaroos, that to him looked like a type of rat.  Although the day was windy, cold and a little wet it did give us an opportunity to take a bus tour around the island to obtain an appreciation of why the locals carry on so much about this crappy little treeless island.  The rugged coastline, dotted with beautiful reef sheltered bays makes this an ideal summer retreat for the the residents of Perth.   The entire island is managed by the Rottnest Island Authority, a government organisation.  All the accommodation and facilities on the island are government owned and there are no privately owned facilities or housing on the island.   It all takes on a bit of a holiday camp atmosphere like the famous Butlins Holiday Camp in the UK.  As a result of it's popularity they have to ballot the accommodation over the summer period due to the high demand.  It is a boating mecca and there are thousands of moorings in the bays to accommodate the influx of yachts and motor boats over the summer.

Friends, Relatives And The Cappuccino Strip......  As well as catching up with our Perth friends and relations, Tim and Emma, Perth was also rendezvous point to meet up with some Ballarat friends.  The first of these was Noel & Heather and we enjoyed two nights with them before they moved down south. They joined us for a BBQ at the caravan and we watched the North Melbourne vs Melbourne Preliminary Final on TV.   They are on a 5 week holiday planned to escape the bad Ballarat winters.   Surprise, surprise the weather is worse in Perth.  Our next meeting was with another Ballarat couple, Lester and Wendy who are on a 3 month round Australia trip.   They left Ballarat at the end of June, travelling to Cairns, Darwin, across to WA, down the west coast and back across the Nullabor to Ballarat.  A long way in such a short period of time.  We enjoyed their company for the day visiting the Freemantle Markets and having lunch on the Cappuccino Strip.   An enjoyable day.

Margaret River, At Last, Say's Liz .... All good things must come to an end and unfortunately it was time to move on, heading south to the Margaret River area.  A couple of short stops to visit friends in Safety Bay and Mandura whom we had met during our travels and an overnight stop at Bussleton and then down to Taunton Farm Caravan Park just out of Cowaramup which is located about 12 km from Margaret River township.  The area down here has seen plenty of rain with paddocks and the side of the road covered in water.   Our first day was spent dodging the heavy downfalls but we managed to visit the township of Margaret River and a couple of well known vineyards, one being Leeuwin Estate.  Leeuwin Estate has outdoor concerts in their grounds during the summer and they are very popular with Western Australians.  We had a tour of their winery and afterwards tasted some of their popular wines.  Another beautiful winery was Voyager (photo inset).  There we tasted more wines in their tasting rooms and restaurant where money hasn't been spared in decorating.  There are a number of wineries to visit, some boutique small wineries which were well worth visiting.   As well as wineries there are a number of cheese factories, chocolate and fudge factories, an ice-cream factory and more.   This is a fun area to visit but hell on the waistline.

Whilst staying in Margaret River we drove to Cape Naturaliste National Park and took a long walk around the coastline.  It was blowing a gale and was very difficult to sight any whales or dolphins but at least it did not rain.  The National Park had 65 mm of rain the night before.

Climbing Trees, What Next ...   Our next planned stop was Pemberton, a small timber town.   Surprisingly, there are a number of unique tourist attractions in Pemberton which makes it a worthwhile stopover.   Our first attraction was the Gloucester Tree.   This 60 metre high Karri tree has a series of steel stakes driven into the trunk to form spiral steps right to a series of platforms at the top which are actually above the top of the tree.  Apparently there are a number of similar tree lookouts in the region with the Gloucester tree being the largest.  These trees were a cheap and efficient way of establishing fire lookouts.  Rob was the brave one on this occasion and climbed right to the top while Liz filmed his exploitation on video and camera.   Pemberton is a really pretty stopover and has a rail line used for cartage of timber as well as tourist train.   A visit to the Pemberton Timber Mill the morning that we moved on, was really interesting and an education on the timber industry.  It is the largest timber mill in the southern hemisphere and is highly automated.

From Pemberton it was then onto Walpole and a visit to the Valley of the Giants and the Treetop Walk.  Here you walk on a suspended walkway which is 600 metres in length and gradually reaches an elevation of 40 metres above the ground which  gives you a view beyond the height of some of the Karri and Jarrah trees.