Day 6 - Annaleise's last day in W.A.

In the afternoon we headed into Perth City to show Annaleise some of the sights of the city, stopped at the Bell Tower and had a walk on the wharf there, called at Kings Park then headed down to Fremantle for a look around and found ourselves in the Mall and amongst a Market which was interesting.
Then that night in Perth City Annaleise shouted us dinner at Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel with an amazing smorgasbord of perfectly presented food.    WOW!!!!   It was an experience - thank you so much Annaleise from both of us.

Miss Maud has become synonymous with tasty food and good old-fashioned service. It hasn't just happened, it's been like that for 40 years.

The city getting ready for Christmas

A Swan River Cruise Boat coming into the wharf

Taken from the foot of the Bell Tower looking towards the wharf and Swan River  (Annaleise's photo)

A glimpse of Perth through the Grass Trees at Kings Park

The Lone Pine

In The Mall - Fremantle

At the markets in the street - Fremantle -  Sticky Maze - I've never seen this before. (Annaleise's photo)

Annaleise in the Sticky Maze looking for some sticky tape space to stick her pieces of paper

David and I watching the clowns in the Sticky Maze (Annaleise's photo)

Miss Maud  (All Miss Maud photos are Annaleise's)

Our Famous Smörgåsbord serving 65 irresistible dishes and open 365 days a year without exception since 1973.
That's a pretty good track record for a restaurant!!!!   Something they can be very proud of.

We headed back to the caravan for a few hours before it was time to take Annaleise to the airport to board her 11.50pm flight back to Brisbane. Sadly all good things must come to an end.

What a very busy 6 days of sightseeing, travelling, eating and some sleeping.
In the 6 days we travelled approx. 1,500 km and between the three of us took 1,678 photos!!!!!  
Thank you Annaleise for coming to spend time with your oldies - we loved having you with us even if it was only for such a short time!!!  Also thank you for giving me permission to use some of your photos.

Day 5 - Trip for 3

Next morning Saturday 19th November we headed back into Busselton to walk the Jetty.
Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the southern hemisphere, stretching almost 2 km out to sea from the town of Busselton, Western Australia. Because the shallow waters of Geographe Bay restricted ship movement, a long jetty was required so that the cut timber could be transported to the ships. Construction of the jetty commenced in 1853 after persistent pressure by settlers. In 1865 the first section of the jetty became available for ships to moor. In 1875 an additional 131 metres was added to the original structure, as over 10 years' accumulation of drift sands had made the water too shallow for mooring. The jetty was continually extended until the 1960s when it reached its current length of 1841 metres.
We also wanted to see the Underwater Observatory at the end of the Jetty and maybe ride the train one way but both were booked out until lunch time or after and we were there early in the morning so couldn't wait, unfortunately.

I've got my eye on you!!!!!!

The Jetty Train passing by

A Byrd walking the Jetty!!!

A wind ruffled Bird!!!

These last 4 photos were taken by Annaleise (well her camera anyway)!

The end of the Jetty - Underwater Observatory, 8 metres below the sea.

After leaving Busselton we only had one more place to find on our itinerary.  Passing through Capel and Boyanup we arrived at Dardanup (the home of Gnomesville).  We had been told it was well worth a visit - but how to find it - there were no signs in the town and we stopped at a service station and David asked three locals where it was - they had all been there but couldn't tell us how to get there!!!!!!   Along the way we had picked up the information that it was somewhere in the Ferguson Valley!! - yeh right that's a big valley.   So after a fair amount of time driving around we found a sign for Ferguson Valley road so headed off, eventually coming to an info sign with 'Gnomesville' marked on it and found we were on the right road.
Well we weren't disappointed - there were literally thousands and thousands of gnomes spread through the bush, up trees, amongst the logs and ferns - everywhere.  Totally amazing!!!!!
How many photos can 3 people take of one tourist attraction in a short amount of time  (Just over 200)!!!!
Hopefully the photos will give you some idea of how amazing it all was.

We then headed back to Perth through Burekup, Wokalup and Wagerup arriving back at the Crystal Brook Caravan Park at Orange Grove just before dark.

Day 4 - Trip for 3

Before we left the Hamelin Bay Caravan park on Friday morning we went for a walk to the lookout above the park - another beautiful view of the ocean.

Then it was on to the Jewel Caves 12 km's north of Augusta - they were really beautiful with numerous displays given by changing light colours really added to the beauty of it all.   These were by far the most beautiful caves I have ever seen.


Jewel Cave is Western Australia’s largest show cave and is home to one of the longest straw stalactites found in any tourist cave in the world.
The caverns of Jewel Cave sink to a depth of 42 metres and stretch 1.9 kilometres long. Your guide will take you on an incredible and informative journey following 700 meters of walkways and stairs through several large caverns.

Inside the cave you will be bewildered by the colossal formations. The first descent takes you down a long, narrow tunnel which opens into a giant cavern. Jewel Cave creates the sensation of being under the ocean without the water. It has a soft golden glow and the sheer magnitude of its structure dwarfs its visitors.

Jewel Cave is home to many impressive formations. Soon after entering the cave you will see it its most famous formation, the straw stalactite that hangs delicately 5.4 metres from the ceiling. Your imagination will come alive in this cave – try to spot the organ pipes, giant shawl, friendly ghost, Jedi and the jewellery box.

Next on the agenda was the old Water Wheel at Cape Leeuwin.

Near the Water Wheel

Just up the road from the Water Wheel is the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse - this is the point where two oceans meet.

Historic Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is situated at the most south westerly tip of Australia, standing at the point where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. With a stunning blue backdrop of the ocean meeting the sky the lighthouse appears to glow in white splendour during summer, whilst during winter the awesome force of the fierce Southern Ocean and powerful Indian Ocean crashing against the Cape makes a visit to the Cape a unique, awesome and contrasting experience year round.

A famous maritime land mark and important meteorological site from which data is collected, the tower stands 39 metres high from ground level and 56 metres above sea level. Its piercing beam, which has an intensity of one million candles, shines over the surrounding rugged sea and landscape for 26 nautical miles or 48 kilometres. 


The light was totally manually operated until 1982 when it was converted to electricity replacing the clockwork mechanism & kero burner, one of the last in the world. The new 1,000 watt halogen lamp increased the candelas to 1,000,000.
This light was automated in September 1992.
The tower has seven floors and 186 steps.

Annaleise checking out the horizon!!

The only thing that made it climbable for me was a solid  floor every so often - I couldn't see too far below me!!!! 

I 'm out on the viewing veranda at the top!! - only because David is hanging on to me!!!!  It's  a long way to the ground -
but I must admit that the view was pretty spectacular.


Approx.  number of steps walked up and down in just the caves and lighthouse for the day 880.

Then it was on to Margaret River -  It was the 21st National H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) Rally in Margaret River that weekend and there were 2,500 Harley's expected to be there.   The main street area reverberated with the sound of Harley's.   They were to do a Thunder Run the next day but we weren't there - I can't imagine what that many Harley's would sound like in amongst the buildings in the main street - wow!!!

Margaret River main street - more Harley's than cars!!!

David getting some advice on the best one to buy!!!!

There weren't just Harley's in town - what a pretty colour.

They actually looked better than they tasted - too artifically flavoured, very disappointing.

In the Margaret River region - a controlled burn which only a week after we were there became an out of control burn and there were around 37 homes burnt and many more damaged.

And so ended another day of sightseeing by car and caravan.