DAY 101 & 102 – PERTH HERE WE COME……
Only a little over 100kms until we get to Perth
now, so as we did not have a huge drive today, we decided to stop off along the
way and visit some of the beaches on the coast between here and Perth.
Our caravan park at Lancelin. We did manage some ocean views. |
Mostly we
were just driving in and looking around with a view to stopping if any of the
places took our fancy. Our first stop
was Ledge Point, this was only a few kilometres up the road from Lancelin, so
we didn’t fancy stopping and having morning tea this early into our journey.
Ledge Point is a tiny little cray fishing
town only an hour’s drive north of Perth. So what’s there to do in Ledge
Point? Not a lot… The town doesn’t have
many shops or businesses, but there is a general store, cafe/fish and chip shop
and also a country club which has a restaurant, bar, tennis courts and lawn
bowls. Ledge Point is all about the
beach, and if you’re the sort of person who likes swimming, sun-bathing, beach
fishing or 4WD’ing down the beach then you should be able to have a great time
in Ledge Point – even if you think it’s a town with nothing to do!
From Ledge
Point we ventured further south and drove in to explore Seabird. Seabird is another little beach community
very much like Ledge Point, and given that there isn't much to do in the actual
town (there is a small cafe and park - and the Seabird Tavern has re-opened),
you want to be as close to the beach as possible. Again we just drove around town and then
moved on.
Guilderton
was the next coastal resort we came to, and this time we did decide to stop and
explore. The town is situated on the
last remaining river estuary (Moore River) on the Swan Coastal Plain unspoilt
by development. Residents strive to maintain the near pristine environment at
its best for current and future generations to enjoy. As we have family members
with the surname of Moore thought this would be a great place to explore and
also take some photos to send home.
Moore River Estuary at Guilderton |
the lookout on the hill |
the Moore River is a very deep dark brown. |
The trees are really leaning here too. Obviously they get a lot of wind here as well. |
This tree has wrapped itself around the shelter shed |
The general store in Guilderton |
Morning tea in the park |
The Moore River
Estuary is one of the most pristine yet fragile ecological systems in the south
west of Western Australia. Environmentally significant for its’ riverine
vegetation, birds, fish and reptile life, it is also a significant tourism
asset for West Australian, interstate and overseas visitors. This unspoilt,
tranquil ambience is the main reason that hundreds of thousands of people visit
Guilderton each year.
The sandbar
usually opens several times a year, mainly in winter and spring when there have
been heavy rains in the catchment. In summer, when flow reduces, the ocean
waves build up the bar, damming the estuary and turning the estuary into a long
freshwater lake.
Guilderton
is such a pretty town, especially around the Moore River Estuary, so we decided
to stop here for our morning tea, and then do the walk out to the Lookout to
get a good view of where the river meets the ocean.
The river
itself is stained with vegetation and is almost a black brown in colour, this contrasts with the turquoise and vibrant
blue of the ocean and makes for some stunning photos.
The
wildflowers were prolific around this
area, especially on our drive up to check out the lovely curved brick
lighthouse. We would have spent a good
couple of hours in Guilderton, and it is one of those places that you could
easily come back too, even though it was quite a small community still with not
a lot of facilities there.
It was after
lunch when we finally left Guilderton, so decided that since we had only
ventured about 50kms since leaving Lancelin this morning that we had better
head to Perth now without any more real diverts off the highway.
Coming into Perth |
We navigated
our way through Perth and arrived at our destination of the Discovery Park, out
near Perth airport arriving there mid afternoon. It was quite windy and overcast when we
arrived. Nothing unusual as we have
pretty much had wind all the way down the coast.
The park
itself is lovely, we have great sites just a few doors away from the amenities
block which are also large, clean and well kept and we feel very spoilt that we
were able to get such a good deal at the Park.
Pay for six nights and then get 2 free nights. On top of that we managed to get our Top
Tourist Discount as well which means we are only paying $27 a night. BONUS…..
Our set up in Perth |
By the time
we arrived and got all set up, the day had almost gone, so we just enjoyed the
chance to chill out and stop.
The
following day was a pretty much chill out day where we got to catch up on
washing, cleaning and maintenance. Us girls spent the morning washing, mopping,
cleaning out our fridges and cleaning out our vans, whilst the boys went for a
drive to Camperland. Ian and Kathy
needed a new handle for their caravan door, as it had broken a couple of days
earlier and they were having to use a screwdriver just to get into their
caravan. We also needed to get a new power point inlet for the van
plus some new door latch strike plates, as we were having trouble closing and
opening our door also. Then it was home
for them to repair the vans.
In the
afternoon, Ian and Kathy went for a drive up into the Perth Hills, whilst Steve
and I went shopping for a new microwave for the caravan, as ours had given up
the ghost when we were in Denham.
We couldn’t
just buy any microwave, it had to have
certain dimensions to be able to fit into the cabinet in our van. We only had two we could choose from but in
the end went with a Panasonic Microwave.
Steve also had a little bit of other running around to do, as he wanted
to get an extension pole to be able to hang
the shade cloth for the back of the van awning.
I also had managed to get a chiropractor
appointment for 6pm, so it was back to squeeze that in before heading
home. I have been hanging out for this
appointment as I have had back issues since leaving Lake Argyle, but we never
seem to be in a place long enough for me to find a chiropractor, never lone the
much needed follow up appointment I would need to really make sure that
everything was aligned again.
This pretty much took up our afternoon, but we
did feel good that night having achieved most of the jobs we had set out to do today. Now all we have to do in the morning is reinstall
the new microwave into it’s cupboard in the van.
It has been
great to just potter today, to just get
some much needed jobs done, and to have time at the van without feeling like we
needed to be off some where exploring.
We don’t have enough of these sorts of days.
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