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.

 

Heading up to the Lookout

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.