Meerkats Down Under 2023

This morning we woke to cooler weather and it is quite cloudy but still shorts and t shirts are fine.  We decided to do some walking today and went to Lake Monjingup Reserve which was a short drive  from the camp site.  It was such a lovely place to walk around and the only noises were the birds.  We spent a pleasant hour or so walking about and taking in all the beautiful plants, lake and the occasional birds that we could spot, oh yes and one duck!  Richard took his binoculars so we would see more with them. We had our picnic lunch and Gavin tried to fly his drone again but it was too windy.  Most odd, close by is a pet cemetery, had a quick look and some of the inscriptions on the little plaques were quite sweet. Gavin wanted to swim again so we went back to Twilight Beach, this time no warning sirens.  There looked like a small school party of children with two teachers and they had so much fun body boarding the waves.  Gavin and I swam again ...

Too tired to blog yesterday evening after a busy day.  We drove to a local beach and spent the morning sun bathing and swimming.  The waves can be quite rough and Gavin was body surfing in on them, I mostly just got battered by them but did manage to body surf in them a couple of times.  It was good fun although the water is a bit cooler than in Fremantle.  We came back to the camp site for lunch and walked to a beach closer to here for the afternoon.  There was a roped off swimming area with shark net around and we thought it would be good to swim there.  Unfortunately it got quite windy and the sand was blowing over us so we gave up and walked back to the camp site.  We had chicken wraps for dinner which were very tasty.  We were all quite tired and it was chilly outside so we sat and watched an Australian film on tv.  Richard and Gavin also watched the Men’s Tennis final before dinner. Local beach We all slept well and woke up fairly late....

None of us slept particularly well in spite of comfortable beds and nicer rooms on a quieter side of the hotel.  I discovered we had breakfast included for the second night as we had booked with Booking.com.  It was continental only as the kitchen is not fully operational.  Although we were not there late there was not a lot of selection and the fruit did not look very appetising, so we had cereal and fruit juice and tea and coffee only.  We packed up and were on the road by about 09.30 ready for approximately five hour drive to Esperance. Gavin did the majority of the driving but Richard drove for a couple of hours.  Just his luck he had to avoid two huge dead emus in the middle of the road and navigate several sets of roadworks on his stretch of driving.  Was so sad to see these dead animals on the road, also saw one dead kangaroo and a joey, but these are not uncommon sights but Gavin said it was more unusual to see the emus. We made good time and we’re ...

Just a quick post tonight.  After a stressful night worrying about the car seat, up early to try and find a fix.  While Richard and Gavin went to local garages, I was ringing around trying to see if it could be fixed.  After no luck with anyone, Richard came rushing back to the room to say it was fixed.  I thought they had found a good garage, but they had a ‘lightbulb’ moment and took the motor out and reversed it and to their great delight the seat back slowly came forward.  Well done to them, such a relief and all our moods lightened.  The rest of the day improved, but as I took photos on my camera today and we have no proper WIFI I will post and download our day tomorrow when we arrive in Esperance. Saturday 28th Yesterday we spent the day in Albany once the car was sorted.  We drove to a really lovely local cafe called Fredericks for breakfast.  Lovely setting overlooking the harbour, the staff were really nice and the food was delicious. We ...

We left our lovely quirky B and B in Fremantle and stored most of our luggage in Gavin’s house and he drove us to Albany.  We saw emus in a field on the way as we drove through Wheat Belt Country and then entered Wine Country!  We stopped at a little roadhouse for a quick lunch and arrived at our hotel in good time, the journey took about four and a half hours. That was the good part and it went downhill from there!  Gavin tried to adjust the back of the driver’s seat to be more comfortable as we were approaching Albany.  It is controlled electronically and it went back but not forward.  He looked up what to do on the internet and in the car book and it said let it go all the way back then forward.  Unfortunately it now is fully reclined and will not go up at all!  Also,  because it is Australia Day, no garages are open.  He and Richard went to Bunnings (Richard’s favourite DIY Store) which was actually open and got some tools to fix the prob...

Today we went on the train to Mandurah to see relatives Lynley and Frank as Frank has just come out of hospital and we wanted to see him before we go on our road trip tomorrow.  The guy at Fremantle Station was very helpful with getting our tickets from the machine, he chose concession rate even though we were not entitled and said if we were challenged to say he chose the tickets.  Day rider tickets for train and busses up until midnight was au$8.40 for the two of us, equivalent of about £5.  The Aussies have got their public transport right. Lynley picked us up from the station and we went back to their house for coffee and then treated us to lunch at the local shopping centre, another tasty meal.  Lynley then took us to the beach where we spent a lovely Aussie Day Out with them when Lisa and the boys were over.  Frank kept remarking on the fond memories of the boys that day and how much he enjoyed their company.  We will see them again when we get back a...

For the first time since I can remember, I was able to spend my birthday with Gavin and in the sunshine.  We had a chilled morning looking at the changes to Fremantle with Gavin.  While out we thought we would book the remainder of our accommodation on our road trip to stay in Esperance and found almost everything booked already.  It is Australia Day on Thursday and a holiday weekend before the children return to school after their summer holidays. We decided to return to our B &B and do further research and eventually have booked two nights in Albany where we want to visit the ANZAC Memorial Museum and then five nights in Esperance which according to everyone who knows it, says it is a stunning place.  It was a relief to get booked in the end. We then walked to  Bathers Beach which is about 10 minutes away.  It has been quite windy but warm today so the breeze was welcome.  The sea was a little rough but we all had fun jumping the waves. We then s...