Checking out Perth & catching up with friends & family.

Hello again everyone,

Another post from the travelling Granger’s.

After our delightful overnight camp at Stockton Lake we made our way back through Collie toward Bunbury on the Coalfields Highway. We travelled through light forest and pasture to Brunswick Junction where we headed north to a town named Harvey where we stopped at the local cheese factory and sampled some different local varieties. We left with a lighter bank account…. Some of these cheeses should be a real treat with the wine and ports we have recently purchased. After a morning tea at the cheese factory we continued to Pinjarra for lunch and our overnight free camp stop.

 This big boy has dad too much cheese! 

The next day we travelled the twenty kilometres into Mandurah where our caravan “Wally” was due for a service. Chezza also had maintenance as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. She had arranged a hairdresser for a cut and blow dry and facial. I also got a repairer to provide a quotation for some body panel damage to “Lightning” {our Mitsubishi Triton) as we had a lady reverse into us whist parked at Wave Rock Caravan Park.

After our van was serviced we travelled to our caravan park at Rockingham where we shall be staying for a week while we check out Perth and environs and catch up with friends and family.Our first full day in Rockingham was spent doing some local exploring as well as catching up with Cheryl’s niece Sue Davies and family for a great barbecue.

Next day was spent with more local exploring. We also travelled to a nearby suburb named Wellard. Cheryl’s friends Graham Nash and Christine Beven are doing a similar trip to us in their A-Van and are in Wellard visiting Graham’s daughter so we also caught up with them.The next day we caught the train into Perth and did a hop on hop off bus tour which took in Perth’s harbour areas, Kings Park, The Perth Mint, shopping precincts and the skyline.   

 

 

On the Saturday morning we caught up with my niece Renee & partner Cameron before travelling out to Serpentine Falls for a lovely picnic.

Sunday was Mother’s Day so a big hello and best wishes to all mums. We had an enjoyable day in Fremantle. Fremantle is a very old port in Western Australia and much of the convict and early settlement heritage has been preserved. Fremantle was the first place in Australia that my parents and I landed when we immigrated from England. I was only 17 months old when we came to Australia. We visited the Fremantle Market and I thought Cheryl was very restrained. The Fremantle Markets are housed in a heritage listed historic building built in 1897.

We also visited the Western Australian Maritime Shipwreck Museum where there is a lot of relics and information about the “Batavia”. The Batavia was a Dutch East Indiaman vessel that was wrecked in 1629 near the Australian coast and what followed was an intriguing turn of events. It is something that has always interested me . One thing we had to do was have fish and chips at Cicerella’s at the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour. Cicerella’s is an iconic eatery on the waterfront and the food was brilliant.Another icon at the waterfront is the statue of Bon Scott and naturally being a big fan of ACDC I had to get a photo.We also did a tour of the old Fremantle Prison. The prison held convicts and other lawbreakers in the early days and underwent many changes until being closed 25 years ago.

On our last full day at Rockingham before resuming our travels we used our day to refuel and stock up on provisions and have lunch at Sunsets Restaurant on the esplanade with Sara Smith. For those of you whom are not aware Cheryl, Apia are an insurer whom we represent at various community and corporate events in Southern Tasmania. Sara is our boss and very supportive.