Heading back north.

The Today we have two targets.  The Bussleton warf and the workshops at Yarloop. 

The Brussleton Walf at 2.1km long is an impressive piece of engineering.  It was almost destroyed in 1985 when a cyclone made an attempt to dismantle it, leaving it in a poor state.  The government condemned it and made moves to demolish the remaining structure.  The local people and businesses recognising the attraction the jetty had for tourism raised funds and over the next several years returned the jetty to it's former splender. The jetty has a rail track extending along its length and an underwater observatory at the end.  

Next stop, the Yarloop Workshops.  These workshops supported the Millars timber company between 1895 to 1972. They are left as if just abandoned, an amazing place to visit. The workshops could produce anything from boots to a complete steam engine.  

And somebody likes to make pipe organs. 

Home again tomorrow. 

Augusta to Bussleton

Today we started heading north again. 

First up a visit to the Point Leewin lighthouse, the tallest in WA. They offer a self guided walking tour which we did and skipped climbing the lighthouse. 

The view of the Indian and Southen ocean meeting was amazing. 

 This Coast  is completely treacherous collecting over 20 shipwrecks over the years. 

After a bit of discussion over where to go next.  We decided we had to do one of the many caves in the region.  We didn't feel like doing one of the popular showcase, being spoiled off guided cave tours by our amazing experiences in Naracoorte last Easter. 

One of the caves, Calgardup Cave (http://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/calgardup-cave)cought our interest.  It's a self guided cave. They give you a helmet and a torch and off you go.  The cave has steps and a boardwalk, no lights.  

Amazing cave. 

The view when we turned out the torches was brilliant. 

Back to the coast and the canel rocks. 

And heading up to Bussleton for the night.  

Bunburry to Augusta via all points East.

I

Time to get further south and see some of the big forests. We of course started the day with a walk on the beach at Bunbury.

We were lucky enough to see a dolphin teasing the people at the dolphin experience centre. 

From there a quick visit to the port and a lookout in the centre of town and we were off South.  Bye bye Bunburry. 

Heading south on highway one we made good time until we got sidetracked into a town with the unlikely name of Greenbushes, home to a tin mine

And a very big spare tyre

Onwards to lunch at Manjinup. Apparently the up at the end of all the place names means water or on water. 

An appointment at the top of a big tree left me with rather aching thighs. 

Kerrie has some photos of me going up. I don't know where the diamond is that the tree is named after. 

These trees had fire lookouts built on them and bars drilled into them as steps. Quote a climb, especially with people going the other way.  

Heading west we drove over part of the Karri forest drive. Great drive with a lot of big trees and bubbling cascades. 

That brings us to our stop at Augusta and dinner at thee Leeuwen lighthouse at the end of the world. 

Perth to Bunburry

Today we left the YHA in Perth and made our way south to Bunburry. 

We hired a car and after dropping a dancing jacket too wonderful lady who had lent it to Emily we headed south.  

We have no plans, just decided to head as far as we could and then take our time driving back for the plane on Monday. 

I love this type of touring as you never know what you're going to find.  

After getting out of Perth we got off the freeway and made some salad rolls for lunch at Warnbro Beach.  We had a great view of kite and wind surfers doing there thing and had quite a battle to prevent our lunch launching itself into the air.  The wind was amazing. 

We of course also found a cache. 

Further down the road a sign popped up pointing to "Thrombolites" so of course we had to have a look. 

It turns out that thrombolites are similar to there better known cousins except they have a more complex structure. 

Absolutely amazing.  A great little national park. 

And and the beasties themselves. 

Onward into a caravan park at Bunburry and our first night in the tent. 

Rottnest Island

Q 

Today we are going to try to get onto a ferry Rottnest Island. 

Breakfast at the cafe/bar at the YHA was great and not too expensive. 

Wandering down to the ferry terminal at the bell tower on the swan river, we went past the government house and some some of the old church's in the city.  

Obviously we got on the ferry (really dirty windows) and are on our way to Rottnest Island. 

Later the same day…

The trip down the Swan River was interesting but slow.  We saw the most expensive house in Australia, an amazing  monster, coming in at a $57 million, and just how extensive the river is.   The lower reaches of the Swan would give Sydney Harbour a run for its money.  I think Sydney would win but it would be a close race. 

The plan for Rottnest Island was to hire bikes and ride around some of the island.   We found the place overrun by bikes, but we also found that you could get an all day ticket on a the explorer bus for $20 each, cheaper than hiring a bike, the day being quite warm we decided to go with that option.  As it turned out, a really good idea. 

From the main harbour at Thompson Bay  we took the bus East around the southern part of the island to Wadjemup Lighthouse.  

The walk up to the lighthouse also visited an old pre WW1 signal tower used to verify the identity of any ship approaching Freemantle and a WW2 fire control tower used to direct the anti shipping batteries on the island. 

Then on to the lookout. 

We decided to not take the tour and climb the lighthouse but you can get an idea of the climb. 

The view from the hill was brilliant. 

If you look carefully at the panorama at the area just to the left of the lighthouse, you can see some mounds of sand. On this is a black dot, an anti shipping cannon. We didn't make it over there but the gun is still there. 

So much done today. More to follow. 

Back to freemantle and fish and chips on the beach. 

Visiting Freemantle

Our second day in Perth sees us travelling by train down to freemantle. The train station is just down from the YHA where we are staying so easy to get to.

We actually went past the factory where the Perth trains are actually built in Maryborough over the new year weekend , adding a little interest to the trip.  

The train travels past the Karrakatta cemetery giving us a hint about a chance to chase dead people latter in the week. 

Fremantle is very much a port city and the entry to the station really shows this.  

Outside the station was the bus stop for one of the CAT (City area transit) busses. We jumped on the blue rout for a free trip through the city and back down the foreshore.  

The town reminds me a lot of Townsville and Ballarat combined.  The port and climate of Townsville and the buildings and history of Ballarat. 

Our aim in Fremantle was  both to do the tourist thing and work out what we were going to do later in the week so eyes were open for accommodation.  

First stop was at the Maritime museum where we found that it was a free entry day.  Our luck is still holding.  

As we didn't have to pay entry we decided to cough up the $10 for the tour of the Oberon class submarine parked out the back. 

I've been on one of these subs a very long time ago, but this was a chance to crawl over the whole thing.   The knowledgable guide took us through the history of the submarine as well as describing the operation and how the submariners worked. 

Back in the museum we visited Australia II and the extensive display of WA maritime history. 

Back outside we wandered around to the roundhouse, the oldest building in WA as well as the first prison. 

The tunnel under the roundhouse was built by prisoners to allow the transport of material from the whaling station on the seaward side under the limestone cliffs. Those cliffs have since been quarried away leaving a hill for the roundhouse to stand on.  

Still looking for accommodation for Wednesday night we headed up to the information centre in Kings square ( and maybe a cache). 

The information centre was not really informative and the cache was a bust but  sticking our heads into the St John church led to a history lesson from the past by the pastor.  

One of the stain glass windows describes the history of the Duffield family who arrived in the early 1800's to establish a wheat farm.  

The pastor was very knowledgable about the area and we talked about everything from conditions in the early settlement to the current condition of the swan river and how floods impact the surrounding area.  

The plan from here was to look at one of the backpackers near the station. Unfortunately it was under renovation so we headed back to another based I the old fire station.  Unfortunately we

Have been spoiled by the YHA, this one was a little interesting...

Heading back to Perth we decided to drop into the  Karrakatta cemetery and look up some family.