October 2010

I must admit, I love Perth, it is such a pretty capital city and a lot more organised than some of the others.

Perth is a beautiful city

We decided ti stay on the southern side of Perth near Freemantle as Tony gets the wobbles taking Big Bertha through the cities. We turned on Bitching Betty (GPS) and she smoothly delivered us to our new home for the next week or so. We have 3 families to catch up with while we are here. We gave them all a ring to see when the best time is to invade them and we have a plan for a change. Very civilized.mmmmm

The Vogel Family

The first family we were able to visit was the Vogels. They use to live near us at Redhead and have been part of our "Family Group" for about 20 years. They moved to WA about five years ago, but they do pop over to visit their east coast friends about every year. They still own a home near ours, but not for long as they plan on staying in WA for at least the next 10 years. Jenny has been following Muldysmovements and also facebook and knew it was my birthday. (nothing is a secret anymore).... She had a cake for the occasion, after a delicious bar-b-que. Young Cameron made me a CD of all hís favourite songs for us to listen in the car. That should keep us awake on The Nullabor!!! I use to be able to tell the twins apart quite easily when they where young. They have changed so much. So after 10 minutes of staring at them I could still spot the difference (Mitchell has a freckle above his eye and a dimple in the chin) Hooray I can do it again = untill next time I suppose. It was great seeing Jenny and Matthew again (we did see them in February this year) We had a lovely night. Jenny gave me a bucket full of Advocados and lemons from there 40 odd trees in their backyard, but I accidently left them behind....sob sob sob. It was a lovely way of celebrating my 31st birthday......(perhaps ad a few years do that???)

Lanaye & Josh

On the following weekend we caught up with Lanaye and Josh (Lanaye is Tony's cousins daughter) They were recently married in June and we were suppose to come to their wedding but we were't quite ready in time. Hey but we made it now, just a few months behind. They moved over here about 4 years ago from the east coast. They have built a beautiful home about 12 months ago and have 2 puppies who like to destroy their fly screens. Josh and Lanaye took us for a day out to lunch at Cottesloe and a tourist drive to the highlights and then onto Kings Park. What a wonderful park. It is high over the city and looks over Perth & Fremantle.

View Over the old Brewery from Kings Park

In the Kings Park there is a war memorial. WA is very big on War Memorials, they do put a lot of thought into them. This one has a curved brick wall and when you wisper to the wall at one end, the person sitting at the other end of the wall can hear you very well. Even I could hear it and I'm pretty deaf. Apparetly at night the view is spectacular as the city displays coloured neon lights that change like a christmas tree.

The whispering wall

YOU WOULD THINK I'D REMEMBER TO SUCK MY TUMMY IN WHEN I GET PHOTOGRAPHED???? Especially after Caroline (from work) showed me how to do the model pose!!!

Wispering War Memorial

We went for a walk from our camp to Freemantle and along the waters edge we saw stack of boats. Yep they really do stack there boats over here. They are for sale of in storage and there are boats stacked everywhere.

stack of boats

The next thing on our list was to get Big Bertha re=registered, the poor old girl is 39 years old. We had to find someone here to give her a roadworthy certificate as her birthday was coming up soon. We thought we should bath her first. (special occasion and all) so we found a van washing place and made her dimples shine. Tony reckons he has bathed her before but i WONDER???? It is a mission as she is so big and when you put money into a slot machine and you have 4 minutes to do it, it is a funny site. I man the slot machine while Tony does the workout - It should of been of Funniest Home Videos. Especially with The fremantle doctor (the gusty winds) having fun at the same time.... Well I know I'll sleep well tonight laughing at Tony getting wet and scrubbing on fast forward... hehe he. Now we have to find a place for the inspection.. Found one down the road who said come now and bring $87 with you...WHAT IT IS ONLY $30 AT HOME!!!!!! Well she didn't quite pass, they wanted more lights and lots more reflectors on the old girl.. We had to 5.00 pm to do it as well (4 HOURS) We need an auto electrician quick. They take your money first - sneaky... We found a Repco close buy and bought all the required lights and reflectors and Tony put hís auto electrician hat on, I had a nap on the bed and bingo, four hours later (in the nick of time) Big Bertha looked like a Christmas Tree. She had sparkling lights and glowing plastic reflectors on nearly every little dimple of hers!!! The girls from work had the best laugh... as they were waiting for the fax from the mechanics all day..... Shame we never take Big Bertha out at night to show off her new jewellry.......

Bertha getting her new jewellry applied

Next year Big Bertha will be 40, she will probably want a better facelift.????????
At least she has a shinny new sticker on her backside saying she belongs to NSW.....
So girls marry a man with many talents as it can get you out of a pickle....

A beautiful city Perth

Where's Wally -- opps no Where's Annie???

We haved camped at Cervantes ( Sir-van-tees) for a night as this is the closest town to The Pinnicles. Cervantes is on the coast about 20 km from The Pinnicles. The beach here is also delightful, very crystal clear and turqoise in colour. Also sea lions live on the islands dotted just off the coast as well as lobsters being plentiful.

Limestone stucture

These limestone structures were created from ancient shells. They are made over many years by natural processes that have combined to remove surrounding material to result in the limestone pinnacles jutting out from there srrounds. The first documented sighting of these Pinnicles was in 1650 by Dutch sailors who mistook the Pinnicles for ruins of an ancient civilization. They are really beautiful and well worth the $11 entry fee per car.

More PINNICLES

And Then There's More.

Port denison

We planned to spend only 2 nights here but we changed our mind and spent 4. When we left we wished he had of spent another week. Never mind. It had the best and cleanest ameneties, best camp kitchen with a huge plasma TV and they cook you pancakes for breakfast every Sunday morning for free and they where great. The staff are also helpful and friendly and the park is right in town on the waters edge. Very comfortable. We meet a lovely lot of people here as well. The weather was 34 degrees and the wind wasn't a bother. We loved the place.

Also Port Denison

This quaint little town is famous for lobster fishing.

When you read the visitors guide to Geraldton, the Mayor Ian Carpenter, says you will be "BLOWN AWAY" by the mild winters etc. Well he is right, you are blown away. The wind never stops. The locals say the wind calms down in May and June each year. Hey theat means 10 months left to blow!!! Three nights and I've had enought of the wind..... Locals say if there was no wind, the temperature risies to 45 degrees, so they are happy with the wind!!

Geraldton City & Harbour

Well we had the car serviced here and filled Bertha up with food and I started making a quilt. The ladies of Northamptons fault of course, they talked me into it. So now Bertha is a sewing room, pins, needles everywhere......

Memorial HMAS Sydney II

Geraldton is a very beautiful town. The foreshore is really beautiful and the infrustructure is fantastic. Everything you need is here. Shame about the wind. There are large ships coming into the harbour and this makes us feel like home. They come here for the wheat grain not coal. On the hill in town is a beautifull HMAS Sydney II Memorial. This was recently declared Australia's second National Memorial by the old PM Kevin Rudd and it pays tribute to the 645 crew lost aboard the World War II warship. The dome made of 645 seagulls represents the lost sailors and there is a wall with all of the names of the Sydney crew.

Me looking out to see with my new friend.

The bronze statue of my friend gazes desperately out to sea, her face contorted in anguish as she awaits news of the ill-fated Sydney.

HMS Sydney Memorial

I'm sick of the wind so it is time to move on!!!

Geraldton (3)

street sceen

We arrived at Northampton to see the "Äiring of the Quilts" which is really a great craft festival. I must admit the people here love their town with a passion. The town reminds me of Buladelah but the peoples passion of the town is so wonderful. We learnt about quilting, lace making, spinning wool and every other craft you could ever dream about. The quilts were wonderful and decorated the streets so beautifully.

Airing of the Quilts

HRH Prince Leonard

Prince Leonard of the Principality of Hutt River

So I had to dig further and this guy owns a wheat farm and had a fight with the Australia Federal Government, went home and read the Constitution and found a loop hole in it and declared his 18,500 acres a principality. It is the Principality of Hutt River and it is 40 years old this year. He pays no taxes , has only generators for electricity. Hutt River is situated 595 km north of Perth and is about 75 sq km in area. Caravanners can camp there, you pay $2 for a visitors visa and you get your passport stamped.... So Hutt River is an Independent Sovereign State having seceded from Australia on the 21/04/1970 and is comparable size to Hong Kong (not the New Territories).

H.R.H. Prince Leonard is a keen supporter of Arts & Conservation, has named parts of the Principality with such identities as Lake Beginning, Mount Sucession, Lake Serenity and Wild Boar Gorge. His town site, Nain, has been developed with many buildings to provide facilities for the tourists who visit in their thousands each year. These facilities include Administration, Goernment Office and Post Office, Tea Rooms with Swimming Pool and chapel.

According to Leonard, Western Austalia was actually never proclaimed by Captain Stirling as British Territory, as was required of him under Letter Patent. He only proclaimed a Settlement (the Swan Settlement) in Western Australia. So The Territory of the Principality of Hutt River was never, ever, British Proclaimed Territory! web site is www.principality-hutt-river.com The Constitution has been fixed now....

This is the map of H.R.H Prince Leonards Principality.