Days 51 to 62

Day 51. This morning we said goodbye to Glenn and Yvonne who will take a few weeks to reach Perth. We wont see them again until we reach home.
Rodney is driving and we travelled down the highway to the locality of Overlander then turned west towards Denham on the Shark Bay Road.

We called into Shell Beach and had a look around. The shells here are up to 10 metres deep and in the lower levels have been compacted at in the early 1900's were mined for building blocks.

Next stop was at Eagles Bluff where we thought we might camp for the night but there was nowhere flat.

We backtracked to Fowlers camp.

Day 52. After leaving Fowlers Camp this morning we called into Shell Beach again so that Rodney could do some early morning drone photography.
Our first stop after this was for morning tea and refuel at Overlander Roadhouse. We have come across fields of wheat which is the first cultivated land we have seen since leaving New South Wales early in out trip.

We continued on south to Northampton where we walked the town and bought sausage rolls for lunch.
Next stop was at Geraldton in the free RV camp at the southern end of town. This is a good spot as we walked into the city and did some shopping. Unfortunately my favourite shop for shoes in Australia (Rivers) has just ceased operation here.
We went out for pizza,s for dinner tonight.
Also unfortunately, the railway staff were shunting for quite a while during the night and added to that there were a lot of lights on all around us all night and consequently we were all up by 6.30 this morning.

Day 53. Leaving Geraldton just after 7.00 we headed for Mullewa which is 95 km east of Geraldton.
We refuelled then walked around town, visited the Info Centre who gave us some information regarding wildflowers so we headed out along the Old Pindar Road to have a look.

We backtracked to Mullewa then drove down the road towards Canna where we have been before so we took Rodney for a short walk through the scrub.

We carried on to Morawa were we intended having lunch however, an icecream and a piece of cake was it.
We cut across to the town of Three Springs and then Carnamah. Not much in either so now we turned east again to Bunjil then south to Latham for the night. The free camp here has water, toilets and hot/cold showers which is great.
The trip today (about 400km) was through wheat, canola and lupin fields all the way. It's quite amazing when you think about NSW and Qld being in severe drought and the land all brown.

Day 54. We left Latham just on 8.00 am and drove down the highway to Wubin. There were a lot of wildflowers beside the road, however, we didn't stop to have a better look. At Wubin we turned east then south to Kalannie where we stopped for morning tea and a bit of a walk around which included a visit to the Info Centre. From here we continued in a southerly direction through Kulja to brother Richard and Mui's home at Koorda. We went through more Canola and wheat fields all the way again today on mostly single lane bitumen roads
.

Day 55. I washed both the car and the caravan today, they were both rather filthy. Took a drone photo of Richard and Mui's home with our van parked out the front.

Not much else to report from today.

Day 56. We departed Koorda this morning and drove down to Perth into a caravan park we had booked at Forrestfield, not too far from the city centre. Rodney started packing up all his STUFF as he will be flying back to Sydney tomorrow evening having spent 8 weeks and one day with us. We went out to dinner at a bar & grill since this will be out last evening together for this trip.

Day 57. We took Rodney to visit my Mum and Dads last resting place in Guildford cemetery. The lovely gum tree is still there shading them and it has some gumnuts on it at them moment. They look lovely.

From here we went into Perth and down to the rivers edge to take a few photos.

Then up to Kings Park for a brief look of the city and some of the wildflowers up there.

We travelled through the city to Northbridge for lunch and I caught Hiroe waiting for whatever she was going to get.

It was a short drive from here to Morley shopping centre again for a brief walk around then back to the van so Rodney could finalise his packing. There will be a lot left in the van for us to take home.
At 9.30 pm we drive Rodney to the airport and said a sad goodbye; we wont see him again until late October.

Day 58. A very busy day today. After breakfast we went to Midland to a hardware shop (yes Bunnings), to purchase quite a few things including a plate so that I can fit it to the Anderson plugs on the van and car with a pin through to stop them separating as we drive along. A new grey water hose for the van as the items I have already never seem to be long enough to reach the drain. etc.
We also called into a clothing shop to buy some winter pyjamas for Hiroe and have morning tea which ended up being lunch. We visited some Op Shops and bought some more books and glass bowl. We stopped to take a photo of Hiroe with a dinosaur on the side of the road.

Back to the van to carry our all the tasks we purchased bits for then had a late afternoon tea.

Day 59. Last night it started to rain and it was still coming down this morning so we went for a drive up into the hills outside Perth and had a look at the little falls at Lesmurdie. We have been here before a few years ago. Even on the short walk to the lookout there were a lot of wildflowers beside the track.

We drove to Kalamunda and had morning tea there then on to a wildflower nursery where we purchased some seed before returning to the van at 1.30 in the afternoon.
This evening we visited my cousin Toms son Graham with his wife Michelle and their children, Thomas and Liam. We had dinner there and a pleasant evening together.

Day 60. Hiroe did 3 huge loads of washing this morning then brother Graham rang and visited us. It was great to see him even though he is not particularly well. He went home just after 12 noon and we did some shopping. Not too much else happened except that Glenn and Yvonne arrived from Geraldton and have booked into the caravan park just near us.

Day 62. This morning after a bit of husbandry around the caravan prior to leaving Perth tomorrow morning we drove to Belmont hoping to get a couple of gas struts for the front boot of the van. No such luck. Hiroe wanted to visit Fremantle so off we went. There were a few ships at the wharves.

We had a good look in the E Shed markets and had lunch there as well.

Hiroe then decided that we should visit Bassendean and the house where I spent most of my youth. It is quite run down.
We then went to Success Hill to have a look at where I spent a lot of time swimming in the Swan River when I was young.

So that's it for this time More to come later.