Sep 17-23

17ND September Sunday
Week 22
We camped overnight at Banksia Reserve 10kms out of Cervantes and got a good sleep in this morning.
So we are on the move again heading to Jurien Bay and check out their seaside town, with no real plans other than to enjoy this fabulous weather.
Julien Bay is a coastal town in the wheatbelt region of WA, 220 km north of Perth facing the Indian Ocean.

We decided on fish and chips for lunch and it was worth the wait at Jurien café- Red Emperor and chips served with tartare and a wedge of lemon.
Tonight, we are cooking lasagne with garlic bread and salad- so looking forward to this I am starving, must be all this fresh ocean air. So, a great way to finish a lovely day while we watch The Block and Survivor.

18th September Monday
This morning we left Banksia beach and plan to visit Lancelin and Ledge Point which are only a few kilometres apart.
So, we continue driving South and pass a wind farm off the Brand Hwy so we take a look. We could hear the turbines spinning and it sounded a bit like distant traffic. After a few photos, we continue our drive to see what Lancelin has to offer.

Lancelin is a small fishing and tourist town 127km north of Perth WA, off the Indian Ocean drive. We walked out to the jetty which was a busy place this morning, as a fishing boat tour  had just arrived bringing with it bags of red emperor on ice.

It was here in this small town we bumped into Annie from Wedge Point, the lovely lady who offered us a spot to stay in her yard on Saturday. After having lunch in a park at Lancelin we catch up with Annie at her house spending a few hours gossiping.
From here we drive to Ledge Point another beautiful beach and small town located 105 kms north of Perth WA. It was established to service the local fishing and crayfish industry and is current today.

The afternoon was getting late so we decided to find a spot to camp for the night at Moore River off Indian Ocean drive. A lot of other vans here and the site is not that big so finding a spot was interesting. Unfortunately, we have no TV reception but mobile works well.

19th September Tuesday
Leaving Moore River site and continuing our way South, stopping in to have a look at Two Rocks first. This is an outer suburb at the northern end of Perth WA, and located 61 kms north of the city’s central business district. Large sections of this suburb are fenced off due to unexploded ordnance (UXO) left behind from past military activity in the area.
There is a lot of new development happening at Two Rocks for estates and land blocks. The beaches are however beautiful and nice to walk along the sand minus the seaweed, which has been very evident in a lot of the other WA beaches we have to.
After Two Rocks we don’t have to drive too far until we reach Yanchep which is an outer coastal suburb of Perth, 56 kms north of Perth central business district. This seaside suburb has majestic views from most lookouts and it was one of our more favorite spots, which is where we stopped for morning tea.

The drive through Perth was an interesting one following the GPS that took us through narrow streets of the city and also very pretty tree lined suburbs too. Our end destination will be Freemantle, where we have planned to stay for three days in a caravan park, sightsee and rest up.

This afternoon we washed the car, only enough to get the bugs off as water restrictions may apply here in the van park. After this was done we went for a drive through Fremantle to look around and didn’t get back until 7pm.
20th September Wednesday
This morning our plan is to sightsee what Fremantle and Perth have to offer, and I am sure Billy will be keen to swim in the ocean as well.

Most of the streets are paid parking for three hours that allowed us to walk around a lot of the streets and see shops. We located The Cappucino Strip,Nationl Hotel, Coffee Club and also visited The Round House Fremantle prison, and Billy of course was the centre of attention with photo opportunities.

From this vantage point we continued our walk through the streets, that meandered past Notre Damn University where the students were cooking a sausage sizzle & hot dogs for fundraising which we purchased for lunch.

Our three hours parking expired, we left the city and continued out to the coastal parts of Fremantle looking for a beach for Billy. We have noticed there are very few ‘dog friendly’ beaches all along these areas so our driving takes us quite a distance in the search. We swam Billy in the waters of Fremantle Ports until we located a secluded beach we could let Billy loose.

In the afternoon we continued our drive to Perth and surrounding areas, enjoying the sunshine today to look at beautiful beaches and houses along the way.


Heading back to the carvan park we noticed the weather was increasingly looking like rain and the wind was increasing. The wind was so strong we had trouble holding open the caravan door before it slammed shut, and all the windows had to be locked tight. We are in for a very stormy night.

21st September Thursday
Extreme weather conditions last night and again all today- best to be away from the coast and oceans with Billy today.
So we decided to head back into the city and treat ourselves to a coffee and breakfast, have another walk around town before heading back to the van park.

Food shopping has to be done today, so Sue braves the rain and wind and heads to the supermarket, leaving Russell and Billy back at the van, to hopefully complete some cleaning up in the van.
The rain continued and unfortunately had to spend the majority of our time in the van, as did Billy. In between rain we managed to clean out the external storage compartment under the van before the rain descended again and continued all through the night, with gail force wind.



22nd September Friday
Today we are leaving Fremantle Village van park and driving to Northam, where I have a parcel to collect. Northam is only 100 kms East of Perth so an easy drive although the rain and wind will keep us more focused on these unfamiliar roads. School holidays in WA start on Saturday so we thought to stay more inland and away from the popular destinations and coasts.
Once in Northam and collected the parcel we found a bakery for morning tea and walked around to check out the shops. We dropped into the  information centre for more info over the coming days, and enjoyed the lovely gardens of lavender growing down the pathway.
The weather has been extremely windy with constant rain following us most of the day and the forecast is continuing for the whole week.

Tonight we are  camping at Spencers Brook on York Road, as our plan is to spend most of the day in York WA on Saturday. A very quiet night and no one else here, other than the farmer and his truck rounding his sheep up the road. We let Billy out before it got too dark and off he walked and rolled in something that had died a long time ago……OMG what a stink. We found some dog shampoo a bucket and microfibre and did the best we could to rid that smell…..!



23rd September Saturday
Off early this morning to York – situated 97kms from Perth on the Avon Valley WA, but is only 7kms from our current location as we are grabbing a freebie spot for 24 hours, and free power. We find there is a suspension bridge here that spans a section of the Avon River, and of course we take Billy up for the experience.
As we arrive in this lovely town we find out there is a medieval fete in full costume and banquet tonight, which we did think about attending but will save our money to celebrate our Anniversary on Sunday 24th at The York Hotel Palace Restaurant.



After a quick breakfastbck in the van, we walk the streets and are surprised to see so many people here and also pleasantly surprised there was a lot to see in York. We located many second hand shops, food cafes, information centre, Penny Farthing Sweets shop, Sandlewood Yards, Sock Factory,York Town Hall, bread shops, restaurants and so much more.

It was obvious that York has spent a lot of money refurbishing a lot of shops to encourage tourists, even the public toilets at the back of an art gallery was amazing.

This was a handmade steel gate separating an art gallery and flour mill-absolutely stunning.

Whilst we were in the art gallery we were surprised to see a lady walking in with a baby joey, that she was looking after- so I had to take some photos

Billy was welcomed into a lot of the shops here and received many pats from strangers, some offering to look after him when we went into shops. So after coffee we visit most stores before returning back to the van with Billy. The sun has been trying to stay out in between rain showers and difficult to know what to wear, so ended up taking umbrellas and jackets just to be sure.
A lot of families spending time in the park enjoying the sunshine while it is still out on this glorious Saturday.