HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to Keith for 31 May.
Happy Birthday to my sister, Debby who turns 50 on 6 June. Sorry now everyone knows!!
Happy Birthday to my niece Sam, wo turns 21 on 10 June.

Perth

We are in the lovely city of Perth catching up with old friends. Had tea last night in Fremantle with my old school friend, Margaret and her husband Russell, who are living in Perth. Today we are staying with an ex RAAF friend Bugs Burrows and his wife Stephanie. Great to catch up with friends.
We are staying in Perth until Wednesday. The drive up the coast from Fremantle is beautiful especially on a lovely day like today.

Some Stats

We have travelled approx. 13,500 kilometres.
We have spent more on food than we have on diesel.............guess who is in charge of food!!

There is currently the Cow Parade happening in the Margaret River area. It is a world class event where artists design a cow and then they are placed all through the district. These were a couple of the best.

Keith climbed this tree - 51metres - I was only pretending believe it or not.

The French backpackers we illegally drove in the bus........just couldn't resist! What do you reckon!!

The happy group at Cosy Corner

The steps to the ANZAC memorial in Albany Keith made me climb!

The wind swept look on our walk from Lucky Bay to Thistle Cove near Esperance.

Some photos..........

We are staying with my niece Julie, her husband Gavin, Jordyn 12, Robbie 7, Ella 5 and Royston 3.........and even staying in real beds. It is delightful. The kids are gorgeous and I am Nanna to Royston........I like the ring it has to it!!
I am using their internet to put some photos on the blog.

Here is Ella asleep with our dog, Matey!!

Margaret River

We had heard a lot about the Margaret River area and I have to agree that it is a lovely area especially if you like wineries. They are lots and lots of them. Keith's mate has an organic winery, Settlers Ridge. They have a shop in the town of Cowramup, affectionately known as Cowtown, so we didn't actually get to their winery.
There are also a lot of spectacular beaches. We are at Yallingup which is another small coastal town with lots of big, expensive looking houses.
It is overcast but no rain today which is good for us. The countryside is very green but not always like that apparently.

The Present

At the moment we are at Prevelly........a beach about 7 kilometres from Margaret River. It is a shame it is cold and windy and there are a few showers around. We will probably only stay one night here. It is a lovely area around here and Margaret River is a trendy little town which was quite busy today being Sunday. There is no one at Prevelly only a few sailboarders and kite surfers.
Tomorrow we are going to a winery near here, Settlers Ridge, which we have just found out is being run by another RAAF mate of Keith's.
We will be in Bunbury on Wednesday and after that Fremantle and Perth.

Black Gold

On Friday we visited an old RAAF mate of Keith's (Al Blakers) and he owns and operates Manjimup Truffles....otherwise known as "black gold". They are worth a fortune and a lot are sent overseas. The season here is only three months June-September. They are also grown in France and Italy.
Now we have all the secrets on how to grow them but..............you really need to know what you are doing.
It is hard to believe why they are worth so much money and they actually look like a chocolate truffle (I presume that is where they get the name, the chocolate ones I mean) but they grow in the ground on the roots of trees. They use dogs to search for the ripe ones. They weren't quite ready so we didn't see the dogs at work.
Very interesting. He is laughing all the way to the bank apparently.

Cosy Corner

Cosy Corner turned out to be a very cosy little corner.
As I said when we arrived Tim, Caz, Harry, 5 and Coby 4, were already there.
We then met
Dennis and Inge a young Dutch couple in a little van travelling around Australia
Jan and Peter from Coolum. Jan is an acclaimed artist.
Bec and Lani from the Gold Coast a couple of musos travelling the country as Serene Addiction......watch out for them at a venue near you! They had a bus the same as ours but not as nice!
Nathan and Sylvain, two French backpackers.
We were going to stay one night and ended up staying three! They were all such good company and we lit campfires which were actually not allowed and the girls sang! The French boys stumbled in on the last night and had walked from Albany about 25 klms! They were starving so ate everything they were offered. We then took them to the next town the next day.

On the road again..........

Luckily I have the trusty mechanic on board and the bus is fixed and we have left Albany. Not that we have gone far only about 40 kilometres and staying at a free camp site called Cosy Corner. We have just met up with a couple again who we camped beside about two weeks ago. They are from Torquay, Vic.
We have visited the Old Whaling Station and the Natural Arch and Gap which are quite spectacular. We also saw whales in the water here where we are staying!! Not bad hey!!

Albany

We arrived in Albany yesterday, about as far away as you can get. We decided to go to Emu Beach to stay the night.......still part of Albany just separated by a big hill. What a lovely place it was. We enjoyed a long bike ride along the bike path along the coast (despite the hills and wind)!!
We were heading further but Keith detected a problem with the alternator so we decided to stay in Albany tonight and hopefully get it fixed tomorrow.
Other than that all is well...............
Never a Dull Moment............

Recipe

I have decided to share a recipe of Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding that I have been given. It is good for us on the road when we have no power. It is very similar to the one I have at home but no creaming the butter and sugar!!

CHOCOLATE SELF SAUCING PUDDING
1 cup SR flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
60 grams butter, melted
SAUCE
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Sift flour and cocoa, add sugar and stir. Whisk together milk, egg and butter. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients. Place in 1.5 litre dish.

SAUCE
Combine cocoa and sugar and sprinkle over batter. Pour boiling water over mixture.

Greetings from Esperance

What a lovely place this is!! We spent last night in the national park at Lucky Bay and have now come into Esperance to stay for two nights. We will hop on our bikes tommorow and do some investigating.
It is a beautful part of the WA coastline.

Our trip continues...

Today, 10 May (sometimes the date is not quite right on the blog), we leave Kalgoorlie for the cold south west of WA starting with Esperance but we may not quite get there today. We can't rush these things!

Mothers Day. Hope all Mothers had a special day. Mine started off with cooked breakfast, we then went for a ride around Kalgoorlie, had phone calls from my three lovely children and we finished off with tea with Keith's cousin, Kerrie and Rhonwyn.

Kalgoorlie.........best known for The Superpit and working brothels! This is not the Superpit!!

The big rig......that is not Keith in the photo!

The rugged coastline of the Nullabor. It was a little chilly at the edge.

Some Photos compliments of McDonalds

Keith and his mate Graham at the end of the Nullabor.

I have learnt that............

I can read in the bus.............helps pass the time!
I can knit in the bus............. I am not up to taking orders but have knitted one baby bootee....any takers!
Mobile phones do not work after falling in the "water closet"! I have just had to buy a new phone!
McDonalds have power points so not only am I using their wi fi I am using their power! How good is that!!

Family News

Rachel and Travis are the proud owners of a block of land in Blackwater. They are now planning their house.
It is Bernadette's birthday today.

We made it............

We made it over the Nullabor and it wasn't near as bad as I was expecting. It is 1200 kilometres from Ceduna to Norseman and we took three days to do it. Can't rush these things!! There was so much traffic on the road, mostly semis and caravans but cars, motorhomes and a couple of motorbikes.................never a dull moment!
We haven't had phone reception for the last couple of days.
We travelled with Graham all the way and we were like his little support vehicle. We are dwarfed by his rig and it's size attracts much attention. I will post a photo when I get a chance. We can't actually fit the whole thing in one photo! On the back of his truck, he has a motorbike and a workshop.
At the moment, Keith and Graham are watching the football on his "big screen" TV while I use his power to do this.
We are heading to Kalgoorlie tomorrow and Graham is going to Perth. Boo hoo... we will be our own again but may meet up with him again in Broome. He has a boat and has told Keith he will take him out fishing.

Goodbye Ceduna, Hello Nullabor

Today we leave Ceduna and head for the Nullabor. We are lucky to have been adopted by a fellow with the taj mahal of fifth wheelers............his outfit is 21 metres long, ours is 21 foot (7 metres).
It looks like he has chewed us up and spat us out as the only resemblence is the colour scheme!!
What a beauty....I can actually see myself in it! He has put extra water on board for us and has also told me that we will have satelite TV across the Nullabor, what more could you want. I have made a curry for tea to compensate!
He has crossed the Nullabor before so we appreciate his experience, he, he

Mouse Update

Today, I have seen one live mouse, 7 dead mice and no blind mice.....ha,ha
Still hate the thought of them being around.

Mouse Plague.............what mouse plague!!

Apparently there has been one but we have made made it to Ceduna and have only seen three dead mice so far!! Keith thinks I am paranoid!!
We have had no power for the last couple of days so haven't been able to post any news.
We have been at Farm Beach which I am sure you haven't heard of. We hadn't either until we made contact with Lorraine and Keith Felton from Hervey Bay and met up with them there. It is a great fishing spot and Keith was lucky enough to go out in the boat with Keith and a local fisherman. They came back loaded up with 36 King George Whiting and a couple of Rock Cod. We had cod for tea tonight and it was very nice...............even better beacuse Keith cooked it.