The South West

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From Sandy Cape we went via the Pinnacles to Perth. The Pinnacles were OK but not the pinnacle of sights on our jouney so far. 





In Perth we stayed with Alison's Cousin Susanne and husband Nick in their lovely house in the the Perth Hills. They were very generous  hosts. We met up with Alison's other Perth cousins Chris and Jo and Kathy whilst there. 

Perth was wet and a bit dreary while we were there but we managed to get into the city and see the excellent  WA museum and wander around in the rain a bit, but failed to get into the East Perth cemetery to look up an early settler relative of Alison's as the cemetry only opened 2 hours a week. Nick and Susie also took us to a fun gin tasting and lunch in a geat old pub in Guildford.






Our next destination  was the Margaret River region. We started with a top class meal at Vasse Felix that involved Alison enjoying a meal that had brussel sprouts and rhubarb as ingredients, which is a wonder. We stayed three nights in lovely cottage at the Burnside Organic Farm, lighting a fire each night in our stove as it was quite cool outside but warm inside by our fire with excellent Margaret River wine and produce. We went on a small group tour which took us around the region and to three smaller wineries. The next day we toured around by ourselves going to the Berry Farm, some art studios, Cape Leeuwin and walking  a small section of the Cape to Cape.








The elusive Rock Parrot that was threatening to be the next Gouldian Finch


After a lovely few days in the Margaret River region we travelled south east through the southern forests including the Valley of the Giant's tree top walk and other little walks in this amazing region. The huge trees and green landscape was quite a contrast to the north of the state. We rushed a bit through this area with just one night in Albany where we visited the Historic Whaling Station. The reason for the rush was we had to get back to Perth due to the continuing  saga of our fuel tank leak.  I could  tell the whole sad story  but it would involve too many bad words for this G rated blog.








Anyway we travelled from Albany back to Perth for a few days to fail to address the issue. On the bright side Perth was now sunny and we met up with friends and family  and toured Freemantle.




From Perth we went back to near Albany in the Stirling Ranges to a great campsite at the base of the Ranges. Here we rejoined the wildflower hunt this time with a local guide, which meant we found many more than we would ourselves.









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