Please obey all traffic regulations

On Tuesday we picked up a hire car (rental) and got an upgrade.  Oh Yeah.

Roger drove us south, mostly along the coast of Western Australia until we reached Mandurah.  We had a walkabout the quayside.

Part of the walk was called Venetian Canals Walk.  This was part of it.  Mmmm!  I somehow feel no-one from the town had ever visited Venice!

We drove on south and stopped for lunch in Bunbury.  This was the view from the restaurant.

We continued south to Busselton where we checked in to our accommodation.  The Airbnb in Fremantle was booked well in advance but on the road trip we decide where we will get to the next night and then find somewhere on Hotels.com

We took an early evening drive to Cape Naturaliste.  This was the nearest I got to photographing a sunset the whole 3 week trip!

The lighthouse was on the headland and we walked a loop around it hoping to see whales out in the bay.  We didn't.

Wednesday morning we went to see Bussleton Jetty.  A train runs along it and we did consider walking the length of the pier (1.7km) and possibly getting the train back but in the end we got in the car and continued our journey south.

We stopped at Yallingup where we saw amazing waves and people being taught to surf.

Then a short drive away we came to Canal Rocks.

Personally I think I'd call them fissures in the rock not canals  But there again if the signpost had said Fissure Rocks we might not have bothered to drive to them.

We continued on through Margaret River, Prevelly and Augusta, getting to another lighthouse which was shut.

Further along the south coast but a little way inland we came to Pemberton where we had booked a room at  Forest Lodge.  The room turned out to be a cabin in beautiful grounds.

And with these guys as neighbours.

We had dinner at the hotel in Pemberton sharing a table with an Australian couple from Queensland. They were Avocado farmers so we had a really interesting evening asking them about that.

 

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice 

Oh and why the title? 
Because if we dared go even 1 kph over the speed limit the satnav would say 'Please obey all traffic regulations'.  She also warned us when we came to railway crossings - even those where the rails had been removed.  Of course we could have turned the voice off if only we had known how.

Fremantle & Perth

We began the next stage of our holiday by flying from Sydney to Perth.  We took the train from the airport to Fremantle where I had booked an Airbnb which turned out to be totally amazing.

After checking in we went a wander around Fremantle.

On Sunday we took a tour of Fremantle Prison.

I was intrigued by the exhibition called Dancing in Fetters.

We had lunch by the beach and then went round the Maritime Museum.  There was a whole exhibition about how Australia won the America's Cup ( a yacht race).  I'm not a fan of maritime museums - I feel like I've seen one - I've seen them all, But Roger is a fan and if there's such a museum wherever we are, he has to visit it.  I liked this Lego replica of Australia 2 which was the winning yacht.

Next we took a boat trip up the river from Fremantle to Perth.  We took a free bus to Kings Park.

The next day we returned to Perth - this time by train.  We wanted to see the black swans at Lake Monger.  It was rather hot day and after walking from the station to the lake and then around the lake I was beginning to be somewhat irritable as there was no sign of swans, let alone black ones.  We had almost finished walking round the lake when we spotted one black swan and a few yards on, another swan with some fluffy cygnets.

We returned to the city centre and visited the Art Gallery of Western Australia.   The building was impressive but I didn't much like the art.

We moved on to the Western Australia Museum.  I wish we had not bothered with the Art Gallery as we had so little time at the museum due to arriving too close to closing time.  One of the galleries was about Connections.

I have struggled with the latest trend in art and textile circles about working on Sense of Place.  It hasn't captured my attention or thoughts.  However 'our place in the world' makes more sense to me.

This is the description of part of the gallery.

This got me thinking about my connection to Australia.  Not only the fact that my son and his family live there, but that my father was born there.  It has set me off on some interesting research which I will share with you in another post.

We returned to Fremantle and spent our last evening there having dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  We had eaten there the night before too.

On our walk back to our Airbnb I took this photo of the Fremantle Markets building.  We had visited the market on Sunday morning.

Coming up: a road trip in Western Australia

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Hunter Valley Gardens

On our way home from the Hunter Valley we went to the Hunter Valley Gardens.

The gardens are divided into different areas.  Some were based on area of the world and demonstrated the style of that area. Others were more generic.

Then there was an area for the children: Story Book Garden

There were gardens dedicated to different story book and nursery rhyme characters.  There were rides to go on and face painting opportunities.

I couldn't resist taking photos of the palettes.

There was a lady creating beautiful large bubbles and I was thrilled to be able to capture them with my camera.

And just as we were leaving I saw this sign for this rose.

After lunch, Andy drove us back home and we packed for the next stage of our hoilday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice