At Dave and Sara's

When we arrived in Mandurah,Aidan did the normal 2 year old thing of being coy with strangers, but Hank asked him to show the sandpit and was won over straight away.Opa is certainly the special man (apart from daddy of course).


Sara is due in 4 weeks.if she lasts that long we'll be surprised.


It has been a delight to get to know this little man a bit.


Even I can see a family likeness here.We enjoy being with this family very much.

The esplanade in Mandura is perfect for walking along the water. The weather is milder than along the south coast and there are lots of waterbirds. There are often dolfins in the estuary although we didn't see any this time.

Western Australia

The sea at Esperence was amazingly wild - a photo cannot capture what you see.Here we went down 180 steps to the beach

We"chanced" upon this windmill which was built as an exact replica of a dutch mill,out in the countryside.It is a working mill used to grind wheat and they have moved a railway station onto the property to be used as a restaurant.We stayed for coffee and dutch apple-cake,and had a chat with the chef.

There is rainforest in the southwest corner of Australia. They have constructed a treetop walk - a bridge which swings when people rock it or in the wind.It's up about 40 metres

This tree is thought to be 400years old. It has survived several bushfires. We were suitably impressed

On the way.....

At last, here we are for our first trip report. It took a while, but then we are stil getting used to traveling again. On the day we left we went via Bendigo to MILDURA. We had thought of staying there for a few days, but the busyness of the city made us change our mind and kept going and stopped at Inglewood. We started our first day well, I lost my credit-card, had to cancel it and order a new one, so no credit until Perth. We decided to leave Adelaide for a visit on the way back and toured the Eyre Peninsula instead and stayed a couple of days in Cowell along the coast, did a bit of sightseeing,driving along dirttracks. You see people camping all along the coast there, tucked away in the sanddunes. We stayed at Waterloo-Bay and then off to the Nullabor, that 2000 and a bit long kilometres stretch. You don't have to feel lonely there as almost all drivers greet along the way.We didsome free camping along the road and met some interesting people staying there as well. What impressed us most, was the nightsky. I have never see so many stars in such clear skies, the milky way is just unbelievable. A picture of Murphies'Haystacks, the Nullabors' answer to Englands' Stonehedge and EasterIsland.
The sand dunes at Fowler Bay start within walking distance of the caravan park and continue for miles.We climbed to the top for a different view of the world.

Every now and then along the highway is a sidetrack that leads you to a view over the Southern Ocean. No problems there when the waters will rise due to global warming. Vicki took a picture of me standing on the edge, see if you can find me.

We did some free camping along the road and met some interesting people staying there as well

We are in Esperance along the South coast.This is a beautiful town with a 35 kms great Ocean drive with spectacular views of white beaches and deep blue waters. To-morrow we shall be off to Albany, see what they have to offer.

See you later!

6/05/2007 Today we celebrated mothers day a week early because we are going away.I was given a camera which was for my birthday as well -its a beauty and I hope to make lots of good
photos. Here we are with the grandchildren saying goodbye.