Week 15, Monday 10 May – 16 May 2010

On Monday we pushed on up the coast to Freemantle. We stopped at Mandurah on route, which is a bizarre town centred on a new (in fact not quite finished) marina village, which seemingly has no permanent residents - if you build it, they will come. We found our camp ground at Coogee just south of Freemantle, set up camp and watched the sunset on the beach with a small beer and some crisps, and a lone dolphin which appeared to say hello.



We spent the full week in Freemantle, doing some tourist trips around Freemantle and Perth, and carrying out minor repairs and cleaning dear Priscilla.

On Tuesday we did the tourist tour of Freemantle, walking around town and visiting the Maritime Museum (turned out to be free Tuesday, which was good, as I would have been a bit disappointed if we'd paid!). We went for a drink in the Norfolk Hotel, which has a lovely beer garden, and then caught up with Lee and Jennie, who we'd met back in Esperance, for a nice dinner out.

On Wednesday we had a day at camp ground having a full clean out of Priscilla. In the late afternoon I had a swim and got stung by a jelly-fish! Watched sunset again with more beer and crisps. We spent Thursday in Perth, but didn't have a great day as the rain was upon us and Australia just doesn't look good in the rain wherever you are.

Friday and Saturday were days of great achievement for Priscilla, at no little cost to us. Some $800 later, Priscilla had been serviced, had her windscreen fixed and had a new deep cycle battery. Ouch! We spent Friday at a shopping centre waiting for her service to be completed (spending more money...!), then had a night out in Freemantle watching Freemantle lose to Collingwood in the AFL. On Saturday we drove up to Lancelin via the Perth northern coastal beaches (stopping at Cottesloe, Scarborough, Trig and Sorrento).



At Lancelin we met up with Linda and Brendan, ready for a little 4wd excursion up the coastal track to Cervantes via Wedge Island the next day. The track was pretty hard to follow in places, and we lost it altogether a few times! Climbing up the sand dunes at one point we radioed Linda and Brendan to say we'd and spotted another vehicle and were going to ask them directions. When we got to the top we discovered the (not that old) vehicle had been rolled and dumped – perhaps someone else at their wits end with the track. Luckily, as we made our way down, a ute appeared from nowhere out of the inland track we needed to take. It was scratchy and tight, but at least we didn't have to turn back.

Dropping the tire pressures


Priscilla likes being back on the sand


Which way is our track?


Still can't see our track...


We finished up on a new road (erhem, for “new” perhaps read “under construction”), and followed our noses out on it, only to discover we really shouldn't have been on it at all!



That evening we stopped at Hangover Bay before heading to the Pinnacles for sunset, which was quite something. The Pinnacles are limestone formations in the shape of, you guessed it, pinnacles, which create a very odd lunar landscape. The basis of their formation is debated, but we liked the theory that they were once tree stumps in an ancient forest which have calcified.







Pumping the tires back up


That night we had a very cold night camping at a free camp in the Tuart Forest. More of which in the next instalment....

Love to all,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame