Perth and surrounds to the south

Anketell Street, Kensington was our address in Perth. Anketell Street, literally. That was out the front of Nicoles place, my dear old uni friend. Nick and Nicole have 3 beautiful daughters Elizabeth, Jamie and Poppy and my kids LOVED being in a house again (their first since Alice Springs), loved having some playmates and loved playing with LEGO again!! It was a fun few days catching up and managing the kids together. We ate really well from the Turkish shop around the corner as well as Nics fantastic home cooking. All the children wanted the visit to go on and on, which is a nice sign... Here is Ayla with Jamie and Poppy out the front (Elizabeth was at an Ice skating party).

We managed a bit of sightseeing in Perth with a day trip out to Freemantle to the Shipwreck Museum and then Fish and Chips as well as icecream at Cicerellos. Also, Kings Park is a fabulous and huge area of green right adjacent to the CBD, we visited the Synergy Park which is like some big leisure garden for all ages. The kids loved it. The grass was so fine, like a big carpet, there was a fun island with all sorts of fun things and a lot of the play equipment was interesting shaped trees stumps or hollowed out trees. The place was full of families enjoying the lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. From there we could walk along a 1.2km long, very wide, grassy boulevard to the DNA tower at the other side of Kings Park, which gave good views around Perth.

Although all kids were disappointed we took our leave from Nick and Nic's and headed south via some lucky and immediate caravan repairs in the southern suburbs (booked up until November but could see we were in need...) We had no idea where we would end up that night and therefore were very pleasantly surprised to come across Pinjarra, about 86km south of Perth where we camped with about 5 other vans in the 24 hour GRASSY (!) overnight area, central to everything in this cute little town. A stroll over the Murray River bridge via the horse paddock, pub and the park to the main street where there were 2 excellent op shops among others. The highlight is the heritage precinct which consists of a beautiful heritage estate housing the tourist info, tearooms, rose garden and art and craft workshops where there are classes in so many disciplines of arts or crafts. We happened to visit when the glass leadlighting class was on and Ayla got a demonstration and got to keep a custom made heart. What a great facility for the residents, in beautiful surroundings and the various other buildings exhibit and sell the handiworks; paintings, prints, quilting. On top of all that there was also an old machinery museum. It was great, I immediately wanted to move here so I could join some classes....