Dhudu, Dhudu - The Last Post

Well we did not need the blankets last night, it's 7.30am and 28 degrees and we are hard at it, giving away the things we have bought to the neighbours, who I begrudge slightly as she is lovely but he is an up himself, typical Aussie bloke, all macho and kill this, exterminate that and  where he portrays as if he is in charge and control but is really under the thumb of the oriental wife..........  We have seen so many, what most of us would call 'losers', with the younger Thai, Chinese, Indonesian etc wife, yesterday at Fremantle we watched a woman who was not of Australian descent order her Australian 'Macho man' to take her photograph three times in 7 different locations, all within 50 ft, he did tuck his shirt in his trousers though....... So what do you expect.......  Anywayso our macho neighbour was glad of the gifts we gave him, all of which he said, he was thinking of getting or needed, except perhaps the 5 rolls of super soft toilet tissue we gave him, when I said, "every time you use this, I want you to think of me"...... Just in case your wondering, he had no reply........
So we are off from the last camp site, on our last day, doing the last kilometres in 38 degrees, so we go 5kms and stop for an iced coffee, it then becomes a matter of how do we kill the time because the hotel will not except us too early, so it's a Perth Beach hop, we continue north to Cottesloe Beach where we stop again for another iced coffee and tea, this time we take a little longer over drinking it as we are overlooking the beach, which is so frustrating as it seems the sea is saying to me come on in, but our gear is all packed so we sit and watch the people on the beach begin to leave it as it gets hotter and hotter.
It's now midday, so we head towards the van hire company depot and say goodbye to our trusty steed of the last 3 months, we grab a cab and cor blimey, Gordon Bennett, Bless me Soul if the driver did not come from South East London, in fact his parents live just up the road from mine.
He has been in Perth for 8 years and was a mobile hair dresser in the UK but he seems to have developed the London Taxi Drivers ability to talk, talk about anything, talk non stop and talk as if you are his best mate.  Put it like this, he did not have much to say that was positive about the Australians but he would not move back to the UK.  It's something that we have noticed more over this side than the East but there is resentment from some over here towards anyone from other parts, there is also much more patriotism, in West is Best, Flags on cars, Flags outside houses on pucker flag poles etc, even the TV adverts and shows are constantly ramming it down the viewers throats "The Best Country in the World" theme....... 
Best I change the subject, so we get to our hotel, it's now 42 degrees and the room is not ready, we get a tea and iced coffee on the house before we are told our room is now awaiting us.  It's too hot outside to go a wandering so I have a bath......... Now you may wonder why? But can I tell you that having spent the last three months, using ablutions that are of a similar size to those that we have seen in the old museum type gaols, wonder no more.... BUT I come out and someone goes in to shower, oh dear, what happens is she turns the hot tap on and it sticks, she can not turn it down or off, it maybe 42 degrees outside, it's 21 degrees in the room, it's got to be 50+ degrees in the bathroom, she comes out worse than when she went in and looking slightly more distressed than Janet Leigh in the shower scene from 'Psyco'.....She collapses on the bed whilst Mr Fixit becomes Mr Telephone for Mr Maintenance man..........
We go out leaving the room to become a sauna and after walking 50 yards double back on ourselves and walk into the Irish Pub opposite our hotel as they have air conditioning and a nice lunch time menu on display, problem is it's now Dinner time, the menu has changed and so possibly has the clientele because it is noisy, it is raucous, the Australian high pitch winey voice is piercing, maybe it's because we have been in the bush too long but we cannot cope, so leave and head for an Italian restaurant around the corner.  Can you believe the Italians are quieter than the Australians.......... It's bliss compared to the Irish Pub and the food is 'Perfetto' until someone next to me asks for a Panna Cotta.   It looks good but is of the consistency of chewing gum...... Let's give the tourists the old stuff...... We complain and suddenly the head honcho is with us giving the little lady a lovely fresh dessert, which whilst she eats it with relish, she is now complaining about feeling "Stuffed".  We ask for the bill and then remember, we should have gone to the ATM first, we just manage to pay and now have the grand total of the equivalent to £1.50 left, party time.........
And so we come to the end of our mini adventure, tomorrow consists of going shopping and trying not to buy anything, how can a couple of cuddly toys for grandchildren take our baggage over the limit already........
So that's it, we have done 17935.8 kms (11,144miles) so no more reading for you, no more writing for me because we will soon be speaking with you direct, face to face and in person etc
What do you mean, stay over there, please..........

Ps: Unless of course something untoward should happen to us before we get on the plane, but the chances of that happening..........

     Today's Beach and I couldn't go in.......

    Tonight's sunset over the Swan River and it's not even lunch time with you......

    Hip hip hooray, he is going home........

The Last Full Day in the van

I'm awake at 3.30am, cannot sleep, is it the anticipation of returning home, is it the thought of did I do all I could to make someone's birthday special, No don't be daft, its because I had two Australian Guinness type drinks followed by expensive red wine. I read for an hour and then think about travelling North today back to Perth.  Now every Sunday appears to have been a bit boring, how can I make the last one different? Who knows, I don't I'm fast asleep.......
We awake at 7.30am and my first words to the elderly lady next to me are "I'm back in charge" why is it she says I've lost the ability of being romantic.  She is making Breakfast whilst I am busy on Internet, I have a plan, she asks what it is, I won't tell her, I'm in charge and it's my plan, I say, so as to enforce my dominance.
We set off and I change my mind of the route to my destination, in order we can call into a town called Cowaramup, it's only small but all the way along it high street, it has fibre glass cows........  We stop for coffee and ask about cows etc, it turns out that they have nothing to do with the towns name, as that is aboriginal for purple crowned lorikeet, but some one had a dairy farm nearby before the vineyards so they decided to mix the two together, anything to get the tourist dollar........
We go past Camels in a field, we have no idea why, we go past Deer in numerous fields, they are the first deer we have seen, so think that's unusual, until we get to the entrance of the Venison farm, that is...........  We are driving along and turn left at the Chocolate Factory sign, I think someone is hopeful her surprise has something to do with the said sign, I say nothing but as we drive past the factory you could sense the disappointment, we continue along a country road and turn into a Marino Sheep Farm that is advertising 'Ugg' boots etc.  We go in but the owners have gone on holiday, today of all days, so no demonstrations just a few penned sheep to look at and pet and a shop that reminds me of John Lewis, it's all labelled items that you could buy anywhere and as for the Ugg boots, they are on order......... Disappointed, we leave and head for Fremantle where we intend to have lunch and then can skip dinner as I want to see the last sunset over the sea and we have to pack...... We go past a Cemetery and I notice a newly dug grave, now have any of you ever given a thought to the poor grave digger who has to dig a 6ft deep hole in SAND.......... I assume there must be a method but when you think, we have seen no crematoriums, only cemeteries and the whole South West seems to be sand, how do they do it?
We get to Fremantle, park up in a paid car park, the first one of the whole trip and head for the esplanade where we do what everyone does, eat fish and chips with a beer in the open air, overlooking the port and being obstructive to the sea gulls that want to share your dinner.........  We then walk around the town looking for the Cappuccino Strip and stop and ask a guy of a similar number of years as yesterday's girl, is he a local or tourist like myself as he is trying to look younger than he really is, he replies in a Aussie accent, "No I'm a Terrorist like yourself" I think, Wow, this is a rare find a Aussie with a sense of humour, so I reply, " oh good, I'm looking for the bomb making factory in the Cappuccino Strip" to which he replies, " The cappuccino strip is up there but I don't know of the bomb making factory" We have to excuse ourselves by pretending we have just seen a friend over the road and giggle our way along the entire strip........
We check in our last camp site, which is advertised as having direct access to the beach, yes it does have direct access, providing you walk along the council footpath for 10 minutes, which we do and get to a small jetty to watch the sun go down, along with possibly 100 others and 40 odd fisher persons....... There is also a Pelican on the jetty amongst all these people, he is feeding off of any small fish the fisher persons don't want, all of a sudden all hell breaks out as one of the fishermen has caught something a little larger, his rod is bending, he is on one side of the jetty one minute and the other the next minute, one of the kids shouts out, it's a mackerel.  We hear this and think, what's the big deal with that as the guy who has caught it is still trying to land it, with a crowd of possibly 40 people shuffling along the jetty around him.  Now a mackerel to us is about 10inches and are used basically as a bait fish, Not in Australia, this guy eventually landed it with the help of someone else and a long pole with a hook on the end of it, this Mackerel was about 4ft long give or take an inch and we suddenly realised why there was so much excitement from everyone, except the Pelican that is........
Back to the van and the neighbours have gone to bed, it is half eight after all, so nothing for it, we start to tidy up and pack and whilst B'Day +1 girl empties cupboards, I empty cans of beer, whilst B'Day+1 girl tidies up bits and pieces, I tidy up the rest of the red wine, whilst B'Day+1 girl has packed her suitcase, I leave mine until the morning........

    This reminds of of somewhere.......

    The Bar stewards have gone on holiday and left me in this bloody coat.......

    The famous Cicerello's Fish and Chip's at Fremantle harbour........

    This guy attacked the left overs on a plate and frightened the living day lights out of the tables diners

    Our last travelling sunset!

Birthday Girl's Day

After confirming the contents of last nights post, she awoke this morning shivering whilst thinking about the good new man but then soon realised it was only due to the van being on the cool side again.  She fully wakes up with her hands wrapped tightly around, no not my neck, a cup of tea, sipping it slowly whilst I gyrated around the van in a mankini singing "Happy Birthday".
She opened her cards, most of which reminded her that not only was it her Birthday, it was a new decade she was starting.  I could never be so cruel and had bought her the most stunningly beautiful card you can imagine and then when she read the tender and sensitive words written inside, there was a tear in her eye........ I then asked if she was ready to unwrap her present from me which I must say, was not easy to get here without her noticing, you could not only see the excitement building up in her but feel it as well, I then threw back the side door of the van and there before her very eyes was a 'Wheel Chair' with a ribbon on....... Oh how the tears flowed......
First stop is to search out a nice restaurant for this evening, not an easy task when most of them stop serving between 6-7pm, we settle on the nearest as its only been open a month and is getting a lot of praise from the locals.  
We are off next to Prevelly and the Margaret River mouth where all the Surfer Babes and Dudes go, it's not even 10am and yet they are in the water and the car parks are full.  No point in staying as we have an appointment at 11am with the 'Eagles Heritage' Sanctuary, this is where any injured Bird of Prey gets taken to, to recover and be prepared for being released back into the wild.  We have half hour to walk around looking at the various birds before we sit down to watch a live demonstration of raptors whilst being given a talk concerning, their habits, likes, abilities etc and the typical Australian attitude of blasting them out of the sky (with a Govt Licence) as either Sport or under the misapprehension that they have swooped down and killed a cow or sheep......
Someone, whose Birthday is today, is given the opportunity to hold a Barn Owl and is amazed when it starts singing '60yrs today, 60yrs today'...........
After the demonstration we finish the tour and due to having written, "You are in charge today" in her card, she decides she would like us to return to the 'Berry Farm' as this may just be her last ever opportunity to see the wrens she is so fond of.  We arrive and go through the procedure of ordering a scone and drinks, not necessarily for us to consume but to attract the birds.  Madre Mia, she is happy and smiling again and soon has her new camera lens focusing on all things blue........
We then go to the 2014 Winery winner of the year and I have to say, I wish I had dressed up a bit........  Most of the places you go into out here are a bit spit and sawdustish but as we have driven around past winery after winery, the entrances, the grounds and the buildings all look smart, modern, clean, tidy and as if someone cares enough to want the place to make an impression.  We settle on just the cafe experience and I pay the estate's wage bill for the weekend after seeing a Raspberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake, it suddenly becomes someone's B'Day cake, which although she let me have a taster, she really enjoyed.
On the way out I had a wine tasting and paid the wages for the rest of the week by buying a bottle of red to see me over until we get to Perth, this was even after I had given the lady serving us, who is going to Spain this June a free Spanish lesson, " Una Copa de Vino Tinto".........
We return to camp and go for a walk in the forest, we get 200ft in and I hear, "You Bastard" I'm flummoxed as I don't know what I have done....... I turn around and find some flying insect about an inch and half long with long orange wiggly bits has bitten her, I do my Dr Dolittle bit and instruct them not to bite her anymore as its her birthday and then Yelp like a little dog who has had his foot trodden on because it's bitten me instead......... Enough of the forest, we return to the sanctuary of the van and a can of Aerogard...... 
Okay my little old lady shall we go to dinner, we are off to the new pub up the road, we order and sit at the table with the number eighty three, we change tables as soon as possible because of the feral kids doing whatever they like whilst the parents ignore them........  It's busy, it's got a good atmosphere, it's sunny and we are outside and it's a Birthday meal of Pizza and a Burger.....
I'm thinking, I know how to impress, let the good man beat that birthday meal........
It's 6.45pm and a guy comes over to say, bar closes in 15 minutes, I have 4 X Guinness and an expensive bottle of red in the fridge so what with the car parked next to us leaving making it slightly easier for me to pull out an 18ft van without hitting anything, we are off.......
But not before I spy a woman and a guy that had been at the Berry Farm earlier.  She was taking photos of a wren as was Julie, when he walked up, obviously did not like the fact Julie was near to their table, so dragged a chair across the floor banging the table causing the bird to fly off.
Ho Ho Ho, it's time for me to play, he has bought a taster kit of beers, four glasses of different types of beer, he is smiling and poses with them for a photograph at which I say, "Excuse me, how did the photos of the wrens come out". He he he, she talks to us for at least five minutes whilst I'm thinking up question after question to ask her and he with the long face reads the menu three times in a row.......

Don't mess with Birthday Girl!

Ps: She say's "Thank you for the cards and good wishes and does anyone want a old ar*e hole when we are back"

    What you laughing at, iv'e just poo'd on your hand

    Black Kite performing for her tit bits

    Boo ok Owl

    Tea for three.......

    Mummy feeding baby....

We Peak to early...........

We are both sitting outside in a Karri tree forest as the sun starts to set, camped up for the night with two of the biggest smiles on our faces you will ever see, I have swept the kangaroo poo off of our site, we possibly may have visitors tonight, I have poured out a Guinness and we have gone through today's photographs, not sure we will have any dinner tonight as not hungry after our last port of call.......  So how did we peak a day early, it started with breakfast when we were being spied upon by our Aussie 'I can talk and bore the the hind legs off a kangaroo' neighbour when he walked over and started talking to us, asking Julie if she was ever a blonde surfer babe..... we gave it 5 minutes, then 'The Blonde Surfer Babe' got up and washed up the breakfast dishes, after 10 minutes I gave him a book showing the free campsites available, then at 15 minutes, 'Surfer Babe' told me to get my ar*e into gear as I wanted to get away early....... At which point I jolted awake and said "Adios mi amigo aburrido"  He laughed and said Goodbye and I got out of their before he could get to a Spanish /English dictionary........ 
First stop was back where we saw the Dolphins yesterday, not a great result, they were there but we're not playing and they were swimming a lot of the time under the rock I had sat on yesterday, whereas today we are on the dirt track road and although we possibly took 60-70 photos, everyone of them has been deleted.........
We then head back towards Augusta, driving 75kms to Hamlin Bay where we hope to see some sting and eagle rays, we get there and start to have lunch first, then whilst 'Dishwasher Babe' is doing her bit, I go to check out where the Rays could be......... Whoosh....... Dishwasher Babe is now in the way, I've been, I've seen and I'm back to change into my swimming gear, chattering away like an excited child.  Two minutes later we are both on the beach, click, click, clicking away, I then get in the water with them and they just swim right up to me, hover over my toes, decide I must be off and then swim away again, I chase after them with go pro videoing under the water and they look as if they patrol a specific area around the boat ramp. After about 10 minutes of me squealing, touching them, they touching me, including their tails swiping me twice, a fisher-lady walks down towards me, enters the water and holds three fish she had just caught and filleted down under the water, whoosh 2 with a flap and a flick a ray is over her hand and the fish are gone whilst she is stroking the Rays head, she then repeats this process possibly a dozen times, 50% of which she had me right up next to her and the rays.  Can I get anymore excited, not today I can't........... Having spent longer at Hamlin Bay than expected I'm now in a rush to get to our next stop off near Margaret River, called Berry Farm.
We arrive about 3pm so only have an hour before it closes, it's basically a Berry Farm cafe, only they encourage the, you guessed it, Blue Fairy Wrens to frequent the place.  We get there order tea and a scone, whilst I have a Boysenberry Pie and ice cream at which the waitress says, if you cannot finish it, we can give you a bag to take it home, hmm must be big I thought....... We sit down and whilst we are both happy due to the Ray experience, there are no Blue Fairy Wrens to be seen, possibly a bit late says 'Birdie Babe' we are sitting there and sitting there and then I see a splash of Blue behind 'Blue Babe' I'm up over the other side of the terrace with a table of eight Chinese who are or at least sound more excited than us, little 'Better late than never Babe' is now clicking away whilst shouting instructions to me not to get too close and frighten them away.....
Frighten them away, you are having a laugh........ Our drinks and food arrive whilst we are away from the table, we return and start to consume said purchases when a Bright Blue Fairy Wren lands on the table between us and starts helping himself to the cream for the scone, next second there's another one looking as if she might put a pattern on my hat.......  The food is left for awhile whilst close up photos are being taken and yet still they come and land on the table, the chair backs and the cream pot, in fact we actually gave up taking photos of them, as we had enough and so as to finish our food before they closed, hence why no dinner for us tonight.  We are the last to leave, without a doggie pie bag, I would add and head off to the Town itself to look for a decent restaurant for tomorrow night, we look and look but decide to ask the campsite people, when we check in, it's not going to be easy, put it like that.........
And so on the last night of her 59th year of breathing, she is sat in a pitch dark Forrest, surrounded by 100+ feet trees, no TV signal on a Friday night, 14,500kms away from home but  she is content with life, happy with her lot, comfortable with herself and apparently only wants for one thing, 
'A good man' anyone know where you get one of those?

    Eagle Ray

    Sting Ray

    The Business end

    Afternoon Tea anyone!

    I'm also looking for a good man!

All Change...........

We start the day off at 5.20am, its 15degrees so on goes the heater..... We awake again at 7am to the news that this weekend when we get to Perth there is going to be a life threatening heatwave.  It's life threatening when the temperature is 40+ for three or more continuous days..... Looks like we will be leaving one extreme for another next week as this time next week we will be in the good old UK....

We are on the road just before 9am en-route to Dunsborough, it's nice enough but something is niggling us that we cannot put our finger on about the place.  The only thing of interest for us is the ATM, still we stop for coffee and a muffin which is served in tradional style, Australian tradional that is, paper cup and paper bag........

We are off to the lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste, via Eagle Bay where we are supposed to be able to see someone's favourite bird.  We get there walk around and see absolutely nothing in the way of birds or wildlife, although I did see a couple of 'tits' on the sand dunes....... 

We continue towards the lighthouse until almost there when I change my mind and go to Sugarloaf Rock.  We get out and the view is magnificent and according to the man we park next to who comes here every Thursday to read his book, it's amazing when the Whales pass by in the Winter.....

Off we go looking and listening for little tweeters, I am looking up in the trees whilst, her behind me is letting me do all the work as she is looking out at sea...... I suddenly hear, Is that Dolphins and look out to see a pod of between 15-20 Dolphins playing in the surf.  That's it I'm off, down a perilous rocky path, over 100yds of boulders before climbing up some rocks and cliffs, it takes about 20 minutes but I can watch the Dolphins swim further away from me clearly now...... They start to jump and dive and generally play as they cruise up and down the beach, after about 30minutes balanced on the top of a rock, I start to suffer with the heat and dehydration, time to go, so thank goodness I was born with the looks of a mountain goat, scrub that, I mean the agility of a mountain goat......  I go back the way I came and am totally exhausted once I reach the top of the cliff path and the van, I scramble into the van and drink half a litre of water before explaining to the little patient lady, how happy I am, how much of a high I am experiencing at seeing my first wild breaching Dolphin, how lucky we are to have come at this time and that I cannot stop singing 'Oh what a wonderful world' when the little patient lady says, "I was talking to that guy who said you can drive down onto the beach and be nearer than you were"

Do any of you know how a balloon feels when you let the air out of it, I DO!

We check out the road and 'Unprintable word' yes you can get to the beach in about 5 minutes this way......

We eventually get to the Lighthouse where they again want an entrance fee and you have to be part of a guided tour....... We only want to see the view, we don't want to know how bright it is etc so we buy an ice cream instead........ We walk around the outside of it and it's grounds when holy Moses, you could not make it up, we see 3-5 of madam's fairy wrens...... We then spend the next 20 minutes standing outside the ladies toilets with our telescopic lens taking pictures or rather trying to take pictures of said elusive birds, fortunately the birds moved on before anyone actually complained about us........

Okay it's almost 3pm, let's go for afternoon tea at Bunker Bay, we pull into the car park, walk down the hill and find a nice looking bistro type bar almost on the beach, what would you like I say to little one but before she can reply, I hear "Sorry we are closed for a private wedding function". I just thought it but someone close by me actually said it.........

Never mind let's go down the end of the road and see what it's like, we get there intending to stay for 5 minutes when I see a guy with snorkelling gear, what's it like I ask, Great he replies....... 10 minutes later I am swimming about, playing and videoing a Bamboo Shark and tons of other fish who were swimming about in large shoals, well that is all but one that the little lady who stayed dry and on the beach saw an Osprey dive and remove it from a shoal for its dinner........

In camp and a cup of tea, dinner and 'What are they looking at'?  It's possum time again, so armed with torch and camera we are taking photos when someone in one of the cabins shouts out to his partner, "Shut the windows, I can see lightening outside"............

    Play Time

   The Queue at the Ladies.

 A fed up Bamboo Shark waiting for me to go away

   A fed up Possum, waiting for me to go away.....

    Sugarloaf Rock

You have to laugh........

'Blankets again last night but we awake to the morning forecast saying 26 degrees today and rising to 36 at the weekend into next week, so we will be leaving on a high........

Off to Busselton itself and the visitors centre, once again I am struck with how clean, tidy and green the place looks, the lady in the centre has a laugh with us and points us in the direction of putting a new camera to the test tomorrow........ We then stop for coffee with a choice of two places that look equally nice, we choose one and although we had to pay up front the place could have been anywhere in Europe, it was modern, clean, efficient staff, beautiful views and good coffee, they did let themselves down with serving carrot cake with two dessert spoons but it was nice to get it on a plate and not in a paper bag..........

We then go onto Busselton Jetty which is the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, ooooooo I hear you say, well get ready for an even bigger oooooooo because at the end of it they have built an underwater observatory, using the old timbers that were damaged in a fire and the new supports of the jetty as the basis of a reef. We are just surprised that the actual jetty is open and in a good condition.......  We buy our entrance tickets to the jetty and observatory which entitles us to a free ride on the jetty train, oh if only the girl that was so happy to tell us that knew how much I detest those trains, but we graciously decline the train ride explaining we would prefer to walk the 1.8kms.

But then the granddad in me saw something that I just had to buy and then you can't buy for one so I ended up with certain things that shall I say would make me look rather stupid walking into an underwater  observatory with, so we managed to persuade the staff to hold them until our return.

We walk the jetty and wonder why only some of it has railings on both sides, we later find out, this is the new part after the first 170 yards was destroyed in a storm, thankfully the sun is shining, the sea is calm and there is no wind, we feel safe, well one of us does......

To go down onto the sea bed in the observatory you have to do it as part of a guided tour, normally I place guides just above jetty trains, but on this occasion we had Warren who was brilliant, not only did he love his job, he was knowledgeable about all things fishy/sea and did not come across as being full of himself and self important, we basically monopolised his time and had a great 55 mins in the observatory, seeing different fish, lots of different shoals of fish, sea slugs, octopi, coral, sponges, anenomies growing all over the man made reef and jetty supports.  

We walk back, pick up our purchases and then walk into town via the van, so as again not to be embarrassed........ Again as we walk around I am amazed at this town trying to keep up with the 21st century, normally, in fact every where we have been the Hotel (pubs) have all been dives, they are dark and dingy with a clientele that you would normally find in a betting shop and who think going out for a meal is McDonalds....... However here they have kept the old traditional exterior building but have turned the inside into a modern bistro type premises, I just cannot get over it, if I was ever to move to Western Australia, it would be to Busselton.  That said, the chances of me moving to WA are about the same as me moving to the South Pole........

During lunch we read the information centre brochures and I have a quick change of plan due to certain birds and possums being in a certain campsite down the road from us which is classified as a possum sanctuary.  We call in to confirm their status and walk around it to check it out, as we do so someone finds a possum asleep in the branches at which point I think to myself, I bet she wishes she had brought her new camera......  We book in for tomorrow night and return to our camp to go for a walk through the peppermint trees where again the little lady finds an occupied possum nest but with potential Tiger snake territory under and around it, we venture no nearer but get a good telephoto picture of the fur on the back of a sleeping possum........

Now not being happy with my possum pics from last night we go out hunting again for them tonight, as we are walking around we come across a guy that has obviously been in a dark and dingy hotel all afternoon, he approaches us with his half empty bottle in hand and slurs at us, something about possums........ I simply replied, yes and then looked through the lens of my camera up into the trees hoping he would take the hint and bugger off, thing is, people in that state don't do the norm and he started slurring at us more and more, so much so that his wife/partner/girlfriend came rushing out to help, 1. With the translation, 2. With getting him home, 3. Saving us all from the Embarassment.

She tells us about a nest box with a possum in at which we gladly thank her and immediately make our way to it.  It's just coming up to sunset when I grab a chair and sit down to stake it out after checking the box is occupied. 10 minutes go by, it's getting darker, I'm getting bored but there is no movement. 20 minutes go by, it's darker still, I'm fidgeting but there is still no movement. 30 minutes go by when someone tests her camera and says that's not right, I get up go over and advise to change her settings when using the flash, at which point I turn around to see a possum come out of the nest box we have been watching and scamper up a tree, Doh.........

We see a couple, one of which has a baby in its pouch but no good photos, so I come in to write this post and have a drink, during which time we hear the odd bump outside on the roof.

Out we go and there are two of them posing in the tree and on a roof, before you know it, it's 22.15hrs and most of the camp site are asleep, I've still got half a glass left and someone next to me says for possibly the last time today, "I do prefer this camera to my last one"  I reply, "You mean the one I bought you, Goodnight"

   Shark Watch

    Jetty Train

   Just around the corner

    I need a quack, my tail is bleeding....

R U sure it's Summer here?

This Australian Summer apparently is the worse for a number of years according to the locals, it got down to 12 degrees last night and sleeping outside in a tin box in that temperature is not fun, had to use blankets and the air con on heat,  I suspect El Niño is to blame and when you see the whole country's forecast each day, it's weird, flooding in one area, drought in another, gales and thunderstorms in another and the temps above 40 degrees somewhere else, we,to be honest, have been lucky avoiding the worst of it most of the time.

Most of today (6 hours) has been taken up by driving 400kms for a Coffee and the worst pie I have had since arriving here, oh and we picked up a new camera.........  Someone is estatic with it but has to wait until it's fully charged, so she is sitting reading the instruction manual and desperately hoping I'm going to be taking her somewhere tomorrow where she can use it......... Unfortunately tomorrow morning is another jetty visit and then an aquarium at the end of it actually built under the sea, the afternoon will be a lighthouse at the northern tip but don't tell her, it does have her favourite birds there as well.......

We are now in Busselton and after a late afternoon / early evening stroll along the fore shore, Busselton at the moment has shot to the top of my favourite town in Western Australia, not surprising really but it's a real town with almost everything you need, it's got nice houses, it's clean and tidy, it has a good road network and all the wealthy people live here........

Slightly later at posting today, mainly as a result of not having done a huge amount so saved posting until after our Western ring tailed possum hunt and due to the fact they are nocturnal have just come back in from wandering around the campsite with a torch shining up into the trees and then taking flash photos.  Yes we did get some funny looks and I am glad I was not doing it on my own otherwise I suspect nobody would have believed I was a possum hunter and not a peeping Tom, actually it is amazing what you can see when it's dark and they have a light on inside a tent..........

So it's possum pics today and although they are categorised as endangered, we saw three inside the first hour, so suspect it's just the fact that as we now both have neck ache that's what makes them appear to be difficult to locate........

Got a phone call from the Doctor at the Hospital today saying the results of my blood test indicates that I will be fine providing I do not come into contact with 'Kryptonite'

    Turn that bloody torch off.......

    Fresh peppermint tree for breakfast

    I'm cute like the photographer