Monday, Nov 3 - back to Santa Barbara!

Pic: Sydney skyline

Up at 2:45 AM. Dumped the suitcases into the car and we took off, Mark driving, to the Perth airport in drizzle. The roads were empty and we got to the airport in 30 minutes and left the car at Avis, and got into line at Qantas. Bob requested a window seat for the flight over Australia to Sydney and we got to our gate, got flat whites (coffee) and got onto our 737..and Bob got to his seat only to find a blank wall instead of a window. Quite claustrophobic and irritating, although it was cloudy most of the way over. Bob could flatten his seat and catch a glimpse of view. Anyway, we got to Sydney at noon and Mark headed over to United and we continued onto the international terminal for our Qantas flight.

We managed to get rid ourselves of our remaining Oz dollars. Couldn’t find an outlet to plug my computer into and the battery was low, so blogging was impossible. Finally go onto our 747 and had the wonderful luck of having an empty seat between us for the 13+ hour flight. Qantas gave us a good lunch, lots of movies and TV, and we popped a sleeping pill and in no time were cruising into LAX. Picked up our luggage, cleared customs, got outside. I managed to find my cell phone buried deep in my suitcase and called Mark who had just gotten to Budget where we met him a

few minutes later. What luck that our flights were so well coordinated and neither was late!

We drove home, arriving at 2 pm, said goodbye to Mark who was anxious to get to his house and see, his cat, Simpson. We called the Cat House Hotel and went down to pick up Jane. They had taken great care of her and given her a lot of attention and food and she looked pretty good.

Spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mineral residue on the floors that had been flooded by the water heater, but the new heater was all installed and we had hot water. Could have been a real disaster had Phebe not noticed the leak! Thanks millions to her, Curry and Hilary!!!

Picked up Chinese food, ate and went to bed!

Tuesday, Nov 4 - recovering from jet lag, but as I type…Barack has just been elected!! Wow!!!

Bob saw 152 bird species, of which 38 were life birds (including nine new parrots!!).

Sunday, Nov 2 - Exploring Fremantle

Pics: Fremantle wterfront, Maritime Museum, stern of the Batavia, Fremantle cafes

Sunny and warm! Mark got up early and drove off to investigate some local birding sites. Bob and I slept in until eight. Cooked up some breakfast and Mark returned with some great shots of the sun rising behind Perth.

Bob and I set off for Fremantle about eleven and easily found parking at the harbor. Walked over to the Maritime Museum Shipwreck Gallery which has a wonderful exhibit of the recovery of the wreck of the Batavia, a Dutch ship that hit a reef in 1629 off the coast near where Geraldton is today. The 300+ passengers were stranded on two small islands while the captain and officers went off in a small boat to Java to get help. When the commander returned months later, he found soldiers on one island and mutineers on the other with a few enslaved survivors and evidence that the mutineers had murdered ~120 others. Quite a gruesome tale, but fascinating to see how timbers, canons, pottery, etc were found and reassembled 300 years later.



We walked around the downtown of this pretty city full of tourists and locals, and found an internet café where I found out that Phebe, Curry and Hilary had taken care of our plumbing problems and we will be able to take a hot shower when we get home! Many thanks to all!!


We drove back to our trailer, trying and failing to find diesel on a Sunday. We watched Fox Sports for a while as Perth was hosting international air racing: small planes competing for the best time for going horizontally and vertically through a complicated series of inflated pylons placed throughout the wide Swan. Quite a sight and the best possible weather conditions for showing off Perth/Fremantle. Check it out on TV Sunday.

We drove back downtown at six and wandered by the myriad of crowded sidewalk cafes, finally choosing Sandino’s where we started out by sharing half a kilo of chili mussels that was fabulous with lots of spicy tomato sauce. We followed that with a Capsicum/Italian Sausage pizza which was good but a little weird with pepperoni-like sausage and a Caesar salad. Our waitress started out by being very snippy and gave Bob a withering look when he asked for more napkins with the mussel dish, but gradually warmed up to us and was quite cheery by the time we left. We got back to our car and drove to our trailer, packed up and went to bed,

Saturday, Nov 1 - to Fremantle

Pics: 'Roo and grass tree, Wonnerup House, Our trailer!

Bob and I took a walk around the Bushlands property, seeing many kangaroos, flowers and birds. Back for breakfast, made some sandwiches, cleaned up, packed and were off at ten and headed north. We drove to the beach just north of Busselton. It was warm and sunny and about 60 degree and even though it was a Saturday, the beach was practically deserted.

We continued on to Tuart (yet another kind of Eucalyptus) Forest National Park and walked out on a boardwalk to a large bird blind and saw Black-necked Stilts up close and a Yellow-billed Spoonbill, a life bird. We are continually amazed how well constructed and maintained the public facilities are in Australia, compared with the US where many things seem to be falling apart.

Across the street was a National Trust Historic Place, Wonnerup House, built in 1839, and one of the original pioneer family’s house and farm. Beautiful colonial house with much of the original furnishings. I bought a ticket and walked around it while the boys birded, but then they spotted a Western Corella, a white parrot, on the grounds and had to buy tickets to get near it!!

We continued north, the road becoming a four-lane divided highway - the first we’ve seen this trip. We passed through Bunbury and Mandurah, until Fremantle was only about 30 miles away. I pulled out the Yellow Folder where Bob keeps all the travel papers and hotel confirmations…and couldn’t find anything on the next hotel. I had reserved a cottage back on our first day in Perth as we were finding most things booked due to a flying show this weekend. I guess I had never printed it out and didn’t even know the name of the facility, let alone where it was!
We pulled off the highway and tried to find an internet café where I could retrieve the info on my AOL account…but unlike the tiny towns we had been in so far, the bustling one we were in now had nothing - everyone has computers of their own. Slight panic…we thought of trolling neighborhoods in hopes of using an unsecured wireless account somewhere.

Finally I rechecked my notebook, and, Yes, I had written down the name, Woodman Point Holiday Park, on an obscure page. Whew! Especially as I had paid for our lodgings in full. Anyway, Woodman Point was on the map just north of a huge naval/industrial area and about five miles south of Fremantle. We easily found the Holiday Park about four and they had my reservation. It is a large trailer/tent park, rather nicely landscaped with large trees and we now are in a double-wide trailer! Very plastic and prefab, but colorful, spacious and clean. We settled down on our front porch to watch parrots flying about and for a celebratory beer, and then took off for downtown Fremantle for dinner.

Fremantle is a small city at the mouth of the Swan River, just downriver from Perth. We parked at the lively harbor to look for dinner. The Mussel Bar had been highly recommended for good food and great views right on the waterfront, but they have a dress code and wouldn’t let Mark in in his shorts, so we had to settle for Joe’s Seafood Restaurant and Bah (is he from Boston?). Very good shrimp, but pretty mediocre in general. Drove around Fremantle a bit; looks like an interesting shipping town with lots of new and old buildings which we’ll explore tomorrow.

Friday, Oct 31 - Margaret River

Pics: our Bushlands cottage, our sheep neighbors, a Grevellia in the garden

Sunny again! We all drove to Margaret River and had a good breakfast of banana pancakes and ham and cheese baguettes. The boys left at 8:45 for Dunsborough to take their whale-watching cruise in hope of getting a few more pelagic species on the trip list and I walked around the village, looking at the shops and settled into a nice bookstore to catch up on email and blog.

I found out that our hot water heater had sprung a leak - every traveler’s nightmare - but that Phebe, our house sitter, and caught it and gotten her plumber to drain the heater before, I think, too much damage had been done…Anyway good to be warned rather than arrive home and find the mess unexpectedly. Hilary and Curry are trying to coordinate the plumber now that I have corrected the House Book with the new plumber’s name!
have corrected the House Book with the new plumber’s name!

I left after a couple of hours and caught a taxi back to Bush lands Cottages - taxis are an appropriate mode of transportation in a wine-tasting area - and relaxed! Took a nap, had a walk around the grounds, seeing cockatoos, our kangaroos, and a glimpse of the ocean. Read and sketched until Bob and Mark returned at 4. Into town for a very good dinner at Ze Arc of Iris restaurant.