My last entry saw us leaving our Housesit at Waikiki and now with one more housesit under our belts we are due to start another in a couple of days. The time has gone so quickly with busy times and lazy days, and now I need to recap what we've been up to.
We left Waikiki and headed back to the caravan park at Dawesville where we spent a lazy week just enjoying being back in our van. We caught up with our friends Richard and Helen, and spent an evening with them on their lifestyle village playing bingo in the social club. It was a great evening with many laughs but no winnings for us I'm afraid. 
Our next housesit was at Roelands, looking after two little dogs for the owners, Cindy and David. We spent a really enjoyable evening with them before they left on their trip early the next morning. We had two and a half weeks in this beautiful home on a hill of the property with great views and a breeze to help with the very high temperatures that we have been experiencing. Apparently this year is the hottest summer on record for Perth and it really has felt like it! There was a large water gully up behind the house that provided water to the area and made for good fun for the local families as they used their inflatables to ride the water down. Using Roelands as a base, we explored the area, Brunswick Junction and Collie one day and another, the Ferguson Valley where we saw the large mural on the  Wellington Dam wall. We found Gnomesville with the thousands of gnomes left by many people over the years and then on to Frog's Hollow where there is the start of a similar collection but this time of frogs. We saw a sign at Frog's Hollow explaining the meaning of "up" as in the many names of places in Western Australia that end in up. Up means "place of" as in Manjimup meaning place of Manjin (seeds)
I had my blood test and CT scan done ready for my yearly checkup which this year was a phone call from my specialist in Qld and thankfully I was given the all clear for another year. Chris had an appointment to see a skin specialist in Bunbury and is now waiting for a day surgery at Busselton. He has a spot that has come up on his forehead and it needs looking at. It will be removed regardless if it cancerous or not. Only a biopsy afterwards will show that. We also had to get the roadworthy certificate for the car and renew the rego so it's been a busy time for the necessary, practical things in life!
We left Roelands and headed for the RV camp at Donnybrook, a council run park where we stayed for 3 nights. Donnybrook is a fairly large country town inland from Bunbury. We drove around this area which is known for its apple orchards and explored the town. we found a couple of Op shops, one of which was a large bright blue building and was full of all sorts of different things.
It was just as we were leaving Donnybrook that we discovered we had a problem with the Finscan Nucleus system that controls our caravan set up, lights, tanks, batteries etc. so we had to make a quick dash to Picton, near Bunbury to see an auto electrician. After some fiddling and not knowing how, Levi got the touchscreen working again but it looked like something had shifted as now we needed to touch below where we used to. We decided we should get a new touchscreen now as if this one went wrong again we would be totally stuck. After a few days and many unanswered messages later, I found out from a guy from AOR (Australian Off Road, totally unrelated, and thank goodness for youtube) who used to use the same Finscan system in their setups, that Finscan went bust a couple of years ago. Now we have organised to replace our old system with Redarc products and this will happen while we are at our next housesit at Eaton.
When we left Levi at SouthWest RV we headed further inland again to Maranup Ford Caravan Park. This is a small park set in shady gardens on a working property. We spent eight nights here, enjoying some good happy hours and exploring the surrounding towns of Boyup Brook, Balingup, Bridgetown, Greenbushes, Manjimup, Nannup and Boyanup.
In Bridgetown we went to the farmers markets and swapped books at one of three street libraries we found. We were amazed by all the puzzles in a section of the visitors centre, mostly donated by Mrs Jessie Brierley in 1978. The puzzles have been added to over the years and the latest one, waiting to be completed is over 54,000 pieces.
In Boyup Brook we chatted with the lady in the visitors centre, admired the shell collection and the arts and craft for sale, all made by locals. We found a couple of the holograms that are placed around the town and read of the annual country music festival that was being held there the following weekend.
In Greenbushes we drove past the very large Lithium Mine which produces around 25% of the worlds lithium and went to the lookout to see over the old open cut tin mine with the lithium mine behind that. We toured the discovery centre in Greenbushes which told about the local history, its people, mining, nature and conservation. Chris also managed to get in a game of golf here.
We drove through Nannup, stopping to admire the woodwork in a gallery and local art work in a shop before heading to Balingup where just out of town we found the old cheese factory. Expecting to find and taste local cheese products, we found instead a place full of all sorts of things but no food stuffs. This place was huge and full of pottery, leather goods, furniture, some souvenir things and over 30,000 secondhand books. Just about any author you could think of and if you couldn't find one, the guy behind the counter knew where to look. After a good while looking around this place we went into town where we had lunch. Chris had a huge burger with the lot and I had a very tasty chicken and blue cheese pie. The pie was so good we bought two more par-cooked ones to freeze for another day.
We drove down to Manjimup and looked around both the Power and the Timber museums. We bought some large avocados in the visitors centre, six for $2. They were firm and are ripening up slowly so we are still enjoying them now.
We left Maranup Ford and headed back to Donnybrook for another three nights maximum stay at the RV camp. It was here that we saw our first rain since Easter time last year. It was only a small downpour but good to see in this very dry state. It didn't last long and we were back to getting the high 30, low 40 degree temperatures. 
We left Donnybrook and came here to the Big Valley Caravan Park. This is another working property and on a bigger scale than Marunup Ford. It's just out of Margaret River and is home to a lot of backpackers at the moment who are working here for the grape harvest or in hospitality. From here we drove to Augusta and found the lighthouse. Very majestic in a beautiful setting and where the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet. Chris decided to climb the lighthouse and was blasted with a strong wind as he stepped out at the top. I was happy to stay below and wander around the grounds before checking out the interpretative centre in the old lighthouse keeper's cottage. We then had a look around the small town before having fish and chips for lunch. Later we headed to The Jewel Cave where we had booked a tour. This cave is probably the largest we have been in and although spectacular in places, we felt it was not the best we have seen. The Jewel Cave is situated on Cave road which runs from Augusta all the way to Dunsborough, passed Busselton. As the name implies, it's known for the caves all along this coastline.
We decided that as Margaret River is known for its wineries (215 in total) that we should do a wine tour. The "Cheers" bus picked us up from the park and along with 14 others plus Jason our driver, we visited three wineries, a brewery where we had lunch, the chocolate factory with an endless supply of small chocolate buttons to sample while perusing the great selection of chocolates and then the last stop of the day, a distillery for cheese and biscuits and more booze! We had a great day, lots of sampling of wines and spirits, good company and lots of laughs with the rest of the group.
The other day we saw on Facebook that friends we had met in Darwin were also here in Margaret River so after a quick message and phone call, we met up with Chris and Denise. We had a drive around the many beaches and a walk along the path above the beach at Prevelly which is the beach famous for the surfing competitions in Margaret River. We then had lunch at The Sea Garden Cafe before dropping Chris and Denise back at their van where they needed to pack up ready to leave the next day. They had already booked their caravan parks in advance. Fairly new to this travelling lifestyle, they like to be organised well ahead, but that doesn't allow for any change of plans. It was a good day and like ships in the night, hopefully we'll meet up again, somewhere along the road! We, on the other hand don't like to plan ahead and just wing it. We always manage to find somewhere.
Yesturday we drove to Busselton where we checked out where the hospital was in readiness for Chris's day surgery and then went to the busy Busselton Jetty. We took the slow train along the nearly 2 kms long jetty and then the tour down to the observatory at the end. The observatory sits on the bottom of Geographe Bay where the water only ever gets about nine metres deep. We learnt that the whole observatory with an overal weight of 550 tons was built in Freemantle. It was then floated down to Busselton where it was filled with water to make it sink and fixed to the bottom of the bay by 18 mitre long bolts driven into the seabed. As we left Busselton, we decided to check out Dunsborough which was a bigger town than we imagined and then on through Yallingup and Cowaramup with its many cow structures scattered around the town. We drove passed many of the 215 wineries in the area as we headed back to Margaret River.
This weekend its Labour Day long weekend in WA and the park is busy with people coming in for the weekends. We are getting our entertainment from watching people setting up their rigs and families enjoying themselves. Tomorrow evening there will be live entertainment here along with wine tastings and homemade pizzas. A good way to spend our last evening here before heading out on Monday. Next stop, Eaton near Bunbury.