This afternoon we set off for Busselton to stay with Mick's sister Maureen. It took about 21/2 hours and there was hardly any traffic. Maureen has a daschund called Sam and as you can see from the photo Sam soon made friends with Mick. Luckily we didn't see any evidence of bush fires so hopefully all will be ok now. It was nearly 40C today, too hot to be outside but the beach is 3 minutes walk away so maybe tomorrow we will try the water.

You may have heard that there have been some bad bush fires South of Perth which cover a very large area! When we went to the funeral yesterday Perth was very hazy as a result of drifting smoke from the fires. We could even smell the smoke for a couple of days particularly at night time! I think the fires are contained now. Saturday's in the Merendino household is cricket day. Josh played in the morning and Adam in the afternoon. So we lazed around, walked to th...

We left fairly early this morning to get the 10:00 ferry to Rottnest Island situated just off the Perth coast. It was a smooth 30 minute journey. Rottnest is about 11 km long and 4.5 km at its widest point. It is owned by the government and the only people who live there have to have a full time job. It is also home to the quocka a small furry marsupial and about 17,000 live on the island. When the Dutch landed on the island in the 1600s they thought these anim...

We woke up this morning to s beautiful blue sky and no sign of any storms. We were supposed to be meeting someone today but they had to cancel. So off we went to Perth by bud and train and collected our camera which needed to be fixed. Not long after we arrived the lens decided to stop working. Luckily we managed to find a good camera man who knew exactly what the problem was and how to fix it. Mick then took me to an area called Northbridge which is the Perth ...

The storm continued well into the night and it was raining again when we got up. So we decided to drive to Yanchep National Park which is North of Perth past zoo dialup. The weather brightened and the sun came out so we drove along the coast road past all the beautiful sandy beaches. By the time we arrived it was lunchtime and therefore hot in the sunshine. Yanchep is a large park with kangaroos and some koala bears. There is also a lake called Loch McNess but no...