Sun

9am Dentist, then King's Park. Spectacular Botanical Gardens of native Aust. plants from each area of the country.

Rainbow trout from the local Big W half price = $1.44

Mon

Chasing insurance quotes. Trevor & Frances who we met on our Scottish tour are currently in Europe, but their daughter kindly agreed to be our mail address.

By mid-afternoon we had agreed a price with the caravan guy, so raced across town to put a deposit down and pick up the camera lead. Have now booked the tow-bar place for a.m Wed to not only install the Red Anderson lead -(compulsory) ESC - electronic stabilisation control - but also the Grey Anderson lead to run the fridge while we're travelling, and the camera lead so that we can see what's happening behind the caravan.

Tues

On my constitutional this morning I had a look at some of the local lakes/waters. The caravan Park is called Karinyup Waters and includes a small lake. I heard a crazy cocky-screeching and saw a cockatoo being chased all over the sky by a currawong. The other cockies on the ground, with a reddish ring around the neck and eyes, were ignoring the whole thing. When he got to the ground the cocky was apparently now safe and the currawong went back to a fencepost. Not long after I saw the same behaviour with a small bird harassing a big crow in the air. Once the crow landed on a TV aerial he was left alone.

Dropped the camera cable off to Parkside Towbars. They're a big 4WD accessory place too. They're also the distributors for Clearview mirrors, so they'll fit them at the same time. When I reacted to the price the (applied) engineer pointed out that they're actually cheaper than replacing the original mirror. He gave us a big talk on towing. I'd asked about an adjustable height tow fitting. Although you see them everywhere he said they're an abomination, and illegal. You should alter the caravan, not the tow bar! Our new Ford Ranger (and all other current Fords) have a tow bar that is designed to be incompatible with any alternatives. The standards that all tow bars are rated at are only for the original fittings.

He likes utes with leaf springs distributing the weight way better than SUVs with softer springs that don't spread the weight. Also a big fan of load adjusters. He said that although we are rated to tow 3.5t, as a rule of thumb, we shouldn't tow anything heavier than the towing vehicle. That means even a 200 series Landcruiser isn't enough with fuel and people on board, you have to go to a Dodge RAM or similar to tow 3.5. The off-road stuff is way heavier than the highway caravans. I loved his expression of "in most cases 2 people and a shi tzu will put you over the legal limit."

Then to Target to get bedding and Big W to get a couple of plates and bowls. We have some splayds and an electric saucepan from Odette. Busy little home-makers.

The freeways here are impressive, up to 6 lanes, but still get congested. In spite of a lot of the very efficient public transport being free. The usual problem of the city spreading out rather than in-filling. Not hard to understand when you're on the edge of vast empty spaces.