Guilderton/Moore River cont.

We may only be an hour or so out of Perth, but in our little valley there isn't any TV reception. Gary, the Campmeister, said that, when he took over 7yrs ago, there used to be 40' high TV aerials that were all corroded in the salt air and actually falling down. He put satellite aerials into the cabins, and since that has done a lot of installations to the holiday houses around the village as well. Their satellite dishes are way bigger than what we're used to, mainly you need a decoder, though there are supposed to be some free to air stations. So caravans that have them usually have portable ones that you mount outside, or on a pole on your bumper bar.

Fri South Fremantle

Back to town today for a dental appointment, so heading to Fremantle, to a caravan park that we recce'd last week.

Sat

We were worried about traffic noise, but the only thing that I heard during the night (other than'erself snoring, obviously) was a bird going cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo absolutely non-stop. I have no idea what sort of bird it was.

…..Boom-tish

Someone has a bird-feeder next door and it was surrounded by galahs this morning. They are really quiet, unlike the cockies and currawongs.

Between us and the beach there is a reclaimed landfill, which is also part of the Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor, so it'll be interesting to see whether we get any bonus wildlife. One sign painted on the path said to beware of snakes, so I suppose they qualify.

We picked up the birthday gel from that lovely new Perth airport. Must update the satnav in the Ranger - it thinks we're splashing through swamp to get there. We tried to show her a bit of downtown on a quiet Sat arvo. A bit of a fail with the motorway system led to us finally giving up and taking her back to Fremantle. The new 'van doesn't have Kellyspace, so she's in a cabin 100m away. There's more room at her's, so we ate the birthday bbq there.

Sun

Walked and free-bused into town. Those Freo Markets are really impressive. I particularly liked one stall that had a range of shoes, sandals and bags made out of old truck tarps and tyres. Unfortunately living in a caravan means no gratuitous purchases, so we got out of the markets carrying only a belt for Kelly.

Rottnest Return

Just a day-trip this time. One of the reasons for us staying at Freo was that it is the closest (and cheapest) ferry. They also have a 7.30 sailing that most of the island workers get.

This time there was an osprey on the ~70y/o osprey stack.

We even saw him have an unsuccessful attempt at a fish. Apparently the gulls come and clean up his leftover fish-bones when he's away. Also at Cape Vlamingh we saw 4 dolphins playing in the waves. Since about 1990 they've also had a colony of NZ fur seals.

One wind turbine and a solar array runs the water desalinator and power for the island, with batteries and a diesel generator for the days without wind or sun. As they claim to get more wind than Wellington and 3,000 hours of sun a year they should be fairly right.

This time we did the lighthouse. The fresnel lenses are the originals from the 1800's, the bulb is now LEDs. The lenses weigh over 6 tonnes and rest on ~1,500kgs of Mercury. The mercury tank replaced steel rollers in the 1800s. It is turned by a little 200W electric motor! It runs in the daytime as well (un-illuminated) as that little motor couldn't re-start that amount of weight.

Back to Karrinyup (the 'y' is silent in most Nyoongar words we're told) to give close access to town for Perth sightseeing.

There are 240 members in the Silver Valley Facebook group. It is a Victorian caravan brand that has only been going for about 4yrs. They have an agent in Perth, but aren't very common, so get excited when they see each other. We now have neighbours who also have one, so we've compared notes on the uses of space and packing and adhesive hooks. They're from Lake Cargellico and Wagga, and are also heading to Margaret River. It may be good that we're early in the season, as it sounds very popular.

Wed Aug 28th. It got to 30°C - the hottest winter day on record for Perth. I'd dropped the Ranger into Ford 1st thing, and taken 2 hours to bus/train/bus back. We ditched walking to the bus stop and got a nicely air-conditioned Uber to the local shopping centre (they only use "mall" for a pedestrian mall here) which was also a very comfy temp.