Day 81 Perth

1st April already, I can't believe how fast the days are going now. Just realised that we leave for Margaret River in the morning, I was quite convinced it was on Sunday so have just "lost" a day and I was planning to go to the beach tomorrow too instead of driving.Oh well…..

Had a good day today, not that any day is not a good day. Jennifer offered to drive us up the Swan Valley and into the hills to see areas of Perth that most visitors don't necessarily get to see. Our first port of call was to the Mundaring Weir and Cy O'Connor Lake. This is a lake and pumping station that provides drinking water to 50 country towns and part of Perth .It was originally built back in the gold rush times to provide water to Kalgoolie mines some 600km inland. We then drove up through the Swan Valley through the vineyards and wineries. Bill and I were expecting to see this huge river meandering through the valley as it is massive down in Perth but the vines are all irrigated through bore holes as the river up there as all but dried up through the summer and the bit in Perth is all tidal and not fresh water at all. We called into a garden centre, Waldeck on Vine and had a lovely lunch in their café, felt like being back at home. We ordered a Ploughman's Platter to share but it was more like a Mediterranean Antipasti when it arrived, really nice but not what we were expecting. The last visit of the day was to Louise and Neville's house in Vine, these are friends of Jennifer and David and they have a enormous house set in an acre of ground next to the golf course and they had kangaroo in their garden, what a treat that was for us as we have seen so few on this trip, if you discount the road kill which is very sad. I've got to start packing now, most annoying as I was looking forward to another day of this glorious weather and it maybe cooler down at Margaret River.