Heading into Perth

On our way into Perth, we detoured to visit the The Gravity Centre at Gingin.

Laurie climbed in the Wind Harp

We spent a fascinating morning here, revisiting our childhood, with all the interactive experiments they have for visitors to 'play' with.

Jeff and Jude never looked so good

The Gravity Centre is an exciting science education centre north of  Perth, and home to the Leaning Tower of Gingin.



Laurie testing the G-force

Jeff testing the G-force

The Leaning Tower of Gingin is the pride and joy of the centre.  It is an awesome feat of engineering.  The Tower is an impressive 45 metre tall steel structure, leaning at an angle of 15 degrees and held in place by 180 tons of concrete.

We throw the little balls in this big thing......and then what happens?

The extreme angle it leans at may very well make it the 'leaniest' purpose built tower in the world.  Its model and inspiration, the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans at a mere 5.5 degrees.

The amazing Leaning Tower of Gin Gin - we did climb up this!

Climbing the tower put the thrill back into science.

The view from the leaning tower

Laurie, Jeff and I took the 'Tower Challenge' - at the base of the tower we were each provided with a balloon which we had to fill with water, each to a different level, then climb the 222 steps to the top of the tower.  At the top we were to drop our balloons, all at the exact same time to see which balloon would hit the ground first - the lightest or the heaviest balloon.

Which balloon actually landed first?

Well we didn't quite get a definitive result, as one of us, not naming anyone, LAURIE, didn't let his balloon go at the same time as us, therefore sabotaging the experiment.

After a very good fun couple of hours we enjoyed lunch at the excellent nice café.  Of course we had to try the gravity burger, and it was YUMMY!

Yumm! a Gravity burger

We found another great free camp beside the Moore River, before our last few kms into Perth.  Laurie was most distressed to find a very large 'No Fires' sign at this camp spot.

Perth
There are few cities in the world which can match the beauty of Western Australia's capital.

The War memorial at Kings Park

The City of Perth is built on the banks of the magnificent Swan River and is flanked by the Darling Ranges to the east and Kings Park to the west. The shimmering Indian Ocean is only a few kilometres away.

Perth's metropolitan population is a mere 2 million with the state total at 2,535,000.

Our caravan park, Karrinyup Waters,

Our sites, side by side

 is very conveniently located just 14kms north of the city, 4kms to the beach and within walking distance to public transport.  We were surrounded by ducks and birds who wanted to share our meals.

Jeff with his friends, sharing a meal

We have had several wonderful days exploring this beautiful city, by car, ferry, bus, train and on foot.

Waiting for the bus

Waiting for the train

Waiting for the ferry

Jeff and I spent a day wandering the fantastic Kings Park, and the busy city centre,

Beautiful Kings Park

Beautiful Kings Park - The Women's Water Garden

while Jude and Laurie were enjoying the Swan Valley.

Jude in her element at a winery

Another winery

 A great meal to top off a great day

We all travelled on the bus and train into the city to join the famous Freemantle ferry and spent the day exploring that wonderful historic port city.

Historic Freemantle

Historic Freemantle

Jude and Laurie caught up with friends for lunch, friends they have had for almost 15 years, that they have actually never met.  Initialling meeting over the phone and keeping up that contact, by phone and email, for all those years. They had a fantastic day with Jan and Jack.

Historic Freemantle - Cappuccino Strip

Historic Freemantle

Historic Freemantle

The boys had a great day playing golf while Jude and I had a girls day at one of the local shopping centres.

After five wonderful days it was time to move on.

New Norcia to Cervantes

After our fantastic stay in New Norcia we once again headed for the coast, with Cervantes in our sights.  As we didn't leave till after lunch we made a stop at a great little free camp at Banksia Reserve, just an hour out of Cervantes.

Laurie just loves getting the fire ready

Of course Laurie got straight into the fire building, which was very welcome as it was a very chilly evening.



It ended up a cold night so we were ready for the fire

During the night the weather really turned and it rained and blew all night, in fact all of our chairs etc got soaked.

Cervantes
This laidback fishing village boasts white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, but the main reason we came here was as a base to visit The Pinnacles, and to visit The Lobster Shack and do one of their 'Lobster' tours.

First up we drove the 17kms south to explore the amazing limestone Pinnacles which rise up out of the sand dunes.

The Pinnacles
We entered the Pinnacles park and chose to do the tourist drive which takes you right around and through this amazing park.  There were plenty of places to get out of the car and walk around them, and plenty of photo opportunities.

Jude and I enjoying the Pinnacles

The Pinnacles desert covers an area of approximately 190 hectares, is around 60 metres above sea level, and contains thousands of limestone Pinnacles, some up to 5 metres high.

We were fascinated by the amazing limestone structures

The variation in colors and the stark relief of the Pinnacles against a backdrop of constantly shifting sand dunes creates an eerie landscape of ever changing moods.

Some were over 5 metres high

So how did these strange Pinnacles form?
The coast of Western Australia, from Shark Bay nearly to Albany, has a near continuous belt of Tamala Limestone which has been produced by the combination of wind, rain and the cementing agent of calcium.

There were thousands of them

A set of unique circumstances produced the pinnacles. Firstly the huge sand dunes stabilised. The rains which fell on the dunes leached down through the sand carrying the calcium. This resulted in the lower levels of the dune solidifying into a soft limestone. As this stabilisation occurred a layer of soil formed on top of the dune which allowed plants to grow and further cemented the limestone below. Gradually the lowest layer of soil, which lay between the surface and the limestone, formed into a hard cap which resulted in the old dunes having three levels - a soil and plant level near the surface, a hard cap below the surface, and a thick layer of soft limestone at the bottom of the dune.

The tourist drive was marked by the stones lining the driveway

 

Inevitably the roots from the plants on the top level found cracks and broke up the hard cap and the layer of soft limestone. The result was that under a surface covered with plants and soil the pinnacles developed. No one knows for sure how long ago this process occurred. It may have started as long ago as 500 000 years but equally it may only be a few thousand years old and it may still be continuing today. The Western Australian Museum has opted for some time in the last 80 000 years.

It was an amazing site

 

Anyway the advent of drier weather in the region resulted in the top layer of plants and soil being removed and gradually the pinnacles were exposed so that today they stand like strange sentinels on a plain of wind blown sand.

As with the wildflowers, people come from all over the world to see them,
and we have them right here - aren't we lucky!

 

We spent the most of the morning wandering around this fascinating desert park. We all loved this place.

Laurie, Jude, Helen and Jeff

 

The Lobster Shack

We were so looking forward to our close encounter with the Western Rock Lobster on the advertised tour, but unfortunately the day we were here the boats had not been out due to bad weather, and the tours had been cancelled. 

Nono Lobster and Grandma Lobster

 

So we had to make do with a Lobster lunch instead....OH! Poor us!

Jude really looked forward to this lobster!

 

 

New Norcia

Along the way on this amazing trip we meet lots of other like minded nomads/travellers, and we are always swapping stories or giving/receiving advice on where to go and what we have seen or should definitely see.

We take a lot of it on board, and a lot we dismiss.  We did meet a couple many weeks ago, somewhere in the NT, who were raving about this extraordinary little town in Western Australia, they were so excited about it that I did put it on our list of 'must see'.

Well yesterday we found ourselves in the fascinating town of New Norcia, about 145kms north of Perth.

New Norcia
One of Western Australia's most extraordinary architectural sights is the nineteenth century monastic community of New Norcia.

Extravagant buildings, olive trees and church bells, it is like a piece of Old Spain in the middle of the Australian bush.

The first 50 years of New Norcia's history is dominated by the towering figure of Bishop Rosando Salvado.  Along with another Spanish Benedictine monk, Dom Jose Serra, he founded New Norcia in 1846, spending the rest of his life making it one of the most progressive and successful missions in Australian history.

Rev Rosando Salvado as he leaves for Australia

Salvado's original vision was to create, among the indigenous people of the Victorian Plains, a Christian, largely self sufficient village based on agriculture.  However, after the decimation of the
local populations by introduced diseases in the 1860's, he concentrated his activity on giving a practical education to the indigenous children who were brought to New Norcia from all over the state.

 

Like other missionaries of the 19th century, his aim was to 'civilise' and evangelise according to the European ideals of the time, but he did so with sympathy for indigenous culture that was rare in his day.

Around their small monastery they built a small village comprising a church, flour mill, schools and a hostel.

Today the town is one of the great cultural heritage sites of Australia.

Twenty seven of its buildings are classified by the National Trust yet it also continues to be home to a community if Benedictine monks who own and operate this truly unique settlement.

The little township has a tourist information centre, museum and art gallery, with a gift shop of course, a roadhouse and a grand hotel.

We took part in the guided daily walking tour which allowed us to see the elaborate interiors behind the closed doors and we heard stories of the rich history and heritage of this unique town.

Jude and I with our guide Garry



Laurie chatting with the monks



We camped in the Monastery grounds for a nominal fee and enjoyed a wonderful meal, and an Abbey Ale and wine, in the original hostel building which is now a grand hotel.

An extract from Salvado's Diary - 3rd March 1846

          "On our third day in the bush, 3rd March, we were having our standard meal - eight ounces of damper, with some boiled rice and a cup of tea - when quite out of the blue, a crowd of natives appeared, armed with half a dozen or more spears. We faced them smiling, though God knows with what interior agitation, and in sign language offered them tea and bread. However they ignored us and sat down near the river where they palavered a great deal between themselves.

          "We conferred on how to make friendly overtures, and decided to get a lot of damper, tea and sugar ready, and offer to eat and drink with them.

          "We knelt down and asked the Almighty to bless us, and then we went over to the natives with the food stuffs and drink. At this the men resolutely seized their weapons, and the women and children ran off howling. We ate mouthfuls of damper and sugar, and made signs to them to put down their spears and join us in eating.

          "Some of them lowered their weapons, and Father Serra and I handed out sugar and bread, paying special attention to some small boys, who were crying and clinging to their parents' legs and showing every sign of terror.

          "When they first tried the sugar they spat it out suspiciously, but seeing that we were quite happy about it, they tried some more, found they liked it, nodded their heads in signs of approval, and encouraged the others to eat.

          "In a few minutes they had disposed of all we had to spare, and were quarrelling over the precious remnants. And so, through heavenly intervention, the result of this dangerous encounter was a victory for the peaceful missionaries - a victory obtained without bloodshed or noise of arms"