Thomas & Petra…we are off then

 Thomas old crew from Peppers is working in Busselton and so we drove down to meet them. Nice short drive for us.  Great beach area and packed. Very long jetty but you have to pay to get onto. We had a walk around and a quick check of the water 💦 🥶🥶🥶Strolled over a local market and went then to the brewery Shelter.  Very nice and huge. Had some drinks, pizza very good and a chat to my old crew. Got asked if I need a job and will do now on weekends some preparation. Good money and only 1 hr drive from us.  Back at the caravan we relaxed and prepared our gear for the next week at Coles. 

 This morning we decided that we want to go onto the same trail a bit south from Boyanup. We parked at a little park and started our trip out of this little town on normal roads. This changed quick to gravel road. We like it when the start goes hurst slightly uphill, passing paddocks with cattle 🐄 and national park forest. After a view km we reached a bbq area along a little creek and billabong.  Nicely setup for families with playgrounds, bbq, toilets and several walking trails. We moved on and at the end of the road we had an incounter with a local. SNAKE!!! Didn’t know what kind of so we decided to take a little detour.  Now we had to use a normal backroad with barely traffic. This went for several km but still through the forest. After awhile we hit a gravel road again, cycled through farmland and had great views. After 20 km we turned around because it got hot and we still need to get fitter.  Back at the caravan Thomas cleaned and maintained the bikes. Relaxing beer 🍺 time. 

 On the last two days we explored the nearby area for cycling. We knew that there is a long distance mountain bike travel trail close to us. Munda biddi trail 1060 km long from Perth to Albany.  We drove into the Ferguson valley , parked the car next to the track and started. Great trail through the forest, very well signed, sometimes shared path with hikers.  We visited a campsite for cyclists. Well maintained. The trail was on forest soil, some rocky parts, along a river, some steep climbing on narrow path and what?  Thomas was riding a steep section up and out of nowhere a wallaby jumped out the bush straight into his front wheel. He stopped, the wallaby stood up unharmed and jumped away. This is  a reminder to be alert at any time.  We reached the road and drove to the Honey moon pools. What an amazing spot. Campgrounds, bbq and a lot of swim spots.  Back into the woods and back to the car.  Well deserved afternoon tea, played cards, had a snooze and dinner time. 

 After a relaxing afternoon yesterday with settling in and grocery shopping, quick dinner and a good night sleep, we started this morning with some administration stuff at the office. Then it was time to drive to town and did some camping shopping for a tent, that Thomas will have a roof over his head when the caravan goes for repairs. Checked out the local bike shop and booked our car in for a service in February 2023. We had an afternoon snooze, played cards and cooked a curry. Hard day. 

 Today we said goodbye and thank to Alex and left her place around 11 am. Drove passing Perth direction south. Nothing spectacular, nice and all looked like south of Sydney. Reached our caravan park at 1.30 pm, got our spot and set up for the next 3 months. Some beers and food. Our day work was done. 

 Alex and Thomas made breakfast, Petra got coffees. It was raining this morning and cold. We drove into the city along the swan river to Kings park and had a great view over the CBD. The rain stopped and the sun came out.  We drove to Fremantle, had been there 9 years ago and what a change.Old and new together and we loved it. Short walk around to met one of my early music ideals. The statue of Bon Scott, passed singer of AC/DC.  A must do stop at Little creatures brewery, beer tasting 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 10 different 🤪 and a bowl of chips.  Back outside we walked through Freo, got some ice cream, back to the CBD for the sand sculptures. Small but nice.  Alex drove us a bit around and then we went to Guildford to catch up with my old chef Uman and  his wife. We had a great time and the 3 hours went so quick. We spoke over old days and had many laughs. We will do this soon again. They drove us home. 

 This morning was early get up because we had to be at our caravan dealership at 9am.  We got sent first to the wrong place, had then pass through Perth to the second location.  Unhooked the caravan and drove back to town for our appointment at the German consulate. After 15 minutes all had been done and we went for a second breakfast. Puhhhhh.  Back to the caravan dealership and we had an two hour assessment of our damages. The guy , Ray was an old acquaintance and big help over the phone in the last 6 months. He was very competent and explained all. At the end he told us that all the repairs are under warranty.,Great. We booked an appointment for 8 of February 2023 for one week.  Back to Alex and out for a good pizza. Leftover in fridge and bedtime., 

 Today’s destination was the farm station Namburg. The drive was very exciting with the permanent change of colours. We stopped at Port Gregory, pink lake, stunning. Reached the farm after a short gravel road drive. Extremely windy and we decided to cook in the camp kitchen Chilli con carne.  We had a short walk over the farm and went straight back into the caravan. Brrrrrrr cold

 After a good long breakfast we packed our hiking gear and left for the Kalbarri NP. Short stop at the info and bought the NP ticket. An hour later we arrived at the first stop of the park , the skywalk. These are two bridges out over a gorge. Great views and a spectacular scenery. Then we drove to the second stop , the natural window, a rock formation with a hole in the centre. Amazing, quite a lot of people there. 3 stop a hiking stop to some gorges. Started the 4 way tour but cut it short because it got too hot and we didn’t want to take the risk. Back to the lookout with some great views.  Returned to camp we made Bauern omelette. Yummy and simple. Tired to bed