Perth/Fremantle.

English.

After traveling all along the Coral Coast and the hinterland from Perth with the Wave Rock, Bruce Rock (mini wave) we drove to Pinjarra to catch up with our cousin Sylvia and her hubby Ian Broadbent. I tell you this was a wonderful way to end our long period of camping, roadhouses and free stays at rivers.

Finally in a house again with the bathroom and toilet closed by without walking through the sand or grass to get there, relaxed in a comfy chair on the veranda with nice people and a drink or two. This while the van is parked in view, under a carport in the backyard. This took some doing but a job Ian took on him even there was only 25 cm to spare on either side whilst backing it in.

Jos and Laz, whom caught up with us again, came over for a visit and so we had a joyful evening with lots of travel story to tell and listen to with a lovely meal and drinks to match.

In the following day we went to discover the surroundings with Ian and Sylvia, which is worth it because there is a lot to see. Old nature, old dames and water supplies, old houses and the old wooden bridge, that might not be here anymore in a couple of years.

Much to our surprise, there is a spot with “Thromatolites”(without the S) and this life form is based on the same way of living as the Stromatolites, only the way they are build is completely different and they live in a more salty area. It is something very special to get look at one of the earliest life form on earth in the water today.

On our last day, Tuesday, we met up with Jos and Laz again at the boulevard to say goodbye for now because the next day we moved on to a campsite at Woodman’s Point just outside Fremantle. Here we had to prepare ourselves and the van for the big trip through the Nullarbor.

A lovely and very quiet camping in the dunes, which had to take us out of our process of living in a house again. The return to Fremantle helped us because this town was in the past the first Australian town where the immigrants landed upon entering their new country.

Fremantle/Perth is the most far west town in Australia with Adelaide at 2700km, Melbourne at 3400 km and Broom at 2300km away.

This town is almost self-sufficient and only the centre is high-rise, it has a lot of shopping malls and nice wide freeway, up to 4 lanes, which is a breeze to drive on.

It might be a big city; but the people behave like in a small town, social and relaxed (layed back).

Sunday morning the 18^th we went to a local market to meet up with one of Sylvia’s friends, Martine and her daughter Anouk. Even that we never met before it became a nice and lovely morning. We also met another Dutch couple whom run a stand with “Stroopwafels” and before we knew it we had a lively and very amusing conversation going again.

You find those Dutch’s everywhere, I think that there are more of them living out of the Netherlands than over there.

Sunday evening is something else and has a separate page on this blog.

In the afternoon we got something we didn’t have for five months, heavy rain and wind which came down on us. We forgot how that felt and luckily for us it cleared away at the end of the afternoon.

We now are ready for our trip to and through the Nullarbor.