Streaky Bay - South Australia Dec 08

We found Cathe!!!Streaky Bay is a beautiful little spot - located about a 100km southeast of Ceduna. This is where Cathe, Jake and Levi have been since Oct 08. Cathe teaching and the boys going to the same school.

We experienced all types of weather in the ten days that we stayed... gusty dusty winds, a bit of rain, storms with thunder and lightning and nice beautiful calm days. (some of that all in the same day!)

The photo below demonstrates why 'some people' should not have too much time (or pegs) on their hands (or faces)

Seeing as we were in the world famous oyster region - we decided to get into some oysters! We did confuse the waitress as initially we said we were only stopping by for desserts.... and then promptly ordered these fella's! Then we ordered chocolate pavalova!!! yum yum!

Mum n Dad showed up for a couple of days and so we threw an impromptu Christmas Dinner.. complete with tinsel and lights, Christmas Turkey and Pudding! Only missing the BonBons and dorky hats.... not all bad!

Dave entertaing his mother in law....
Cathe and I "Christmas Ham"-ming it up for the camera! (Jake in the background)

I think this is Point Bauer??? Anyways it'Fishing at Streaky Bay


Catching Crabbies! Matching crabbies!Crabulicious!Lunch at M'oceanAwesome latte glasses - not awesome coffee unfortunately!
Surfing at Hallies beach

Fowlers Bay - Dave's First SA Fishing experience!

and he caught.........

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

But at least he got to lean back on his chair and think to himself....

"this is the life"

Come see Fowlers Bay!

(While you still can)

Heading East

Heading across the Nullaboring Dave graciously gave me the opportunity of driving the terrifying Car and Caravan combo! Ever so grateful for that!

BYE BYE WA!!
So we made it

Dave hanging out the Great Australian Bight...

Esperance

Well this is Esperance.... not many photos to share at this stage.

But this is where I got heaps of confidence riding the scooter all by myself - which was excellent and now you can't keep me off the thing :)

Dave bought himself a gidgee here and used it quite successfully catching his very first fish the fist time he took it out!

A definite highlight for us was, before arriving into Esperance we stayed one night free camping at a place called Munglinup Beach - it was awesome!!! We went out walking the rocks and discovered hundreds of rock crabs... so we figured we could be "hunter gatherers" and armed with a wonky stick for encouraging the crabbies out into the open, and a big rock for anaesethic off we went and caught ourselves a fabulous feed!

This is the west end of Esperance - again they have beautiful beaches - though I am more impressed with Bremer Bay's beaches.

The feline below is Taylor, she is the resident cat/unofficial owner of the Taylor Street Jetty Cafe. Which was the nicest cafe in Esperance - this is true - as I thoroughly checked all of them out!

We spent quite a few arvo's here agreeing with Taylor - "yes, a cat's life - is the life!"

Imight add to this post if more pic's arrive

Cheynes Beach to Greenrange Country Club to Bremer Bay

Rock climbing at Cheynes Beach (east of Albany)
This is Greenrange Country Club - in the middle of nowhere (about 80km east from Albany) there is this nice Golf Course, Cricket Pitch, Bowling Green and clubhouse... middle of nowhere, it's bizarre! But this is where we found our Mate Neils twin brother Mark and his family.
Mark took Dave out to play a few holes of golf - might have been easier with a boat - as there had been an insane amount of rain before we arrived! There was also another deluge whilst we were there and hence the underwater greens - hahaha.The above lovelies are Chase and Jasmine - the resident dogs.. they keep the chooks in line... or is it the other way around?From Mark's place we headed to Bremer Bay, and what a lovely surprise that was.... completely unexpected to fall in love with it - the beaches are stunning and the fishing is brilliant and the Caravan park had a cafe attached - what more can a girl want???? siiighh...I reckon this is the lifeRock stacking at Bremer We met some fantastic people at Bremer Bay Club - Julie and Kevin, who invited us to join them fishing for Mullet in the river. We've never been fishing using nets before and Dave in particular found it quite... refreshing... or was that the water leaking into his waders??

The above photo is Dave and Kevin filleting the fish they caught, in the background are the Pelicans waiting for their share. It was very entertaining when the pelicans decided from time to time to help themselves to fish in the nets.

It was awesome meeting Julie and Kevin - we spent the evening with them sharing the spoils of the day with a yummy BBQ.

ALBANY

AHOY LANDLUBBERS!!!(me on the Brig Amity)

Albany - where I took my first swim for the season (not in a Pool!) We enjoyed staying at Middleton Beach caravan Park in Albany. With a beach perfect for surfing right next door and places to get coffee and internet.. We were both Happy!!Dave and I enjoyed exploring around the region and one of our Favourite-ist places was Little Beach near Two Peoples Bay - it was just beautiful! As we swam in the warm rock pool - we couldn't help thinking " this is the life" and wonder what the poor rich people are doing??

Dave got me to stand here for ages waiting for the perfect wave to crash on the rocks behind me... as you can see, I was not keen to be taken unawares!
I had to take the following picture, this guy was trying to catch some fish in the middle of the river, and was plagued by this pesky pelican...
Final word............ found the best coffee since Geraldton, big call I know... but, Tangleheads Brewery make a mean coffee,

I had to have a couple... or three.

MANJIMUP - Fonty's Pool

www.fontyspool.com.au
it's worth the visit
and tell em "Dave n Rae" sent you!

Fonty's - I fondly remember Fonty's Pool from my childhood when Mum n Dad took me there on one of our caravanning holidays. I remember the big tubes from Tractor Tyres - floating about. Cold as! But ohhh so pretty!

These days Fonty's is owned by Jeremy and Kelly, friends of Dave's. We were so lucky to stay with them at Fontys for just over a week. Jeremy and Kelly are in the long process of improving and upgrading the facitlities of the park, and Dave was able to give Jeremy a bit of a hand here and there. While we were staying in Manjimup, we went for a few trips around the place, Dave and I went to Pemberton, climbed the Diamond Tree (which had absolutely no diamonds on it anywhere - Climbed the whole way up and.... NOTHIN!)Dave and Jeremy also managed to go for a surf, and play a few holes of Golf. I took myself for a drive to Bridgetown (only place to get Breakfast on a Sunday morning)

The kids loved the scooter...
This is most of the family on the scooter - this photo takes me back to Bangkok :)
I did have a few arguements with Trav as to who had ownership of the scooter. He's a bit of a cutie, and the two girls, Carly and Josie were awesome! Very accomplished friendly and capable young ladies - who take care of Trav or help with customers!

This is Dave at the end of the day... having a nice cold home brew... Can you guess what he is thinking...

Yep.. "THIS IS THE LIFE....."