Anna's Aussie trip, Post 3: WA, Day 1-2

I flew into Perth, Western Australia, around midnight on Monday, November 14th. As well as getting to spend 6 days road tripping with my "grey nomad" parents, I was also excited to be seeing WA for the first time - the far opposite side of Australia to where I grew up!

That night we stayed in the Perth caravan park where Mum and Dad had been based for a while. Then, the next morning we set off for Albany, a port city 400kms south-east of Perth. From Albany, we would spend the rest of the trip making our way back to Perth along Western Australia's south-west coastline, enjoying the sights en route.

The car and van...

More Aussie food I had been craving...

Most of Tuesday was spent driving to Albany on an inland road. Here are a few photos taken when we stopped for lunch...




And some from when we reached Albany that afternoon...







After staying Tuesday night at the Rose Gardens Caravan Park, the next morning we went for a van-free drive around Albany before it was time to check out of the park. We stopped to watch two tugs go out to meet a ship...





...And visited a war memorial that marked the place from where the first ANZAC convoy set off for WWI. Note the Harley riders - we saw them in every town and at every tourist attraction for days - 2500 of them were making their way to Margaret River for the 21st National H.O.G. Rally that weekend!














Some sights in Albany...



After collecting the van, our first stop was Cable Beach in Torndirrup National Park. These photos are an accurate depiction of the ocean's colour that day... it was stunning!










Our next stop was West Cape Howe National Park, where we saw The Gap...






...and The Natural Bridge.







A few photos from the beach where we stopped for lunch...







...and driving through some cattle country.

We stopped in the town of Denmark to visit the Tourist Info Centre and do some shopping at IGA so that I could cook dinner that night.
An afternoon walk along the beach at Peaceful Bay...




That night we stayed in a free roadside camp near the entrance to the Valley of the Giants (our first destination the next day). Here's a photo of Mum and Dad enjoying (well, hopefully!) the dinner I cooked in the caravan kitchen...

To be continued!

Anna's Aussie trip, Post 2: Shell & Simon's wedding

Continuing on from the previous post...

On Thursday afternoon (November 10th), I took a Greyhound bus from Dalby to Toowoomba (a one hour trip), where I was met at the bus depot by my high school best friend, Kat. We only had an hour and a half together, but we spent it chatting nonstop at a café and then back at her flat. (We forgot to take a photo, but click here to see the one we took almost exactly a year earlier!)

Then, Shelley and Zoe collected me from Kat's flat and the three of us headed to Shell's parents' farm near Gatton, half an hour away. Zoe was over from NZ for the wedding, and it was the first time I had met her - although we had both heard about each other from various mutual friends! Shell and I hadn't seen each other for a year, so it was wonderful to have that night together at Graham and Katrina's house to catch up properly before lots of other guests arrived the next day.

On Friday, various friends and relatives trickled in throughout the day. It was a fun and relaxing day of eating yummy food and catching up with good friends.

Delle and Shell
Sheralyn, Chany, Tim, Zoe and Shell
Wes, Lianna, me, Delle
Zoe trying to avoid catching an iPad addiction
That evening (the night before the wedding), about 20 of us met at the reception venue to set up the tables for the next day, practice our musical numbers, and have dinner.

At dinner, I passed my camera along the table and collected the following shots...
Valda (mother of the groom), Katrina and Graham (parents of the bride)
Tim and Chany
Zoe, Delle (sister of the bride) and Caleb (brother of the groom)
The groom
The bride
Lachlan (brother of the bride) and Sheralyn
Lianna
Lachlan
Wes
Alex (brother of the bride)
[In the early hours of the wedding day, insert here my experience with the stomach bug mentioned in the previous post. It does not need to be blogged about; suffice to say that I was very glad of some effective medicine that got me (albeit rather pale and faint) to the wedding I had travelled 12000kms for!]
And now for some photos of the wedding!
Shell and Simon's wedding ceremony was held at 3:30pm on Saturday, November 12th, at Spring Bluff Railway Station...

Shell, Graham, Lianna and Delle arriving




Lianna and Delle
Caleb and Lachlan



Graham and Katrina









Glen and Jo
And here are some photos from the reception at the Lockyer Valley Cultural Centre in Gatton...






At my table: Wes, Jo, Glen, Tim, Chany, Sheralyn, Jess



It was a thoroughly beautiful wedding - a classy vintage theme, touching vows, heartfelt and hilarious speeches, beautiful singing, delicious food, a lolly table, and departure by plane (see above). Congratulations Shell and Simon!!
The next evening, after having spent three nights at Graham and Katrina's, I headed back to Brisbane with Delle, and stayed Sunday night at her place. I spent Monday hanging out in her flat while she went to work, and that evening we had Red Rooster for dinner before she dropped me at the airport for my flight to Perth to spend six days with my parents.


To be continued!