Friday 10th November – Finally on the road NORTH from Perth and Yanchep N.P.

Last night Lisa and I had agreed to take the dogs for a walk to the beach when she got in from nights at 8am, if she was feeling up to it. It was a scorching morning, 25°C already.  Ken was also up so the three of us, Monty and Rosie enjoyed the coastline.  I could get used to a walk on the beach every morning if it looks like this....

By the time we got back to their house it was past 10am, Simon was miraculously still asleep despite the heat.  We said farewell to Lisa so that she could go and pass out for the rest of the day.  Following breakfast and showers in our last bit of luxury for a few weeks, we left about 1230pm.

Week 1 budget on the road resulted in an overspend of a few hundred dollars!  Nearly $200 of that can be put down to diving expenses though, but still, this week we must try to do better.  Luckily, our follow-up grocery shop came in cheaper, so that’s not a bad start.

It was only a 30-minute drive onwards to Yanchep NP.  This had been recommended as somewhere you can see Koalas in a natural enclosure, as natural as is possible in WA where they are non-indigenous.  I’m not sure if I was more excited about the koalas or the possibility of getting our hands on a Park Pass for $46!! Followers of our American travels will know how we maximised our time and money by using our $80 National Parks pass to the nth degree! Well, here in WA we have bought a $46 pass that gets us access to all the National Parks for four weeks, instead of paying $13 each time we visit one.  Result!  When the member of staff handed me our Australian National Parks guide I was almost giddy! Snapping myself out of it we headed straight over to see the koalas as there was a koala talk starting imminently.

At first all of the koalas were having an afternoon siesta and not moving an inch but thankfully they then woke up and started doing cute things. We followed up the koala experience by walking to the wetlands area to do some bird-spotting.

This pair of ducks have their work cut out - I think I counted 11 ducklings!

Our later than intended departure time from Perth (no surprises there anymore…) meant that it was too much of a stretch to make it all of the way to the Pinnacles today as planned.  But this meant that instead we could take a peek at one of the pretty coastal towns along the way to stay in for a night.  We opted for Lancelin and pulled into a camp site there at just gone 5pm.  We were lucky to get a spot at all (though we couldn’t secure one with electricity) because there is a jet-skiing competition on here this weekend.  That might be worth a look in the morning!  We had a hasty walk around before dusk when we then retired to the camper for a random dinner of Barbecue chicken wings and macaroni cheese!