Is this cause for concern??

This photo of our youngest was taken in February.....

This photo was taken the other day....

My theories on this 'situation' is that Charlie is either 'channelling Edward' or he has just watched 'Ice Age' one to many times and internally believes he is Diego.

Funny boy!!

Good to see you found a use for those 'carrot' shells, Charlie.

Images from around Perth.....

Perth is a truly beautiful city.....


She was looking her absolute finest because of CHOGM and Royal visitors...


Thank goodness we had Poppy's navigation thingy to help us get around the  huge metropolis of lovely Perth.........


Refidex reading is not one of my strengths.....

Not only does Perth have the beautiful Swan River, it also has the most amazing beaches!!


Beautiful blue water with gorgeous white sands and the most amazing public spaces!!

From what we saw of Perth, a very 'liveable' city it sure is!!


Off to the Margaret River region next!!

Roses and Royalty........

We visited the Royal Perth Mint today which was built in 1896 after large amounts of gold were found in WA.

We touched gold; tried to lift up an ingot of gold; saw the second biggest gold nugget ever found in the world; and watched molten gold (1300 degrees) turned into a gold ingot. 

Very very exciting stuff to witness. The liquid gold after being placed in water, solidified and was cool enough to touch within (2) minutes. Incredible!!

Unfortunately, we couldn't take any photos because of 'security reasons'. So for something a bit different, I thought I would show you some lovely roses from the huge, gorgeous rose garden at the mint.

As timing would have it, we also saw the Queen and all the pomp and ceremony that goes along with her, zooming down the street.

Here is my zoomed in, cropped, paparazzi type shot.....

Now if she hadn't been in such a hurry, we would have invited her to join us at King's Park for a sausage sizzle.

An offer that would have been very difficult for her to refuse I'm sure.........

A Great Day out in lovely Freemantle....

It is quite unbelievable but we have ended up in Perth the weekend of CHOGM.


Police seem to be stationed at every intersection between the airport and the city with their lovely white gloves on. Helicopters are flying above the city, monitoring 'situations' most of the day.


Talk of the Queen's activities are always on the airways....


All a bit exciting, but I don't think it will affect our 'sightseeing' activities here in Perth too much. We may even attend the picnic with the Queen on Saturday.....


We headed off to the lovely Fremantle today for some sight seeing action....boy she did not let us down. A busy, beautiful port is Fremantle.


We didn't meet the 'Freemantle Doctor' but we found a truly great place bursting with pride and history..

 The WA Maritime Museum was our first port of call and we were fortunate enough to go on board the decommissioned submarine 'HMAS Ovens' with one of its actual crew members, Richard, as our guide.


HMAS Ovens was built in 1967 (good year) and was decommissioned in 1995. She used to have 70 plus crew onboard. 

Lots of ammunition in the form of torpedoes to talk about. Apparently $160 million worth (in 1992). 

It was wonderful to listen to first hand accounts of how things worked, how they ate, how they went to the toilet, how they disposed of rubbish, how they could escape in an emergency, how they slept, how they had fun, where they stored their beer etc etc.

This is one of the 'escape routes' and 'escape suits'. 

The tiny little kitchen where the cook catered for the 70 plus crew.
4 meals per day, with 2 choices!!
Richard said the food was great!

These screens are used for missile launching.
They could even change direction of the missile after it was launched.

The steering wheel.
They took 1 hour shifts.

You had to take your pants off outside the toilet because the rooms were so small.

The engine room.

Sacrifices, hard work, not a lot of sleep, lots of training, cramped conditions, hard beds (with seat belts) were all normality to these highly trained and dedicated Sub-Mariners.....incredible people doing an incredible job keeping our country safe. Truly mind blowing stuff.


We also went on board a replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour which was fascinating to say the least.
Apparently this is the best replica of an historical ship ever built using the same techniques (no nails).

Some of the things we picked up from the volunteers:


Sir Joseph Banks paid a fortune to go on the expedition (more than 10 times the cost of the boat). He slept in a better room than Captain Cook but then had to sleep on the floor because he was to tall for his bed. He also took (2) dogs and 9 staff.


Captain Cook was firm but fair and treated his crew reasonably well. The 'cat of nine tails' was used for extreme disciplinary situations.


Just a little less than half the crew died of dysentery due to contaminated water taken aboard in Batavia (Indonesia) on the return voyage to England.


It was fascinating. The truly sad thing is that the real Endeavour was 'scuttled' off Rhode Island with (7) other ships during the American War of Independence to form a blockade to prevent the French fleet from entering the port. It still lays there today. Very sad!!


Phew! Big day out!
We all slept well last night!

The Pinnacles....

The Pinnacles Desert was alot larger than we thought it would be....


The large limestone pillars seemed to go on forever. So much so, Frank went and got the car and we drove the 4km track...

The kids had a great time at this amazing place.......    


Putting their hats on shorter Pinnacles was quite entertaining for quite a while.....

Then there was the illegal 'hanging out of the car' fun that also kept them entertained for a while.....

Lastly, there was the 'sit for a minute kids and have a good look', 'there is nothing like this in the world, let's appreciate it!' moment......

Another well managed, amazing WA natural attraction.....


Plus it is always exciting when we visit a place that is featured in one of our favourite books......

Very exciting as we have had this book for a while and it has been well thumbed by all.....

A Pink Lake!!

It is truly a strange sight to see, but it does exist......

a pink lake.....

The 'pinkness' is the result of an overgrowth of algae in the lake which I think is the result of high salinity and some sort of mining in the area (not totally sure).

As you drive along it changes colour from blue, to purple, to pink...

The froth around the edges and the colour don't make it an enticing place for a lakeside family picnic or a spot of water skiing....

Frank, the eternal joker!!

Makes you stop and take a photo though....

Perth is getting closer.....

Perth is in our sights, it is getting closer......


On the way down we enjoyed a stay at Kalbarri which is a little seaside holiday destination....


We visited 'Paradise Jungle' which is a privately owned bird sanctuary with quite the variety of both native and non-native birds....


The kids absolutely loved it....


One of our favourite birds was a pair of (2) gorgeous Major Mitchell Cockatoos. 


Here is one of them putting on quite the show.....

This lovely Cockatoo's numbers are decreasing apparently because of habitat degradation and the increasing numbers of Galahs....very sad....

Kalbarri National Park is also quite a unique place to visit as well...despite the extreme heat and absolutely rampant fly population away from the coast.


The kid's tolerance was truly  tested here. They didn't cope with the flies at all. Right about now we were regretting not purchasing those glamorous fly net things you pop over your hat. 

Look at these amazing different layers of colours in the rocks......

This is a famous attraction around these parts, 'Nature's Window' is what they have named this incredible rock formation. 

Fortunately, we were able to catch up with the lovely Langes at Kalbarri but unfortunately we had to say our last goodbye to them as well. Very sad, but I am sure our paths will cross again one day when we stalk them again, somewhere.....


We have also met another nice family on the road who are from NSW. 


All kids from the (3) families played long and hard (9 hours) at Kalbarri and got on famously. There was invention, imagination, team building, cat management, cubby building, movie making etc etc...


It went on and on, good ol' fashion kid fun. Happy happy days and memories....

I think the fun and friendships will be one of the main things that the kids remember about a trip like this. Not so much the aboriginal art; the incredible landscapes; the underwater coral; or the dinosaur fossils etc etc. 


But that is ok, they have got the rest of their lives to come back and experience those sights and experiences again and again.....

More fishing with purpose....

We arrived in Jurien Bay this morning which is north of Perth.


This afternoon we will visit the famous Pinnacles.


But soon after arrival Frank and the kids decided to do a bit of 'Fishing with Purpose'.


They decided to try using some 'burley' to attract the fish....

James said it didn't taste nice.


Charlie seems to exhibit some 'fishing with purpose' traits....


Some 'bad boy' accessories and an extremely focused expression...

And a posture that means he is ready for any size fish that dares to bite his hook...

Any luck you ask???

A little.....