Mindarie again

After visiting the Mint we headed home along the coastal route and stopped at the Mindarie Marina for a cider, chips and chorizo and a bit of a joke session. Back home for a delicious roast dinner followed by soft chewy Japanese chocolate.

Still no sunset!

Todd shows us some of his nuggets  and his small pinpointer and large metal detectors.

We can highly recommend the accommodation here. Because of the curved building many of the units have been specially made as in our curved toilet!

And very comfortable sleeping quarters!

With beautiful views to the North....

and the West

I wondered if it was the fact that Todd was so recently back from Malaysia that we had spicy noodles for breakfast with our eggs - but later found our hotel in Perth offered the same.

Farewell pose.

Then we set off to the Mindarie Rental company to collect our little car  - A Hyundai I20. We set our GPS and headed off to Northam. Aussies change  their speed zones as often as they change their Prime Minister and the GPS rings a bell every time the zone changes or you are over the speed limit (often)

The Rental Car. Barkers Hill Pie shop had a vast ride of motorcyclists having their lunch so we had soup and toast at the bar next door.

It was plane sailing until we got to Northam, but we soon found our rather oldfashioned hotel, and familiarsed ourselves with the route to the airfield. Northam is basically closed for Sunday.We had dinner at the hotel which allows me to study the local Northam-ites. Young ones a bit bogan, older ones quite old fashioned.

Mint condition

Since the weather is a bit dodgy we decide to visit The Mint. Todd is a keen prospector and is always keen to see what other nuggets have been found. On our way driving into Perth there is a break in the clouds and we see the huge silver balloon of the Russian who is very close to circumnavigation of the world - leaving from Northam where we are headed tomorrow. 

Depiction outside the mint of lucky prospectors

Apparently some of the prospectors used to ride into the desert with there tools and their tent strapped on!!

I looked at some of the jewellry but it was extremely expensive. Then we watch a short video, and find our weight in gold: This is Duncan's.

These are the medals minted here for the Olympic games in 2000. I minted a medal for myself in a stamping machine.

Pouring the gold

Finally we saw a demonstation of taking the gold which they had melted down in a crucible and then poured into a mould to form a gold ingot with 4 different charactistic markings on it.

Plunging the ingot in liquid to cool it

And Voila! a gold bar (which they will melt again tomorrow)

Mindarie

Todd and Andrea's house is beautiful - even if it is still in the renovation stage

Andrea opens the door

Mindarie is up the coast from Perth - and yes this is the Indian Ocean!

This is the start of the Mindarie Marina. We see people fishing at the end of it often. And apparently there are a lot of dolphins - but we didn't see any.

This coast is known as the Sunset Coast, but sadly it clouds over too much for a good sunset.

Andrea has a great Clarice Cliff dinner set. What about those pink salad servers, Jackie??

Todd has flown in from KL Malaysia overnight where he manages drilling on oil/gas rigs. After a hearty breakfast  we take the dogs for a walk past the marina and then round onto the beach walkway. Fortunately it is not the season for snakes! It is spitting slightly and looks quite overcast.

There are osprey on the coast and they have built structures for them to nest in - but they prefer to nest on decorative features down by the Marina.

Henri is in the blue, Daisy is in the fluoro yellow. They are Papillion.

Swanning around

After the native plants walk we went to the War Memorial for World War One. It was pretty spectacular overlooking the Swan River which is very wide near Perth and then seems to taper in at Fremantle. 

This is a view towards Perth - the Swan River looks like a harbour. I have to say I am looking forward to seeing the Indian Ocean.

Quite a number of flowers are out already.

Andrea and Duncan by a boab tree

It was a very interesting drive through the suburbs and then on to the Swan Valley. We did a wine tasting and then  shared a platter at Sandalford Wines for lunch.

Andrea and I on a bright sunny afternoon.

We also took in two smaller vineyards Kosovich and Talijancich and the reality for them is that they have been family businesses for generations but it will be difficult for them to continue much longer as the next generation had no interest in taking over. 

Next we visited a Nougat factory which was combined with a nut outlet - mainly macadamias.

The factory was visible through a glass window, but being near the end of the day there was a lot of cleaning up going on. This lady is breaking up the big slabs and feeding them into the packaging machine.

Our last stop in the Swan Valley was the Feral Brewery where Duncan has a tasting rack. Andrea and I gave him a little help.

We head for home now - catching glimpses of the Indian Ocean stretching out forever to the horizon. Imagine that a whole ocean I've never seen before!

Kings Gardens Perth

We found the Ellard BnB very suitable even though we had a shared bathroom and toilet. Andrea (Duncan's second cousin) picked us up about 9.30am and we set off for Kings Gardens  - over 400Ha (1000 acres) of walks and parks with different Themes. Of course we couldn't do it all, So we did several native plant walks.

Duncan and Andrea

These were originally called black boys by Captain Cook as when they grow larger their black trunks look like natives of a dark skin wearing a head-dress. They are now called grass trees as Black Boys is just not PC.

Kangaroo Paw plants are now coming in a mass of colours.

Rotunda looking out over the Swann Valley

Me and Duncan under another Pavilion which reflects some of the vegetation.

Polished agate stones

Garden Logo

I seem to only be able to download 8 pictures at a time so this is only half a days adventure.

An Epic Beginning to Our Perth Trip

Olwyn dropped us at the airport just before 8am - on our way to Perth for 10 days.
After lunch at the Koru Club we proceeded to Gate 2. And there we sat for 1/2 hour ( We apologise for the delay) It wasn't long before we had all boarded and the doors were closed. Then they found a fault in the cooling system.  ( We apologise for the delay) Then they realised that with the delays the pilots would run out of flying hours so we needed to wait for a third pilot. ( We apologise for the delay) and with the congestion on the tarmac caused by Joe Biden, the US VP, ( We apologise for the delay) it was 3 hours after our expected departure before we left. I had watched a full length movie (Room) before we got to the runway!
Such a saga calls for an epic response, so I watched the boxed set of Tolstoy's War and Peace - all 6 hours 15 mins of it. Well worth it.
Thank goodness for e -passports and the customs lady who Green Laned us straight through to exit. Probably a wise move as one of the bottles of wine we took over had smashed ( very rare for this to happen) and things were a bit of a mess. At least our clothes were in the other suitcase.
The Ellard BnB is quite close to the airport, but by the time we cleaned up the wine it was 2.25am NZtime (10.25 AUStime) before we got to bed.
We later discovered that one of Phyls paintings that we were taking for Andrea and Todd had been jolted right out of its frame - with a little bit of damage to the paint work. The case must have had a really big fall for this to happen.

Retired in Winter

This is Duncan doing his training. Yes sitting still and reading for hours on end. Training for the long haul flights we will soon be making. Our trip to the Galapagos Islands for October is all booked - and paid for! We are flying via Houston - George Bush airport, so I hope they don't think we are taking the mickey out of them with OUR name. Perth is also quite a long flight (7 1/2 hours) and we leave for there on 21st July. We will be flying back on the 31st - getting in very early hours of the 1st August.

We have had a persistent chook coming through from Neils property. We ascertained where it was getting through and spend one morning getting more chicken wire and putting it up. By afternoon it was back again. Unfortunately for it Duncan was hoeing in the garden at the time and one swift lunge with the hoe has removed the problem permanently. All our hens are laying now, and as well as one soup night to use up vegetables we will now start having one quiche night to use up the eggs.

We got the row of gewurtztraminer pruned earlier in the week. We have gone back to the typical pruning system we saw in Alsace and lets hope we are back from next year's South Island trip in time to make a bit of home brew. Past that you can see the hectare we have grassed ready for the macs next year. Duncan has spent many hours getting the cabbages which have resprouted because of the warm May that we had.

The roses are nearly over but this one has given me so much pleasure as it opened from a bud. Over the course of a week it went from bright coral to this rather lined pink, but in doing so revealed the golden halo at its centre. Are yes - something to be said for aging.

Warning X rated picture ahead.

I went and had my heart monitored this week. We are trying to find the cause of some funny little blips in the head that I get. Robyn and I went for a walk up some hills while connected . Still waiting for results - but it led to quite an unsettled night. This sort of thing is among the cons for aging.