The WA History Channel: Moondyne Joe advancing Australia fair; Broome or Busso?; Jolly Jetty Tour; Review: Bayside Geographe Bay Resort
It’s now nearly months since Roy and I have been forcibly confined to Western Australia – without one of us even having nicked a loaf of bread or a side of ham. And we’re gradually getting to know a bit about this aspect of local history, courtesy of granddaughter Mia (10).
The tea-tabulous Tsutomo Iwasaki; flashback to Kagoshima 2009; of catechins, monks and samurais; a long story; An Innocent Man; Sam-san the barista-in-training
One Wednesday afternoon in July, after a light bite of lunch at Cranked in the buzzy inner city suburb of Leederville, my new friend Debbie Uller drove me to the Green Tea House (www.greenteahouse.com.au). (Find it at Shop 17, 375 Hay Street in Subiaco; call +618 9388 7425).
Our forest friends; Indijup Beach; Swings & Roundabouts; terrific coffee and a lighthouse; Peccavi (I have sinned) – No Regrets
Visiting a place where you have friends is great – you get to see it through their eyes and benefit from their insights. And they show you their favourite things.
We’re lucky that Kim and Lynn Sadler, whom we first met as fellow-expats in Singapore, have a forest home in Yallingup. He’s Western Australian, she’s English.
In fact, this lovely couple were two of the first visitors to our Dutch barge Karanja during that memorable cruise from England cross-Channel to Calais and through France in the summer of 2017. They met up with us in Reims [say Rance] for a drink on board followed by lunch in the city.
We’re all going to Dunsborough; magnificent market; three-quarters of the way there; review: Bayshore Beachside Resort; Gracetown and Cowtown; finger-lickin’ picnic spot
Having visited and stayed in the town of Margaret River several times now – check out these two blogs here and here, for example – I hankered to try somewhere different.
Good old Groupon directed me to the coastal town of Dunsborough. “I love Dunsborough!” exclaimed Carrie when I told her we’d booked a Monday-to-Friday stay at Bayshore Beachside Resort. It was a snip at $600 for four nights in villa “under the peppermint trees” with two bedrooms and a spa bath.
Winter whinge; my loser husband; cycling for svelteness; surf ’n’ turf birthday barbie; hallelujah for Phase 3!
Though there’s still a fair amount of sunshine, the weather has drastically cooled here in WA. We set off on our often blustery morning bike-ride to Mullaloo in temperatures of 13°C or 14°C; it might rise to 20°C or so by lunchtime, and in the wee hours it can on occasion drop as low as 8°C.
The Land Down Under; All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go; Goodbye Z4, Hello Volvo CX 40; Stayin’ Alive; The End of the World as We Know it; Blue Skies Through the Tears
Bursting with travel plans for the rest of 2020, Roy and I arrived in Perth WA on 21 February from South Africa. (For the record, we’d come via Paris, Roy’s niece Charlie’s London wedding, a couple of days with my sister Dale and her family in Kent, and then six nights in Singapore.)
Summer in the city; activist art in Parliament Lane; MCC and munchies at the Mount Nelly; exquisite Italian at Villa 47; beach babes at Table View; vineyard lunch at Chef’s Warehouse Beau Constantia
Another flawless morning dawned in Cape Town – how lucky we were with the weather this whole time! From our holiday apartment at 27 Leeuwen Street, it was only a short walk to Greenmarket Square.
Not having visited the CBD for some years, it was initially a shock to see refugees encamped against the walls of venerable St George’s Cathedral.
The character of the market, too, seemed to have changed considerably. I remembered a more eclectic selection of wares; now it was mainly African crafts and curios.
As the sign in the photo above reflects, the foreigners fear for their lives in the townships – or “the community”- where it seems that the tougher life becomes, the worse the zenophobia.
Delaire Graff for delish wine-tasting and decadent diamonds; Boschendal for Dutch-gabled perfection; Franschhoek for a fabulous lunch and a motor museum
Accommodation agent Stay Amazing – through which we’d booked the Cape Town apartment (see Part One) – also operates wine tours.
Over dinner the previous night at La Perla – our first decent meal in Cape Town – our Capetonian foodie friend Karin Jenkins had suggested a one-day itinerary to introduce Californians Ellie and Steve to the Cape Winelands.
Staying Amazing in the Mother City; horrible hire-car from the Woodford wallies; dire dinner at the V&A Waterfront; Camps Bay, Llandudno and the 12 Apostles; seal-smooching at scenic Hout Bay; climbing Cape Point; Italian feast at La Perla, Seapoint
You would never visit South Africa for the first time and not go to Cape Town, the Mother City. So, after an equally unmissable safari escapade together at Nambiti Big 5 Game Reserve, Ellie, Steve, Roy and I boarded a two-hour afternoon flight to Cape Town from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport.
Through Stay Amazing, we’d booked a three-bedroom apartment at 27 Leeuwen Street. Level 16 is the penthouse level – look at our view of Table Mountain!
For our Californian friends Ellie and Steve Campbell’s first African adventure, going on safari was a must. Fortunately, KwaZulu-Natal province has some of the country’s best game reserves for spotting the Big 5* (leopard, lion, rhino, elephant and buffalo), and they’re all a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from our Umhlanga Rocks home.
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is one we’ve visited occasionally over the years, and possibly the most popular; Phinda perhaps the most high-end; iSimangaliso (previously the St Lucia Wetland Park) is on the Elephant Coast near the Mozambique border; as a child, I went there with my parents.
