Well, quite a lot has happened since I updated the blog.  On New Year’s Day we drove 6 hours or so from Kalbarri to Perth so we could catch a flight home to see our good mate Rikki who wasn’t feeling too good.  We had a stop over in Perth and stayed with our friends Jeanette and Ray, in their son’s beautiful home in Perth.  We had a quick look around Perth before catching our plane and are really looking forward to seeing more of it.  We have just arrived in Fremantle so I’ll add more on Perth/Fremantle next blog. 

We had a wonderful time with Rikki and we were so glad that we went home to see her.  She was still in hospital when we arrived, but Bill was able to take her out each day.  We went to a winery for lunch on the Saturday and to Val and Alan’s for lunch on Sunday.  What a woman.  Nothing was going to get in the way of having some fun.  She came home on the Monday and Bill, Kim and Simone took great care of her for the next couple of weeks.  She died on 20 January with Bill, Kim and Simone by her side.  We miss her terribly but have some wonderful memories of our dear friend.  Rikki was friends with both Wally and me before we got together and Bill has become as good a friend as well.  I’ve included some pictures of her as well.

We have been keeping up with news of the devastation from the bushfires in Victoria.  Wally used to work with a guy, Geoff Hyde, who lived in Kinglake.  Geoff and his wife Suzanne are still missing and it very sad to think that they died this way. 

When we arrived back in Kalbarri on 30 January, the matting outside our caravan had gone, obviously someone thought it should be theirs.  We shouldn’t have left it out but we didn’t expect to be gone as long as we were.  Replacement cost, $225.  We hired a little runabout dinghy to have a look up the Murchison River.  Wally had to get out of the boat to give us a bit of a push when we got stuck, but when we got back to the car, the car keys were missing.  We searched everywhere, but couldn’t find them.  The RAC came to open up the car so we could get the caravan keys and Wally went back to the van to get the spare keys.  Replacement cost for key and fob $320.  That’s $545 spent because of our carelessness.  I hate that!!!!  We had already spent heaps on new glasses and the trip back to Melbourne, so we’ve gone through heaps of $$$$ lately.  There is a gorge near Kalbarri where there is a rock formation called Nature’s Window (see pix).  Normally, you can see the Murchison River through this window but at the moment it has dried up.  At the top of the gorge there is a sign that said it could be up to 10 degrees hotter in the gorge and when we arrived back at the car the temperature was 48 degrees.  I have never felt so hot.  It felt like my blood had stopped moving around my body.  We only stayed at Nature’s Window for a couple of minutes, as it was difficult standing on the rocks because of the radiant heat coming of them.

After Kalbarri, we went to Geraldton, which is a really great place and then moved on to Jurien Bay, which is a lovely little seaside town. The highlights here were the Pinnacles and the beautiful beach.  Our next door neighbours, Muffy and Ken are farmers from Calingiri and invited us to visit them on their farm.  They have sheep and a range of different crops and it was good to do something quite different to what we’d been doing.  Thanks for having us, Muffy and Ken.  Prior to our farmstay we went to the New Norcia Monastery which was also something a bit different.  The buildings were quite beautiful and to see them in the middle of nowhere was amazing.  There are only 7 monks there now.

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