13th - 17th Nov

Heading back to Karrinyup Waters Resort Caravan Park after finishing our northern jaunt . The trip down from Sandy Point is only about two and a half hours, however, we did break it up with a few photo stops and a stopover at Lancelin, another seaside fishing village. The road south parallels the coast, about 2-3klm inland, rising and falling over long rolling scrub clothed sandhills. The day is bright and clear, and warm.

Lancelin is a surprise, the township is spread out, quite charming and packed with holiday homes from old fibro beach shacks sitting side by side with large modern homes with huge balconies and swimming pools. The coast sweeps gently north west along this stretch with a protective reef a kilometre offshore forming a natural harbour. At the northern end of Lancelin and about a kilometre out sits the Edwards Islands, very popular with local and holiday boaties as it provides great shelter and has a long beach on the eastern shore, protected from the SW winds.

Lunchtime coincides with our Lancelin stopover, and TripAdvisor rates "Kerfuffle by the Jetty" as a must do, he'll, that's it across the road! Kerfuffle's specialises in seafood and it is a cross between a alfresco cafe and a takeaway. The special board offers a half lobster with a lemon cream sauce, salad and fries for about $28, a must for Evi, and Roscoe settles for a Cajun Calamari, accompanied by a good bottle of Semillon Sav Blanc the place earned its rating.

Our Perth visit is to be very social, catching up with friends, eating out and exploring the city . A flurry of phone calls sets the agenda, first up Pat and Bryan McCready, another Lotus couple. We met Bryan way back at the Keep River NP in the Northern Territory when he was travelling alone while Pat was overseas. The McCready's live in the Perth hills, about an hour east of our camp, but their hospitality was worth the effort, and we met another Lotus couple, Rene and Sylvia, who were "camping" in their backyard for a week. A great night!

Our friends, and Lotus owners, Bec & Will Hurle who we had left our van with for the Bali Escape were next. Evi and Bec organised a day at the beach with the Hurle household as the kids, Will and Amelia, had not been to the beach forever. We met the guys at Triggs Beach where an inshore rock shelf protects the southern end from the surf by forming a still, natural saltwater pool perfect for the kids. After a few hours on the beach we wandered to a highly rated fish'n'chip outlet nearby for a feed of seafood in paper before saying farewell for now .

On the Sunday we caught a bus then train to Fremantle to wander the markets, not Roscoe's favourite activity, however, we did both really enjoy the day out. The old Fremantle Markets are a bustling affair, set in an old warehouse complex next to the CBD. The atmosphere is electric and the wide variety of fruit and veg, bakeries, meats, coffee stands, eateries, clothes and novelty stalls kept us both entertained for a few hours. We stopped for a coffee at a busy stall and Roscoe struck up a conversation with the Barista who is also the owner, the roaster and the purchaser of a truly beautiful, and ethical Ethiopian coffee bean. And we mean beautiful, this were possibly the best coffees ever! A food stall caught Evi's eye, Vietnamese, advertising Banh Mie, a bread roll filled with páte, slow cooked pork belly and pickled vegetables, and though only 10:30am we just had to have one!

Next catchup was with the owners of the Odyssey Expedition cruise boat that we had been on in the Kimberly, Ronnie and Eddie, and one of the boat crew, young Sam. Ronnie suggested a restaurant in a trendy inner city suburb as the venue, and despite poor service we had a great night. Sam is studying his Masters to allow him to "drive" the boat and needed to be home to finish an assignment after we had finished dinner, so Ronnie, Eddie and us wandered down to a quirky cafe for drinks and coffee....a late night for us, after 11pm!

All up we enjoyed our 5 days wandering this city, and really enjoyed a Yum Cha we had in China town, our first in 7 months. We leave Perth wealthier, and our waists extended!