TUESDAY 1 JUNE   BUSSELTON TO PERTH   240kms

Today was the first day of winter. It was definitely time to be leaving the southern parts of WA well behind us!

Pack up was efficient and we were on the road in good time. The drive to Perth, through Bunbury and Mandurah, was routine. With more time I’d have liked to have stayed at Bunbury and explored out from there.

There was a prodigious amount of development taking place, south of Perth, especially around Mandurah.

I have never liked navigating through large cities so was not looking forward to traversing Perth. My recollection was of a somewhat confusing set of multiple lanes, where it was hard to find the correct one. But it all turned out to be very straightforward. There were a couple of places where we had to change lanes, but the traffic was not heavy, so this was no drama.

I loved where the Perth trains run down the central part of the freeways and main roads – where a median strip would normally be. Melbourne should have adopted that idea, years ago.

We went to Karrinyup Waters Caravan park – another Top Tourist – in the northern suburbs, because the description made it sound nice.  And so it proved, located beside some small natural lakes. After discount, was $22.50 a night.

We only planned a few nights here – the main purpose was to visit John’s daughter’s parents-in-law.

Because of the lakes, there were plentiful water fowl around. They were interesting to watch – but one had to look where they were walking! At the back of the park, the tent camping area was around two small lakes – very pretty and pleasant to walk around there.

After setting up, we walked to the nearest large shopping centre, the Karrinyup Shopping Centre. It felt a lot further than it looked on my map! Bought a few food items – mindful of the fact of carrying same back, and put my photos in for processing. Then it was the long walk back.

Phoned the parents of John’s son in law and arranged to go to lunch there tomorrow.