'Wherarwee' in Oz: Log 29-09 Swan Valley

Our week at Goomalling has been great, shared dinners with Sally & Dave, trips to surrounding towns, shopping in op-shops for the upcoming safari to Kalgoorlie, lots of chats with members of the solo’s in our club & just relaxing in the now pleasant weather (6º to 25º each day). Not to mention the inaugural fete at Goomalling where we bought a dartboard & other junk. Another place we found hard to leave.

Our next destination was New Norcia, a Benedectine monk village. It was composed of the abbey, monastery, colleges, hotel, flour mill, bakery, museum & post office. After touring the village, trying out the hotel & inspecting the abbey, we settled in for the night in a paddock near the monastery. Bells had tolled on the hour & ½ hour all day but thankfully not at night. The next morning Libby was up early & went to mass in the abbey.

A bracket on the bike lifter had broken away & we had to have it welded before going on the safari which we had booked into. We looked up ‘welders’ in the yellow pages & must have rang a dozen before we found someone to help us out. He was on the outskirts of Perth so, after the repairs, we headed off to the nearest c/van park for the night. Next day, with all the huge shopping centers around, it was like Xmas, we looked in shop after shop for a few hours. We then proceeded to our next c/van park for the night.

Filling in the day before the start of the safari we went to Whiteman Park in the Swan Valley. What a park, huge, well laid out with an animal farm, birds of prey section, museum, novelty shops & cafes, even a train ride round the park (which we did twice). We spent the whole morning there until it was time to go to the start of the safari.