This was supposed to be the part of our trip when Paul and I took off up the west coast without the dogs - a two week break from them for us, and a rest from travelling for them. Our first stop after arriving in Perth was to drop Muffin and Ian off at the Mossvale kennel for their 2 week break. We were shown around first and all looked good, but then reality hit when we had to leave the poor little mites. Of course Muffin kicked up quite a stink and we could hear her barking (crying) while we drove away. Quite heartbreaking actually...
Tia stayed with us as she had an appointment at the eye vet specialist later that day and we planned to drop her at the kennel to join Muffin and Ian the next day.
We stopped off at a large Westfield shopping centre at Cannington and Paul posted a parcel, we had lunch and I had an eye test and ordered new glasses from Spec Savers - to be picked up in 2 weeks time. Call me weird, but I quite enjoyed the process, much quicker and more pleasant than a haircut... Then it was time for Tia’s appointment – and thank goodness for “Lee”, our GPS voice who confidently directed us about town and got us there on time.
Tia was such a good girl at the eye vet. She let the vet examine her eye with all sorts of lights and lenses and stayed perfectly still. The vet thought that the red lump on her third eyelid was probably a benign haemangioma, but it would need to be surgically excised with a clear margin and sent for testing. So we booked Tia in for the little operation to be done in three days on Thursday and resigned ourselves to having her as our “only child” for the week and only putting her into the kennel for the second week - so much for our two week ‘dog free’ holiday up the west coast.
We ended the day camping outside on our friends Graham and Karen’s home at Ardross in the city (thank you Graham abd Karen!!) and had a wonderful dinner at their house, met their daughter Ashleigh and lively cat Pirate. The next day we drove to Guildford (spoilt by a railway line, main road and flight path all bisecting the town. Why would they do that??) and up and down the Swan Valley. The weather was hot and humid and the Margaret River Chocolate Company seemed like a good first stop. No sooner had we got out of the van eager to sample the chocolate, than a lost beautiful large grey Weimaraner wandered up to us and nearly onto the road and we felt obliged to spend the next 40 minutes finding her owner, who was spectacularly unconcerned – some people don’t deserve to have a dog.
Things improved and we enjoyed a delicious lunch of double baked goat’s cheese soufflé on puff pastry with rocket and a glass of Black Swan white wine. We just had to stop for a little siesta after that lunch and the afternoon ran away with us and it was suddenly 5.00pm and we hadn’t decided where to stop for the night. The only rest area in the region was on a main road and not pleasant, so Paul had a brainwave and phoned a local farm stay he found in a tourist brochure called Strelley Brook Farmhouse to ask if we could stay the night somewhere on their premises. All was agreed for $10 and we found ourselves parked in the beautiful country garden of an 1860 cottage, surrounded by lavender, rosemary and bougainvillea, with vines all around.
We were up early the next day and decided to explore the Perth Hills. Our first stop was at Mundaring where we arrived at the Information Centre and picked up some good maps of local walks and then moved into the shopping car park to do a quick wash at the laundrette and a little computer work first. Sadly it suddenly blew a storm and down came the rain. So we postponed our walk until later in the afternoon when there was a break in the rain.
We drove out to explore the Mundaring National Park and in particular the Mundaring Weir walk. We really enjoyed this walk with Tia which was developed to commemorate the incredible engineering feat of supplying fresh water to the Goldfields in 1898. Water was piped 560Kms from a storage dam on the Helena River using pumping stations and the walk took us through the history of the building of the dam and pipeline.
C. Y. O’Connor was instrumental in developing the project but it was fraught with petty politicking and eventually poor Mr O’Connor committed suicide due to the stress of it all, just before the project was successfully completed. Of course the WA Premier of the day took all the glory. We looked at the O’Connor Memorial and joined part of the renowned Bibbulmum Track – which we keep bumping into. In fact the Bibbulmum Track starts/finishes in Kalamunda which was the next little town we visited.
We spent the evening back at our friends Graham and Karen and tucked into tasty pasta cooked by Karen, drank some great wine and fell asleep back in our van parked on their front verge. We were up early again the next morning to take Tia to the veterinary eye specialist for her operation which I’m happy to report was very successful. While we waited for Tia’s operation to be done, we went to the Burswood Hotel complex and walked around the Swan River which has a walkway and some fun sculptures. Its a great place for a terrific riverside walk! The sun was shining even though there was a chilly wind, but it did feel strange walking with no doggies in tow at all!
After we had collected Tia from the vet along with her antibiotic eye drops, we drove to a campsite called Crystal Brook Caravan Park at Orange Grove for a restful evening. It was about the only one that was anywhere near the city (about 20Kms out) that allowed pets and it turned out to be full of mainly permanent residents and nothing to write home about. Paul had become a little under the weather late that afternoon (in sympathy with Tia perhaps?) so I had two invalids on my hands that evening. Oh well.
Paul was recovered by the next day but Tia was still looking tired following her operation, so we decided to spend the day at Kings Park in the centre of Perth and just have a relaxing time. Lee (our GPS voice) helped us with the drive in from Orange Grove and we found a good parking spot in the park. A female ranger came over for a chat and to meet Tia, and she told us all about her job and her new Bulldog pup and then a Singaporian couple who we had previously met in Mandurah walked passed and we all recognised each other. It was their last day in Australia and they were very interested in our Motor Home as apparently they don’t really exist in Singapore, so we invited them on board for an inspection.
After all that we had a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast and went for a gorgeous walk amongst the flowers and trees, overlooking the whole of Perth and the Swan River. King’s Park was lovely and a major highlight of our time in Perth. Paul walked into Perth city for his fix of cosmopolitan life – shops, skyscrapers, cafes, crowds, whilst I stayed and babysat Tia and read. We stayed in the Park well into the evening and saw the sun go down over the cityscape, then drove back to our campsite at Orange Grove. Tia was back to her old self and had an enormous dinner.
We had a busy day the next day, firstly dropping Tia off at the kennels where she joined Muffin and Ian. We had to explain to the manager about her soft food restriction (oesophageal stricture), antibiotic eye drops (haemangioma removal), Stilboestrol tablets and Advantix tick and flea treatment also due - a long list of special requirements for a very special girl! We were sorry to leave her there but it was only for 9 days. We had a quick chat with a lady who manages a cat and dog re-homing centre near the kennels and then we were on our way north to the Pinnacles Desert, Geraldton, Kalbarri National Park, Monkey Mia. Just Paul and me, no dogs, no worries but just not quite the same...
To see some photos, click here (open in new window)
