Road Trip No. 1: The Pinnacles

Rissie and I have taken the boys on a couple of road trips while Spencer has been out of town.  The first was up north to see some limestone formations known as the Pinnacles.  How exactly they were formed is apparently a matter of controversy (among certain circles, I imagine) but that didn't diminish the enjoyment we had hiking through them and taking in the view of the ocean in the distance.

The joy of jumping

Peter looked very comfortable, sunning his toes while enjoying the breezy shade of his canopy.

Investigating

Exploring

On our way back we wanted to get a little closer to the beach, so we turned off at a promising spot.  We parked the car and unloaded the boys.  As we climbed up over a sandy bank, in the direction of the beach, we stumbled upon a large grouping of shacks.  There wasn't a sound in the place, other than the crashing of waves, which gave it a creepy sort of ghost-town feel.  A couple on a motorcycle had preceded us and they were much farther ahead, climbing up a large sandy embankment over-looking the ocean.  We climbed up after them and I asked if they knew what this place was (I more than half expected it to turn out to be some kind of nudist colony).  They explained that the shacks had been built by squatters and treated as weekend cottages--hence the deserted feeling, all of the squatters were away at their day jobs.  We stopped there for a while and looked for sea shells before turning back.  On our way out we ran into one of the squatters, a nice fellow who politely offered us a tour of his shack, which we politely declined.  I'm sure he was just being friendly, but I have a policy about not accepting tours from squatters previously unknown to me on remote, wind swept shores with a sign above the door referencing Elvis.  Maybe ten years and two little boys ago, but probably not.

Shadow play

King's Park Revisited

Having Rissie here has been a great reason to get out and discover new things here in Perth, even places we thought we were pretty familiar with. King's Park is one such place. We had taken the boys a few times to the tree top walk in the botanical gardens but hadn't seen much else in the park. In our defence, King's Park is enormous and there are all sorts of things to discover. Recently we stumbled upon an area of the park with everything you could want; climbing equipment and slides, wide swaths of grass for picnicking, a pond with a fountain in the middle, and a cafe. The boys love it and we've gone there a number of times to enjoy a sunny afternoon.

Feeling the bark of a small boab tree.

Queensland bottle tree

Rose mallee

Grevillea leucoclada

 Climbing on the dinosaurs.

Eliot loves the 'twisty' slide.

Peter's not about to be left behind.

Walkabout

Eliot loves going on long walks.  With Rissie around he has been taking advantage of every opportunity that arises to get out and stretch his legs.  Nearly every morning, during Peter's morning nap, he and Rissie will head out on a little walkabout.  Behind our apartment complex is a large nature reserve with sprawling lawns, winding foot paths, and ponds populated with exotic water fowl.  Peter likes to get in on the action too and often we will all go out in the afternoon to get some exercise and watch Eliot throw rocks into the water.

Eliot checks something out before running to catch up on the board-walk.

The board-walk wends its way through a thicket of  swamp paperbark trees.

Hefting a branch into the water.  It made a jolly splash.

Collecting rocks.

White ibis

The aptly named yellow billed spoonbill

A pair of black swans

  

A swamp-hen

Showing off a large rock destined for the pond.

His rocks are lined up and he's ready to go.

A running start is best for throwing rocks into the pond.

Pinch-able-cheeked Peter

Peter gets a little walking time in too. 

Eliot throwing a stone.  He has pretty good follow through.

A lovely afternoon for a walk.

Winter in Perth

Rissie is visiting us right now.  She wasn't sure what to expect of winter in Perth, and to be honest, neither was I.  The week before her arrival storms of wind, rain, and cold (15 degrees C) tore through Perth, leaving people without power and waking me up in the night with images of tree branches coming through the window.  I'd heard wind howling around the eaves before, but that was the first time I'd heard it roaring around the eaves.  But the day my sister arrived the sun burst out in welcome and the temperature soared to a comfortable 22 degrees.  We celebrated with a trip to the beach.

Turns out winter in Perth isn't half bad.