Leaving Perth

Our stay in Perth was extended for a couple of days as Suzy Q needed a bit of a check over and ended up getting six new tyres and a wheel alignment to set her up for the journey across the top half of Australia.

It was a bit of a shame really, as hanging out in the industrial areas of Perth for a couple of days took a bit of the shine off the otherwise lovely time we'd had exploring the city.

We got on the highway heading north and had quite a nice day doing short trips with a bit of exploring in between. Gingin had a lovely park where we stopped for lunch and just down the road was West Coast Honey where we saw some honey production and enjoyed the sweet tastes.

A stop at the Gravity Discovery Centre (a strange sort of science hall in the middle of nowhere) provided us with some fun experiments and playthings.

Climbing a steel replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to drop water balloons was slightly odd but fun.

After an overnight stop at a farm-based caravan park where the kids got to feed the animals, we headed for the Pinnacles.

None of us really knew what to expect: we knew there we some rocks in a desert, but that's about it.

You can't see the Pinnacles as you approach by road and even the short walk into the desert is basically low-lying scrub. And then suddenly the bright yellow sands of the desert appear along with hundreds of limestone 'fingers' poking out of the ground. It is a truly amazing sight and one that makes you just stop and say wow.

After our hot desert experience, a swim was in order so we found a lovely free beach campsite at Billy Goat Bay.  Driving in was fun, there were huge white sand dunes on either side of the road. We swam and beach combed the afternoon away.

And a lovely sunset topped off a great couple of days.