Winter Wanderings

4 July 2015 saw us celebrating. No, not the independence of the American colonies from the British Empire, but the beginning of the Bridgetown in the Winter Festival. The night saw "snow" (complete with snowfights, snowangels, and snowmen), a hawkers' lane filled with lots of yummy food, the Bridgetown Town Hall turned into a Winter Wonderland, and the official turning on of Bridgetown's Blue Lights.

That was simply a teaser. The Bridgetown in the Winter Festival is Lela's project so I will let her tell you all about it. All I am going to say is that there are some great activities on offer, lasting all the way through the winter months, and that the myth that Western Australia's South West is purely for summer has been well and truly debunked.

The girls and I are trying to make it one of our missions to see something a bit different each time we go down South. This trip we took a drive down the scenic Blackwood River Tourist Drive.

It was a truly beautiful drive. Miss 16 put herself in charge of taking photos (which was useful as I was driving), and these were the only four she deemed blogworthy.

Are you spotting a flaw with the pictures? Did you notice there was no river?

I can confirm that there were several sightings of the Blackwood River along the drive, however the route we were on did not follow the river. It was fun playing spot the river though!

Enough about recent trips. There are still exciting things to come! Currently I am looking forward to a planning meeting with Lela for our big NZ trip on Friday ... and my trip to Bali with the girls next week.

Stay tuned for more posts, and happy adventuring.

Cath xx

Test taste

We road tripped again last weekend.

Another trip down to Bridgetown to visit the lovely Lela and her babies. I am calling it a meeting. We met and we talked.

The view from our South West Office

We saw a pantomime (despite the way it may seem, yes I do have a other things on in my life other than attending performances), featuring my gorgeous Goddaughter (aka Lela's beautiful daughter). She was a fairy. I am pretty sure I am now a fairy Godmother!

Most importantly for the purposes of our travel blog, Lela took us on a taster tour of Greenbushes. What a stunning town! I didn't take any pictures, because Lela and the girls were taking heaps. I am expecting some will surface soon. We have made a date to go back and visit and do the walking tour properly, and I will post more then.

We had a quick stop in Donnybrook. Mostly because we saw that there was a Cafe Tiffany, and while we didn't have breakfast, the urge to visit just couldn't be resisted. Plus I needed coffee. I also had peppermint hedgehog slice which was divine, and the girls' gingerbread men passed the teenager taste test.

The girls have requested that we go back for breakfast one day. Breakfast at Cafe Tiffany (Donnybrook) is now on my travel list as well as Breakfast at Tiffany's in New York. I suspect one will happen a lot sooner than the other!

Cushion. Being held weirdly so her face is all skewy.

Some more driving tips:

• Miss 11 suggests that you find out what station plays "cool" songs before you leave.
• I suggest packing snacks so that you don't have to deal with grumpy children.
• Make sure you stop and stretch so you don't get too sleepy.
• Christmas carols will either be very exciting, or a call for mutiny. Hopefully the car vote isn't a 50/50 split.

Happy adventuring everyone.

Cath xx

Road trippin'

My daughters and I went on a mini-road trip this weekend. Orginally we were just going to go to Bridgetown to visit Lela and her tribe, but we ended up detouring via Boddington to visit the girls' dad at work (Miss 14 is currently in Singapore, and he wanted to see her before she went. Plus her camera was in his car).

Boddington is not on the way to Bridgetown, so it meant that we got to travel some new roads and see some new things. Unfortunately this time we had time constraints, but it was still fun.

I had been intending on writing about how we amuse ourselves on long car trips, but this time Miss 15 stayed at home to babysit for a friend, and Miss 11 had been at a sleepover the night before so she slept most of the time. When she woke up, we fed her and she went back to sleep. Miss 14 and I had a great time with Car-e-oke (aka she played songs and we both sang along).

A favourite place to stop on the Albany is the roadhouse at Bannister (there is also one at North Bannister, don't get confused). We like the Bannister Roadhouse because of the alpacas. There is seating so you can have a coffee while the kids stretch their legs, and for a few dollars you can buy food to feed the alpacas.

From our first visit to the alpacas. Four years ago, and we still love visiting.

Lunch was at the Boddington Hotel. For $20 I got a massive chicken bacon schnitzel. Miss (Starving) 14 couldn't finish her massive meal. Warning. Very limited option for vegetarians, as Miss 11 found out, but her $8 serving of chips was massive.

On the road between Boddington and Bridgetown, via Collie (thanks googlemaps), we saw lots of churches and cemeteries. We also saw a castle in a "moat", which is on our list to visit next time as we didn't want to wake the sleeping tiger (I mean pre-teen), a dam which was so blue we are still discussing it, and lots of wildflowers, sheep and cows. It was a really lovely drive.

Travel tips

• I love having a roadhouse meal when traveling, but nothing beats McDonald's for a $1 frozen coke and a $1 waffle cone to soothe grumpy travellers.
• It is very hard to get lost in South West WA. I suggest knowing which towns you need to travel through, and then follow the signs. I am pretty sure I didn't actually go on the roads I was planning on using, but we found our way no problems.

Interesting side note, I have worked out I judge the size of a town by if there is a fastfood chain. I automatically decided Collie was big when there was a McDonald's. There is not logical or reason behind this; it is my own prejudices.

We are planning our next South-West adventure in two weeks, so stay tuned. Happy travelling everyone.

Cath xx