Australia

South Perth Birthday Break, 19-21 May 2022

South Perth with its restaurants, cafés and ferry to Perth CBD was the perfect choice for a two-day birthday getaway.

Friday was Roy’s actual birthday, and we drove to South Perth on the Thursday morning. Having parked, morning coffee was first on the agenda. No day has properly started until Roy’s had his coffee – a long mac* topped up, extra-extra hot.

Landmark rhino sculpture outside Coco’s, South Perth foreshore

A long mac topped up (LMTU) is a Perth thing. Anywhere else in Australia, you’ll get a blank look if you try to order such a thing. That’s what happened when Roy tried it on in Queensland. No, a long mac is not a long black… that’s something different. A long mac is a long macchiato (or double espresso) topped up with textured milk. And, for whatever reason, it may not be simply called a strong latte. (Not if you identify as a Perthonality, anyway.)

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Yallingup Again, 5-8 April 2022

Less than six weeks since our last jaunt down south, Roy pointed the Volvo XC40 in the direction of Yallingup, Margaret River for another three-day getaway… squeaking in just before the Easter holidays, which would kick off on Friday the 8th.

Being three hours south of Perth, the Margaret River climate is a reliable two-to-three degrees cooler than our home in Iluka Beach, Joondalup. Here, we’d been gently flirting with autumn – an occasional shower of rain, one or two stormy nights – but the mellow season seemed to have come to Yallingup.

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Wildwood Valley Cookery School, 16-18 February 2022

Wildwood Valley Cottages and Cookery School is on 120 beautiful acres of bush in Yallingup in the Margaret River region of WA – around three hours by car south from Perth. What with one thing and another, it felt like we hadn’t been anywhere for ages. 

Our friends Deb (West Australian) and her husband Blaine (Canadian), have been coming to Wildwood Valley for 18 years. Initially, they stayed at the B&B that Chef Siobhan’s mum used to run in the main house before Siobhan took over that job. Later, Blue Wren cottage was built for Siobhan, Carlo and their young family, plus another three chalets.

Deb, Blaine, Siobhan and Roy at Blue Wren cottage – clearly, they all got the dress-code memo!

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Fremantle Heritage Cottage Getaway, 11-13 December

Who knows what exotic escapade we’d have chosen to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in the BC* era? A cruise? A weekend in Paris, or with family in the Dordogne or in Kent?  With WA still hermetically sealed off from the rest of the plague-ridden world, sorely limiting our options, Roy’s suggestion of a romantic heritage limestone cottage in Perth’s historic port town of Fremantle turned out perfect.

*Before Covid

Heritage-listed cottage at 7 Henderson Street, Fremantle

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This is the House that Roy and Verne Built: Part Two – Bricks and Mortar

Apologies and advance warnings; concrete proof – slab, soakpit and sewers; lonely brick storage site; Dino’s dilemma; men at work!; the sacred interstitial space; graffiti message, but not from us

Apologies if you’ve been eagerly awaiting This is the House that Roy and Verne Built: Part Two after the first in the series, Part One: Breaking Ground, which we celebrated back in April 2021. After the slab was laid in May, the site lay cold and abandoned until four months later when – spoiler alert! – the hoped-for, prayed-for and longed-for bricklayer team eventually came on site.

Now that we’re just about up to the second level, here’s the story of the build so far. Feel quite free to gloss over any dreary construction details (I know I would), and simply savour all my lovely photos of Roy.

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Toodyay

Two days in Toodyay WA, 13-15 October

Two days in Toodyay WA is enough to get a feel for this historic WA town – but I could have stayed longer. Here’s what to do in Toodyay, where to stay in Toodyay and where to have a drink or a meal in Toodyay… plus the connection between Toodyay town and Moondyne Joe  

What’s in a name?

Surely not, responded my sister in England when I texted her that I was walking around a town called Toodyay. Toodyay may be a funny name, sure. But what about Bishop’s Ichington in Warwickshire, Great Snoring in Fakenham, Norfolk, Wetwang near Uncleby in Yorkshire, or Nether Wallop in Hampshire?

In fact, it is derived from the Noongar Aboriginal word Duidgee, meaning “place of plenty”, referring in part to the reliability of the Avon River on whose banks it sits. 

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Springtime in the Perth Hills, 6-7 September 2021

Seconds out; flashback to spring in Amsterdam; even more tulips; Araluen fast facts; a bit of history; review: Chalet Healy Café; Airbnb review: the Folly, and what I loved most; why Plantsnap is useless; general cussedness in Kalamunda; unidentified blossoms in cider country; beach bunny Roy, back in Burns Beach

Araluen Botanic Park is in Roleystone, in the Darling Ranges – only half an hour from Perth CBD, but around an hour’s drive from our home in Iluka.

First came a preliminary spousal skirmish concerning whether or not we should go to Araluen Botanic Park at all.

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Roy’s Swan Valley WA Birthday Treat, 5-7 August

Guildford and the various attractions of James Street; The Tale of the Stubborn Donkey; Colonial Building, three cafés and Terrace Street; Pinelli’s Wine Estate for tasting and beatific beef cheeks; historic Rose & Crown and its 1840 restaurant; brunch at Padbury’s; Mandoon Wine Estate tour and wine-tasting; dégustation at Wild Swan; B&B at The Colony; summing up and stocking up

After a month of record rainfall, howling gales and unusually low temperatures for Perth, I’d been resigned to our Swan Valley getaway being soggy, cold and blustery. But we needed to use Roy’s Ultimate Mandoon Experience* – a birthday gift from the kids – before the voucher expired. I booked it for a Friday night.

Wine-tasting in the Swan Valley

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QLD Odyssey Part 8: Trinity Beach, Cairns and the train back to Brisbane, 23-27 June

Spa pool at Caldwell; Mt Bartle Frere – what’s in a name?; quick side-track to Melbourne; Trinity Beach – two nights, two Italians; Port Douglas – oversold?; one night in Cairns; back to Bris on the splendid Spirit of Queensland; Monday, Monday

Townsville to Trinity Beach – via Cairns

Do stop at the spa pool at Cardwell, north of Townsville, said Tracy at our Airlie accommodation. It’s located just two miles from the main highway, it’s a site of spiritual significance for the indigenous community, it’s eerily blue, and it’s well worth the short detour.

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Townsville to Cairns

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