A somewhat interesting night as the smoke alarms in the farm went off twice, the first time at 4.00am and the second at 6.55am! I shot out of bed shouting to Colin to get a jacket and put his shoes on... I ran into the long hall to find... absolutely nothing! No fire, no smoke, nobody else up! Taking it to be a false alarm I went back to bed not before realising that we could have actually evacuated out of our patio door with time to take the luggage - it also crossed my mind that I could be spending the rest of our trip in black bear pyjama bottoms in the event of disaster!
After our proper alarm time we had breakfast and said goodby to Dennis (Anne had headed into Perth already) and also to Bella and Stella the two little dogs. Needless to say it was raining again as we packed the car. We drove off along the Indian Ocean Highway southwards and the weather cleared. First stop was Lancelin on recommendation although to be honest there really was not much there (toilets were nice though), back onto the Highway and this time to Yanchep National Park with the promise of koala bears.
This is a lovely park - lots of parking, lots of birds and more kangaroos just lounging around on the lawns. I looked in vain for the dangerous Tiger snakes but no luck this time. There was luck on the koala front though! The Koala bears (which we were corrected on as they are marsupials NOT bears so just Koalas!) are wild but are happy to hang around the same area in the park as they are encouraged with regular deliveries of their favourite eucalyptus (apparently there is more than one type). At first we couldn't see any but then we gradually saw some large furry balls in the tree tops - sleeping Koalas which is what they do for most of the day. They really are cute and fluffy although it was not until later when we actually saw one properly - awake and eating. This is the star of today's pic.
There were so many birds and great close ups of Gulahs - the pink and grey parrots I first spotted on Rottnest.
We left the park and headed back into the urbanisation of Perth and more complex navigating to our B&B for just one night in Kalamunda, just a short way from the airport where we headed tomorrow. We had the same warm welcome from Bronwen that we had from Ann in Fremantle. The house is amazing, we are really in our own separate house and it is so immaculate that we feel a little worried to be here! Bronwen gave us a tour of her terraced garden that is worthy of an RHS medal with native plants and trees.
We did drive into Kalamunda for dinner but we really were not that hungry after a rather big lunch in Yanchep so we just had a 'Red Rooster' chicken and chips! After our 4.00am alarm call we were pretty shattered so never got to meet Peter and we were in bed by 10.30pm.
