Destination Perth- complete

Just a small drive today to our caravan park in the northern suburbs. The road was quiet considering it was a major highway. We stopped at New Norcia which is the only monastic town in Australia. A few of you will have visited it as well I suspect. It was first settled in 1846 to convert the local indigenous people. It was interesting to see how something that started so simply grew into something so ornate. Over the years it grew into an orphanage, as well as a girls and boys boarding schools. The schools closed in 1991 however there is still an Benedictine monastery operating today.

It also still produces wine, ale, port, honey and bread. The bread was especially tasty for our dinner. There are so many old restored buildings that must be hard to maintain. There were also very large mosquitoes just to add to the atmosphere.

Just south was a large building and satellite dish. This is a ground station for the European Space Agency which launches rockets into space from French Guyana. It's amazing how many sites are used in WA for space related support.

Driving south into Bindoon the road was still quiet but as we rounded a bend we came across a police RBT checkpoint. At 11.25am on a Thursday I hope they found no candidates for the TV programme. At least it supplied a break from an uneventful drive.

After a lunch break we took a side road through the Chittering area. A very green and picturesque drive with lots of lifestyle properties and citrus orchards.

Now that we are in Perth for the next couple of weeks while we sort our plans ahead the blog will not be daily but we will give updates now and again. We have driven over 17500km in the 96 days since we left Melbourne. Not a bad effort from our ute that hasn’t missed a beat.Read more