Friday November 7 (Perth to Quinns Rocks)

There was some very heavy rain through the night and a some showers continued into the morning. Today Margaret and I were to head off north of Perth to a place called Quinns Rocks to meet her friends for lunch at the Portofino Cafe, The group meets up once a month and they take it in turns to pick the venue with the aim of spending around $20 each. So we left about 10 am and Margaret gave Edgar strict instructions to make sure he cooked a roast for tea, lol!!

Last night I had taken some photos of the route via Google maps on my IPad and these would serve as our navigation aids. I have to say they worked really well!! The road we took followed the coast where ever possible and it was a fabulous drive

As we travelled north the clouds broke up and the sun shone brightly. There was a bit of a surf running today but the sea was still a glorious blue. We also passed more of the large houses, almost mansions, and so many of them are new. West Australia is truly the land of money but one day the bubble might burst. 

Most of the houses have wonderful views and it would be lovely to live here for part of the year. only hang up is, I would need to win the lottery and large, lol!!! There are many white sand beaches along the way and there is a lot of work being done on beautifying the land immediately behind the beaches.

As we were in plenty of time, we took a slight detour to Mindarie Keys Marina just south of Quinns Rocks. Well, if I thought I had seen it all, this took the cake!! Such houses and boats, houses at the front were able to tie their boats up to their own private jetty!! It was so affluent it was almost arrogant!! This is NOT about how the other half live, it is how the other millionth live and most of them must live here!!

 We arrived at the cafe about 15 minutes early, that was good as Margaret is usually late and today the shoe was on the other foot, so to speak! I was quickly introduced to her friends and, in the photo from left to right they are, Margaret, Shirley, yours truly, Phillipa, Kay and Valerie. The weather was warming up nicely y this time, sunny with lost of blue sky. At one point we did see black clouds to the south over Perth and they obviously had some more showers. 

We had a very nice lunch, the servings were large and not too expensive, looking out over the sea, the Indian Ocean to be exact! We sat and chatted for a while and then agreed to meet up at Hillary's Marina where there are lost of boutique and touristy shops and cafes. 

We wandered round the boardwalk and I found the calendars I had been looking for, nice one!! I thought the clothes were expensive, but that's me, not into shopping that much!! I did enjoy looking at some hand crafted products in the Jarrah shop, Jarrah is a native tree! We then ended up at the Dome Cafe, this is a chain that can be found in West Australia. I enjoyed a lovely cappuccino and there was more chat, it was very pleasant sitting in some sunshine and I was starting to feel drowsy!! A couple on the next table had some scones and cream, well when they had left a couple of cheeky seagulls made their way through the wire that surrounds whole the area and helped themselves, until they were shooed away!!

We wandered back through the Arcade and nearly lost four of the group in a dress shop!! However, nothing was purchased in the end! We parted company in the car park and Margaret drove us back along the coast, through Fremantle and alongside the Swan River once again. We made one last photo stop along the coast as the Tall Ship I had seen yesterday in dock was heading out to sea!

After another wonderful day out, we arrived back home at about 6 pm and, yes, our roast tea was ready for us!!