Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Wednesday November 5 (King's Park, Swan Valley, Kalamunda)

Another gorgeous day in Perth today, even warmer than yesterday. Our first stop was at the King's Park Botanical Gardens to meet up with a daughter and her son. We had a wander round and I took some photos before we had lunch at a cafe. 

After lunch we left Edgar at the Memorial while Margaret and I went for a walk round part of the gardens. Our pathway took us over a bridge and past many different areas of bush and trees representative of many areas. 

There are also a number of different bird species. We also overlooked the old Swan Brewery (orange building) which has been converted into apartments with a couple of restaurants. There were also many places to take more pictures of Perth. There was a long section devoted to Women and it started with some books.pages about Women's Suffrage. 

We later went past an area where there is a stage set up for outside performances, as we passed we could see they were busy setting up for a performance tomorrow.

Back at the memorial, I took some more pictures before we set off for the Swan River Valley and the Chocolate Factory. Our drive took us through the city and as, we entered the Swan Valley, a large number of vineyards. We then saw the signpost for the Chocolate Factory, phew!!!

On the way through to the cafe I tasted two small milk chocolate buttons and looked at the huge variety of chocolate on display, but it seemed to be very expensive. We had some afternoon tea first and I then looked through into where the chocolate is made. 

We then went to the other area which has wine tasting as well as various types of produce. I found some Olive Oil infused with Garlic, and boy the Garlic was definitely there, as well as some Cherry Balsamic. 

This place reminded me somewhat of the Olive Mill in Old Sacramento and I ended up with two of the smaller bottles to take home with me, one of each of the above mentioned. They are well wrapped in bubble wrap. 

I also found some unprocessed honey that looked the same as some we had down the line when we stayed with Margaret's brother, so I purchased a pot for Margaret and I hope it is the same as Margaret liked it!

We then drove to a place called Mundaring to see the weir from which water is pumped nearly 600 km away to the gold mining towns of Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie which lacked their own water supplies. 

We followed the pipeline for some distance before reaching the weir. As we approached we also saw some Kangaroos by the side of the road, some with Joeys in their pouches and they were obviously used to cars. 

As we stopped for photos we noticed a large male on the other side eating Mulberries so Margaret collected some for our tea!! We then drove down to the weir where the dam and the number one pumping station were in view.The pipeline was suggested in the late 1800s by an engineer, C Y O'Connor, but his idea was laughed at as impossible. 

It was worked on and was nearly ready for opening but O'Connor was so fed up with all the derision he had received he committed suicide. The pipeline is still in use today although the water level in the dam is not as high as it once was.

Finally we headed up towards the hills so we could see the sunset over Perth. We sort of got lost a wee bit but eventually found ourselves in Kalamunda and finally on the road that goes down towards Perth. 

We missed a lookout but went back to it and had the most fabulous views of the sunset as well as Fremantle, in the distance, and, of course, Perth at night. I even managed to catch a plane taking off above the city.

As the sun was setting in the west, a full moon had risen behind us in the east. Once the sun had set, the lights of Perth came on and it was truly magnificent. I have never seen such a glorious sunset with the colours changing so rapidly and with so many different hues. We stopped at another lookout further down the road and then made our way home after a wonderful day out!! 

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