Thursday 10th June was a gorgeous sunny day. We arrived in Fremantle just after midday and before long we were relaxing at the Little Creatures Brewery - great spot (we know our neighbour Steve will agree). At the Fremantle Village caravan park we really enjoyed chatting to European backpackers in the camp kitchen, out here trying to work and keep their campervans and station wagons on the road. Our next stop was a luxurious weekend at Lukas, Vesna and Ilara's house at Wanneroo just north of the city. We did about 6 loads of washing and settled into a very comfy existence watching the World Cup on the big screen whilst enjoying Vesna's delicious cooking. Ashleigh and Hannah loved playing with Ilara's toys and eventually warmed to her cat Felix. Reluctantly, we left the comforts of the White home and ventured north to Australia's only monastic town (that's what they told us), New Norcia. In 1847 a group of Benedictine monks, headed up by Don Rosendo Salvado, were given 80,000 acres of land to set up a monastery and minister to the local Aboriginal people. In its hey day there were about 100 monks, a girls orphanage and school, a boys orphanage and school and several agricultural businesses including sheep, orchards, olives and wine. Today there are 8 monks running 30,000 acres of land producing sheep, olive oil, wine, delicious bread and offering "retreats" including daily mass and prayers. For $7 we camped on the local oval and had a camp fire. The next day we traveled to the eerie ancient limestone rock formations that are the Pinnacles. Rain was falling in Perth but we had beautiful sunshine in Cervantes. On our second night we had dinner at the local club and enjoyed some crayfish for which this region is famous. Travelling further north we stopped at the seaside town of Dongara (Donga for short) and settled in for a few days. The beaches are long and beautiful and about 100m off shore are many reefs with breaking waves.
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