Rob ready for anything, after we landed safely back in our pen at Fremantle Sailing Club after surviving the cold front coming in early and having to leave Pig Trough and battle across Cockburn Sound in 35-40 knots and fast rising seas!

Actually I think he was ready for bacon and eggs more than  anything else by then:-)

Which he cooked soon afterwards.

Sunrise from the cockpit of Dusky Dolphin in Pig Trough, Garden Island, on Thea’s 3rd birthday.

The sky wasn’t very red but it was still a sailor’s warning!

Went to the zoo this morning with the little family, and I kept Tom and Thea amused while Rob, Tris and Blaine caught up with a friend!

Yesterday Tristan, Tom, Blaine and I went shopping with Thea to buy her a party dress – that’s what she’d decided she wanted from Great-Grandma Shirley in Tasmania for her birthday on 28th. She tried on a number of dresses and looked at many more, but finally chose this one which is just lovely on her:-)

I snapped a number of photos at the park today but this was my favourite, of Jeanette emerging from the slide after she’d followed Tom down!

Rob and I are holed up in Denmark for a few days, which we hoped to be unplanned and spontaneous. Well today was certainly that despite the plans!

Plan – alarm went off before 7 so that we could get to Albany pier by 9:15 to catch the whale watching catamaran. Nice lunch in Albany somewhere. Long walk along the Torndirrup Peninsula. Drop into Cosy Corner on the way back to Denmark, arriving back before dark.

The part up to catching the catamaran went fairly well. Then the plan went awry when the skipper told us that we’d best come back for the 1:15 afternoon trip because there were lots of children on the morning one and he might have to come back early! Rob took that pretty well.

So it was eggs, bacon, tea and coffee @ Dylan’s on the waterfront, underneath the heater as the rainbow coast was living up to its name. Then shopping – sox, warm jumper, DVD (the ones I’d brought along for the trip were not good choices!), newspaper, food for lunch.

Drove round Princess Royal Harbour to the Torndirrup Peninsula for a VERY short walk and lunch. Walked up the first hill and enjoyed spectacular views across the Southern Ocean and King George Sound, as we ate our scrap lunch. We could see the cold front approaching from the northwest, so scrambled back down and got to the car as the rain arrived!

Dropped into the local whisky distillery (as you do!) and got some very expensive but very nice whisky. Back to the town pier and were welcomed aboard the catamaran this time!

No whales, but an amazing long trip around King George Sound, around Michaelmas Island – much bigger than I’d thought, past Breaksea Island – no more trees ‘cos they were all chopped down, nasty crossing back to the coast (the cold front was whipping up the sea) and slowly along it, going through all the bays to find the whales that had been seen that morning. No whales, but we did see NZ fur seals in the their element, gannets diving for fish, oyster catchers, lots of gulls, terns fishing. As well as the wonderfully complex coastline itself, with its granite boulders and outcrops dusted with lichen.

It was actually an amazingly wonderful day, albeit spontaneous, long and rather cold. So the rainbow (see photo) as we docked the boat was a welcome gift:-)

Got back well after dark to the spa bath in our cottage to warm up, then a late dinner. That was when Rob got his last unplanned shock of the day – the planned meat for dinner had gone bad, so we had barbecued bacon and eggs with rice and stir-fried veggies instead!

It had been a very spontaneous day, but a very good one, and best of all we’d shared it all:-) And Rob is quite proud of being “Captain Spontaneous” (his term) when he needs to be.

Woke up this morning to parrots (our precious native 28s) calling for their morning feed from their feeder on the balcony of our cottage in Denmark!

After a delightful lunch by a lake off Mt Shadforth Drive, Denmark, we drove to the Tree-top walk near Walpole. This amazing piece of engineering sits well with the giant tingle and karri trees, themselves amazing pieces of engineering! Slow walk across as we appreciated this space normally reserved for birds:-)

Photos – 1 of the tree top leaves that shimmer in the sunlight just like the surface of the sea when we are on it! And 1 of Rob at the end of a span on the walk, to give the perspective of these huge trees. And 1 of an old man of the forest in the Ancient Empires walk around the bases of these trees- I defy you not to see him! And lastly 1 of a message insight the heart of a burnt-old but still living tingle tree bole – “Inside there is silence, if you pause to listen” – enjoy:-)

Have a look at these, purchased at Robin’s suggestion for my camping kitchen kit. When I bought them I though “How generous, they’ve included pepper and salt with them.” Then I went to use the pepper grinder when we had our first dinner in our cottage in Denmark and realised that the “pepper and salt” was actually very life-like pictures!