During June and July, we were visited by Gerben, one of Hooky’s cousins from the Netherlands. As it was his first time in Australia, and he only had 4 weeks with us we decided to show him as much of the southwest of Western Australia as possible.
WEEK 1
After meeting Gerben at the Perth air terminal, we spent the first two full days in Perth before heading 197km north to Cervantes to visit the Nambung National Park, then two days later we travelled another 521km to Hyden to explore Wave Rock and the Breakaways, before heading to Albany.
WEEK 2
Spent most of this week in and around Albany, visiting the replica Brig Amity, Torndirrup National Park, the historic Whaling Station, a meander along the Luke Penn Walk Trail, went on a whale watching cruise and finished off the week with a trip to the top of Bluff Knoll.
WEEK 3
The beginning of week was Gerben’s 24th birthday so we celebrated by taking him out to lunch at The Old Marron Farm, which offers fine-dining and gave us the opportunity to sample farm fresh marron, yabbies and trout. That evening we dined out at our favourite Italian restaurant, The Venice.
The remainder of the week was taken up visiting the National ANZAC Centre and the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk near Denmark, having a walk around Lake Seppings in Albany, and exploring the Porongurup National Park
WEEK 4
Gerben’s final week with us. We left Albany and headed to Bunbury. While in Bunbury we took the opportunity to walk the 158 year old heritage listed Busselton Jetty, visit the “Discover Deadly” display at Carbunup and to take a “Dolphin Discovery” tour. (Unfortunately, we did not discover any dolphins on our tour.) Our last stop this week was back in Perth. While in Perth we spent a day exploring Rottnest Island, a day at Perth Stadium to watch a game of AFL and visited Caversham Wildlife Park and the old Fremantle Prison. On Gerben’s last day we had meander through the Perth Central business district before he graciously took us out to dinner at the “Mister Walker” restaurant in South Perth.
Glenys and I thoroughly enjoyed Gerben’s company during his stay with us and were sorry to see his time with us come to an end.
6 responses to “Gerben’s Visit”
Looks like you had a great time together!
We must get to WA!!
Great photos. Sounds like you have all had a top time together catching up and exploring. Special moments that make for special memories.
Very lucky cousin of yours to be shown around by you and Glenys.
Great photos of your trip.
Cheers
What a treat to see my son spending all this time with you both. He was lucky to have such nice family over there. I am sure this was not the last time he sets foot on Australian soil 🙂
Thanks for all the time you spent with him. It was an unforgetable time for him and therefore also for me!
Great range of places in just four weeks. Also great work with the hike up Bluff Knoll (1100 metres) That’s quite a climb.
Your photos are fabulous Hooky thank you for sharing