South Yunderup Blog #5

South Yunderup Exchange Home Living Area Dinning & Kitchen Patio over looking Jetty & Canal Our Jetty w/ Alum Boat View from Jetty Miles of Canals Wild Black Swan Bird of Paradise Plant Our Road Runner "Beep Beep" Our Yacht

Loverly

"Hungry" Waiting for the Lunch Cruise to begin

Condo's Starting @ AU$495,000.

Beautiful Area

AU$11 Million

Beautiful Water & Beaches

Australia 2010-2011 Blog #5 South Yunderup On arrival at the Perth Airport, from Geraldton, we were met by Tim (from the Augusta stay) he kindly took us to pick up the car so generously lent to us by Sue and Mike as they were away and not using it. It was a shock to learn that this exchange didn't include a car, even though a car was included on the Home Exchange Site! Thankfully Sue and Mike (from our last stay in Perth) came to our rescue. We drove to our next exchange “Pelican House” in South Yunderup which is a suburb of Mandurah, about 15 minutes away. This area is part of the Murray River Estuary and has been developed into a residual area by creating miles of canals, with the homes backing onto them. Each has it's own little jetty and there are some sizable boats tied up to some of them. There is walking space along some of the canals near us, with mature trees for shade. We enjoyed walking along watching ducks, a black swan and assorted LBB's (little brown birds). They are too quick to identify. Bird of Paradise plants grow profusely here. We stopped to take a picture of a plant of them that was about 7 feet tall when the owner offered to cut one for us. It lasted about 10 days. When it was in a vase with a leaf we felt it looked just like the Road Runner...don't you think so? It was a lovely spot with a large patio area looking out on the canal. Once again we are comfortable and happy to have new things to explore. An unexpected bonus is a pool table.....at least it turned our to be a bonus as we poked balls around and had fun. Herb has played (in his misspent youth I guess) but I (Lil) had never had a go at it. Occasionally I even got a ball in a pocket! Who said 'never too old to learn'? It is still quite hot, in fact it has been over 35C for something like 53 days. A/C to the rescue, as well as a good breeze as again we are not far from the ocean. Actually most of Western Australian people live not far from the ocean. No mountains to the east of us, just desert, and it is the desert wind that is the cause of the high temperature. The City of Mandurah is on the Murray River Estuary, were the river enters the Indian Ocean, and is very popular with the well to do from Perth, which is less than an hour away, lots of vacation homes, boaters and tourists. We took a Boat Tour of the harbor, the estuary, and some of the canals, with homes valued in the millions of dollars. It was a lovely treat to see porpoises between the sail boats docked at the marina but best of all, several accompanied us beside the boat. Such graceful creatures! Altogether it was a great day, there was a roof over the top deck where we were so no problems with too much sun. At noon we stopped at one of the water-front cafes, as arranged, and excellent fish and chips were brought aboard for us. Just for a smile, here are some names from the tree book and the bird book (honestly!) the black butt tree and the snottygobble tree birds: the Babbler, the Hardhead and Willy Wagtail.