Bremer Bay - Fitzgerald River National Park

The house we were staying in, in Bremer Bay was in a quiet cul de sac, and as we were leaving home on Monday morning, the neighbour's chickens were in the front garden. 
I presume they must have been the ones that "gave us" the fresh eggs we had eaten for breakfast the previous morning. 

Fresh eggs and chickens

My husband got some old bread and started feeding them, but once they were full they crossed the road and back into their garden they went!
    

Feeding the neighbour's chickens

The National Park and wildflowers

So, after feeding the chickens we once again headed to the beaches to try and spot whales.
Some locals then told us that there was a pod of them at Point Ann, within the Fitzgerald River National Park, 65km east of Bremer Bay, which is a famous whale nursery.

I had also wanted to see the wildflowers, so we drove to the National Park and were lucky that all roads were opened. Apparently when it rains a lot some of the roads get closed. There is a $12 entry fee, money that you deposit into a trust box.

The different wildflowers were spectacular! 
My favourites were the white ones that look like fluffy cotton (first photo, top right) and the Hakea Victoria or Royal Hakea, which is native to that area of Australia (second photo, top left) and can grow up to 3mt tall.

Royal Hakea (top left)

Point Ann and the beaches

Point Ann was also an amazing spot with various lookouts over the beautiful turquoise water.  Again the beaches were wonderful!
Some people that were leaving said they had seen whales and pointed to the direction were they had seen them. We looked and could see the dark shapes under the water but they didn't surface and again it was too windy to stand there and wait.

 Quaalup Homestead

We hadn't eaten lunch at all, so on the way back to Bremer Bay we stopped at Quaalup Homestead, a big farm with an old house built in 1858, chalets and camping area and where they supposedly served coffee and German cake. We arrived there to be told by the owner that she hadn't had time to bake a cake and had no time to serve coffee either as they had many guests staying there...
What a disappointment, to drive off-road for about 10km each way and be told that!
Anyway, we were given permission to use the bathroom and to see the Homestead with some of the original furniture and farming implements scattered around the building.
And then off we went to Bremer Bay, starving and ready for dinner!

The homestead on the bottom right, some ruins at top left and old farming implements

Bremer Bay (bottom right), Quaalup homestead (in pink) and Point Ann (further up on coast)

Car tyre pots

And to conclude my post is a photo of flower pots made of car tyres, that were quite common in Bremer Bay gardens.  I certainly like the one with the bright red flowers.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend wherever you are. In Perth it's been a cold and windy Saturday. Our power was off for a couple of  hours this afternoon due to  storms.
On the news yesterday it was said that this first month of Spring has been the coldest in the last 45 years. Last year this time the temperature was probably about 10C higher!