Zeb and Eider Duck and the humans rented a car in Perth, Australia.   We are heading north, along the Indian Ocean coastline.   We want to show you some of what we saw the first couple days of driving.   We are meandering up the west coast of Australia, beginning in Perth but our final driving destination is Broome, Australia, on the northwest coast.    We stopped to admire this roadside park overlooking the water.

Picnic area along Indian Ocean

The seed pods on this tree were new to us.

Unusual seed pods

These trucks, with more than one trailer, are called road trains.

Road Train

We write more about them another day.   These were our first sightings of wild emu.

Our first wild emu

It was exciting for us to see them.   Of course, we do not see wild emus in Colorado nor in Alaska.   Driving into the town of Dongara, we stopped at this navigation beacon,

Navigation Beacon at Dongara

built commemorate the loss of the Brigantine Leander near this point on November 11, 1853.   The rugged coastline is a reminder of the importance of navigation beacons.

Rocky coast can be treacherous

Even the water is rather rough here.

Coast at Dongara

Continuing north, we visited Oakabella Homestead, located between Chapman Valley and Northampton.   This is an 1860s heritage-listed beautiful restored homestead.   This is arguably Western Australia’s most haunted house.   Here we met Loretta, formerly of Nova Scotia, Canada.   Loretta took us through the 13 room homestead.   This is the bedroom where the owner, George, accidentally shot himself while cleaning his shotgun.

Bedroom where owner, George, accidentally shot himself

Loretta says his spirit, or ghost is often here.

This bedroom belongs to a young woman.   She had a great hat collection.  Her spirit, or ghost is also a frequent visitor.

Former lady’s bedroom with hat collection

This stove still works in the kitchen.   The spirits or ghosts did not like any of the new appliances that were brought in. The all broke within a few days or weeks of their arrival.   The new appliances have been removed and the old ones function very well.

Kitchen. This stove still works.

This museum building was a former school.

Former school, now museum

Mom was fascinated with this collection of ink wells.

Collection of ink wells

This view toward the Oakabella Creek is really nice.

Oakabella Creek behind homestead

While walking around in this area, we saw these plants that look like small watermelon.

Maybe wild watermelons

Inside the fruit looks like a watermelon, but the fruit is green.

Green inside

We also enjoyed seeing this herd of cattle grazing near the Indian Ocean.

Cows grazing near Indian Ocean

This is a Banksia tree.   Here is a variety showing various stages of the pod developing.

Seed pods of various colors and various stages of maturity

First the pods seem to be brown, then turning salmon color.   Then the seeds come off and the pod is white and has a very smooth feel.

After seeds fall, this white part is very soft and smooth

These really are interesting trees.   These kangaroos were grazing near a housing subdivision.

Kangaroos in field near subdivision

We love seeing kangaroos.   We will show you more of the scenery along our west coast drive later, as we continue our northern route.