The bus tour; Part 2

So far, I have described our visit to New Norcia. The next part of this trip was a stop to admire and photograph wild flowers growing by the side of the road...in other words, the real habitat of the wildflowers.

Such beauty beside the road! 

Then it was time to move on to our lunch stop which was actually a wildflower farm! 

Rhonda, the owner, gave us a little talk about the family business. 

Several thousand bunches of wildflowers are sent each month to Melbourne alone and other farmers in the district provide flowers as well to complete all these orders. There were flowers hanging in racks right throughout the big buildings...

Some flowers are obviously sold as fresh flowers but there were also dried flower arrangements, bunches and posies as well.

I loved the little posies arranged in the little cane pram. ( on the lower left in the above collage) 

Lunch was a boxed lunch and DH and I shared a table with a couple from Caboolture ( a town just north of Brisbane) who were in WA to join a cruise in a day or so.

After lunch I had a little look in the gift shop. I bought a 2017 calendar featuring wildflower photos for my neighbour and a bag of potpourri for me! I did however, stop and admire some dolls...

But I resisted temptation and left them in the shop! 

Then it was time to get back on the bus to head off to the next destination...the Pinnacles.

On the way we passed a wind farm...

And eventually we arrived for our next stop. The Pinnacles lie within the Nambung National Park, near the town of Cervantes. 

Sorry about the photo overload, but this place was so huge! 

We had about 50 minutes here to wander among these limestone formations.

One more stop before we headed back to Perth was Hangover  Bay. 

Lovely! 

Despite sitting on a bus most of the long day, we were very tired when we were dropped off near our hotel...but we'd certainly seen a lot. 

After the Royal Mint, the little cruise on the Swan R,...

So what did we do in the afternoon after touring the Mint and then having a short cruise on the Swan River? We went to Kings Park in Perth. 

This large park is situated on the elevated area known as Mt Eliza, overlooking the city...great views! 

There is a large war memorial...

And there are the flowers; in particular, the wildflowers! 

The wildflowers' displays were wonderful...the colours were magnificent.

Most of the wildflowers grow in a desert environment and this was replicated in many of the park's gardens...

In the next group of photos, I'm there tossing a few coins in the wishing well.  Those bright orange aloes in the South African garden really took my fancy too! And that kangaroo paw in the lower left was just gorgeous. 

When DH wandered off to check out another memorial in the park, I decided to sit on the lovely green lawn and watch the world go by for a while. 

And then a voice said, 'Excuse me, but can you tell me where the toilets are?'. I knew that voice! Our friends had run into DH while he was reading the plaques on the Jewish war memorial! 

So I just had to take a photo of the three of them!