Rio Carnivale Style in Mandurah WA

Ah … if only we really were in Rio!

But the Sailing Club in Mandurah put on a pretty good Rio theme night for locals and visitors to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2018.

A great time was had by all, with plentiful food, wine and dancing Latin American and rock and roll style …

Winners of the best Rio costumes were Diana and Graeme, sitting at our table .

Mario and Carol

We also shared the pleasant company of Mario and Carol … thanks to all for a fun night!

So why travel to Mandurah to spend New Year? Melva, my good friend from Broome recently re-located to this pretty seaside town and had invited me to spend New Year with her and it also seemed like an excellent opportunity to see more of this part of the country.

Mandurah is approximately 72k south of Perth and is W.A.’s second largest city.

This entails a two and half hour flight from Broome to Perth, then a good half hour train ride down to the southwest coast of Western Australia.  Not exactly a hop, skip and a jump you might say!  Although I have to mention that I was very impressed by both the trains and the train stations which were all very clean and well looked after!

Pelicans on the sandbank at Mandurah

Mandurah is known for the Peel-Harvey Estuary with its abundant wildlife and migratory waterbirds. Halls Head Beach has a large resident dolphin population and I was actually fortunate enough to see a dolphin whilst on a walk to the Marina.

To the south, Yalgorup National Park is home to thrombolites, rare, rock-like micro-organism formations, at Lake Clifton.

I did a very interesting three hour walk around Mandurah, through the marina and spent some time exploring the interesting markets.

The marina at Mandurah, with many restaurants and markets

Some very expensive looking boats on the Marina

Town Beach at Mandurah

View of the Murray River from the Ravenswood Hotel

Melva and I spent a very pleasant few hours at the Ravenswood Hotel near Mandurah, enjoying a great pizza and some chilled wine.  Incidentally, it’s quite the custom in these hot climes to add plenty of ice to wine, whether red or white!

Went on the train up to Subiaco New Year’s Day, but it was very quiet with hardly anywhere open although we did eventually manage to find a small cafe to enjoy a drink and meet up with friends.

So now it’s back to Broome and getting ready for my next travel adventure – flying to Perth, then Melbourne, and on to New Zealand.

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