Day 73 - The temperature is rising!

• Mandurah
• 38°c

Took a quick drive around the town today and the eagle eyes spotted 3 vintage stores along the way. We had a bit of a look in the main strip but decided we'd hit the vintage stores as it was getting really hot. Gotta say there was no great finds but the hunt was fun! 

 

On return to camp it was still stinkin hot so we headed to the pool, we weren't the only ones that had that idea! The wasps had decided to come for a dip too, we scooped a heap out of the pool, not quite National Lampoons! but close. Despite sending them flying over the fence, they didn't get the hint, so we decided after cooling off a little that it was best that we left! Boy oh boy are we glad the Karma Bus has aircon! and Ella & Occy agree that nothing beats a sunny boy on a hot day!

Day 72 - Mandurah

• Herron Point - Mandurah
• 37kms
• 26°c

Packed up camp this morning and headed for Mandurah, we called a few places and found a great deal on one but weren't sure what to expect as they had no website - which a lot of the small, independent, more relaxed don't. So we did a drive by and it looked fine, even had a pool so we booked in for a couple of nights and set up camp. Our new rule is to not book more than 2 nights initially as we don't want to be stuck somewhere dodgy, even if it's a great deal!

After setting up camp, school was in and Ella & Occy got straight into some learning, maths is definitely Steves' strong suit and Ella especially requests that he help her, so he is teaching that class! 

Once class was done it was time for a swim as it was starting to get pretty warm. 

We took a drive into Mandurah for some groceries and a quick look around, there seems to be quite a lot to do here so we think we'll stay a bit longer. I must say thank you to Steve for repairing by laptop charger after I managed to rip the wires from it whilst trying to retrieve one end of it from under some "Stuff"! - I promise i'll move my suitcases tomorrow!!

Peel Caravan Park, $30 a night, water, power, swimming pool, older park

Day 71 - The Piercing Urge!

• Herron Point
• 28°c

After being woken at the inappropriate hour of about 7.30 by some lovely Melbournians that must've forgotten that the west coast is 3 hours behind, we went back to sleep!! We woke at an almost acceptable hour of about 8.30-9ish and after waking some sleepy children we set off, Jessie wasn't working so we picked her up on the way into Perth.

Our main reason for visiting Perth other than to hang out with Jess was to pick up a parcel from the Post Office and most importantly to restock the coffee cupboard! We were out of pods after sharing the last one yesterday (desperate much!) so Nespresso was on our radar for sure.  Perth is a small city and I think we walked every street after finding the post office the parcel was supposed to be at, only to be redirected to another branch in the city. After much head scratching, dodgy navigation apps & a few wrong turns we finally found and retrieved the parcel.

As we were returning to the car we passed a piercing place & Steve decided to get the piercing done! (No not THAT piercing!!)

Oscar, after seeing how "brave" Daddy was, decided he wanted to get his ear pierced today! He had asked a year or so ago & we had told him when he was twelve, he asked again on this trip and questioned why 12, when Ella had been only 3? We didn't actually have a reason other than "cause we said so" and he said it was something he really wanted to do, so we decided to trust that this was a decision he could make for himself. We are learning on this trip, that we need to give them the opportunity to think, reason & make decisions for themselves and they are just amazing, they have grown and changed so much over the last couple of months.

On return to camp Steve opened his parcel and got to work hooking up the Satellite dish so we can get TV reception wherever we are. The instructions weren't terribly helpful as to how to locate the satellites and so we decided to try again when we're a bit closer to the big smoke. On a plus though we now had coffee!!

Day 70 - Lazy Sunday

• Bunbury - Herron Point
• 88kms
• 28°c

We left Bunbury and headed North to Herron Point, a free camp our friends the Grey 8's had recommended. As we pulled in we were greeted by the caretaker who was very friendly and directed us to a great spot that was pretty sheltered from the wind. It's a lovely spot on the lake, part of an estuary system.

After setting up camp it was a very relaxed Sunday, lots of lounging around! Lunch prepared by Ella!

Herron Point, $12 a night, no power, bore water, toilets, friendly caretaker

Day 69 - It’s a vintaging kind of day

• Bunbury
• 30°c

I had set my alarm last night for 7.30am & as I was nearly asleep, I came to my senses and switched it off! I was woken by noisy neighbours packing up camp at about 8am so I got up and walked across the road to the Salvos Jumble Sale. This was my kinda place, they have about 8 storage sheds, a big courtyard & a hall that they open once a month and just make the prices up as they go along! I was very mindful of our current living arrangements as I browsed through all the goodies and believe I was quite restrained. (Steve may beg to differ!)  After looking through all the treasure I returned with only 1 suitcase and some books. On return to camp I was greeted by an unimpressed Ella, how could I go without her?! 

It was still early by our standards so I decided to make the phone call I had been putting off  - to Telstra! After being put through to a handful of different people around the globe and a number of departments I can happily announce: Bec 1 – Telstra – 0

We had been charged excess data usage on the ipad & mobile last month which they credited back & we were also nearly a gig over for this month, not even halfway through the billing cycle. No one could tell me what the high usage over two days of nearly 3.5 gig was for, but the lovely supervisor I finally got through to credited the excess charge and also gave me another 8 gig of data for this cycle! Thank you Karma Bank!

On that note we headed into Bunbury to check out the town and we found a couple more vintage stores! Steve scored the best – Again!

Back to camp for lunch, we have never eaten this well or clean and boy do we fell better for it! Then it was down to the serious business of being a kid, over to the playground where they met some other children, then over to the pool to cool off.

We had picked up the Tin can robot kit on our travels today & we put it together this afternoon. We all learnt that it is important to read & follow the instructions!

Dinner was delicious – salad consisting of purple & green kale, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, leek, garlic, chia & sesame seeds, and carrot & celery sticks with sweet potato hummus & nacho cheese dip!  and without warning there was a breakthrough – Oscar announced he now liked salad, very much so.

Day 68 - Bunbury

• Margaret River – Bunbury
• 165 Kms
• 29°c

We bid the sheep farewell and headed North to a free camp spot out of Bunbury, as we rode the corrugations past the sign warning of mozzies and Ross River Virus we decided that perhaps Bunbury would be a nice place to stay.

After checking into the caravan park and setting up camp we headed to the farmers market that we had passed on the way into town.  It was excellent and we stocked up with fresh produce, Ella sampled some barbecued asparagus and got the recipe for an asparagus salad, which we had for lunch – it was delish. It was that time in the trip again where we’re just about out of “cleans” so I tended to the washing whilst Steve took Ella & Oscar for a dip in the pool. For dinner we made attempted to recreate the OMG nachos we had in Dunsborough and after a great team effort, we were gastronomically rewarded - yummo! Then we settled in and watched one of our fave movies - Avatar.

Bunbury Glade Caravan Park, $44 per night, older park but well maintained, pool, vintage playground

Day 67 - On the way to Antartica - apparently

• Margaret River
• 28°c

Up early this morning 8.00!

We decided to stay at the farm for another night so we could spend the day exploring down south. We drove to the southern most tip of Western Australia to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, it was a beautiful spot where the Southern & Indian Oceans meet. 

On leaving the lighthouse we stopped for lunch at “The last place to eat before Antartica”! Overpriced fish n chips but a nice spot nonetheless.

We drove into Augusta, which is a really small town and Steve decided to detour down a side street, his  “Spidey Senses” must have been tingling cause there we found the best op shop in the west! Our fellow campers pulled into Augusta and we caught up with them to say our goodbyes, they are heading east across the Nullabor as we hang around the West Coast till mid December.  They have given us an open booking in their Sunshine Coast Trailer Park when we are up that way, which we will exploit to the fullest! xx 

The map showed a Christmas Shop in Karridale which we had to stop in at, lovely but nothing that we had to have. Witchcliffe was a cute little town, home of “The Flying Wardrobe” a vintage retro shop that had soo many cool things, I was very restrained and didn’t purchase a single suitcase! 

Back at the Sheep Station we were in time to feed the neighbours, they were so soft and gentle, well the lambs were, the older sheep were very pushy and tried to help themselves to the bucket of feed. A couple of cheeky ones jumped up at me trying to get a taste of the camera, one of the lambs loved having its back scratched and when you stop, it pawed at you like a dog.