Northern Safari

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Saturday 9th June, the day has finally come around and we are ready to go....well almost. Last minute shopping for food and some running repairs on the electrics on the van for the newlyweds Debbie and Steve. At around 1:30pm we finally hit the road after a ham and salad roll for lunch. First stop is a refueling stop for Steve at the cheapest diesel garage in Perth today, Neerabup? Fortunately this is on our way North on Wanneroo Rd. Next stop will be Cervantes so that we can see the pinnacles. A strange series of rock formations sticking upright out of the ground. Because you can not tow a caravan or trailer around the pinnacles park we book in to the Cervantes caravan park and pitch our tent ready for the night whilst Debbie and Steve get their van set up for the night. Once we are ready we head back out to see the pinnacles. $11 per car to get into the park. On the way back we stop past a couple of lookouts at Kangaroo point and a quick look around town. Back to the tent and van and the girls start cooking up a spicy sausage casserole whilst I get the tent redy for the night and Steve gets the van ready.

Whilst having dinner batteries in the caravan seem to be dieing so the Land Cruiser is hooked back up to the Anderson plug for the night. Off to bed for an early night around 9:30. It's all going well until around 4am when a storm hits. Wind gusts in excess of 50 knots (90 kilometers per hour). The tent tries to wrap itself inside out and is looking seriously like its about to take off with us in it! After getting up and having a look around outside when a rain squall had passed over I decided that our best option was to attach the guy ropes to the Range Rover on the windward side of the tent. A bit of maneuvering of the Rangie to the right spot and then attaching the guy ropes to the roof rack and wheels and the tent is no longer looking like its about to take off. We do get bit more sleep but the wind and rain certainly make the sleep spasmodic.

Up at 7 and into the showers before they close them for cleaning at 7:30. Over breakfast it is decided that it is too dangerous tow the caravan in these conditions so we'd better see if we can get a powered site for Debbie and Steve and we would get an on-site van or cabin. No suitable on-site vans or cabins available, but the reception at the caravan park arrange to have a 4 bedroom holiday house across the road that is available. With plenty of room for the caravan to park in the driveway and it's not about to blow away! We gladly take up the offer.

We no sooner get settled in and the power geoes out. Not just in our place but as we later discoverpretty much all of this area, including Jurien Bay as well as Cervantes.

Later in the day we take a drive up to Jurien Bay. Too wet and windy to get out of the car but at least we are out exploring other areas!

Steve continues to try and find the source of the electrical problems in the caravan. He has now disconnected the solar panels to see if they make any impact.

Back to the house, still no power. Time for a drink and nibbles then 5:00 the lights are back on and it looks like we'll be cooking inside as well as recharging all of our devices.

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