Blogs from Lancelin, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

...And the postal service, banks, property managers and a myriad of others. It's one thing to go on holidays for a couple of weeks and an entirely different proposition to head off for a few months. What an ordeal trying to make sure that everything will run smoothly in our absence. I'm sure there will be many things that crop up but hopefully we can deal with them by email... We have arranged our flights and a week in an apartment in Paris. Then we pick up the lease car and...? Trying to figure out what to do should be easy right? Now add a 3 year old and try to keep her enthusiastic about travelling. Not so easy. Castles? Maybe one or two. The Louvre? Probably not! The beauty of a French Chateau? Totally lost. ... read more

I absolutly love Moore River. It is just over an hour (80km) North of Perth and you feel like you are a million miles from anywhere. There is one shop at the caravan park and one shop at the petrol station, no mobile phone coverage and absolutly nothing else to do but go to the beach, play on the river, play ball sports or hidey in the dark and RELAX! I love it. So we've just had our annual pilgrimage to Guilderton which is at the mouth of the Moore River. The caravan park is right on the mouth so no roads between it and the river and beach...beautiful, safe and easy to get to everything. It has that great feel where there are kids are everywhere playing cricket or british bulldogs and at night they ... read more

Awww, Lancelin.... Home-away-from home for the last two weeks, the Lancelin Lodge reminds me of Australia’s version of Hotel California. Kite, windsurf and surf gear line the garage walls; there’s a huge kitchen and dining area, barbecues, a pool, beach volleyball, hammocks with dudes playing the guitar and loads of tan people in board shorts. It’s a couple of blocks from the kite beach and bikes are free to use as you please. After being on the go for the last 2 months, it’s been so nice to just chill in one spot and kite. (& clean toilets to stay for free... yes, for 1.5 hours every day, I cleaned 5 toilets, 5 showers, 4 sinks and 2 floors to be exact. Times that by 13... wow, quite a change from my office with a view, ... read more

Woke up early yet again. I have a purple sunburnt nose, how did this happen with factor 50?! We got a taxi to Wicked's depot bright and early and sat about for about an hr waiting for the van to be 'ready'. Checked out the vans parked outsiude and was pleasantly surprised at how they looked and how clean they were.......then enter Samantha. Oh dear Lord. Our vans theme is to insult the car rental companies Avis and Hertz by using grafittied bum humping kangaroos and very subtlely (yeah right) insinuating the word Avis is actually anus...lovely :) Alas, the artwork was only the beginning...inside is grimey, vile unwashed pillows, missing curtain and those in place don't cover the actual windows and are thick with muck and a gale force wind comes in through the gaps ... read more

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!! I've had really mixed feeling's about Christmas in Perth, I was excited as it wa gonna be hot and very different, but was also struggling with the idea of my forst christmas away from my family, but when it came to it, I had an awesome few days. Finn and I started to get eveything ready on Christmas eve whilst Tony was at Work so that we could head off as soon as he got home. It was a bit of a stuggle getting motivated as the weather was hot and neither of us were feeling that great, but we did it...eventually and once the car was loaded and Tony back from work, we got on the road. The drive up to Lancelin, which is North of Perth, was fairly uneventful, but from ... read more