The voyage really begins...

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On the 22nd of October- After we had searched high and low for wheels, Jenny found a fantastic deal on Gumtree for a deep blue 1983 (its older than I am) Toyota Hiace. It came with fridge, gas cooker, extendable roof, convertible chair-to bed situation (it makes a size-able double bed and instantly installable table (for drinking/playing cards/laptops etc). We traveled to Freemantle by train from Perth central station to visit our soon to be beloved mobile home. Upon meeting its owner Matthias; just outside the station, both Jenny and Nico took it for a spin and we decided (almost on the spot) to say yes there and then. After looking at some very bad/expensive/all of the above vans which had almost the same live-in setup as the one in front of our eyes. We were in no rush to start looking again and the price was an absolute steal at just $5,200 (reduced from $6,900 in his original advert) due to Matthias’s rush to leave post haste. We sat in The back of the van and hijacked Mr. M’s waves to send our bank transfers,write a deposit and went on our merry wee way.
After waiting a few days and biding our time at the Coolibah Lodge (not somewhere I would hugely recommend unless you LOVE drunk Irishmen) it struck 1pm on the 25th of October and we gave Matthias a quick call to check on our transfers and were delighted to hear they had come through. By 3pm that evening our delivery of Toyota goodness had arrived. We were greeted by the news that there were various objects left for us in the van to keep including: A 17“ plasma screen, Xbox 360 and a variety of games, 2 body-boards, Snorkeling equipment, fishing rods, tackle and a huge plethora of other bits and bobs which I really needn’t get into right now, sufficed to say most of which have since all come in very handy.


sunrise on the 26th... Our destination? Freemantle! We picked the camp out of “Around Australia, Atlas & guide”. The handy little book left for us in the van after we bought it. Something we would later find to be an extremely useful tool in our WA travels. We headed 3Km South of Perth to ‘Freemantle Village’ on the beautifully named Cockburn Road. I would absolutely recommend this camp to anyone! It was extremely clean, good facilities - with cooker(s), fridge, large well cleaned and nicely arranged bathroom (showers & toilet cubicles) - a wee bit on the expensive side at $40 per night (sans the usual $20 deposit on the key for the bathroom).
We took EVERYTHING out of the van and cleaned it inside out. Matthias said he had cleaned it, however the very fact he has a penis is a testament to his awful cleaning skills. So we set to work with Mary Poppinsesque gusto and cleaned till sundown and replaced all the goods we wanted back in the van and threw away all the bits we considered useless.
On the next morn, at the break of dawn we packed up our belongings and headed off to Perth to get the missing supplies we had overlooked the first time.

Nico, jenny and I traveled approximately 100 km’s north to a tiny wee place by the sea called Lancelin. On the journey here we passed by some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, in my sheltered European life. Lush landscapes filled with every kind of flora and fauna imaginable on the western coast of what is- not only a country but also a continent. On the way we decided to stop off at a small hamlet called Seabird looking for a place to stay and we literally hit the end of the road. The road just stopped dead and we could go no further. One road, one shop (which was closed by the way) and a whole lot of nothing. If we hadn’t been in a search for a place to camp our van it might have been perfect. So we did a quick U-turn and joined the main road to Lancelin Once we arrived we set up camp and took a 5 second walk down to the seaweed-strewn beach to take some photos , make food, and sleep the night away.

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