Advertisement
Published: October 26th 2015
Mystery Caller
Roobie, a great bed for the nightMystery Caller 23-25th October 2015
It was Friday night and we had both come to the conclusion that we were desperately in need of a change of scenery so there was no other option than to hitch Roobie up and get out of town
All we wanted to do was get some quite head space and go somewhere where we could have a camp fire and sit back and look at the stars, which is something that we have not done for a while.
I collected Caroline from Fremantle station on Friday straight from work, she got off the train at 4.17, and jumped in the car and we headed back to where we are staying in Freo, parked the car, then Hitched Roobie (Our Kamper Trailer) to Jack, put the laptop and Camera’s in and we were ready to go.
We had done our grocery shopping on the Thursday night, we didn’t need much just something for our dinner on Saturday night as we would be doing a camp oven dinner, so a nice piece of lamb was the order of the day, complimented by an assortment of vegetables.
We left Fremantle at
just after 5.00pm and got about 5 K’s from home when I realised we (I) had forgotten to put the Toshiba Laptop in, this is the Laptop I use to do my remote HF radio skeds and as I had a rostered sked on Saturday night I needed to have it with me, so we had to turn around and go back and collect it.
Again we were off and Caroline navigated us out of town and as we crossed the Kwinana Freeway bridge the traffic was really busy so Caroline gave me an alternative route via Mundjiong and Serpentine, it was a really pretty route and at about 6.30 we were pulling in to the bush camp in Dwellingup.
Caroline had pre booked us a place for 2 nights, with the facility of a power hook up, but we had chosen a spot away from the power, which didn’t bother us as Roobie is equipped with solar panels on the roof so we would have everything we needed for the next couple of nights.
For our British readers the sun is a big yellowy orange thing in the sky that you lot don’t see very often.
Mystery Caller
Our cooked dinner Roobie was set up, and unhitched, tonight’s plan was to go to the pub for our dinner, as we have been there before and knew we would get a good dinner.
When we ordered, the lady said it would be a minimum of 40 minutes as there were 50 people in front of us, we were hungry and had to amuse ourselves with a couple of beers for me and wine for Caroline, it also gave me the opportunity to thank everyone on Facebook for my birthday wishes.
It was only about an hour and twenty minutes before finally our dinner arrived and we were starving, it don’t think it even touched the sides, and when it was done we drove back to Roobie and literally fell in to bed as we were just exhausted.
I woke at 5.00am, well in fact we both woke at 5.00am when the alarm on my i-phone went off, Caroline asked me why was my phone set to go off on the weekend, and I hadn’t got a clue, so I managed to stumble out of bed silence the alarm and climb back in until 6.00 am when I got
out to make up some brownie point s and make her a coffee.
By the time we were rallied, it was time for breakfast, when you are away Bacon and eggs are a must.
Roobies outside kitchen is quite a marvel of engineering, the outside runs on gas whilst the inside cooking surface runs on diesel, pretty swish really and I believe the idea came from swanky ocean going yachts.
Anyway, I opened up the outside kitchen and plugged the gas in, Caroline handed me the produce from the fridge and in no time our Bacon and eggs were done, Yum!
I put the hot water system on in Roob’s which is also diesel and when the water was ready we did all the washing up, as if we would have left it, we wouldn’t have wanted to do it when we got back to camp.
With all our stuff put away, Roobie locked and the truck ready we drove out of our camp spot and into town, some 600 Mtrs and parked at the Blue Wren café where we intended to have a coffee and do some blog work if they had available “free”
Wi-Fi”.
What a nice little local café this was and yes they had free Wi-Fi and gave us the log on and we sat outside enjoying the great weather.
I needed to upload the images of the zoo to the blog as I wanted to do a publish as soon as we could.
We sat and drank our coffee in between people watching and uploading the photo’s and when I was all done, (I think 35 Photo’s) we had decided to drive into the lane pool reserve which is where we wanted to stay in the first place but all the camp sites that would accommodate Roobie were full, so we wanted to scope them out so we could make a more informed decision about where to camp next time and book well in advance!
Arriving at the rangers station we were greeted by a lady ranger, we advised her we were day visitors and she said that there was no charge for day visitors until April next year when a tariff would be added to purchase a day pass or an annual pass, she did also advise that there would be a “locals” tariff which
Mystery Caller
Roobies's External Gas Galley Kitchen fortunately includes us as we live in the Perth Metropolitan area, we thought this might be handy as we do like this area.
We drove in and systematically went to all the camp sites to see which ones we liked and which ones we didn’t coupled with which ones wold be suitable for Roobie and Jack.
Lane Pool is a beautiful place but we were both horrified to see how much clearing had taken place, apparently for pine forestation. The Old Baden Powell Campground where we have camped with Gypsy a while ago, was all gone, cleared and levelled! It looked so different and very sad.
It was just gorgeous to be out, in the solitude of nature and in the sunshine it was awesome, we were just slowly driving along the dirt roads when we saw a youngish Goanna, which was about a metre long from the end of its snout to the end of its tail.
We parked and got out to go and have a look, it cautiously looked at us ready to make its escape at any moment, I did tell him how lucky he was that we were not aboriginal as
he would probably would be on the dinner menu.
We left the creature in peace and meandered on our way again and eventually ended up out on one of the main roads where we headed back in to Dwellingup, as we got to the Blue Wren Cafe, I slowed up for traffic and saw Trevor and Peta some friends of ours from the 4 wheel drive club, so I shout out of the truck some abuse, then found a suitable place to park and went over and chatted with them.
They were just in Dwelling up for the night and had brought their Caravan up for a bit of fun, they were hoping for a spot in the Lane Pool reserve which is where we were all morning, so after our chat they went their way and we drove back to the Dwellingup bush camp.
Caroline wanted to prepare all the veggies for our camp roast tonight and I wanted a nana nap, so she went to work with the prep knife and I went to bed for an hour.
We had planned to set the fire at 3.00pm as we wanted some decent wood to
Mystery Caller
Caroline sitting weighting for dinner have burnt down and turned into hot coals just as it was getting dark.
I have a 6.00 o’clock HF radio sked from VKS’s Meekatharra base which is a 1000 Kilometres away from where we were.
All our ducks were in a row, meat and veggies, ready, fire burning down nicely and I set up the lap top for my 6.00 pm VKS 737 radio sked, but because we are coming to the end of the travelling season, (before it gets too hot, the grey nomads head back to the Southern States) the HF radio is getting quieter now and I thought I would not get any calls this evening.
To my surprise I had handled two calls already when I heard a caller, a female voice, say “Meekatharra Base, Meekatharra base, this is mobile 1136-Over and without thinking said, this is Meekatharra base to mobile 1136, then as I press the return key on the lap top I have already typed in the sellcall number (1136) and I instantly thought to myself I know that number, the female voice was slightly distorted and it took me about 10 seconds to realise that it was Caroline, who
Mystery Caller
Our Tripod and camp oven have seen lots of work when we have been on our travels. was sitting in the truck, she had booted our HF radio up, selected the correct channel and called in, this signal had travelled 2000 Kilometres and Caroline and I were only sitting 10ft away, me in Roobie and Her in Jack.
I handled the call in the same way as would with any subscriber who wanted to make voice contact with Meekatharra base, I logged it in and then cleared the caller, as I knew I would be having dinner with this mystery caller in the next half an hour.
Caroline came in to Roobie grinning, she asked if I had seen her sneak the keys away for jack, she said she had been wanted to do this for ages, and on a more serious note as we spend a lot of our time in remote locations and I am happy that Caroline can use the HF radio, if we ever get in to a difficult situation and our mobile phones had no reception.
The fire had burnt down to where we wanted it to be and we put the camp oven in the fire with coals on the top and sat in our chairs and waited
Mystery Caller
Taking the camp oven from the fire and taking the coals off the top for our dinner to cook, it wasn’t a huge piece of lamb it just fitted in to the camp oven nicely, snuggled next to the shallots and other vegetables.
It was 7.30 when we finally pulled our cast iron camp pot out of the fire and tipped the coals off the top good smells had been wafting out of the oven so we knew something good was happening.
We took the meat out and let it rest for 5 minutes it was cooked beautifully it just gave us a bit more time for the vegetables to cook and we carved the meat, it was delicate and perfectly done, amazing when you consider we only use one pot to cook everything in.
Dinner was served, the gravy was made and with a little seasoning it was truly magnificent, we did say that it must have been Woodstock lamb, as it was so good.
With such a triumph of a great dinner we sat around our fire and looked at the stars, this is what we wanted to do, away from the hub bub, just the two of us, it had seemed like ages since we did this
Mystery Caller
Jack and Roobie last and we so miss these little jaunts out to do the things we are good at.
We decided not to wash up tonight after our meal, but instead put all our plates etc in the back of the truck until morning, as the possums would be having a field day with the plates if we had left them outside, which we found out along the way on our travels.
We went back inside Roobie and sat and had a drink before falling in to bed exhausted, it was a warm night, so we left windows open with the meshes closed so we don’t any uninvited guests crawling about the trailer whilst we are asleep.
We woke to a fairly grey-ish morning, I was up before 6.00am and put the hot water system on and washed everything before Caroline got up, we were not in a hurry to leave, but Roobie doesn’t take long to get ready for the road and we were ready to go by 08.00 am and in fact had gone the 500 meters into town and was parked outside a café by just turned eight went inside and ordered Eggs and Bacon and
Mystery Caller
The final touches for our dinner a skinny flat white each and sat on the outside veranda enjoying our trip-ette.
The journey home was only just over an hour, we had had an amazing little trip to blow the cobwebs out of our heads and it had done the trick we really felt like we had had a great weekend.
But for now work beckons tomorrow and chores need doing!'
Kj
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.024s; cc: 14; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0395s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ThePass
Australia 2008
Sit back and relax
Isn't it nice to have those 'sit back, relax and view the stars' weekends to refresh the mind and body? You sure have a wonderful area to do that. And of course all the right equipment. I your truck diesel? Or do you need to carry spare petrol and diesel? Will need to read up a bit more on Rooby, I guess. Camping is done for us. We winterize the trailer by putting anti-frees in all the lines. Need to get out more next year. Nice work Caroline, calling Andy on the HF radio.