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Published: April 25th 2009
DAY 167
We had decided to leave Forrestfield Discovery Park on the out skirts of Perth as we had already had 3 nights there. The people we met on Kangaroo Island Cliff and Sue are not due back in Scarborough until late on the 26th of this month and we would like to drop by and have a drink with them and possibly a meal before we have to continue our journey further North. Hopefully there is some mail waiting for us, we have a book to collect that someone has kindly sent to us and a small charger for the laptop.
Our stuff was packed away promptly this morning, we both showered and we were off, first stop Diesel.
We have explained numerously about fuel in Australia, if you shop at Woolworths you can get 4c off a litre so when you are putting 120 litres every cent you can save makes a difference.
Collecting our voucher from the last shopping stint at Woolies, we pulled in to the local Woolworth/Caltex service station, take the nozzle out of the cradle put it in the hole in the truck and nothing! The gauge does not even
Caroline
Yes in her fleecego to zero, we stand there waiting, nothing.
Caroline goes in to the Kiosk and comes back out, “flick the lever!!” she says, “What lever?” I reply, Caroline comes back out, “the lever on the Diesel pump”, “There isn’t one.”
This fiasco went on for a while, until another motorist came to help us, there was a tiny lever under the nozzle when it is seated. We do just that, flick the lever up and still nothing.
I stomp in to the Kiosk and this ****** of a bloke says I’ve told the lady what to do, I tell hime what I think of him and suggest that he should at least come and help, I walk back out the lazy t*****r just could not be bothered to come and give us any assistance. We put the nozzle back in the cradle and tell him to shove it, we will get diesel somewhere else, and I don’t care if it costs more.
We drive out of town, my thoughts turn to this muppet in the fuel station, I need closure on it as I try to understand how these idiots operate, if he says to his
Who Shat That!!
Can you tell us who shat that ! boss he has had a drive off they will have our rego, then they will send a letter to the address we have in Caloundra, then the cops will be involved then it will all turn ugly, over this bloke who was just a fat lazy t****r.
We need to have our say, so we phone customer services at Woolworths to explain what has happened, giving our name rego, when and where it happened, then if other people get involved at least we can say that have already reported the incident.
We drive on, looking for a campsite that we have spied in Camps 5, WA 139, Martins Tank, we see a sign for it 10K’s so we turn off and head down an unsealed road. We arrive at the site, it seems very pleasant and its nicely set out. A sign says welcome to Martins Tank; its $6.50 per person per night and the ranger will drop by daily to collect the rent.
The Patrol is parked and the Wendy house is set up, tea in hand we are enjoying the afternoon sun, we hear a vehicle pull in and see an old red Landcruiser easing
Flying Dutchmen & Women
This is Mirjam and Dave the Dutch Virgins, not sexually but this was there first night in Australia camping in slowly towards us.
They pull up in front of us and guy gets out and asks us if there is any “Registration Place” for this campsite. We say that we have not found anything, and just tell him what we know from reading the sign, it’s all about finding a place and getting comfortable for the night.
A young girl sitting behind the steering wheel gets out, we find out that they are both Dutch and they are on a year out.
We speak for a little while, and say that we will probably get the fire going if we can find enough firewood this evening and if they wanted to they were welcome to sit with us.
Walking along the track we see loads of sign of the wildlife, the Truman family introduced us to a game that we could put on to the blog site, “Who shat that!” so look out for that one in the future.
Popping out through the tree’s we have found our way to Martins Tank Lake, which we walk around. The ground is very dry and crispy with the salt deposits from the lake.
Getting back to the Wendy House, we need to start thinking about what we intend on having to eat to night as it is starting to get to dusk, we settle on a cheese and cracker feast and set about preparing some tucker.
The logs still have to be sawn so they fit in to the fire place so I need to get on with it.
Caroline has made the fire Wigwam that I think is the key to a good fire, the logs are sawn and we are ready to go.
Just as it is dark we light the fire, it settles down beautifully we draw our chairs up around the fire to give us warmth and enjoy a pleasant evening.
The night is beautiful, the stars are bright, its easy for us to say how fantastic this night sky is, but it is, there is absolutely no light pollution at all, you do get such a clear open sky to look at, that’s so black with millions of tiny little shining specs.
Mirjam (van de Ven) Dave (Boonkamp), wandered over with their chairs and sat down the fire was just giving off a nice amount of heat and light to make it just right, we all sat there all evening just talking and whiling away the time.
Tonight was there very first night camping out in Australia, they have been over here for a week but have stayed in a hostel in Perth. They picked up a second hand Landcruiser that is a 1984 model and has ½ a Million Kilometres on it. They have a tent but tonight for ease and to test it out they are sleeping in the back, as the seats fold down and then a mattress is just laid across the flat area. The previous owners had kitted it out for just this type of adventure.
We cast our minds back to our first night, Fassifern in Queensland, it seems a million lifetimes ago, we pulled the truck and a trailer on to a drivers rest area, and parked right behind a huge bill board so no body could see us. It was so hit and miss, needing to feel safe and not wanting to see seen.
Our trip seems to have changed so much now, we like to venture off somewhere that is quiet and out of the way. Usually we are with people who are doing the same thing, having the same adventure were are having, following the same dream, all wanting to be safe and comfortable. It’s truly amazing just how many people are on the move and the way they move.
We have seen the most fantastic vehicles to travel in from the most humble to the most magnificent. It does make me ponder weather Mr ½ Million bucks Winnebago is having anymore fun than a retired couple in a converted mini bus or us in our little camper trailer.
We are just about to get off to bed, when we see some headlights through the tree’s a car who’s sounding like its seen better days cruises in slowly then parks up.
You see a lot of this; travellers, who just park in a national park, sleep in the back and leave early in the morning to avoid any charges.
Unfortunately it was not these, we had doors banging, flash lights, the works. A guy and a girl walk over to us and ask where we got the fire wood, we explain that we collected it, and if they wanted some they needed to do the same.
For the next hours there was crashing through the bush, making a racket, but there was not much to have and I guess they ended up breaking branches off perfectly good tree’s which is sad, just to fulfil their own selfish requirements.
Don’t get me wrong Caroline and I haven’t turned in to raving greenies but being out in the bush does make to appreciate it and you do your best not to leave any trace of being here, and we do our best to stick to that.
Unfortunately people can be selfish and don’t give any consideration for anyone else, these 4 kids had music on, slamming car doors, talking loudly, calling out to each other and were making a hell of a racket until about 3.00 in the morning, I bet the wildlife was wondering what was going on, instead of their quiet environment at night they had a hell of a racket.
Still that’s life, we hit the sack and grabbed what sleep we could, at one stage I sat up in bed and said to Caroline that i was going over to tell them to calm it down, but she knew things may get out of hand if they have been on the beer (I don’t think Andy was going to use polite words and although I understand that because I was feeling the same, but you just don’t know how people are going to react!)
Anyway Marjam and Dave’s first night was hopefully a pleasant one and we wish them a fantastic adventure.
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Mirjam & Dave
non-member comment
Deflowered
Hiya Mates, We read your blog. We had a great deal of fun while reading it. We are now officially deflowered (of course still not sexually, but in the camping thing:P) Have a nice trip you guys! Greetings, Dave and Mirjam