Norseman to Home

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It has been two weeks since we came home, and the end of the trip was uneventful, we lost 2 tyres on the van and we were very fortunate not to have had an accident, as I was driving on canvas on one of them.

How can I sum up the trip? We had good time and bad times; the highlight of South Australia was, for us, the Barossa Valley, you don’t really need to be a wine lover to enjoy that part of Australia, it is beautiful.

For the would be caravan travellers, I will give a brief overviews of the parks we visited while travelling, we had intended to do some free stops, but twice the weather did beat us. On the way to SA we had storms and cold weather, and on the way back we had the heat to contend with, in fact up to 48 degrees at time.

We started our trip by making a stop at Southern Cross. I will not go into details as to how many days we stayed at each park as really is it an individual decision, except for a few of them. All the parks visited are pet friendly, some will take a bond, however, most don’t.

Below is a list of our stops, and it is my opinion only, but travelling with a handicapped husband who has difficulties, I appreciated the good and did not enjoy the bad.

SOUTHERN CROSS
Average Park; friendly managers, average ablution block, drive through sites, but not much shade.

NORSEMAN
Acclaim park, poor disabled facilities, reasonable other ablution block.
Easy drive through sites.

EUCLA
A good stop over, cheap and clean, a little dusty. Easy parking, you pay for your shower as the water is very scarce;

CEDUNA AIRPORT CARAVAN PARK
The manager is very helpful, it is not the Ritz, but the facilities are adequate. Park is dusty and there is not a great deal of shade. We chose that park instead of a more up market park in town, as it is safer and quieter than in town.

WINDUNA
Town park, ensuite facilities for everybody at no extra cost, swimming pool, good restaurant and good food, no disabled facilities, good sites, reasonable shade. Very good over-nighter.

WILMINGTON
“Beautiful Valley Caravan Park” nothing beautiful about it, but adequate, not cheap, some shade. No grass and dusty, easy drive through. Beware of “Horrock Pass” to get there, very narrow and winding and can be difficult with large vans and trucks, but it is worth taking the scenic drive.

STRATHALBYN
Town park opposite the oval, very noisy park. Adequate facilities, not a cheap park, grass, no drive through, unless there is nobody behind you.

VICTOR HABOUR BEACH FRONT PARK
The name is deceiving, the park is about 500 metre from the beach and you cannot see the beach because of the Marshes, which you have to negotiate to get to the beach, unless you walk a long detour.
The disabled facilities are excellent as well as the regular block, good laundry. Plenty of good drive through sites, very windy park, helpful staff.

TANUNDA CARAVAN PARK
Excellent; superb disabled facilities, very good regular block. The owners are ex travellers and understand the needs of caravaners. A very large park; well kept and very green- even in summer- good shade. Reasonable rates.

PRICE
A good overnighter, majority of vans are regulars, the caretaker Richard is extremely helpful, the day we left his wife cooked us pancakes for breakfast, saying that I had enough to do with preparing our departure. Average price.

KADINA
Reasonable park, many vans are permanent, one good drive through, very clean and tidy park, grassed area.

COLWELL HARBOUR VIEW PARK
Dusty and uninteresting park, very large, not enough water taps, plenty of midges.

CUMMINS
Town park, very well kept, not very big, but very green, and you feel looked after by the caretaker who try to make your stay as enjoyable as possible: a word of warning: he talks a lot!!!!. Good shopping facilities in town, good butcher, etc. Not expensive, it was $20.00 with an ensuite. We really enjoyed our stay and it was central for us to visit Port Lincoln and surrounds.

PORT KENNY
Best avoided.

FOWLERS BAY
Neat little park, cannot use air conditioners or frypans as they are on a generator: Good fishing from the jetty.

JERRAMUNGUP
The manager is the owner, and she does keep the park in very good condition, good facilities and extremely good sites, the Kangaroos are pets and it is very easy to negotiate the sites, see the photo.

ESPERANCE PINK LAKE CARAVAN PARK
Not a bad park at all, well looked after and the facilities are good.

ALBANY ROSE GARDEN VAN PARK
We would not stay there again. The park is clean enough, but when we enquired about the site, I was told “I don’t know, I never go into the park” how can anybody guide you to have a site suited to your van if they have no idea of what it is they are selling! Several vans were given a site that was not suitable for their sizes. Myself I was given a “drive through site” except that I would have to have knocked a tree over to get in and another one to get out. Not all that funny when you are towing a van.

BOYUP BROOK
A delightful little town park, nice, green and friendly, good ensuites and good normal blocks, not all that cheap

From here we headed back to Bunbury, having travelled 6900 kilometres.
Where do we go next? We don’t know, but I intend to keep the travel blog going and I wish to express my thanks to Nichole Doerffer - a very good friend of mine- who has done all the uploading and had to put up with some very difficult Internet connection at time.
Until next time….. happy travelling
Viviane

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Photos

Albany
Albany and Whaling Station

Albany
Albany Isles

Albany
Amity Ship

Jerramungup
Jerramungup Park

Jerramungup
Kangaroos in the Park

Jerramungup
View of the Caravan Park