From one pest to another

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Day 222 - Yallingup to Lake Brockman Bush Camp

We left our camp site at Yallingup quite early this morning, we didn’t manage to drag ourselves out of bed in time for a walk down to the beach like Simone did though. It’s a habit that we need to get back into as we’re missing our long and early morning walks.

Despite the “Bustling Busselton” versus “Yawning Yallingup” hic-cup, the Reeves are still entrusting us as tour guides and more importantly the decision of where to camp tonight. This is our final night before we both roar into Perth at the weekend where they will head for Freemantle and we will head for the drag racing!

Our journey takes us through the lovely city of Bunbury with its beaches and harbour right close to the town centre. We stop for a quick look at both and then head for the visitors centre just to double check the camp site for tonight which is within the Leshenault Peninsula Conservation Park. The ranger at Conto recommended it and fellow bloggers Kangaroojack camped there too so I’m not anticipating any problems. Unfortunately the ladies at the visitors centre can’t tell me anything more than what’s detailed in the excellent National, Marine and Regional Parks in Western Australia free booklet.

We decide to head slightly out of the city for a fuel and shopping stop figuring it would be easier to manoeuvre the vehicles and find parking. We found the Woolworths superstore with no problem at all but getting in and out of the fuel station was a bit of a giggle! It’s jam packed with cars filling up for the weekend, presumably, and in no time at all we’ve successfully blocked the entry road and then the forecourt - oh well! We’re insisting that we cook tonight, the Reeves have done it so often lately and whilst their meals are delicious Darryl is keen for them to taste his Thai Green Curry ala bush hence the need for supplies!

The drive out to the peninsula is beautiful, this is a stunning area and Kenny is soon excitedly asking us over the UHF if we can fish here!

It’s a corrugated 4km drive to the Belvidere Campground but something has caught Simone’s eye and not in a good way. She’s spotted a sign indicating that this is a Mosquito Risk area and in particular mentions the Ross River fever and that the early months of summer are the worse. Guess when we’re visiting! We drove on through the camp ground, which looked very nice in fairness but unsurprisingly wasn’t at all busy. We stopped for a quick discussion and bearing in mind we arrived mid afternoon it was a bit of a wake up call when the kids were all bitten within seconds of getting out of the car. Darryl already had a mossie on his face so we all ran for cover behind closed doors and discussed over the UHF what to do. None of us were impressed that the visitors centre at Bunbury hadn’t mentioned the risk - if there are signs up then surely it’s something the visitors centre staff should know about and come to that it perhaps should have been included within the national parks booklet too. Anyway, Simone gets on the phone to try and ascertain if we’re going to get the same problem further along the coast as there is another national park camp ground detailed in the Camps 5 book. It’s frustrating because nobody seems to know the answer so we decide not to risk it and head inland. What we do get told by one of the rangers over the phone is that the Ross River fever can stay with you for years, not days or weeks or months and with that understanding we knew we had to play it safe and leave.

Thinking back I remember Kangaroojack had a bit of a wild time at this camp ground, they enjoyed their stay but experienced a lot of noise at night so maybe we’ve had a lucky escape.

I bury my head in the Camps 5 book desperately trying to come up with a quick alternative so that we can make the most of our afternoon. Simone & Darryl suggest just heading for a road side stop towards Perth but that seems a shame and I search harder and quicker!

I eventually come up with Lake Brockman Bush Camping which isn’t free but seems to suggest the camping areas are on the lake foreshore. As we get closer the scenery cheers us all up and we’re soon back in bush land which we love. The Reeves go off through the dirt track to check things out while we stop at the caravan park as it says in Camps 5 that you pay your fees there. The chap politely puts me right by saying it’s nothing to do with them and that a ranger will come around to collect the fees. He points us in the direction of a spot which should fit the caravan and the camp trailer and off we go. Across the dam wall and eventually to a fairly large area with a concrete round table, fire pit and boat ramp. Excellent. We get the caravan in with no problem at all and find another track which means we can just drive straight out in the morning. Brilliant. The Reeves park up behind us and we settle down to the rest of the afternoon.

A while later a young chap pulls up in a truck asking if we’re camping here for the weekend, we tell him that we’re just here for tonight and that we’re leaving early in the morning. It sounds as if we’re going to get some company shortly as he’s been told to meet a group of friends at this very spot. He drives off and we all head down to the water for a swim. It’s great and everyone really enjoys it. Zoe is a great swimmer and seems keen to stay in the water so together we swim towards the middle of the dam. I try to tire her out on the way back so I can keep up and get her doing a bit of butterfly and freestyle but it doesn’t work, she’s fit as a fiddle and I just paddle along beside her! There’s a power boat out on the lake too with a water skier behind it, we’re glad we turned back to shore when we did as it causes a pretty big swell which has us bobbing up and down a lot!

Back at camp it becomes obvious that we will have company tonight as the lad in the truck is now setting up waiting for his friends to arrive. We’re a very friendly bunch so we help him unload the off road bikes he’s got in the back and then he starts showing the lads his professional looking bow and arrow assembly that he uses to hunt pigs and goats with. As his friends begin to arrive a strange atmosphere takes hold of the place. We all make an effort to wave and say hello as more and more people turn up, in fact in a strange ‘6 degrees of separation’ coincidence it turns out that Mark & Simone grew up in the same place as “Twiggy” (the main group organiser) and they have a multitude of friends in common back home in Victoria despite this chap now living in Serpentine which is about an hour down the road from where we’re camped.

We had a great game of Rummikub between Simone, myself, Zoe and our mutual helper Beth! Out of three games I won two and Zoe won the other …. Simone took a bit of ribbing about that! The boys came back from fishing to find a very different camp ground! We had been taken over but in fairness we thought it would be fun with lots of people and let’s face it we love a party! Bring it on!

Mark had spent time chopping wood for a fire and before everyone else arrived we thought we’d have it reasonable close to camp but then a series of other couples turned up and set up their tents pretty much on top of the pile … all without a word of hello, g’day, how you going - nothing. It all started to seem a bit odd.

As the night drew in we prepared dinner and moved our wood, chairs and selves down to the concrete round table. Mark got the fire going and openly invited everyone else to join us, a couple of the kids came and sat with us but none of the adults. We’d fully intended to get the guitars out tonight and have a bit of a sing along but the atmosphere just wasn’t conducive to that sort of idea which was a real shame. Just goes to show that no matter how attractive your surroundings are, people can make a big impact.

The kids went to bed quite early, the language from the other group was starting to get pretty choice and frankly when that statement is coming from me or Darryl you can appreciate it was fairly full on. It was very ironic when one of the boys (he was 14) was told off by his Dad for being cheeky to one of the adults. What the youngster actually said was that the adult was an idiot for smoking and that if he did drugs he was an even bigger **ck! The lad was only replying in the same way that he was being spoken to which proves some sort of point I suppose.

From here on in the night just got stranger and stranger. Twiggy came to chat occasionally but nobody else did so we sat around the fire chatting and laughing like we normally do. We thought we’d made a break through when one of the ladies came towards us but it was just to shout at her son for leaving their chairs unattended around the fire and now they were missing one so he should go without dinner until he found it! Twiggy said in passing that he’d make sure they kept a lid on it tonight so we could get some sleep, no worries was our response and we went to bed around 11.30pm. Not long after midnight we fell asleep so whatever they got up to didn’t disturb us but at 4.45am we had a rude awakening!

Vomit, well the sound of it anyway, that’s what we woke up to this morning. That and hysterical laughter then a torrent of language so loud it prompted the guy camped down at the boat ramp to yell out for them to be quiet and that others were trying to sleep. It was the women who responded telling him to get over himself backed up with a string of un-printable and probably un-spellable words! There was more to come as they exacted their revenge on the chap who had dared to ask for quiet, the lads fired up the off road bikes. We don’t know whether the riders had been drinking or not, they could have been perfectly sober and this is just what they normally do at 5.15am in a forest full of sleeping campers!

There was no point lying around in bed, we were wide awake so started to pack up and once we were ready we went next door to the Reeves to see if they were about to say ta ra. Simone had been down at the lake fishing with Kenny trying to avoid the language but Mark & Zoe heard most of what went on although thankfully Beth was asleep for the majority.

Twiggy was up and about as we left and he cheerfully shouted “Ready to get to the drags then?” Our response was a smile and a wave and to wish them a happy hangover!! What would be the point in saying anything else?!

Off to the drags we did go!!

Dar and Sar

Post Note - Ross River virus is the most common arboviral disease in Australia, an estimated 4’800 people suffer each year. It originated near the Ross River area in Townsville, Queensland when it was first diagnosed in 1971. In South West Western Australia the period between September to May in high risk areas is the most deadly. Whilst it’s not fatal it is particularly unpleasant and is a germ which causes flu-like illness with joint pains, rash and fever. Those blood sucking mosquitoes really are a pest!

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Comments

[Kangaroojack]

Ross River and Belvedere
Hi guys, glad you remembered our experience at Cape Leschenault, great place, but the noise from the local kids at night was diabolical, if we had mobile phone network I would have been inclined to call the police, they were there from 10.00 at night until 7.00 in the morning drinking and generally being a nuisance. We had been warned by fellow travellers not to intervene as it can badly backfire on people, that point being confirmed by a couple we met in Northern Territory when a chap politely asked kids to be a little bit quieter he got punched to the ground, we have also heard of people having tents/trailers pee'd on, stones thrown on roofs etc. I remember hearing on the news the following day that agroup of teenagers were picked up for drink driving around the Australind area early morning, so I hope that itwas them and that there just desserts were served up! We had no problem with Mosquitos there it was the wrong time of year so very few around...... take it easy guys and travel safe..... Kangaroo JackXX