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Published: February 17th 2007
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Ready to go
Leaving...for the first time After a few days of final preparations at Amanda’s folks place we were finally ready to take off on our first leg of the trip —a quick shakedown tour of the SW of WA to get an idea of whether we had;
Too much stuff
Not enough stuff
Needed to modify our stuff
Had the right stuff !!! (figuratively and literally)
Certainly by the way the car felt we had more than enough stuff. The normally aspirated, standard diesel landcruiser 100 series not ever being renowned for setting any land speed records, was certainly not going to be setting a cracking pace fully loaded. 100kmh downhill with a following tailwind was likely to be the best case scenario.Still we have a year to get around so saving ourselves the odd half hour in the day was losing its importance. Third gear up slight inclines is really gonna get up my nose eventually though....
Either way it was good to be out the door and finally moving—albeit not very far initially.
Perth - Conto's (Boranup) In the shape of things to come we traveled only a few hours from Perth to get to Conto’s. This is a
Campsite1 at Conto's
Or first campsite of the trip great little campsite nestled amongst the sand dunes and peppermint trees of the coast south of Prevelly. This was to be our first campsite of our trip and we were lucky enough to have one of the camping areas to ourselves - the advantage of travelling during the week outside of school holidays. Set up was easy although we remained with the basic camp setup of trailer only. Interestingly (or so we initially thought) it was quite windy and just a touch on the coolish side. This was in marked comparison to Perth which had been sweltering in the high 30’s to low 40’s over the previous few days. After a quick ride around the camp area schooling was due to begin—a major shock to the system for all of us parent / teachers and kids.
After several days of being blown around we decided to hoof it a little further south into the Boranup forest proper and camp at the other site. This area was a little better sheltered from the wind being further from the coast and nestled on the margins of the magnificent Karri forest. It was still cold though and the last thing we imagined
Barrabup pool
Barrabup Pool doing at this time of year was wearing long pants and jumpers and being rugged up for sleeping.
Amanda's folks had come down to Hamelin Bay just to the south of us so we entertained them at our campsite and had them over for dinner. Dinner guests at Boranup forst campsite! Chicken tarragon was the order of the day and it must have been OK as it all got polished off - not too bad off a two burner stove cooking for 6 in windy conditions.
We had a few days with the kids grandparents at Hamelin Bay caravan park, where the wind just wouldn't let up. I got some good training in for the Rotto Swim and our daughter caught up on her comfort factor by spending the majority of her time in the grandparents caravan.
Whilst it is a nice spot the wind finally got the beter of us and we decided to head inland away from the coast to try and find some warmer weather. We settled on a place called Barrabup pool , not far from Nannup, which was (like many other camping areas in the SW) an old mill area. This area
Workmens pool
Kids having a fat ol' time at Workmen's Pool has two fresh water pool serviced by St Johns Brook which eventually links up with the Blackwood River. The two pools were fantatsic swimming spots with Workers Pool originally being for the workers of the mill and Barabyup Pool the exclusive domain of the mill manager and his family/friends unless it was the annula picnic day when the workers were allowed to swim in the big pool!
The old campground at Workers Pool allowed us a closer spot to the water so we set up there - although the facilities at Barrabup Pool have recently been upgraded and are quite flash. An old rail line which is now a walk track thru the bush (1.2km) affords access between the two pools or you can drive.
We spent a couple of days here and caught up on some schooling with the kids (still tears and arguments here though...) and spent several hours in and out of the pool having a great swim. I lugged one of our small kayaks down which allowed us to muck around with the kids a bit more as we had a platform to hang off. Our screen dome was a godsend though as the
Hoffmans Mill
Full set up at Hoffmans Mill march flies were pretty active - albeit dumb and slow so easy to pick off. Schooling had a couple of disruptions with possums and a bungarra circling our little screen dome where we school the kids. Pretty typical of the types of distractions different to a normal classroom situation.
Bakery at Nannup had some absolutely beautiful bread. First of many bakery stops....maybe we should start a ranking of our trip based on bakery rankings...
Back to Busselton for a few days to catch up with my elder sister and her tribe and also to meet up with the grandparents for a few days. Caravan Park stay ....too noisy too close to a whole swag of other characters but necessary evil I guess. But always good to catch up with family and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins.
Headed back inland to get a bit more forest time for a nice relaxing few days before heading back to Perth and Rotto swim/ other misc. appointments and some final modifications / auto electrical work on the car prior to the Real McCoy. Relaxing was far from the result.....
We managed to find an out of the way
Route1
Our approximate route around the SW / Cape spot near Brunswick Junction out in the forest near a nice little creek. After cleaning up the various rubbish immediately adjacent to this pretty little spot (
why do people have to leave rubbish/toiletpaper/tissues behind???) we set up and prepared for a nice day or two in the forest. Next thing we know we had two planes criss crossing the sky and then a multiutude of utescame barrelling past closely followed by at least 12 fire trucks a couple of dozers and several logging trucks carrying their timber out of the area. Peace and quiet was
not the order of the day. We assumed that as not one of them stopped and told us to get the hell out of there it wasnt a drama. Eventually a lady from CALM stopped and said that there was a fire over the next ridge (and NO we did not start it!!!) and she would get back to us if we had to move----never saw her again. A bloke from the forestry deprtment stopped with a couple of other blokes with water tankers and started setting up a pump to drag water out of the little creek we were camped near. So much for that peace and quiet! The forestry guy was quite informative and said it wasn't a drama for us to be there and we could walk up the adjacent hill and we could get a view of the activities and the firefighting. We decided that this would be a worthwhile exercise so we traipsed off up this ever steepening hill and got to the top to see the fire. A bit of excitement for the kids as we saw a ring of fire and several of the firetrucks running around the edge trying to contain it and keep it under control. This continued throughout the night...
We decided ("surprise, surprise, surprise" as Gomer would say) to move elsewhere the following day and headed off to another old mill site near Harvey at Hoffmans Mill. We did the final full set up here with the awning and all to ensure we had everything we need on the main trip. Hoffmans has a litle creek running thru it with one section that has been partly dammed and is partly nbatural as a pool. We went for a quick swim here and it is very ......refreshing to say the least. The water is essentially sgaded for the majority of the day so it is an invigorating dip but it certainly made you feel refreshed and revitalised. after two full days schooling we headed off to Mandurah and thence back to Perth.
A few days of getting organised / minor modifications / buy a few bits and pieces / attend to various previously arranged appointments and do the rotto swim and then finally head off on the trip proper.
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Rod & Audrey
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Looking Good So Far
We are enjoying the early reports on your trip - very well presented with piccies and maps. Hope you are enjoying yourselves. Please keep the GPS locked in on your location so we can track your clan!!