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Published: June 18th 2010
Now that we had the ‘Crocovan’ we were desperate to test it out not just for the purposes of how comfortable and practical it was but if it was safe and would indeed take us from a to b! We had met a couple of people at the hostel, Richard 26 from the Midlands but living in Wales and Dana 23 from Bavaria Germany, both of them were bored in Perth much like us and had planned a one week trip to travel the South western loop down to Albany. They had hired a car and invited us to join them for the trip. Excellent idea as this meant that if we did run into any unexpected trouble we were travelling with others who could help. We were leaving the next morning and it was dark when the van arrived so we had no time to organise anything. Our backpacks and belongings went into the back and we began our very first trip!
Day 1
After a final free pancake breakfast at the Ozi Inn we all headed to the supermarket for supplies for the trip. We had also decided that a Satnav would be beneficial so we checked out the prices on Satnavs and found the same one we had in the UK for less. Our purchases gathered together including, instant noodles, bread, eggs, butter, peanuts, pasta and pasta sauce we hit the road at about midday. We headed for Rockingham just 47k south of Perth. Rockingham is a quiet coastal town and the views were beautiful, we took a few minutes to admire the coast and grab a drink before we set off again to Mandurah. Mandurah is another coastal town and was just another 30k further on. We didn’t stop for long as sun set is around 5:30 at the moment and we needed to find a campsite. We headed for Australind, just outside of Busselton. We stopped at a look out point and watched the sun set. There were parrots everywhere and the sunset was amazing. Dana & Richard who have been travelling for almost a year decided we should head for a National Park for our first night. A short 10 minute drive took us to Leeuwin- Naturaliste National Park, it was dark when we arrived so we followed Richard and Dana to the campsite. The first thing we were told to do was look up. The sky was a beautiful blanket of stars, millions and millions of them, apparently there are times when you can even see the Milkyway! There are no lights in the park so we found our torches in the back of the van to help us out. We were all hungry and chilly so we collected some fire wood and Dana & I began making a fire in the large iron pots which are supplied. Before you all think that I don’t know how to make a fire I was a Venture Scout in my youth and it didn’t take long before Dana & I had a huge hot fire on the go. The boys collected firewood and began gathering all the items we would need for dinner by torchlight. For our first night a culinary masterpiece of pasta and tinned bolognaise with garlic bread cooked over the fire was on offer. It tasted good given that we were in the outback with no electricity or gas.
I had been putting off visiting the facilities as I knew I would be facing my first experience of a long drop toilet. With no water in the outback, a deep hole is a dug and a toilet basin positioned over the hole. I asked Mark to take me as it was pitch black and I had visions of walking into a spider infested cabin with the most disgusting toilet I had ever seen. I was completely wrong. Yes it was a long drop but it was clean, no spiders, no flies and surprisingly enough no bad smells.
With dinner over we sat together on a log around the fire, it is winter here and the further south you go the colder it gets. Dana & I were sharing some wine and I was gazing at the stars amazed at just how beautiful the night sky is when Richard who was sat on my left screamed like a girl and jumped, as I looked over a ball flew from his foot hit the leg of the table and flew up the tree. Dana grabbed some bread and headed for the tree, it was a Possum! In built up areas of Australia Possums are seen as pests as they eat pretty much anything and love to hang out in rubbish bins. In the wild our Possum just thought he would be friendly and sat on Richards’s foot, poor thing must have got the shock of his life being booted 6ft into a table! I was amazed this cute furry creature was so tame. We called him Dave, he only had one eye, we hoped it was a long standing injury and not from his recent meeting with Richards’s foot and the table, he didn’t appear to be any pain so we’ll go with the long standing injury story. We fed Dave for a while and I managed to take some great pics too, not long later we waved goodbye to Dave and decided to bed down for the first night in the ‘Crocovan’.
Day 2
I woke up at around 7am, my hips hurt from laying on my sides on the thin mattress in the van. I crawled out of my sleeping suit threw on some clothes and got up. Richard & Dana had mentioned that if we left early we would miss the ranger and would have had a nights camping for free! We left the campsite and headed to the nearest beach which was still in the National Park. Here my culinary skills cooked up a breakfast of egg sandwiches for everyone before planning day 2. Our first stop would be Bunbury, followed by Busselton and if it wasn’t too dark Margaret River. It was a beautiful morning when we left the beach and it was my turn to drive. As we made our way back through the National Park to the road I noticed the oil light had come on, Richard & Dana had gone ahead so we stopped to fill the oil before following on. We made it to Bunbury, I went to grab my travel planner and lonely planet guide but it wasn’t in its usual spot, I asked Mark where they were as since we had left Perth they had taken pride of place in-between us and I had used the travel planner to list all the places we were going on our trip and things we wanted to see. The travel planner was a gift from work before I left and contained cards from friends, my NHS card and some other bits for safe keeping. It transpired at that the engines location was under the passenger seat and centre console so Mark had taken the books out, put them on the roof of the van and filled up with oil and not put the books back in the van. We realised at this point our campsite book was also among the items which were now almost certainly on a road back in Australind. We got back in the van and Mark drove us all the way back to the National Park to where we had stopped. I was already upset and there were no books in site. We headed back onto the road to head for Busselton 230k south of Perth and there was our Lonely Planet Guide in one piece on the side of a very busy main road. We looked further up the road in the hope that the planner and campsite book would be in equally perfect condition as the lonely planet guide, but no, they had not made the fall off of the van as safely and were in shreds up the highway. We collected everything we could; sadly the travel planner was irreparable. Once we had collected all the pages we could we climbed back in the van. Mark was of course very sorry, since leaving Perth it seemed as though Mark had left his brain behind I was upset and cross so Mark drove and I tried to put the 600 or so campsite pages back into some order.
After an almost completely silent journey we were coming into Busselton when we saw a car exactly the same as Richard & Danas on the side of the road. Windscreen smashed, doors bent open and bonnet popped and crumpled. Other cars were parked on the side and people were running onto the grass verge. Mark pulled over and before the van had stopped I was running as fast as I could to the crumpled car. My heart was thumping so hard and in my haste to get out of the car I had ripped my fingernails, I got to the car and I am happy to say it wasn’t them, both Mark and I were shaking. We were told the situation was under control and the emergency services were on their way we were 10 minutes from our Rendez Vous point in Busselton, we got back in the van and were so glad to see Dana & Richard. Busselton is beautiful, a new town which is still being developed much like many of the towns in Western Australia. We hoped to walk on the jetty which is the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere at 2k long but it was closed for renovation. We walked down to the white sandy beach before re stocking on groceries. We headed on to the small seaside town of Previlly which is the most beautiful beach I have seen so far. The sands are white, the water is blue, and we walked up the lookout point over the ocean and had to take some pictures before driving up to surfers point to watch the many surfers play in the ocean. Suddenly the world seemed so peaceful.
Looking through our not so together camping book there was a free campsite between Busselton and Margaret River, Rapids Conservation Park. It was getting dark so we headed straight for the Park which would take another 45k to get to. We arrived at the entrance and began a 5k drive on gravelled; bumpy road down to what we hoped was the campsite. The road was horrendous and it was difficult at times to keep control of the van but we made it, or so we thought. We turned into what we thought was the campsite to find a sandy track overgrown with bushes and trees. For those of you who have seen the movie Wolf Creek I’ve been told this track wasn’t far too dissimilar. As we attempted to go down the track I asked Mark if he thought it was such a great idea to continue, always one to never be defeated we pushed on until Richard bibbed us from the car to say they weren’t prepared to go on. I untangled some branches from the wing mirror and we reversed back. We then completed the 5k of bumpy and gravelled track to the main road. I can say at this point that this was the worst day so far since arriving in Australia, Mark had left his brain somewhere, I’d lost a few of my very few possessions, we’d thought we’d lost our travel companions and we’d endured the worst road we had ever seen to find that we were going to have go back up it, we had no idea where we were going to sleep and I knew I was set for another painful nights sleep.
We decided to head for Margaret River town before we got into any more trouble. We were exhausted; we stopped at a road side rest area for a wash and headed for the nearest pub. After being fed and watered with fish & chips and beer we looked through various guide books we had with us and found Conto Campsite in the Leeuwin National Park. We headed in with no issues, the stars were beautiful and as we headed in a shooting star flew infront of us, magical.
Day 3
A bright new day even though it was pouring with rain, today had to be better than yesterday! Another breakfast and we headed for Margaret River famous for its, wineries, breweries and chocolate factory! It was mid day when we arrived at The Saracan winery and brewery, we made our way down the steps and inside, it was beautiful with one wall being made of glass to view over the lake. We went to the winery first where Dana & I sampled all of the wines the winery produced, well it would be rude not to! The boys headed for the brewery and after we relaxed in the lounge looking out over the lake with a chilled glass of beer. We left before we spent too much cash and made our way to the Bootleg brewery which had caught our eye, I sampled Chocolate Stout which was amazing. We continued our journey to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, inside was every conceivable chocolate you could imagine. They also manufactured all sorts of products made out of chocolate from cooking oil to bubble bath. We sampled the chocolate quite a bit whilst we were there and watched them make Rocky Road through the glass.
We decided to go to a caravan park that night; we were all in need of a shower and a relaxing and comfortable evening. We purchased a powered site for the evening at $30 which is a small price to pay for electric and hot water! Mark and I didn’t waste any time and headed for the showers. In Australia so many people travel that the amenities in these places are very clean and the water pressure is high and the temperature hot. That night we sat in the camper’s kitchen munching on jacket potatoes and as always planned the next day.
Day 4
The weather was miserable it was freezing cold and I was very glad of my fleecy waterproof coat. Who would have thought I would have needed it in Australia! We headed for Augusta the most south-westerly point of Australia and where the Indian & Southern Oceans meet and the Blackwood River also rolls into the sea. It wasn’t even 9am yet, we headed for the lighthouse not realising it was gated and you had to pay to go into the grounds. We took pictures and Mark headed off onto the rocks to do some filming where he unfortunately came a cropper and fell over, no injuries to report thankfully.
Our main aim was to get to Pemberton which involved driving through the Southern Forests which were amazing. The trees are like skyscrapers all in beautiful reds lining the single carriage highway. It was just beautiful and so relaxing, as I came round a bend I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I put on my brakes and stopped with Dana and Richard behind. Sitting in the middle of the road was a tall dark Kangaroo. He was oblivious to us and clearly not concerned for his safety on the road so after a minute of looking at us he hopped back into the forest and we were on our way again. We were headed for The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree, a 68meter tree which you can climb in the Warren National Park. We hadn’t realised the vast distance between the town we had left and Pemberton I awoke from a nap and Mark informed me that we had been driving for around 40 kms with the fuel light on! We had 11ks to go and we made it to the petrol station. Yes this was risky but the best time to see just how far we can get on a so called empty tank when you’ve got a car with two friends with you surely! In our eyes we were sensible!
It had begun to rain when we arrived at the tree. The only safety offered on the climb is a mesh net which covers the sides as you walk up the iron stakes which have been hammered into the tree winding all the way up to the canopy which can sway 1.25 meters either side in the breeze! Mark, Dana and Richard all climbed to midpoint which was high enough, a notice warning people of climbing any higher in rainy or windy conditions should think again.
After a hasty decent by all we headed for Walpole Wilderness Area which was the point I was most looking forward to on the trip so I could do The Valley of The Giants Treetop Walk. A 600 meter long ramp which elevates to 40 meters above the forest floor amongst the trees. I wasn’t disappointed, it was magnificent I struggled a little with the movement of the walkway as it is designed to sway to match the movement the canopy of a tree would. The views were amazing, the trees beautiful and the forest so peaceful. Once we had made our decent we then followed the walkway to the Ancient Empire boardwalk which took us round ancient tingle trees some of which are 16 meters in circumference. The trees are amazing and I even found a tree with a face! Clambering back into our vehicles again we headed further south to our final destination Albany. On route we stopped through Denmark, but were keen to find somewhere to sleep in Albany and arrived at a small site called Happy Days at 6pm. The owner was not as happy as the site implied but we cooked our dinner and got our heads down.
Day 5
Up early we wanted to spend time walking around in Albany the largest town we had been to so far. Although the van was proving practical and it worked it was not comfortable. Every morning I had pain in my hip from lying on the thin cushions, Mark had done his best by padding my side of the bed with spare bedding but we knew we needed a better alternative. We ended up purchasing a blow up mattress for $35 a bargain and I can safely say I have slept well every night since.
We wanted to find a National park Campsite for our last night but after spending an hour or so on MacDonald’s free internet we conceded that this sort of camping was unavailable near Albany and we would spend the night near the beach in a caravan park instead. With our night accommodation sorted we explored the many shops in Albany including a huge bottle shop where I purchased 6 x 1 litre bottles of Hardy’s for $39, Mark, Richard and Dana took advantage of some beer before we left for the Blowholes. Torndirrup National Park was our destination just 16k outside of Albany. We parked up and began the steep decent, around 80 steps and a good 1k walking to the famous Blowholes. The Blowholes are situated close to the cliff edge and every now and then you hear the swell of the ocean as it hits the rock and sends water shooting out of the holes with a loud roaring sound. They were phenomenal. We explored the rock face further as the coastline had a number of bays and beaches which appeared to have no throughway and could almost have been untouched.
Mark and I made our way back up the 80 steps and into town to fill up on fuel & pump up the tyres before we drove to Emu Beach Holiday Park for our final night. We parked up and walked to the beach which was again beautiful. We made best of our final night and threw some sausages on the Bar-b washed down with beer or wine and toasted Marshmallows, a truly wonderful night.
Day 6
It was a lovely morning and our last as today we would drive the much shorter road the Albany Highway back to Perth which would take just 5 hours. We wandered onto Emu Beach before setting off Dana and me dipping our feet in the clear blue waters. We were sad the trip had come to an end, Dana was heading back to Germany in a few days and Richard was planning on getting some work in Perth before heading home in November and Mark and I, although excited about our big adventures to come were sad that our first trip was now over.
We packed up and drove out to the picturesque Emu Point to take some pics and drove back to Perth. We split the long highway up with short stops for a drink or food and arrived back in busy Perth at 4pm. It was great to see everyone at the Ozi Inn who were all happy to hear our stories and see our pictures from the trip. We were happy to grab a shower, have some dinner and a few drinks. At the point of writing we have left Perth and are now in the beautiful Jurien Bay, relaxing in the sunshine, chatting to the other friendly travellers before we start our first WWOOF placement on Monday.
Here are the links to our
Road Trip Slideshow and a
Little Video we made of our trip, no...they really are there this time.....honest!
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Vicki
non-member comment
Luv the blogs, luv the slideshow, and luv the video!!! Looks like you guys are having the time of your life - enjoy!!!