Margaret River – Perth (Fremantle)

More than 390 people ended up camping in Conto Camp Ground in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park over Easter. In our area there were just 3 toilets for 170 people, and seeing that we had a refugee camp of about 5 families just near us there was a constant stream of them and their kids to the toilet that was closest to us. So no peace on the “John” was available. Other than that the place was magic. The weather was a bit cool at night and for the 7 days we were there, it was sunny for 5 of them.

We actually had to move our van a mere 7 foot (2m) while we were there to try and get it into some sun for our solar panels. There was lots of shade there. We weren’t really successful and were running our batteries low all the time. This National Park is one of the few in WA where you’re not allowed to run generators. If we have sun on our van, that’s a good thing. We both hate generators as much as the next guy.

But the beer has to stay cold!

We did the winery tours of the Margaret River as well as spending the afternoon at the Bootleg Brewery with live entertainment and many beers out on their extensive lawn.

The best winery was “Swooping Magpies” which we actually only went to because of our very good friend Lisa who is realty scared of swooping birds. Well besides having some of the best promotional gear based on Swooping Magpies, the wine was also excellent, and we talked to the owner for some time.

One of the highlights of doing a trip like this is the people you meet along the way. Some are just over the top, others are fantastic. Imagine us camped in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park and our immediate neighbour is Greg, the only way I can describe Greg is an over enthusiastic “Wiggle” on speed, when he talks his hands roll in a typical “Wiggles” fashion as well as all the other typical Wiggle motions. I think the whole group is based on Greg!

He was a really nice guy once you accepted that he was obviously the founder or at least the basis of the Wiggles.

So you can see after 7 days in one place we have finally learnt how to slow down.

From LNNP we headed to Perth, or Fremantle as Greg told us the caravan park there was just it, and once you were there you didn’t need your car as you can walk, ride, or use public transport. We looked at the other choice of Caravan Parks for us, but he was right and the one in Fremantle was perfect. We were able to ride our bikes to the Little Creatures Brewery for a few sunset drinks, and then a few more after dark drinks.

Fremantle is certainly heading for an explosion of real estate soon, some of the water front developments are just amazing. It’ll challenge the Sunshine Coast in Qld for sure. If only it was closer to the rest of Australia!

We peddled ourselves around Fremantle many times and frequented the many fish shops and pubs this area has to offer.

I had a new cast put on my thumb, a fancy bright red one this time, which being red goes really fast. It’s really giving my thumb a lot of protection and the Hand Therapist (yes there are such things as Hand Therapists!) says it all going better than expected. I also took the opportunity to have it x-rayed while we were where good x-ray equipment exists and it passed all these tests with flying colours.

I have another 3 ½ weeks of having the cast on, so it’ll be 11 weeks in total. When it’s due to come off we’ll be bush, deep bush and it needs to be x-rayed before I get the clearance to put load on it. I have no idea when this will happen, so maybe I’ll have to have the cast on for an extra week or so. We’ll see.

It’s a removable cast, so it comes off for my hand exercises and showers. That’s all.

Yesterday we moved from Fremantle 300 kms north to Sandy Cape Recreational Reserve. We’re currently camped about 20m from the beach, just over a sand dune away. It’s a really amazing place. We enjoyed a good sunset over the beach and Jayne looked after me with Punjabi Lamb Shanks (Indian style) and German Bread Dumplings. Yum! Tonight is Pizza Night.

So now the real adventure starts as we head up the north-west coast into warmer climate and less population. When we left Perth the van was completely full in preparation for this. We had on-board 160 litres of diesel for the Touareg, 10 litres of petrol for the boat and generator, 300 litres of water, 2½ boxes of beer, many bottles of wine, 2 spare tyres for the car, 2 spare tyres for the van and a fridge full of food.

160 litres of diesel gives us a range of 880 to 980 kms at this load. I think that should be enough.

300 litres of water can last us for 6 days or if we are really tight 10 days. Beer, well there are pubs out here!