2012 Around Australia: Day 103 - 105 26th May

Day 103 Saturday 26^th May

Today was another maintenance day on WDU564 (car) and the caravan. I took the toilet canister to the nearest “dump” point in Pinjarra (approx. 70K’s return) to clean it out whilst brother (Lester) and sister (Vania) continued work on installing the TV antenna and radio antenna in the caravan. Vania is a terrific apprentice and she has definite ideas on what and how she wants things done. Lester has done a fantastic job and it all looks great. TV reception now totally relies on the quality of the antenna. All digital channels were great however analogue was a bit “snowy”. Hope the Olympics is telecast on digital. The TV came without the power adapter and a few screws missing from the base so the people who sold us the TV said that they will do a complete change over on Monday.

Since all the “maintenance” work has now been completed Vania and I decided to move on. We were initially planning to leave the caravan at Annie and Lester’s but decided to take our little snail home with us as we were concerned at the forward weather forecast.

Aerodynamic antena. Must remember that we need to allow for an addition 22cm in campsites.

Work in Progress. Lester needed to run coaxial cable as well as 12volt power.

Surprise Annie! Caught you having a quick drink.

Day 104 Sunday 27^th May

Packed WDU564 up and the last bits and pieces into the caravan and said our farewells to Annie and Lester. It was fantastic to stay with Annie and Lester and both Vania and I are very, very appreciative. It was also a fantastic opportunity for Vania and Lester to rekindle precious family ties. It is Lester’s 50^th birthday next Sunday (sorry Lester) and we agreed to book a chalet near Busselton from next Friday to Monday to seriously celebrate Lester’s birthday. It will also provide the opportunity to do some really serious “fishin”.

Although we had been to Mandurah previously to service the car Vania and I went down to the wharf area for a quick look. Well, the development down here is absolutely amazing. Huge houses and apartments on water canals. Obviously very, very expensive as a lot were unoccupied.

Lester had told us about a place east of Bunbury called “Gnomesville”. The way Lester described it Vania and I knew we had to go there and have a look for ourselves. Well, when we arrived there Vania and I could not believe what we saw. Literally thousands of “gnomes”. All shapes and sizes. The really great thing was that all these gnomes were literally in an area of the side of the road. All out in the open and there were no fees to pay to wander round and look. We left "Houdini” in the car as we felt people would think that we stole him. Low and behold there was Houdini’s identical twin. Great.

After spending a fair amount of time with the friendly gnomes we started out to find another “free” campsite. The parking areas around here are very close to the road and don’t offer much privacy. As we drove along looking at side roads and everywhere we came across 2 possible great sites in Lowden. The first was at an open area in the Lowden voluntary fire-fighters ground and the second was a beautiful flat secluded spot just outside the Lowden cemetery. Yep the “dead centre” of Lowden. After a very long deliberation (at least 3 seconds) Vania wanted to go back to the fire fighters ground. We set up camp and settled in for the night. Vania was extremely lucky as she had a ventilated toilet nearby (see photos).

Little brother Lester and his cat.

Smiles all round, including Houdini

Appartments / houses on the water canals in Mandurah.

View into Mandurah harbour from cafe.

You could almost think you were in Venice.

On the "back beach" at Bunbury.

One of the many gnomes at Gnomville.

So many different types of gnomes.

Houdini's twin (on the right) and "blog" editors gnome (on the left). Fancy meeting each other so far from home!

Literally 1000's of gnomes, all shapes and sizes.

Some "frisky" gnomes as well.

Gnomes go caravaning around the country as well!

"Free" campsite at Lowden. I thought the cemetary campsite was better.

Day 105 Monday 28^th May

Up and at it relatively early. No real destination only a broad area. This part of southern WA has the magnificent Karri and Jarrah trees. We stopped at one of these magnificent Karri’s (Diamond tree lookout) and I was amazed at how high this tree was. Additionally they had iron rods drilled into this tree so that people could climb to the very top were there was a lookout. The tree was 54 metres high. I’m usually not scared of heights but when I saw the so called “steps” I started to get goose bumps. No way was I climbing this thing. Vania pretended to show me up and started to climb at least 4-5 steps and then quickly came down. OK, Vania I believe that the steps were hard on your feet (yeah, yeah, yeah).

We drove through several beautiful towns (Donnybrook, Balingup, Bridgetown, Manjimup, Quinninup, Walpole, etc…). The thing that really intrigued me in this part of the world was that a lot of towns / hamlets names ended in “up”. One place in particular I found rather amusing was “Yoursup”. Put the “up” first and see what you get.

We were heading towards Parry Beach which is approx. 25k’s west of Denmark. Bit apprehensive as all the documentation on this site says it is not recommended for large caravans because of the low lying branches. Well, when we got here we were amazed. Beautiful shaded campsites and the beach is only 100 metres away. We quickly organised our fees ($10/night) with the caretaker and found a lovely spot. After our episode in “Deep (shit) Creek” Vania and I now ensure that we can get the caravan IN, OUT and look at HEIGHT in every campsite. Boy are we experienced grey nomads now.

Vania tested out our new “Cobb” oven. She set it going, poured some precious beer into the bottom, wrapped lots of vegies in foil and placed some pork in the Cobb. Well, talk about a magnificent feed. Pork was tender and juicy and the veggies simply melted in your mouth. I have a feeling there will be a lot more “Cobb” experiences coming up.