Welcome to the west

As we left Norseman in the dark, we passed a sign warning road users of the obligatory kangaroos, then emus, then horses..! Gulp. I certainly didn’t want to have an unexpected interaction with a kangaroo, let alone a horse..! Lexi, who picks up instantly on any hint of a concern asked what was wrong… “nothing dear”, as we narrowly missed an Owl, then thud a small bird bounced off the windscreen… this was going to be fun drive!
With senses on high alert we covered the hours drive, fortunately with no further incident and arrived at Salmon Gums, at RV friendly town with a lovely low cost camp provided by council. I think Norseman are missing a trick there. The camp caretakers had their own veg & herb patch which they welcomed campers to share. After a week crossing the Nullarbor, fresh veg was a welcome delight. It was also the start of the flies, bit of a rude shock for us all, especially the kids who had never had the experience of having them buzzing all around, in the ears and up the nose!

• 

• 

With Minty full of dirty washing, her tanks empty of water, the larder devoid of food & with Tinfish looking, well looking like she’d driven the Nullarbor back roads, we had our work cut out when we arrived at Esperance. Splitting up, each team had their errand list and the day soon disappeared as we restocked and washed ready for the next leg… but where to next, what to do round Esperance? Sipping our afternoon coffees, pleased with our efforts, we now turned our attention as to where to go and find camp. Obviously none of the caravan sites in town even got a second thought and we worked out that Lucky Bay is the go to place when in Esperance. A quick consultation with our travel bible wikicamps, seemed to imply this National Park site needed to be pre-booked online. Skipping over that minor detail we decided that was where we’d head, just managing to buy a National Parks pass bang on closing time as we left Esperence. When asked where to, we confidently said Lucky Bay and were again reminded about the online booking requirement. Feeling the pressure we popped onto the website only to find all sites were fully booked. Convincing ourselves that the website must be broken, we headed out of town, again as night fell.

The first “Campground Full” sign loomed just out of town but appeared to be a permanent fixture put there to scare the weak. By the 5th sign however, we were starting to feel like they wanted to get some sort of message across! Turning into camp, pass the obligatory “Campground Full” sign, now in the dark, we did the lower lap to no avail and for the first time looked at each other and wondered if we might have pushed our luck a bit too far. On to the upper loop…. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm – BINGO, not just one but THREE spare places! But what if those punters simply hadn’t arrived I hear you say? Well that’s where us Towns’ have an ace up our sleeve…. NO ONE arrives to camp later than us..!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Now this was no ordinary camp, it had its own wifi for gawds sake and the toilets looked like they’d been transported here from the nearest Hilton hotel… pretty lush. After a hearty dinner we turned in for a good nights sleep. Maz was first to wake in the morning and snuck out to put the kettle on for our morning coffees. Lying in bed I heard the caretaker rock up asking her for our “printed” booking. I guessed what was coming next and feigned sleep, as the caretaker went into great detail explaining the rules of the pre-booking giving Maz a lecture before then charging us our camp dues. We obviously weren’t trying to shirk paying, we just didn’t believe the camp was full and as it transpired it wasn’t.

We thought we’d had our telling off, but that was just the warm up act. 30 mins later the actual ranger arrived and tore strips off us, his veins popping out as we were told we’d broken EVERY camp rule in the book. I think he went on for 10+ minutes, asking which of the 4 “Campground Full” signs we didn’t see (I thought there were 5) then told us to pack up and leave the National Park immediately..!!? As he finally paused for breath we pointed out that there had still actually been three spots free last night regardless, he then demanded to see our parks pass. Fearing this ranger on a power trip might decide to rip it up or something, I hesitantly showed him our annual pass. However, this actually seemed to placate him a little as he realised we weren’t trying to avoid paying by sneaking in at night and had actual invested in an annual pass. With that he calmed a little and said we should still pack up but could move to the day use area. Well at least we provided the morning entertainment to the rest of the campground…!

• 

• 

Lucky Bay is renown for its squeaky white beach and turquoise waters, with obliging kangaroos lopping about on the beach itself, ready to pose for selfies. Unfortunately for us it was an overcast day so the magic was lost a little, but we still made use of our permission to stay in the park and took a leisurely stroll along the beach enjoying the squeaky sand – for which there is a geological reason I won’t bore you with, something about granite and round sand particles. The only kangaroo we saw had reached the end of its shift and bounded off the beach before we could get close enough for the obligatory photo. The water looked a bit too chilly for my liking under the darkening clouds, but of course kids just cannot resist the lure… so kit off, down to undies and they were playing fetch into the waves… i.e. they were the dogs and we were throwing imaginary sticks for them to recover.
When the advice we got for raising a boy was treat them like a dog, discipline and plenty of exercise, I didn’t appreciate how literal Reo would fall into this role..! He just loves playing at being the dog! Now to work on the discipline!!

• 

• 

• 

West of Esperence were a few likely looking camps that were more our cuppa T. So, waving farewell to Lucky Bay our next stop was Quagi Beach a smaller camp with nice individual spots and a short stroll down to a picture-perfect beach. We spent a few days here, the kids enjoying the beach, Reo getting a quick hair cut (Reo has decided mummy is not allowed to go near the clippers again), Mummy perfecting her sourdough on the Weber BBQ and Daddy continuing with his mission to feed every fish on the south coast with a smorgasbord from his bait box.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

With a bit more time to peruse Wikicamps we spent some time plotting out a few camps along the coast as we headed further west. We ducked into Fitzgerald River National Park for a few nights and again this camp had a magnificent toilet block with…. HOT showers… wow… they certainly have set the bar high in these National Parks camps over here. Amusingly some fellow campers a few sites away recognised us low life from the Lucky Bay escapade and wondered if we’d had any more run in’s with Rangers recently. They had a daughter slightly older than Lexi, but they were soon campsite besties and had a great time.

We got the bikes down as it’d been a while since they’d last been used and daddy took the kids on a few small bike rides to various beaches where the kids loved playing in the crystal-clear rock pools. Today they were seals and I was entertained by a re-enactment of the Taronga Zoo seal show. After frolicking about in the cool water followed by hot showers, Lexi decide she wanted to prepare sushi for our lunch. We might be camping but we’re not savages. Getting into the spirit, we soon had a menu board and orders being jotted down with Reo playing the role of waiter. She did very well and after a yummy lunch we got the kites out. Being in WA (Windy Always) there was a fair breeze a blowing and the kids managed to get the micro kites up into the air. See Mummy, it was worth packing the kites after all.

• 

• 

• 

We always thought when we started this trip there would be places we’d arrive with the initial thought of a night or two, but when we got there, we wouldn’t want to leave. We’d certainly learnt from experience so far that the kids don’t thrive on one nighters, so the rule was already to at least stop for a couple of nights. Boat Harbour was such a place. A free camp down a heavily corrugated narrow track, perfect to deter the whiz-bang backpacker vans (the type with the sliding side doors that go whiiizzz BANG at regular intervals day or night!)

As you arrive you pull up next to a highly eccentric looking established camp. This you quickly find out is the home of Trev the take-carer of Boat Harbour. And what a great guy he is. He’s lived in paradise for 10 years and one of those salt-of-the-earth blokes with a colourful past of life full of experiences, a Larakin in local dialect. Within a few minutes we were loaded into his Land Cruiser ute, me & kids on the back, mum riding shotgun, as he took us on a guided tour of camp so we could pick the most suitable spot.

• 

• 

Many of the top spots were already taken by regular visitors, but we decided we could plonk ourselves in a good enough site and get picture postcard views of the beach and bay from our window. We settled in and soon got chatting to our fellow campers who were a friendly bunch. Being a hop and a skip from the beach it wasn’t long before fishing rods were ready and the kids were frolicking in the waves. After much persistence we got our first feed of fish…! Yeeha, a couple of herring. Now to practice my filleting skills. For the size of the catch a scalpel would have been more appropriate, but I persisted and we soon had a couple of tasty little fillets for an afternoon snack.

• 

• 

• 

The kids adopted Mike and Di as surrogate grandparents and joined them for long walks down the beach with their dogs Kate & Pippa (no reference to Royalty of course) and of course Reo was in heaven having dogs to walk. As a treat they were allowed into their van to watch MOVIES, with the dogs cuddled up beside them… but only when they had “excess power”. We thought that was golden and the kids obediently obeyed. Mike, knowing when their eyes were starting to turn square, would announce that the power was dropping and there wasn’t enough to continue powering up the TV, so everyone out and let’s go walk the dogs. Genius! This pseudo baby-sitting was great for mummy & daddy, who actually had some time to ourselves, something we get precious little of when we’re as a family 24/7. Mummy picked up a book, got a few pages in then fell asleep. Daddy tinkered on Tinfish or Minty, so what’s new (Editors comment – he LOVES it really)!

• 

• 

Whilst at Boat Harbour we decided to take a day trip into Albany… only a 90min drive away!?!? It made sense at the time. We had a few errands to run, but also wanted to see the excellent National ANZAC Centre. We weren’t sure how the kids would go with this as it was the first time they’d experienced anything like this sort of memorial/museum. It is very well done. We started by walking up the hill to the Mounted Corps memorial and Padre White lookout. The views over King George Sound were beautiful but made more poignant when you paused to reflect on what the scene would have looked like back on 1st November 1914. A flotilla of 38 ships, loaded with 41,000 ANZAC troops departed for the Great War, a third of whom, this would have been their last view of Australia as they made the ultimate sacrifice, never to return.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Inside the centre each visitor is given a card with a person’s details, so you can follow their personal story through the Great War. There were ANZAC soldiers, nurses, Turks and Germans to give various perspectives of the hell that we can now only imagine. You were given an electronic device (which the kids thought was a phone sort of device and therefore glued to it – bingo) and at various stations around the centre you could listen to accounts and stories of the ordeal and follow the individual story of the person who was on your card, only finding out their ultimate fate at the end. So as not to overload small minds, we mixed up looking around the centre itself and exploring the grounds which were the old barracks with various military memorabilia for the kids to explore and learn about. Of course, no kid (young or old) could resist manning the guns, elevating the barrels and rotating the turrets to blast the invaders.

• 

• 

• 

It’s a lot for anyone to absorb, the brutality of war, let alone for young children, but they listened in earnest and with sombre but informed minds we all agreed we’d like to come back at night to see the field of light, a changing light field of poppies representing those that never returned.
That meant we needed to find some dinner and what better at a seaside town then to track down Fish n Chips, but not just any old Fish n Chips, Ocean & Paddock, WA’s top award winning chippie of 2017 AND 2018..!! Its that popular there was a coach parked outside and the queue was out the door…! But man was it worth it, they were delicious. We had a mix of grilled and battered with a mountain of chips and the flavours were next level. So it gets an endorsement from TownsOnTour 100%!

Before heading back to the field of light we had a call from Lester (the farmer we stayed with back in South Australia – Oceans Four). To punctuate the days experience, Lester told us how his Grandfather left Albany on the ships destined for the Great War. This personal connection with history really rounded off our ANZAC experience… you can’t learn that stuff in a classroom. Of course, field of lights = night = dark = another near death experience driving back to camp = d’oh = when will we learn!!! With senses on high alert we made the 90min drive back only missing a fox and a couple of roos, phew!

• 

• 

We easily killed the last few days at Boat Harbour enjoying this beautiful spot. The kids went down to Trev’s to feed the ducks and meet his cockatoo whilst we shared a beer. It’s a real community there and even the locals take pride on maintaining this little gem. Trev called in the help of Anna and Nick to fix up and repair the day shelter. They do all this on donations as bizarrely council doesn’t fund the upkeep!? Maz made her now super-sourdough and fed all the workers freshly baked bread with lashings of honey – yummy!

Not for the first time we found it difficult to pack up but travelling Aus means we must keep moving… so up-n-out, next stop Albany (again)!