'Wherarwee' in Oz: December 2011

Well, it’s been two weeks since we got back to Perth & what a 2 weeks it’s been. First, sitting on the tarmac at Perth for 7 hours while our new friend, Dave Barr sat outside from 10;30 till 7:15 when we got out, plus his wife & daughter had been taking in the local shopping centre for all that time. As the airport couldn’t give us a time, I couldn’t tell Dave. Although I did say that he shouldn’t worry about us & go home, which he ignored.

We then stayed with Dave & Chris at their place at Forrestfield till Sat morning & returned to the Midland c/park. As we had planned dinner with the Barrs on Monday & we wanted to take them out for dinner, we filled in the time going into town & seeing Kings Park. As we didn’t know where to catch the bus we decided to start walking, it was only 2 K’s to the park but the last part was up an unbelievable hill. The park was great but we caught the bus back to town, missed the stop closest to the station & had to walk back.

After dinner with the Barrs we left the next day for Bunburry, taking our time we drove down the coast but the national park we had selected to stay at was closed when we got there. It was starting to rain so we turned back for Mundurah, hoping to find a caravan park on the way. Within minutes we were in an unbelievable electrical storm, rain coming down in sheets, lighting flashing all over the sky. No intermediate parks so we took the first park we found in town, it had been a 50K return trip & the storm continued for hours but at least we were snug on a powered site.

The next day we continued back down the coast and found that if we had continued South we would have found a park 20K’s further on. Arriving at Bunburry we found it was just another large country town so we drove back North to Australind, found a park on the edge of the bay & stayed the night & returned to Midland for our interview with the club committee the next day. All went well but Dave & Sue had commitments till the 29^th so that gave us 10 days to fill in. We decided to head North this time, travelling the new(ish) coast road up to Dongera.

We started by checking out Perth’s beaches, stopping at Sorrento for a look around, great beach, parkland with benches dotted around & another vast marina. Where do all these private cruisers come from? Called in to Two Rocks, then Quinns Beach a bit further on (still in a time warp but I don’t think for long) & stopped for the night at Moore River at a small o’night area by the side of the road. From there we continued on our exploration, calling in to various seaside settlements, Ledge Point (another tin shed village like Quobba), Cervantes, known for it’s surfing, Jurien Bay (another town due to come into the 21^st century) & our stop for the night was at Sandy Cape Recreation Park, but we weren’t happy there so continued on to Leeman.

Leeman is another quiet little coastal town, but the c/van park is right on the beach & shady so we decided to fill in a couple of nights there. Walks along the beach & around town together with a few chats to people filled our day & we left for Dongera feeling refreshed.

After spending a couple of hours at Dongera & Port Denison we decided to push on to Geraldton. Fuel, shopping & lunch on the waterfront saw us ready to stop for the night, we picked an overnight stop called Fig Tree Crossing as we had looked at on the way South as it was in an open country environment & there were nice shady areas.

We still have a week to fill in before starting our new job & we are wondering where to go next.