On the South Coast heading East

On leaving Manjimup with my new tyre firmly affixed to the back of the caravan I made my way to a lovely little bush camp about 10kms outside of Pemberton, signposted as the Pemberton Big Brook Arboretum. I was right in amongst some very tall trees some stretching at leat 50 or 60 metres towards the sky. It was $7 a night for normally a maximum of 3 nights, but as it was quiet, just me and one or two others the hosts let me stay for 6 nights. Very peaceful with no phone or internet so lots of reading and wandering around the area was undertaken. There was a lovely dam not too far away and with the temperatures climbing above the 30c mark it would have been nice to have given the dogs a dip to cool them off, but like most places dogs were not welcome. It still amazes me just how many people use these sort of facilities which are run by volunteers for our benefit but leave a load of rubbish lying around when they leave, just pure laziness to bag it up and dump it in a rest are bin of which there are numerous along every road. Pemberton itself was a lovely little township, with two decent grocery stores and at leat four cafes. It certainly catered well for the travellers passing through.

From there it was further South Westerly slowly making my way down toward Augusta. The next stop was an overnight in a rest area at Darradup about 30kms South of Nannup. I had managed to book myself a spot at the very busy Nannup caravan park for the following day. I needed to top up with water and have a chance to put the aircon on to cool the boys down a bit, although it did eventuate that the aircon wasnt required. Nannup was a very busy town with not a great deal going on there. As mentioned the caravan park was very busy as Australia Day fell while I was there and it was also the last weekend of the school holidays. There was also a large gathering of the Jayco caravans owners club of WA in attendance. Anyway I managed to get 5 nights there and the weather was certainly cooler and had a bit of drizzle on a couple of the day, and booked ahead into a caravan park in Augusta for 3 nights.

The trip from Nannup to Augusta was pretty uneventful, but I did stop at a place called Karridale, which was basically a garage, and cafe/bar on either side of the road at a T junction and that was about it. I must say though that the garage did serve a decent coffee.

Got myself all sorted out in the caravan park in Augusta, literally about 50mtrs from the beach and the Southern Ocean. Very windy the whole 3 days I was there but luckily my site was surrounded by trees so was sheltered from the worst of it and was able to have the awning out for the boys. My reasons for visiting Augusta were two fold. One was to go to the lighthouse and see where the Southern and the Pacific oceans meet, and two according to the internet there was a garage in Augusta that did Annual caravan inspections of which I was in need of. Well in the case of best made plans the garage had gone out of business and the lighthouse was completely covered in scaffolding and it also lay in the bounds of a National Park so I couldn’t go in because of the dogs. Mind you the southwesterly winds were so strong I probably would have ended up halfway across the Nullarbor. I wasnt sorry to leave Augusta if only for the fact to find somewhere less windy.

I ended up going to Northcliffe and to Sid’s Bush Camp for a couple of nights. Surprisingly quiet a few others here seeing as there were no facilities in the Northcliffe apart from 24/7 petrol pumps. The campsite did offer rustic showers and flushing toilets which I think are best described as functional, but it did appear that some of the people had been there a good while and looked as if they were going to be there a good while longer. It was a lovely setting although I wouldn’t fancy being there if it rained too heavily and it was very sandy and you could have gotten bogged down very easily.

Next port of call was Walpole a caravan park right on the Walpole Inlet, again a very busy campsite where I had booked myself in for 3 nights. During the first afternoon I was there reports of a large bush fire about 60kms to the East of where I was just outside a town called Denmark. Due to the hot temperatures and a bit of breeze this was soon declared as an emergency and people from the surrounding area were told to leave immediately and all the campsites in the area were closed and campers told to evacuate. The fire raged all Friday night and Saturday and it wasnt until the early hours of Sunday morning that is was contained, but still not under control. Luckily on the Monday rain was forecast and it duly arrived which certainly helped the firefighters and it was deemed contained and controlled on Monday afternoon. As the fire was directly on the route I was due to take I stayed an extra couple of nights and the van park to make sure it was safe to travel when I left. I was going to make Denmark my next stop but due to the fire all the campsites and caravan parks were full so instead I made my way to Albany, well to be exacted to the suburb of Willyung which is about 12kms North of Albany CBD. A really lovely Caravan Park called King River Palms which was right on the King River, just like it said on the tin. I booked myself in for a week as I had managed to find a place that could do my caravan inspection. Albany is quite a decent sized town and is well spread out. Apart from the shopping the three main things to do and see in Albany are the Whale watching (in season), the whaling station museum and the ANZAC memorial park. Although the whale watching wasnt happening the other two are well worth a visit. Took my caravan in for its inspection which it promptly failed, no gas compliance plate and also a problem with the suspension. So when I rang the recommended caravan repairers they couldn’t do the work for 2 weeks, so rather than pay for another two weeks in the van park I decided to go and free camp until I took it in for repair. I went back to a place I had visited previously at the beginning of January called Borden. So off I trotted up to Borden only about 120kms away and parked up for two weeks before heading back to Albany and putting the van in to get fixed. I had to get myself a cheap cabin for the night as the van would be in for two days, the dogs were not overly impressed to have to sleep in the truck overnight but it was all good. Got the van back the following day and had it booked in for a reinspection the day after. All went well and I got my inspection certificate. So that’s that for the next 12months.

So back on my travels again making my way East towards Esperance, which I should get to in about a weeks or so. Im currently parked up in another large free camp area all on my lonesome, well apart from a whole host of magpies. The location is called Fitzgerald which used to be a very small township but is now just this camping area. I think the town was abandoned in the early 1960s. Its currently 26c with a bit of a breeze and all is good.