Heading Home 
Friday 6.7.12. We packed up (surprisingly to us) quite quickly this morning, for first timers! Hour and half later; we are on our journey home. Stopped off at a Moore River lay by for brekkie, where we met a guy and his wife, who were going "gold prospecting" they were heading inland up North, he also mentioned his mate had found gold worth over $1500 just recently!! ...

Well that made Kev's ears prick up! Kev is now considering getting a "metal detector", maybe there is gold in them there hills!? ...


Talking of costs, the car only used about $50 worth of fuel for our drive there (about 160 ish kms); so we are well pleased with that, (have to watch the dollars now, as Kev is absolutely loving his retirement lifestyle too much).
The "Pinnacles Caravan Park" costs were - $35 night for a powered site, so for 5 days it came to $175! Pretty much the price of one night in a standard hotel room! We took all our food, so we were self sufficient and now we're looking forward to much cheaper holidays and plenty more of them.

Although this wasn't planned as a "holiday", just a "trial run" for the "big trips," there really wasn't too much to see and do at Cervantes, although we did enjoy ourselves. I haven't really posted any "scenic photos" so I'll end off this travel experience with a photo of Moore River and some bits of trivia.

It was a perfect day, today, sunny 22 again, just great for a stroll by the river ...  in the Winter. The fishing rods were safely locked away). Although Kev reckoned that it was the perfect day "to catch that fish" ...  Yeah, right ...

When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last of what has gone before and the first of what is yet to come - Leonardo da Vinci

I then managed to find Kev the perfect seat at the edge of the riverbed ...

Then he decided he should take a pic of me too ...

What is he trying to say? ...

It seemed really odd and unusual to find this graffiti, in such a gorgeous spot in the country, I do hope we weren't invading some local indigenous peoples homestead! ...

So back on the road again and only an hour later, arrived safely home with the caravan still attached to the car and very importantly, "thankfully", there was no unpacking huge suitcases, greasy eskies and tonnes of camping equipment. Everything will stay there, till next time! ...

So what I've found this week, is that:

"Whenever we've shut our little caravan door, wherever we are,

we have felt at home! ...

Typical ... I've been told that this is my end of the caravan ... 

And this is Kev's ...

We are managing very well in our new accommodation, much better than a tent and well worth the stressful first towing ... The nights have been really snuggly with the heater going full blast, (Kev says its not our electricity bill ha ha) and I have my coffee machine. So we've been really surprised that this is so comfortable and everything is so well planned  ... Not like the old days in a 2 man tent?

(I was a bit worried about the ladiesroom  though (tee hee) ...)

Lazy Day at Cervantes 04.07.12 Wednesday.
Woke up this morning and everyone who was camped around us had hitched up and gone home, so we had the campsite to ourselves. Yaaaay, but I do wonder if it was Kev's snoring that sent them all away!!? So we have kept a low profile today and spent a lazy day exploring Cervantes local popular spots. We all visited the famous Lobstershack for lunch, where the girls had tried to disguise themselves as lobsters so they could join us.

Roxy

Zoonie

Kev tried ANOTHER spot of fishing, at the beach at the back of our caravan park in Cervantes tonight because it is supposed to be a famous fishing town???...  So well, he wanted me to post this pic of him and say this is the fish he caught! ...  ho hum,  (here is the fish that he would have liked to catch! but he had found it already filleted ...

Zoonie and I have now given up and gone for a long walk, we'll be starving tonight again, so it's the fish and chip shop for tea? ...

Last day at Jurien Bay. Thursday 5.7.12

We won't be beaten by the fish drought, we headed off to Jurien Bay today, which is about 266 kms North of Perth, but only 20kms from Cervantes. (Jurien Bay was named in 1801 by French naval explorer Nicholas Baudin in honor of Charles Jurien who was from he French Navy). Bit of trivia, as we go ...  

First off, Kev headed off to the local jetty with his rods and bait ... At last ... is that something on the end of his rod, the girls and I ran up the jetty to take a look ... oh nooo, drat, he has only caught a huge piece of seaweed ... but that's the biggest catch he's had this week ...

Maybe I might have more luck? ...

Nah ... I'm not dedicated enough, got fed up after 5 minutes. Maybe we better leave it to the locals this time. Perhaps if we practice more often we may get a catch one day ... oh well, back to the caravan for coffee and cake ...

It's been a nice warm 22 today, but the rains will be back tomorrow, so we will be heading back home to the comforts of our suburban house, (unfortunately).

Now we do actually feel like experienced campers and have picked up a lot of tips from the caravan community and met a lot of nice people on the way. So, "all in all" for a first trial run, we have had a brilliant time and look forward to our next big trip up North, when we head up to Exmouth, Ningaloo Reef, Coral Bay, Broome and the "sunshine" with all of our family in August/September ...

 

How does it get any better than this? ... Can' wait to find out ... Be back soon xxx

Bye for now ...

On our way ... 1st July 2012

Yee Haaaa, first trip in our new caravan.

The Gyspies are finally on their way. After waiting over a month for it to stop raining, we are now on our very first trial journey in our new caravan! Yaay, but spose we must remember it is winter in Perth and perhaps we should have brought the caravan much sooner, maybe in the Summer? Duuhh ...

Oh well, here we are now in Cervantes, about 150 k's from Perth. A little fishing village, famous for the Pinnacles. Haven't been there this time, so sorry no pics.
It's a beautiful sunny 21 today and about 6 at night, so not too bad!

After trialing the car towing it's first superload 1and half tonne towing weight, we made our way very (very) slowly on the 'new' Indian Ocean Road. Ha ha, we are now one of those slow moving huge convoys holding up all the traffic behind. We were not very popular as dozens of cars zoomed past us later, on the overtaking lanes.

Well we made it all in one piece and the car didn't break down, or fall apart and thankfully the caravan didn't fall off and all the other things you half expect on your first trip! So then after a long journey ... We started to set up, trying not to look like novices ... ha ha

Our new little home is excellent, it has all the main functions you need in a house and some more! Hardly any cleaning! Yaaay ... I am still looking for something to miss from home, but haven't found it yet? (Obviously apart from the kids and grandkids). I think they could be concerned we're not coming back, we keep getting calls to ask when are we coming home hee hee.  Would just love to continue up North towards the sun now. Maybe we'll be looking to rent out our house sooner than we thought!?

We are all very much at home here and have made new friends on the first day here! Linda and John who are from the Uk and they are cruising around Australia for 12 months on a huge Goldwyn motorbike and trailer which holds a tent in the back. We could hardly believe it! Kev thought how wonderful that there is actually a woman in the world who can pack that lightly!

Tuesday 3rd July. Well Linda and John have set off to Mandurah today to housesit for 5 weeks, and then they may be up North in September, so we hope to catch up with them again, then?

Talking of Kev, he is now contemplating growing a ponytail and having a beard to go with his ug boots and beanie! He started the day looking for some fishing spots, where he might finally catch a real fish and not just blowies!

So we headed off to Jurien Bay with the girls who kept themselves very busy helping by chasing all the seagulls off, eating his bait and running as far away as they could to do their private doings, which meant I had to do a marathon hike way across the other side of the beach with my little yellow collection bag, then only to find that there was no dustbin around to deposit their parcels anyway! doh!

Then Roxy has just found out tonight just how warm her dad's beenie can be ...

Roxy and Loony were very uneasy the first day and started growling at everyone, wouldn't eat their tea and seemed very apprehensive,whhooops they were so confined to their back garden before, that they are turning agoraphobic! but after a day, they have settled in and are now more sociable and have found their most comfortable spots, (mainly at the bottom of my bed).