photographyperthwa

We took two walks on Saturday. The first was along the Cape to Cape to the south, which took us away from the coast. It was cloudy and we wore our jackets as it was fairly cool.

We’ve been having good weather so far, with nights cool enough to use our warm doona and mostly sunny days. It’s been very windy, which appears to be partly why it hasn’t been hot. It’s now Monday, and quite warm here at Hamelin Bay, thank goodness for air conditioning. We expect it to cool down again in the late afternoon.

In the late afternoon we packed up and went down to the beach near Contos Campground. We stayed in the carpark until about 6.00 p.m. We had views of the ocean, but the sun was pretty glary and we had to have the blind up, so no view that way. The walk down to the beach might be about 500m, not far, and we sat on some rocks to wait for the sunset. The waves were pretty rough and I wouldn’t have gone in for a swim, but there were young people surfing and it appeared to be safe, no obvious rips.

We arrived back at our campsite before dark and found that having left our chairs out had been a good idea in that no one had taken our spot. Although the booking is for a specific section of the campground, we were in Quenda, you don’t book a specific site, so we felt it wasn’t guaranteed. We had to use the ramps to makes us level and it was good to have some light to adjust the ramps.

On Sunday morning we drove down to Hamelin Bay, having made a small stop at the Lake Cave (no cafe) and then at the 100 year forest. We had booked the caravan park in the morning before leaving Contos and we have quite a good site, though, as with Contos, we are under trees and our Starlink signal can be intermittent, there are just no clear areas for it to work well. Still, it does seem to work better with obstructions than in the past, the whole system has constant updates.

Last night we rang Matt and had a catchup, then walked down to the beach to the lookouts. With no cloud it wasn’t going to be a spectacular sunset, so we came back and cooked sausages for tea. I cooked outside, something I don’t do very often, but there are no midges and only a few insects, so it was quite comfortable and meant we didn’t steam up the inside.

We had a good night’s sleep, using the fan next to our bed for the first time. It was the warmest night we’ve had and the first time we’ve slept without the doona.

On our second evening at Hamlin Bay we walked down to the beach and I went down to the shore where people were interacting with stingrays. There are notices that say they should not, especially as they can be dangerous, but not everyone takes it seriously. I didn’t feel tempted to pat one myself!

Ok, exaggerating slightly here. After finshing our WARMSS and Trinity School for Seniors commitments, then going to the first of the Monday night choir rehearsals, we set off on Tuesday for the south. We’ve been in the habit of going all the way to Albany in January, but this time Stephen wanted to revisit the Margaret River area and continue from there. So, that is what we are doing.

Our first night was at Dardanup, and fairly easy distance from Perth, taking into account that we don’t get away early on the first day. We want to make sure we have everything we need and haven’t forgotten any of the security items with leaving the house. Our neighbours will be home whilst we are away, and that means it feels more secure.

We did not visit the Dardanup Bakery in the morning on our way out. It changed from being a German bakery to being a largely donut and pie bakery, which probably gets lots of custom, but is not our preference. They have a new (to us) dump point, which we used, plus there are new public toilets as well. The Hall, where we stayed, has 24hr flushing toilets.

Our next stop was Margaret River where we stayed at the RAC Caravan Park in the National Park for two nights. It is close to the main road and roundabout, so there is some traffic noise, and it is only a short walk into the town. But, it is beautifully located amongst tall trees, with a rustic feel. We used a small open air kitchen for washing up and both took advantage of the shower block near us.

On Wednesday we took a short walk through the forest to the brook. We couldn’t see the water, just the thicker greenery that suggested water. There was abundant birdlife, tricky to get in video or photos, but we stood for quite some time to enjoy watching.

I did some handwashing in the morning and as it was quite a warm afternoon everything was dry before sunset.

On Friday it was time to move again. We went into Margaret River to have coffee and do some shopping, then went to Witchcliffe to have lunch at a newly renovated bar/cafe called Dear Darnells. Although the building itself is interesting the pub food was just pub food, a tasty chicken Parmi and lots of chips.

We have two nights booked at Contos Campground in the Quenda Loop. We’ve stayed here before and it has good access to part of the Cape to Cape walk, with views of the ocean. There is also a beach, though rather than walking there we plan to take the Sherwood and have our dinner and stay for the sunset.

We took the walk in the northerly direction last night, hoping to find a lookout with bench that Stephen remembered from a previous visit. We found a lookout, but no bench, so perhaps it’s further along the path. I didn’t remember the lookout bench from this location, but searching for Boronup in my photos revealed that he was correct.

I was particularly tired last night and had a really good night’s sleep, so feeling energised for today.

14th to 18th January, 2026

WA Renaissance Music Summer School

As one colleague, S, posted to the Whatsapp group, it was going to be WARMSS Wednesday, HOTSS Thursday and then WARMSS for the rest, weather wise. We felt particularly grateful for the mild weather that week as there was a three day heatwave the following week and that would have made things quite difficult.

On Wednesday 7th January I took the Sherwood to Autospark Myaree to have new solar panels put on the roof. They had to do some extra work to fit the new panels on the brackets used for the older system, but they and we did not want any new holes in our roof. The system is supposed to be 20W less than the old system of 440W, but we have had one day when the system reported 449W. They are new, clean and a good brand, Redarc, so I’m almost believing that was accurate.

We had a new head unit and reversing camera fitted, bringing our Hilux in line with most other cars. It includes Apple Carplay. The reversing camera with lines is an incredible addition. We do have a rather dim full time rear view camera, but it only allowed us to have an approximate idea of what was behind when reversing, I mainly use the side mirrors and Stephen using hand gestures.

We also had a small fan installed in the bed area so that we don’t have to carry a fan that goes on the kitchen bench. As we have very little storage in the Sherwood this is much appreciated and we will have a chance to try it out next week when we head south.

We took the Sherwood along on the first three days of the Music School. The venue was Aquinas College, about a 15 minute drive from here, and it turned out to be ideal, with large and small air conditioned venues for singing, a rather nice staff common room, where people could have their meals and hang out in the breaks. They provided snacks in one of the main rooms and Hugh, who teaches at Aquinas, drove some participants to nearby venues to buy food. As we had overseas and interstate participants, plus people coming long distances, they did not necessarily have the facilities and time to do what we did, that is, prepare food for each day in the mornings before heading off.

The Sherwood provided a fridge for food, plus a private hang out space for having meals. On the hot day we were able to run the airconditioning for lunch and dinner without depleting the batteries. As we were going home each night I thought we could charge the batteries overnight if necessary, but the solar system stepped up production and covered our needs.

The main course ran from 10.00 a.m. until 8.00 p.m. at night, with breaks for lunch and dinner. This sounds really hard, but we had sufficient variety in terms of a large tutti choir, then breaking into two halves, then into smaller groups, with five music staff to take the various groups and give them a break from conducting.

There was one session where the staff talked about making music their career, and they did another session where they sang some music new to them and demonstrated that actually getting things right all the time wasn’t possible, even with their experience and ability to read the music. I think this was to help us feel more confident, and it worked.

On Friday and Sunday we went down to Fremantle for an Evensong at St John’s Church and the final concert at St Patrick’s Bascilica. On Friday we still had the Sherwood, though I was anxious about leaving it in a public car park. We had an extra half an hour at lunch time to drive there, and, as usual, we had lunch in the Sherwood, and changed into our black clothes for the public part.

We had rehearsal for about 1.5 hours before each performance at the actual venues, if singing at a church service can be termed a performance.

On Saturday we were to sing at St Mary’s Cathedral, and that day we took the car to Acquinas, then went home for lunch and changing, then drove to St Mary’s. The time was a bit tight for going there by bus and there was plenty of parking for us as we were there long before the congregation. Each ‘performance’ had different music that we had been working on at the college. St Mary’s has the most reverberance of the venues. It’s challenging to listen to, but very good for singing as we felt our voices really soared in the beautiful space.

The participants at the summer school were mainly people in the WASO chorus. Fortunately I know many of them slightly and some a bit better because of singing at Bentley Hospital. I opted to sing second soprano, as I feared having to sing really high, but in fact the 1st and 2nd lines were often overlapping and 1st would have been easier to sing. On the other hand, I was sitting with M, who I know quite well, and enjoy her company. We both had difficulty with our part in the small group. We had been given the music prior to the course and thought we had done plenty of work, but it was more difficult singing with the others. We had the shameful experience of being the only small group where the staff joined us for various parts in the final concert. At least it went well!

As part of the course we could opt for a singing lesson. We were assigned a staff member, and both Stephen and I had Hugh, who is the choir director for the WASO chorus. I was very nervous, but Hugh was lovely and sang with me (using falsetto) to get me going. He tested my range and said I was able to sing as a 1st Soprano. He also helped with breathing, visualising ‘throwing’ the voice to get more volume, and how to stand.

He was also kind and very supportive with us when conducting the choirs, and is my favourite, though the others were kind and supportive as well. Andrew taught us a rythmn exercise that we were all able to do, usually when choir conductors do these exercises they are too difficult and you come to dread them. Everyone else loved it too, and he had to do it a few times so people could record on their phones.

The party was at Clancy’s Fish Pub over the road from the Bascilica. They ordered food and we had one drink voucher. Stephen and I called Matt on WhatsApp during our time there.

We communicated throughout the course on WhatsApp, and many participants are still posting to the group, wanting to get together for more renaissance music, and reporting earworms from the course, something I am finding as well.

The five day course should have been incredibly tiring for us, but something about the energy of it seemed to keep us going, though the last half hour up to 8.00 p.m. was definitely an effort. On Thursday night I stayed for the Compline service they ran each evening, whilst Stephen went back to the Sherwood to rest. It was worthwhile to have the experience, but I didn’t then feel I wanted to go back the next evening.

I was concerned at the beginning of the course as I still had acute back pain with the pinched nerve and general deterioration that showed up on a CT scan. However, I can report that my back is much, much better. I mainly sat on padded straight backed chairs, sitting very upright for the singing, and this is one of the best things for reducing the pain. We were quite active as we had to stand for some of the time and also moved between the venues for the different parts of the course.

I feel I am definitely past the acute stage, now in the more chronic stage where I need to be careful and only have pain in the evenings. I had an MRI just before the course, but the result seem pretty similar to the CT scan. My GP has advised to see a specialist and I have an appointment on the 11th February. She said that we now have a baseline for the damage and if I have another acute phase (the last one was over two months) they will know if the problem is getting worse.

Originally we were thinking of going down to Albany for a couple of weeks from Tuesday, but Stephen flagged that he would like to do something different this year and we have decided to go to the Margaret River area and perhaps as far as Denmark.

We won’t be able to take advantage of the mostly cool Albany weather, but we can run the air conditioning off grid, or opt for a powered site if necessary. Our research suggests that we will mostly have to pay for camping, but there are many options that are cheaper than caravan parks, plus what looks like a very nice RAC caravan park in a National Park near Margaret River that I’d like to try.

Saturday December 27th, 2025

As part of our persuit of beautiful Christmas music we had talked about going to this service, but only made up our minds on Saturday morning. New Norcia is 132kms from Perth, so an overnight in the Sherwood after the service was ‘necessary’, or at least for us.

We checked our water tank, filled up on drinking water, packed some food and clothes for an overnight trip. This took us a couple of hours and we were ready to go by about 12.00. Stephen packed some ham sandwiches for us to have on the way. When we stopped in Bindoon for lunch it turned out to be a really good idea as the Bindoon Bakehous was closed for the day.

We arrived in New Norcia at about 3.00 p.m. and checked in at the Roadhouse. We had a choice of $10 per night in the field across the road, $15 per night with power at the Roadhouse, and an extra $5 per night for access to the shower. We took the most expensive option totalling $20 and consider it to be a bargain.

We had read that afternoon tea was provided at 4.00 p.m. and were pleased to find a spread of sandwiches and pastries, enough to keep up going for the service. The choir were there as well, and it was good to know they would be well fortified for the singing.

At about 4.30 p.m. we all started filing across the gardens to the Abbey. We wanted to get a good seat, however there was no problem as the church wasn’t full. But, with numerous religious personel and all the choristers and their supporters we had people throughout the building, and it felt full.

The choir performed most of the singing, with us doing just a few carols. The readings were clearly read, and it made for a good overall service. It was run by the Abbot and a Church of England Priest, so a Catholic flavour overall.

Afterwards we chatted with one of the brothers, Stephen asking about his life, before wandering through the grounds. I was feeling pain from sitting on the pew and therefore made my way back home to sit upright and take Panadol. Stephen arrived about 20 minutes later.

I cooked tea of salmon and potato chips, which we had with lettuce, tomatos and bread and butter.

We had a good night’s sleep. We had decided to come based on the much milder weather we had after a 42C day on Christmas Day. It was cool enough overnight for the doona. An adjustment we’ve made for my sore back is that when I want to get out of bed Stephen gets down first so that I am not having to climb around him to get in and out of bed. That is working well as I am able to keep my spine mostly aligned.

In the morning Stephen had his $5 shower and I got ready in our van shower before we went to the Roadhouse Cafe for breakfast. We shared a bacon and egg roll on beautiful fresh bread. The coffee was excellent as well.

As usual, we didn’t feel like going straight home after our night away. First we drove around to a Lookout. The New Norcia village was quite a distance away and the flies were fierce, but it’s a good view and I’d like to go back there one evening when there are a few clouds around which would be better for photography.

Afterwards, I wanted to visit the ocean and we headed through to Guilderton/Moore River, where we snagged a good parking spot despite how busy it was, and then shared a steak sandwich at the cafe. After lunch we drove up to the Lookout over the estury and ocean, battling the very strong winds this time.

We planned to see Matt on our way home so travelling down the Indian Ocean Drive, which becomes Wanneroo Road. At Dog Swamp Shopping Centre we turned off and went to Matt’s. He was outside with his new cooler going when we arrived even though the breeze was pretty cool by this time. His support worker Joshua took the Christmas money from Aunty Marie, Uncle Geoff and Glenn and put it in the cash box, giving me a receipt. That was part of my reason for the visit, but I also wanted to see the new cooler. Joshua had read the manual and showed us how everything worked.

We then drove home, arriving at about 6.00 p.m., feeling tired and happy after our overnight in New Norcia, visit to Guilderton, and then seeing Matt.

Nanga Music Festival – Friday 3rd to Monday 6th October, 2025

Curiously, although I wrote about the Star Party at Tammin in October I didn’t write a post about the Nanga Music Festival held from the 3rd to the 6th October. It was our first experience of the festival in it’s new location at Fairbridge Village. I would say it was well managed, with a good variety of artists and an excellent adaption of the school gym into an auditorium. Food was available in the Fairbridge Village dining room and we booked in for three evening meals. This made it easy to get to all of the music and is a good way to socialise with people.

In addition, our friends camped with us on the oval and we got to see their new truck camper setup, very comfortable looking indeed. Another friend camped with us in a tent. This meant it was a lovely social experience.

The camping area was on the village oval and we found out on Saturday that this was an excellent idea as we had a storm with heavy rain and the ground drained very well. In previous years at the Fairbridge Festival we have stayed in a field that would remain flooded after rain.

However, on the Sunday morning after the storm I noticed that our solar system wasn’t charging the batteries. We still don’t have solar charging, but the Sherwood is booked into an autoelectrician for the first week in January. I tried taking it to a caravan repairer, but they couldn’t work out what was wrong.

The autoelectrician diagnosed that it was the solar system that had failed, which makes sense as it stopped working after a storm, and will install a new set of panels to match the ones presently on the roof. In the process of draining the batteries there was a small electrical fire which he quickly stopped. He has replaced the wiring with much thicker cables to carry the load. According to the RAC, most caravan fires are due to the onboard gas cooker or faulty wiring. We are just glad it happened whilst it was at the workshop, rather than when we were using it.

We were able to stay Sunday night after the festival, returning via the Pinjarra Dome where we had breakfast, then a fast return to home up the freeway.

Folk in the Forest Weekend – Friday 14th to Monday 17th October, 2025

This was our favourite festival, it’s small, we know many of the other people, and it was a chance to catch up with our fellow campers last seen at the Nanga Festival. I wore a dress and sandals for the dancing on Friday night, it didn’t improve my skills, but feels much nicer than dancing in jeans.

On Sunday they had an concert until the middle of the afternoon, and we went into Dwellingup to empty the toilet and fill up with water before going out to a ‘free’ camp at the Marrinup Townsite Campground. Actually, there is a fee and we went to the Visitor Centre to pay before leaving on Monday.

The road into the camping area is a good gravel road at first, then there were lots of potholes. We went very slowly, avoiding what we could, and just rolling when we couldn’t. It was worth it to have another night in the Sherwood next to beautiful bushland.

In the morning we went for a walk to the old POW campsite. There is quite a lot to see, and it is possible to drive there, though we really enjoyed the walk and the weather was good, fairly cool, especially when we were in shade.

Choir News

We’ve been singing in three choirs for the last couple of months. Our Mackie Street Singers choir has split into two, one run by David Harries, our previous director, and one by a new choir director who is also very good, with a very different style to David. David has asked us to be very committed with his choir, to make as many rehearsals and performances at retirement villages and nursing homes as we possibly can. The second choir is for people who want a more casual, beginners choir.

Stephen was still singing with the WASO chorus when the new choir began and I went along, just to see what it was like. When the WASO rehearsals eneded and Stephen has also joined. When we had our little end of year concert Matthew came along and sang with the men in the choir, doing his best with the carols and sitting out the songs he didn’t know. Stephen and I lead some carols at Matt’s house Christmas party and Matt was really enjoying it, so I am very happy he was able to sing in the choir with us as well.

David’s choir meets on Monday nights, still at Connect Vic Park, which is easy for us to get to. But, one of our friends told me about another choir on Wednesays run by one of Stephen’s old friends. I felt a bit nervous about driving to rehearsals at St Patricks Church in Mt Lawley and when we started doing the Faure Requiem Stephen decided to join us, meaning we would travel there together. We also had a Christmas Concert, during a heatwave when we had a thunderstorm. It was uncomfortable without air conditioning and in 40C heat, but worth it. We enjoyed the socialising with the choir over afternoon tea.

We’ve been very busy with another two concerts this week. We have one more choir gig. Stephen has been organising a small group of WASO singers to sing at Bentley Hospital. They keep asking us back and also provide a lovely supper for us after we have done our rounds of the wards.

Health update

Ever since the Tammin Star Party I’ve noticed quite severe back pain. It’s normal for me to have pain after lifting heavy things, and sometimes from sitting curled up reading, as I’ve done all my life. But this pain is much worse, including down my left leg.

Finally I visited the GP who diagnosed a pinched nerve. I suggested I should have an x-ray before starting physio, and the result is that there is quite a lot of damage in the lowest two vertabrae, and it’s been recommened that I have an MRI. I’ve been able to get an appointment in early January, though I’m also on a waitlist for a cancellation, so it could happen earlier.

In the meantime I’m managing the pain as best I can with sitting so that my spine is straight, a fair bit of Panadol, and being as careful about lifting as I can be without entirely feeling useless around the house.

General

We’ve been to movies, had Matt to tea each week, I’ve gone to GP appointments with him, we’ve had a few meals out and gone for walks including the Gwelup monthly walk organised by Eversley. I’ve been set up with my laptop at the new Fluffy Fluffy Cafe at the shopping centre writing this catchup post. We’ve only had a couple of days of really hot weather so far, but there will be a heatwave over Christmas, unfortunately.

We left Perth on Friday 24th October at about 12.00 p.m. Our plan was to have lunch in Mundaring, whilst doing some shopping for the weekend. It rained most of the way until we reached Meckering, where we had sunshine and the rose garden was in full bloom.

Whilst we were driving to Tammin Matt went to an astronomy exhibit at the museum and posed for a photo. He was keen to move on to the cafe, of course.

It remained cloudy for the rest of the way, including at Tammin. We had to trust the more experienced people in the ASWA group who knew that the clouds often clear after sunset. Stephen set up his telescope on the main platform with the others and I went to see if I could help with preparing the evening meal. As members, the meals were free, but took a fair bit of preparation. Myself and one of the men ended up cooking on the BBQ. I just did the onions, he was in charge of the sausages.

We ate just before sunset so that the people on telescopes could take advantage of the night sky from as early as possible. Of course, the Milky Way doesn’t rise until later, and we had a crescent moon that was casting quite a lot of light.

Stephen did not have much success with his telescope that night, fortunately others were generous in sharing as they located different planets (Saturn in particular as it was a good time for it), plus some galaxies. It became extremely cold and I gave up when, despite being well rugged up, my teeth were chattering. We packed up the telescope (we don’t have a dew cover) and went to bed.

The next day we slept in until about 9.00 a.m. and had a fairly lazy day. We were parked fairly near to the shipping container and the main viewing platform, but Stephen loses orientation in the dark and found it difficult to negotiate even that distance. So, we set up our telescopes and an action camera to do a timelapse near our van.

I went to help with the evening meal, consisting of roast beef, roast lamb and roast chicken, with roasted veggies, peas and gravy. It was a huge task to get it all ready, but very good for eating and there was very little leftover at the end. We had some older children there and they helped with washing up, much to the relief of Jan who organises the food and finds it very tiring, even with helpers.

After dark it wasn’t as cold as Friday night and the clouds cleared again for good viewing conditions. Stephen was able to do the calibrations and find Saturn, we were thrilled as we had been contemplating having to buy a new telescope (Stephen dropped the cylinder a few days after buying this one and we thought the damage was fatal, but not so). I had set up the SeeStar and had a stacked image with a falling star across one side and a timelapse that didn’t work at all, despite following Youtube provided settings.

On Sunday morning we packed up to leave, then drove about 20kms northward to Yorkrakine Rock. There was a short walk to one of the summits and that was enough, considering we didn’t arrive until the middle of the day. Fortunately there was good cloud cover. I enjoyed flying the drone, including taking a Mastershot, so much better than when I fly manually.

We had lunch at the Cunderdin Pub afterwards, arriving at about 1.00 p.m. After lunch we drove home, with a stop at the Northam roadhouse for coffee. Stephen had driven back from the Rock to Cunderdin, so it wasn’t as tiring for me as it might have been.

I’m writing this on Thursday 25th September, 2025, but we actually arrived home on Sunday the 21st. We stayed at Cervantes Caravan Park on Friday 19th September and Gingin Caravan Park on Saturday night.

That means we left Sandy Cape Campground on Friday morning and explored the Lesueur National Park nearby. We’ve been there before and it’s quite beautiful. We stopped at the peak area where there is a carpark and a walk up to the top, which we didn’t do. As we drove on further the normal picnic area had it’s parking areas filled with sand, for some unknown reason, and we eventually found a beautiful viewpoint further on for lunch.

From the park we drove to Cervantes to stay the night. We enjoyed a walk down to the shore from the caravan park. It’s very different to Jurien Bay and there is a fishing port and processing plant which gives a sense of a working village, less of a tourist spot. The caravan park was quite nice, however and we were on grass.

In the morning we drove to the Pinnacles National Park. It has changed beyond recognition with someone on the gate to check our pass, an interpretive centre, and a walkway to the pinnacles. We weren’t allowed to drive through due to maintenance after the rain, but walking amongst the pinnacles is actually quite a good experience. There were lots of other tourists and I can see a time when they may have to limit the walking as well.

From there we headed to Gingin and stayed the night in the little roadhouse caravan park. It’s cheap and we had friendly neighbours, plus a view over fields, so not too bad. In the morning we went to the Gingin Cafe for hot drinks and a shared cake. We enjoyed walking in the park and visiting the tiny church.

In Bindoon we drove through the town and out to the little church further on where Stephen had heard there was a wildflower exhibition and a volunteer run cafe. We enjoyed going into the church and talking with one of the local parishioners who told us that it is run by the people, with visiting priests. It sound like it’s very much a social hub for locals.

The cafe only had sweet food, so we decided to find a place for a picnic lunch. We had been told about a parking area with a walk to views, but I didn’t like parking under large trees. We went to another spot near the brook. Apart from someone on a ride on mower it was very peaceful.

Driving home was a challenge with the sun coming in my side window. We stopped at a layby to wait for it to set and eventually arrived home after dark. We backed the Sherwood up the driveway, but not into the narrow parking space. Our neighbours were away, so it didn’t matter if we blocked the driveway.

I’d had several nights of severe coughing as a left over symptom from the cold I caught from Stephen. The first night home was still bad, but at least I could move around easily and go out into the living area to have a good cough. Fortunately, I seem to be on the mend and from Tuesday night have enjoyed good sleeps without coughing fits.

We’ve come home to a busy week, starting with choir practice on Monday night, Stephen had choir practice on Tuesday night, we had a gig on Wednesday morning, and then went to another choir last night. I was clearing out the Sherwood as she was due in this morning to have the rest of the new blinds installed. I dropped her off at about 8.40 a.m. this morning.

Today has been more restful as I finished off the huge amount of washing in the basket and we’ve done a click and collect shop which I will pick up later. Up to now we’ve had food delivered, a meal on Sunday night and a small shop on Monday.

Before leaving Moora we did our usual van chores of emptying and filling, plus shopping and getting fuel. Fortunately we didn’t have too far to travel as it was still quite rainy. We stopped on the way to the Tuarts Reserve Camping to have a picnic with a view, and realised it was somewhere where we have stopped for lunch before. I didn’t get out to take photos, too windy and cold.

We haven’t been to Tuarts Reserve before. It would be better in warmer weather I think, when the amount of shade would be welcome. The campsite filled up overnight, and someone came in close to us at our spot, I felt sorry for them as we are quite noisy with the water pump, the gas hot water heater, the deisel heater and, to top it off, we are both still coughing a lot.

In the morning we were the last to leave, no surprise there, and drove into Jurien Bay. There is a new bar/cafe on the beach, with a new and rather cute little jetty. We had hot drinks (wait staff always think the chai latte is for me and the coffee for him), plus shared a caramel slice. Then we walked out onto the jetty. The sea is particularly beautiful there.

We came to our campsite at Sandy Cape in the mid afternoon. We were the only ones in our area for small campers, but that changed as the day wore on. Again, our neighbours were the unlucky ones.

The campsite is accessible on a bitumen road and having flushing toilets is a bonus. There is a camp kitchen with BBQs as well, and a camp host keeps things orderly. I’m surprised at the level of vegetation in this area, we are next to a bank of glasses and bushes and there are some trees around the camp as well.

When we walked out to climb the nearby sandune to get a view of the bay and the other side there is even quite a lot of vegetation on the sand dunes. The sunset wasn’t particularly wonderful, but we enjoyed the walk. The beach and water are full of seaweed, so it isn’t pretty as it is in Jurien Bay. But, still, it’s a lovely place to be.