On Monday morning we set off in the caravan for two weeks, travelling with Marie and Geoff for the first time. They have a little caravan that is very similar to ours, but different in interesting ways. Robyne was joining us for the first couple of days and we all met at Gingers Roadhouse, coming from our different locations.

We travelled pretty much together at first, then Robyne went on ahead as it was easier for her to travel at the speed limit in her car, whilst we were towing our vans and often went slower than the 100 km limit for caravan towing. We arrived in mid afternoon. Geoff and Stephen did the formal Wildflower Walk, whilst we women got settled in and had a bit of rest. We had a shared meal in Robyne’s little cottage.

Our day at Western Flora Caravan Park (Tuesday) was very enjoyable. We had some cloud and some sunshine. We walked to one side of the caravan park to a small lake and bird hide. There was a broom in the bird hide, and Marie couldn’t help herself…

Afterwards we took the trail down to the Arrowsmith River to try to find the waterfall. The walk through bushland with lots of wildflowers was very enjoyable. We found the river and what we thought was the waterfall. Fortunately Geoff went off by himself for a little while and found the real one, which was worth visiting. The walk took us a couple of hours.

Later in the day, some of us went for a drive to the ocean. We stopped at one of the little coves with tin shanties. The beach was interesting because of the erosion. Robyne and I were impressed with Geoff’s ability to see things at great distances. I took a photo of a spot on the ocean which he thought was an oil or gas rig. When we enlarged it in the evening, it was definitely a rig, blurry in my photo.

In the evening we had a shared meal once again in the small cottage where Robyne was staying. This morning she set off earlier than us to return home, whilst we battled wind and rain on our drive to Kalbarri.

It was pretty challenging and although we could have done some sightseeing on the way, the weather made that just not possible. This evening we are pretty tired. I didn’t take any photos but am looking forward to tomorrow. As we arrived in Kalbarri I felt excited by the scenery and the difficulties of the journey seemed well worth it. We lost Marie and Geoff as we were driving along in the town. We got in touch by phone and eventually found the caravan park, but even getting lost was worth it as we saw a great view of the waves whipped up by the storm.

Geoff and Stephen took time to get the caravans placed as they thought best, then we had coffee in Marie and Geoff’s van, which works better than ours for four people.

Whilst Marie and I were thinking of simple meals we could make in our caravan kitchens, Stephen and Geoff thought of a plan to go out for an evening meal. They did some research and came up with a place we could walk to from the caravan park.

The weather should be much better tomorrow, according to the weather bureau.