Victoria Park to Potters Gorge, Wellington Dam National Park

We spent our first night out of home parked near Oats Street Station, just around the corner from Sommerset Pool. We had spent the whole day getting packed up and finishing cleaning the house. We went to the airport to collect our guests and gave them a fairly quick handover before heading off. We were very tired indeed and slept very well. The trains stop overnight and there was very little traffic. It was cool, with a minimum of 12.

In the morning we had cups of tea, then dressed and walked around the corner to the pool. It was quiet in the inner pool where I swim, Stephen said the outdoor pool was very busy. It was good timing as there was to be a school carnival for the rest of the day.

Back at the van we had breakfast. A parking inspector came at about 9.00 a.m. He was quite friendly and said that we could stay a couple of hours from the time of his visit. We were packed up by 10.00 a.m., so didn’t need the extra time.

First thing was going to Beaurepairs to have the tires checked. They were slightly down. Then we put our destination into Google maps and took the Roe Highway over to the Forrest Highway, apparently the quickest route to Wellington Dam.

We had tossed around lots of ideas for our first destination, but settled on Potters Gorge in the national park. It has clean drop toilets, BBQ areas and very nicely set out camping bays on the edge of the water. We chose a spot a little bit away from the water, but with good views. The fee for us is $14.00 per night, but we haven’t seen a ranger yet, so haven’t had a chance to pay. A sign says you can pay at the kiosk, but the kiosk doesn’t open until Wednesday.

It is very peaceful here. No one is using a generator or making other noises, and we have only heard one odd sound, a frog or bird, we are not sure. We walked along the edge of the dam for a while, oddly there is no birdlife on the water.

We made two stops on the way, the first one for fuel at the Baldivas Service centre. We had hot drinks and some toast. Forrest Highway always feels very safe because of the two lanes for each direction of traffic, well separated by the green strip. Having service areas and rest areas is very helpful. Close to Bunbury we cut through to Great Southern Highway, and onto the road to Collie. The turnoff for Potters Gorge is fairly close to Collie.

Today is Matt’s birthday and we had a Facetime session to wish him Happy Birthday. They had a birthday party at his house. We reminded him that we are having a second party at Roleystone next Sunday. When we saw Matthew on Friday evening he was quite agitated – very different to his normal ‘Mr Cool’ self. I thought it might have been because Stephen went out to sing in the concert and I didn’t follow the same routine. However, when we saw him tonight he seemed very agitated again – apart from initally when he was smiling and obviously happy to see us. We are not sure what is happening.

Jenny, one of the staff just contacted us about a health matter and I asked her if she has noticed anything going on with Matt, but she said he seems fine. We will follow up next week when we see him. Perhaps he will be happily back to normal.

We have lots of tiny insects flying around us at the moment, picking up on the lights. We are not sure how they can get in as our insect screens are normally quite adequate. No mosquitos anyway.