Yesterday morning we got up late and took our time over breakfast. We filled our tank with water on our way out of the camping area. A young woman asked me if the van was difficult to drive. She had been looking at a Sunseeker van for extended travel and been talked out of it by the salesperson as being too small for what she had in mind. I assured her that I find the van quite easy to drive, but I am used to driving vans (usually the Toyota vans for transporting wheelchairs). As I look around our space this morning, it’s clear that for longer trips this van is ideal. We have some washing on the small drying rack in the living area and can still move around and reach everything we need.
Stephen asked about the feeling in the town about the mine. She said that on the whole people were positive though there were complaints about dust and noise, of course. However the mining company does a lot for the town in terms of funding public works, which goes a long way towards reconciling locals. And there are the jobs.
Our first stop after leaving the campsite was to visit a minesite viewing platform on the edge of town. There is a path leading upwards and a roofed and fenced viewing area to an unused section of the mine.
We couldn’t resist this photo opportunity!
Our next stop was in Bridgetown where we followed the signs to caravan parking and found not only shade, but power. We plugged in and switched the fridge to AC whilst we went and had morning tea (coffee, chai latte and a huge savoury muffin – shared). We then went to the local IGA and bought what we needed and some extras as well, it is such a lovely shop.
As we got down the road towards Manjimup I noticed a car and caravan behind us and was wondering if it was Marie and Geoff. We stopped in Manjimup, after following Geoff around to a suitable parking spot. It turned out to have the dump point, very handy.
They followed us down the lesser road which leads directly to Northcliffe. On the way we felt a couple of thumps on the van, the second one particularly loud. When I checked later there is a hole down at the bottom of the passenger side panel next to the car door. It must have been a very strong impact to have done it. Thank goodness it is on the edge and probably doesn’t need repairing. Maybe just one of my famous duct tape patches.
After meeting up and having something to eat in the town we went our separate ways, us to Sid’s Camp and they to the caravan park. Glenn is with us and needs a cabin of his own and Sid’s camp is a BYO accommodation place. We are paying about $14 less per night for a site with power and water. The best shower/toilet bathroom is a very short walk away from our site and we took advantage by having late afternoon showers.
I did some handwashing. There is a laundromat in town, but as it involves waiting around for washing to be done it seemed simpler to do a few things by hand. We haven’t linked up the water hose and have been refilling our 5 litre water bottle as needed for washing, drinking, etc.
The road into the camp is a badly corrugated gravel road and we had to take it very slowly. We are staying here two nights and plan to spend the last night at the caravan park.
The benches of Greenbushes are adorned with wise sayings. The toilet wall art from the Greenbushes Pool camp was also quite lovely.