Tuesday 3rd January, 2023

So, it was an interesting night. We weren’t accosted and told to move on, so we didn’t. We felt a bit exposed as there were no other vans staying the night.

We went for a walk down to the entertainment area on the harbour yesterday evening. There is a walkway from the street, but an extra set of stairs from our level. It was cloudy, somewhat windy with a very light drizzle at times, very Albany in fact.

Stephen picked up our dinner from the Chinese restaurant. We found it a bit disappointing from the point of view of being just one food, beef, rather than a beef and vegetable dish. However, the meat was very tender and it tasted delicious – beef in plum sauce and spring rolls, with steamed rice.

We felt tired and went to bed quite early. As we were on a sideways lean I suggested that we sleep upwards at the other end of the bed, which meant Stephen had to sleep on the inner side of the bed. That probably contributed to us to not sleeping well. That and the noise of goods trains, road trains, and an early morning visit from the street sweeping truck. After annoying us by going up and down the whole area it came perilously close to ramming us, just sweeping past at the last moment. Although it was still very early, not long after 5.00 a.m., we decided a cup of tea was needed to calm us down.

Stephen has had a headache today, slowing him down just a little. I went out for a flat white first thing, and we made use of the nearby toilets for normal toilet stuff and I was able to use their electricity to blow dry my hair.

After the usual filling up and letting out of watery stuff we headed out for Cosy Corner East. We arrive at around 10.00 a.m. and had a choice of a number of bays. We’ve chosen one on the side fence, well away from the entrance. We had to adjust for a slope, but at least we could do that, not like our ‘stealth’ camping in town.

After setting up, putting out our chairs and folding table, and rearranging stuff inside, we are very comfortable and look forward to a better night’s sleep. I have something easy planned for tea, just heating up really.

Now that we have to pay for camping I was hoping for simple swiping motion on a machine. It turns out we use a parking app and it had me so bamboozled that it wasn’t until late afternoon that I clicked on the option to log in using my Apple ID and we were in. We had the option to have a concessional rate of $10 per night and it included putting in our vehicle registration. Like my other parking app, you spin a wheel on the screen to choose length of stay.

I need to do some washing, but didn’t fancy spending time at a laundromat this morning. Instead I will do a little handwashing here at our campsite, and we’ve booked a caravan park at Emu Point for Friday night to get the washing done. We love Emu Point as a location for walks, etc. and we have stayed at the Rose Garden Caravan Park a number of times over the years. With our membership discount it is fairly inexpensive for Albany peak time and as it’s quite basic, no jumping pillow, etc. it feels like our kind of place.

Stephen has felt too unwell to go out for a walk and I must admit to feeling a bit lazy, so no walk for me either. The fact that we will have two full days here means I’m not worried about missing out.

January 2nd, 2023 Monday

We did very little for the rest of the day at Lake Nunijup. A walk in the evening, then a Facetime call with Matt were the highlights.

This morning I woke up at around 4.30 a.m. and noticed some red light on a van nearby. It was the pre dawn light and I couldn’t resist getting out of the van to take some photos. It was chilly, but I didn’t really notice. I took a few clips of video as well, which have the wonderful sounds of the birds.

Unfortunately the colour in the photos and videos was really off. I’m not sure why but the iphone often does this as well. I’ve managed to adjust the colours in the photos above to be closer to what I actually saw.

When we woke up later we had a leisurely time, gradually packing up everything and leaving the lake at about 11.30 a.m. Our trip down to Mt Barker was succesful on most counts, getting water, emptying the toilet cassette and doing some shopping at the IGA. We even managed to snare a fly swat. Its been on our shopping list for a while, but shops don’t have them in stock or we forget. The only failure was at the famous bakery, it was just too busy so we had rolls and bananas ‘at home’ before setting off for Albany.

It was about 3.30 p.m. by the time we arrived. Our arrival was not guaranteed as I swear that a lot of the drivers on Albany Highway had a death wish and wanted to take us with them. However, we are safely here now.

We are parked up near the bus station and IGA, hoping we can get away with staying here overnight. Tomorrow we will try to get a camping spot at Cosy Corner, but it seemed too late in the day for our luck to be in. Plus I wanted a flat white and we were just in time for the cafe next door to the IGA to still be serving coffees. We used our new keep cups, a present from Matt, and the girl in the cafe asked me which was which when I asked for a flat white and a moccha, so she knew that they were for particular people. Stephen’s has music notation on it and mine has leaves.

Stephen has been wandering around and checked to see if our nearby Chinese restaurant was open tonight. It is, so we will be able to have takeaway. Even if we get moved on we’ve been able to take advantage of the cafe and restaurant.

Saturday 31st December, 2022 and Sunday 1st January, 2023

We packed up and left a little late from our camp at Kendenup. They have a water tap where you can fill up your tank and drinking water containers and we took advantage of that before heading off. Stephen had been doing some research in the area and found a couple of lakeside camping spots. We’ve chosen the nearest one for our New Years Eve overnight.

It’s about 24kms from Kendenup, so it only took us about 20 minutes to get here. We looked around and took what we thought was a good spot with views of the lake. Later, we began to be surrounded by other campers, some chatting noisily, so moved over to the other side of the campground. We still have views of the lake, but just from further away.

We took a little walk along a road/firebreak in the evening and were pleased to find that it had lake views, as far as we went anyway. There were a few wildflowers.

We had two evening meals of leftover curried mince which we enjoyed at Narrogin and Kenderton. Last night was the first actual cooking and I took advantage of our big 3 burner stove top to cook vegetarian chicken schnitzels and mashed potato. We had salad and some small loaf ends. We watched the ABC news and some other videos whilst having grapes, herbal teas and chocolate. Perfect!

It turned out to be a really smart to move as some young people congregated close to the toilets, all talking/shouting at each other. We were far enough away that it was a dull sound, rather than annoying.

This morning Stephen reported that he heard the countdown to midnight, but I was asleep at the time. When you consider how many people were here last night the noise level wasn’t too bad.

The last couple of days have been overcast, but we are not complaining as the temperature is cool and pleasant. I’ve taken some photos, but still not feeling that I’m getting good shots, just documenting things.

We don’t have much drinking water left, but I used a chemical sanitiser for our tank water before we left home, it is supposed to render the water safe to drink and we therefore think we can extend our stay another night as we have enough food. We have flushing toilets here, which relieves pressure on our toilet and it will be good for another night, given that we mostly don’t use it during the day.