Sunday 7th and Monday 8th January, 2024 Back to Albany, then on to East Bay Campground

We had one more walk along the beach on Saturday evening, but did not go far as we were a bit tired from our morning walk and the beach was churned up by cars driving on the sand.

In the morning we packed up grandually, not rushing, but it seemed we had really made ourselves comfortable and there was a bit of sorting to do. We were finished by about 11.00 a.m. and our camping time was due to expire at 12.00, so we were in good time.

On arrival in Albany we went first to the dump point and fresh water tap to take care of water business, then drove to the little jetty near the hotel on the harbour. We had takeaway from the kiosk, including some very good coffee. At about 2.00 p.m. we set off on the 1km journey to St John’s Anglican Church for a 3.00 p.m. afternoon concert.

The first half was the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, which is so familiar that we really noticed the differences in sound and tempo from our main recording. It was very moving indeed and we felt blessed to have the chamber ensemble visiting from Germany and giving us such a wonderful experience. The second half continued the classical theme with music by Mozart and Pagananini. One of the string players doubled up as a singer for a couple of songs.

Afterwards we headed for the Dog Rock Laundromat to take care of our dirty washing. Someone was cleaning the machines and advised to not use one I was intending to use as he hadn’t had time to clean it. We appreciated being able to do our washing in freshly cleaned washers and dryers.

Then we contacted Matt to have a chat on Facetime. He seemed in good spirits, Marianne had been visiting her son and had brough a lovely cheesecake to share. Ian is still in hospital having rehab from a bout of COVID which hit him pretty hard. But we are hopeful he will make a good recovery.

We had a private chat with Matt in the office, and he seemed quite involved, hopefully benefiting from the larger screen of the iphone 12 Max. After that finished we went to a nearby Chinese takeaway for a meal, then drove back to the carpark near the hotel which we had been told was a safer place to park than at the IGA carpark.

But, we weren’t comfortable, and after our meal decided to drive back to the IGA carpark where we had a quiet night. It was handy in the morning for me for having a flat white from a nearby cafe and Stephen did the shopping for our planned three nights at East Bay.

If you are wondering why we don’t use caravan parks it’s because it’s really too much trouble for an overnight and they have rules about times for checkin and checkout, which we find constricting. We are spending money in Ablany on meals, shopping and the concert tickets, so feel we contribute that way.

After the shopping, and there was a second small shop by me after Stephen got back from the big shop, we went and filled up with water and set off for East Bay a bit after 11.00 a.m. We’ve been incredibly fortunate in getting a spot overlooking the beach in a proper campspot, rather than illegally camping in the day use car park.

We had the awning out during the afternoon as it was sunny and having the protection felt good. We have our lovely mat out, plus chairs, table and clothes airer.

I’ve set up the Starlink. It took a while to come online and is facing the south east, which I wasn’t expecting. The speeds are much slower than usual, but good enough for blogging and watching Netflix later if we feel in the mood. It might be due to being in an enclosed bay, with a steep drive down to the camping area. Who knows?

Stephen had a short dip, today has been sunny and he found it very tempting. We are not sure what the weather will be like for the next couple of days, but the forecast is for cloud and slightly lower temperatures, 22C rather than 26C as it was today.

Friday 5th and Saturday 6th January, 2024 At Cosy Corner East

We went on two walks yesterday, the first in the late morning to Cosy Corner West, which is a nearby beach that is more sheltered than the beach opposite Cosy Corner East Campground.

It was cloudy all day yesterday and cool enough to deter us from swimming, nevertheless there were swimming lessons in progress. In Albany you just have to go for it as you can’t rely on having warm, sunny weather just when you want it. However, it does happen and it can be quite hot, mid thirties, sometimes.

In the late afternoon we went for a walk in the other direction. We were looking for a lookout, but I don’t think we went far enough along to find it. We started inland and it was pretty warm on the track away from the beach. We arrived back to our campground approaching from the rear. It was actually hotter at that end of the campground than in our campsite, either due to being closer to the beach or being more sheltered from the sun. Probably both.

After tea we set up the projector and watched the movie Maestro based on the life of Leonard Bernstein, with a particular focus on his complicated relationship with his wife. Good acting and an interesting choice of scenes for exemplifying their lives made it very good entertainment. I’ve been thinking about it on and off since, surely the sign of a good movie.

This morning we went out for a walk getting away about 1.5 hours earlier than yesterday. Once again we went to Cosy Corner West, and this time climbed up the stairs to the Bibbulmun Track. Heading further west along the track took us eventually to the next beach, Hartman’s Beach. To reach the shoreline we had to go down a steep, gravel road, which was quite stressful as we were afraid of slipping and falling.

Once there we asked if we could get back to the Cosy Corner West beach via a beach path, but there wasn’t a way through, which meant we had to climb back up the steep road and go back along the same path. We contemplated asking one of the 4WD owners to take us up the road, but gave up and tackled it on foot. In fact, it felt much safer going up and even seemed shorter because we could look around us more.

The walk back was more enjoyable than I expected, and curiously felt shorter as well. After climbing down the stairs we were able to walk back along the beach to the campground and appreciated how much fresher the air was compared with on the bush walk. There were quite a few wildflowers on the walk, small, shy bush flowers, very pretty if you take the time to look.

We had eaten muesli bars on the walk, but still appreciated our quickly made sandwiches and bananas on return. As with yesterday I had a long afternoon nap before our normal afternoon tea of cups of black tea and biscuits.

From the photos you’d think that the clouds make it rather gloomy, in fact it has been a joy to walk in the current weather with maximum temperatures of about 22C and mostly cloudy.

Of course, the photos don’t make clear how steep the road is.

Thursday 4th January, 2024 Albany to Cosy Corner East Campground

Yesterday morning I went out to see what I could find for breakfast. The main aim was a coffee. The IGA has stopped making bacon and egg toasties and the cafe I went to only had sweet items, so I settled for coffee. Apart from that we had our normal breakfast of cereal and fruit.

We had a fairly good night in the carpark, being woken by freight trains occasionally, and once by someone shouting. Stephen spoke with another van person who advised us that there is sometimes trouble in the IGA carpark and staying in the convention centre/hotel carpark over the other side of the railway is a better overnight option. We shall try it.

I decided to cook a spaghetti bolognese for our evening meals at Cosy Corner, so we shopped for that specifically, as well as whatever else we would actually need for our planned three night stay. This means we are not trying to store things that aren’t important. There is a little local cafe and general store within about 3kms, but unfortunately it is now closed. Our nearest store is about 10kms away and we would have to drive there. So, we hope we have covered everything we will need.

Drinking water is the main thing that holds us back for long stays off grid, but we have refilled the water tank a few times now and could drink that water boiled if necessary.

We filled and emptied at the main Albany service point before heading out to Cosy Corner East. On arrival we drove around the campground. There were a few vacant places, but the No. 1 space looked the best. It’s very close to the toilets so we are hoping we don’t get a smell. On the other hand we have a certain amount of privacy and a bit of shelter from the wind. It’s also fairly flat.

I spent about half an hour trying to pay at the parking meter that is used to pay for camping. But, later found that you don’t have to download the app, you can just manually pay and get a ticket. Next time! In the evening the campground host came around to check and was surprised when I showed him our camp booking on my phone.

We went for a bit of a walk along the beach before coming back here to do the cooking. A rare event, I used the gas stove top, but it was handy as I needed two saucepans, one for the sauce and one for the pasta and green beans. Stephen chopped up a large carrot into small pieces for the sauce.

I found a fairly good spot for the Starlink and it has been performing quite well. We won’t leave it on all of the time, but I need it for this blog for uploading the photos and we will need it if we want to watch something on Netflix. We have another movie in mind that is available there. For everything else the weak, slow 4G signal should be enough. We listened to a podcast last night on healthy living and that worked just fine. Starlink uses a fair bit of power and so far we haven’t had much sunshine today.

You can click on the images to bring up the gallery so that they are full sized.

Last year I read adventure novels by Alan McDermott, The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathon Haidt, The Palestine Laboratory by Anthony Loewenstein, The Abolition of Sex: How the “Transgender” Agenda Harms Women and Girls byKara Dansky, Born in the right body: Gender identity ideology from a medical and feminist perspective by Isadora Sanger, The end of the world is flat by Simon Edge, Tough Crowd by Graham Linehan, The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart, The strange death of Europe by Douglas Murray, The Gran Tour by Ben Aitken (and some of his other novels), including Dear Bill Bryson. Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier, Trans gender Identity and the new battle for women’s rights by Helen Joyce, Material Girls: Why reality matters for feminism by Kathleen Stock, The man in the bunker by Rory Clements, 4WD Driving Skills: A Manual for On- and Off-Road Travel by Vic Widman, and many, many more, far too many to list. One of the great joys of being retired. But, it means I sit too much.

3rd January, 2024 Tendenup to Albany

Yesterday morning we had a few showers whilst we were getting up and preparing to leave. Rain was pouring off the roof onto the ground next to the driver’s side door, which I took as a good sign that there was enough rain to do some cleaning of the solar panels. Later, as we were driving to Albany there were some heavy showers, with the added benefit that we were travelling, making the rain even harder. The upshot was that when we parked up in the IGA carpark and had our 200w panel facing the afternoon sun and the two 120w panels getting some sun we ended up with a maximum yield of 431w. The solar charger reported going into float, which almost never happens when we are using a lot of power.

As we are planning to camp for three nights on the beach it feels good to know we have clean solar panels. The days will be partly cloudy and I’m not sure how much charging will happen each day when we aren’t driving.

We had a plan to go to listen to the Albany Shantymen, but it turned out they perform on every second Tuesday night. I had confused the dates. When we enquired it turns out that you have to book and most people get in early to make sure they get a place. So, we’ve missed out for this trip, but perhaps they will go to the Fairbridge Festival in April, where we have already booked.

We arrived at lunch time and bought a bagette from the IGA to have with ham, etc. I managed to drop our salad onto the floor, and as it contained beetroot (not much juice, but still messy), so we just had the beetroot part to have with ham and cheese.

After a rest we took a walk up to the historic Albany Hotel for coffee, etc. Most of the cafes were closed by that time, but pubs are open and the coffee was good. We were close to the town hall and Stephen went off to see the exhibition of art whilst I was reading.

The pub advertised skimpy barmaids from 4.00 p.m. My tribute to art was to check this out, pretending I was going to the toilet. I was very impressed by the woman in ‘skimpy’, she looked pretty baddass with tattoos, piercings and interesting makeup. I’m sure the men would be too much in awe of her to give her any nonsense. The clientele were a bit rough, as far as we could judge, so there is another pub, the one that has the Shantymen performing, that seems more our style. It has a very nice outdoor area.

A Chinese meal beckoned, there is a small restaurant in the next street where we have bought takeaway in the past. It seemed nicer to eat in, so we went early hoping it wouldn’t be crowded, and it wasn’t. They leave the door open, which made it almost chilly, but I appreciated the good ventillation. It seems to be a very popular place, with lots of people coming in for takeaway. We ordered a meat meal and it came with lots of vegetables, always much appreciated.

Overnight there are occasional freight trains and I woke up twice, usually only once. But we still slept well. We had watched the end of our movie and it was all downhill as the conductor’s past came back to bite her. Even in the lowliest job of conducting an orchestra playing the music for a film (WASO has done this, with WASO chorus as well), they showed her being dedicated to the music and spending time working on the score. The film was Monster Hunter with the audience in costume. One review suggests that this ending may have been a hallucination. There had been other suggestions that she was having hallucinations.

Anyway, Cate Blanchette, playing this complex, mad and bad woman, was amazing. The character was allowed one redeeming feature, her love for her adopted daughter. In the end, her partner does not allow her to see the child, which possibly led to a complete breakdown.

I set up the projector for the movie and it really was so much better than trying to watch it on the Macbook Air.

This morning we have shopping to do before heading off to Cosy Corner for a few days. I wonder if we will get a camping spot. It can’t be booked. There is another option, Shelley Beach. Anyway, fingers crossed we will find some camping by the beach.

Tuesday January 2nd, 2024 Boddington to Kendenup

I didn’t take any photos yesterday, so the above is a photo of a meal we had at at small Korean restaurant close to our home in Victoria Park.

We nearly zagged yesterday as there were two ways of getting to Kojonup, one down Albany Highway and the other an alternative that would have taken us to Quindanning where there is a very nice old pub which offers free camping in exchange for patronage. Apparently the food is good. We thought we might check it out for future reference.

However, sanity prevailed. We really wanted to make it here to Kendenup and Albany Highway was the best and fastest route. It was extremely busy, mainly cars, and without huge trucks on the road it wasn’t stressful. I could only do 90kms an hour due to strong, gusty winds which tried to lift the Sherwood off the road. Having a sail (C class motorhome) and a vehicle with a high wheel base makes this seem a possibility, however remote.

Although we often ended up with a ‘tail’ of cars, it seemed to be partly the normal clustering of vehicles that happens when it’s busy. The fairly frequent passing lanes and the ability of cars to pass in small gaps meant that we didn’t really hold other drivers up. Caravans have a bit more difficulty obviously.

Before leaving Boddington we went to the dump point, located just outside the Mens’ Shed, poor things, and then went to the local IGA.

As I was walking there I was hailed by Carl in a rental car who explained that as he is quadriplegic it quite a business to get out of the car. He was wanting a coffee and wondered if I would check for him and ask one of the shop assistants to come out to his car. I offered to get the coffee instead and he gave me his card to pay for it. There is a coffee machine instore, automatic, and I had fun trying to capture the errant milk which sailed past the cup and onto the floor. Anyway, he got a partially full cup of coffee, not very hot, for $3.00. I apologised. He was grateful nevertheless, but I wish it had been a beautiful, steaming cup of hot coffee.

We bought food for the day, prepared salads, cold meat, and some fruit. We don’t yet have a plan for our time in Albany, but are hoping to plan beachside camping at Cosy Corner and East Bay with going to events in the town. First of all we have to find out what’s on in Albany.

We had lunch in Kojonup with lovely fresh rolls and the food we had bought in Boddington.

We were surprised to find the Kendenup campsite fairly empty, or at least just a few vans, and were able to take our favourite spot in a clear area away from other vans but not far from the ablutions. We phoned the caretaker who came to take our money ($20) and thereafter used the toilets, Stephen had a shower, and did our dishes at the outdoor washing up point, which has hot and cold water.

We had leftover salads and an omlette for tea.

I couldn’t be bothered to set up the projector so we watched the movie Tar on the laptop. The projector is better, so will use that next time. It’s a strange movie and the story unfolds without fully explaining the plot points, so you have to be patient. The focus on music was enough to keep us going through some not very interesting scenes at the beginning.

So, we are not far from Albany and will go there today.

A rough plan has been made. Tonight we will go to the Six Degrees (pub) to hear the Albany Shantymen. They were featured in a Bill Bailey documentary on Western Australia which aired recently. On Wednesday we will go to Cosy Corner to see if we can get a spot for 3-4 nights. On Sunday afternoon there is a concert at St John’s Anglican Church in Albany. Then on Monday we can go out to East Bay to see if we can get a camping spot for 3-4 nights. There is a second camping ground close by which would work if we can’t get a spot. At this stage none of these camp spots require pre booking, but it does mean you take your chances re availability.

We will need to set off for Perth on Saturday 13th in order to give us a couple of nights on the road before arriving on Monday 15th, in good time for Matt’s appointment on the 16th.