Saturday 24th to Monday 26th February, 2024

It was grey and cloudy all day yesterday, but we had some colour just after sunset at Wandering. It rained in Vic Park overnight last night, but we had just a little bit of rain during the day.

We left at about 11.15 a.m. and drove to Bannister where we went to the new cafe on Albany Highway. It is next door to the roadhouse and there is an enormous carpark. it was very quiet when we arrived at about 2.00 p.m. We had coffee, a fruit juice made with fresh fruit for Stephen and some toasties, $27. Ouch! And he didn’t charge for the coffee. Maybe next time we will just have drinks and get food from the other cafe or make our own.

By the time we arrived and set up it was after 4.00 p.m. We took our first gravel road from Bannister to Wandering and now have some dirt on the Sherwood. It seemed to particulary affect the wheels and we did a bit of a clean up this morning whilst filling our tank with water. However, we knew this would happen and are not really bothered. I think I will be able to wash off the dust when we get home. But, we might need to think of getting better mud guards for the back wheels as the whole back of the van gets dirty.

Stephen had another little walk this morning. We had set up a Facetime call with Matt for 6.00 p.m. and as he read every information sign on the walk he was running a bit late, so crossed the oval rather than doing the last bit of the walk. That was why he really had to do a walk.

At Wandering I chose to have a shower in the evening using the campsite facilities. Stephen used the campers’ kitchen for washing up. Both showers/toilets are protected with key codes and you get the key code on your confirmation email when you book online. The kitchen/recreation room is quite homey with sofas and sattelite TV as well as a stove and washing up area. Incredibly good value for $27.60 per night with power and water.

Then, we set off for Quindanning, making a stop at a cafe in Boddington for a yummy brownie and hot drinks. We are not sure of the name of the cafe as the sign on the roof says The Black Sheep, but the sign on the verandah has a different name. As we were leaving we noticed another cafe just across the road, so may try that one next time. They are the sort of cafes that close early, so you have to get in during the morning/early afternoon.

At Quindanning we parked temporarily, went inside to greet the manager, then had lunch. When Marie and Geoff arrived we relocated so that we had our doors facing each other, but not too close so we had a bit of privacy. We set up the Starlink in our shared courtyard using a milk crate provided by Geoff as the stand. I wanted to make sure the dish faced straight up as the southern aspect was cluttered. This worked extremely well and was useful in the morning for Marie to have phone calls regarding Glenn’s social activity for the day.

The Quindanning Pub is built to look like an old English pub, though the ceilings are higher. There are several buildings including a toilet/shower building that stays open at night for guests to use. This was partly why we wanted to stay there overnight. The camping is not really free considering that you pay for meals and drinks, but the facilities are good and we felt really welcome.

I booked us in for 6.00 p.m. for dinner. The food was OKish, not the most tasty, fairly standard pub fare. The service was good and the manager/waitress was friendly and kind. The pub was very quiet, with one other group who left before us. This was not a normal Sunday night, but it had been raining in the late afternoon and this probably stopped locals from coming. There was one other caravan staying the night, but I think they had lunch in the hotel rather than dinner.

We had two grey days in a row, so when the sun started getting through on Monday morning it seemed quite lovely. We went for a short walk to the beautiful little church. It is not that old, about 60 years, but built in a traditional style with a crenulated tower that makes it look old. We tested the acoustic by singing some sacred music (of course).

Marie and Geoff had to get away for an appointment at home. We decided to take a bit of a ramble so that we could drive under the arch of the mine beltway. Very interesting. There seems to be several areas of the bauxite mining. As well as the farming this must be part of what makes the area quite prosperous.

We reached a point of the road where we had a choice of going to Boddington or Dwellingup, and chose Dwellingup. I wanted to go home through Pinjarra to check out the new venue for the Fairbridge Festival which is coming up in April. We stopped in Dwellingup for hot drinks and a bacon and egg sandwich to share.

The venue for Fairbridge is the historical village in Pinjarra. There are trees, lawn and some buildings and it should be quite lovely. The camping area is across the river and there will be a walking bridge for people to cross.

It was quite warm with an intermittent breeze by then. We had a little more ‘lunch’ and a rest before heading home. As usual, we feel that we had quite an adventure by having two nights away. On Tuesday we had a meeting for our small singing group down near the river in Victoria Park and as we wanted to get the tires checked we drove the Sherwood there. On the way back we stopped at Bob Janes Tires and found that they were actually pretty good, but worth it for the peace of mind.

Last Monday we took the Sherwood to South Beach for a swim and breakfast. The drive was a bit longer than going to City Beach, but we felt like a change. The maximum that day was about 35C, but down at the beach it didn’t get above 25C.

The water was calm and clear, just as well as there seemed to be a lot of elderly folk like us and we could really swim rather than just bouncing around in the waves. Although the water looked clear, especially at the edge, when I put the GoPro underwater it was murky.

The toilets and showers at South Beach are under renovation, but there were outdoor showers with little wooden huts for changing in privacy. Near the cafe they have put some portable toilets and we found them clean.

After our swim we had a leisurely breakfast. I had a shower and changed in the Sherwood, then had a second cup of coffee. It was hard to leave as the weather was so lovely, but eventually we were bored with just sitting, so decided to drive home.

On Wednesday I dropped the Sherwood off at Eco Amigo in Wangarra. I got there at about 8.15 a.m. I thought it would take longer, but somehow I managed to avoid a lot of the traffic. Eduardo drove me to the Whitfords Train Station and I caught a train pretty quickly back to the city. It was still fairly cool. I had a coffee, then caught the 960 home.

On Friday Matt had an appointment with his GP for his annual review. I went with him, taking the ramp we use at home because the clinic doesn’t have one. Matt was thoroughly assessed by the GP according to a format supplied by AbilityWA. We have things to follow up on. Mainly age related checkups, no problems noted in the appointment. As there is a pathology clinic in the building we went there to have blood taken. Matt is very stoic and Eli said he just watched the blood flowing into the tube. I have to shut my eyes.

Afterwards we went to Dog Swamp where Matt had a drink. I enjoyed a breakfast roll and eyed off the beautiful cakes which were amazingly cheap. It is an Asian bakery, with just one outdoor table where we sat.

Then, we went back to Villa 3 so I could let staff know about the weekend. Matt and Eli went off to the studio to find a good printer to scan all of the documentation we had collected.

Then I drove up to Wangarra to pick up the Sherwood. Wow! Cleaned, polished and with a new ceramic coating it looks so good, shiny and silky smooth to the touch. We hope it doesn’t get dirty again too soon, but everything left outside at our place gets very dirty, so it may not take long. The reason for the ceramic coating is that we plan to do lots more exploring on gravel roads and it should provide protection. It’s also good to see just how clean it can get.

When we eventually want to sell it we will have it cleaned and polished first. In fact, I had to park on the street whilst waiting for Stephen (he caught trains and buses to Wangara to pick up the car) someone driving by slowed down and asked if he could buy it. I said it wasn’t for sale.

Of course the photos don’t really do it justice. They were sent to me by Eduardo.

Wednesday 31st January – Thursday 1st February, 2024

We left home on Wednesday at about 2.00 p.m. We are experiencing a heatwave and the temperature was about 41 degrees. We used the air conditioning for the last half hour of sorting things out in the Sherwood.

On the drive up to Hillarys the temperature gradually dropped until it was about 31C by the time we arrived. We went straight to the new Hillarys Beach Club for afternoon tea and chose to sit indoors to escape the heat. There were very few people there, we thought, but later when we walked upstairs we found that it was much busier and noisier, obviously more popular with a view of the ocean than downstairs. We were trying to decide where to eat, but both opted for downstairs. We were advised that we didn’t need to book a table.

Then it was time for a swim. There was a long line of seaweed just off shore, but enough fresh water for us to have a dip. We took our folding chairs to sit on and stayed there until we felt hungry enough to shower and dress for tea.

After showering and getting dressed we walked back to the beach to watch the sunset.

At the club we got an outdoor table on the end of a row of tables and enjoyed drinks and a pizza. It was such a lovely evening for being outside and the atmosphere and service made it quite relaxing. The two restaurants are quite ‘high end’ for being at the beach, but even on a Wednesday night it was quite busy, so they have a winner as far as attracting customers. I had been worried about the limited parking, but there is an extension behind the Club and it seems like enough.

On the way into the car park we saw a new sign saying that no camping or overnight parking was allowed. We had half expected it, so were not too disappointed. I had a low or zero alcohol wine, which tasted just as good as an alcoholic wine, so felt prepared to drive the 2-3kms to the Whiteford Nodes carpark.

When we felt ready to move we went to the front of the Club to see what it looks like at night. People were starting to head home and it was much less busy than earlier.

Whitfords Nodes already had about six campervans and even a roof tent camper when we arrived. More came in as we were getting ready for bed. It was a very humid night, but our little fan kept us comfortable enough.

We could hear the sound of drops on the roof and in the morning could see dirty marks. I ran the hose over the whole Sherwood this morning and it cleared them, thank goodness.

In the morning we had a cup of tea and then headed back to Pinaroo Point. We knew the kiosk would be open as we had checked the evening before. But before breakfast we went down to the beach for a dip. The water was a bit less inviting, the seaweed seemed to be spreading out a bit and was even smelly, I guess because the water was so calm and it hadn’t moved much. We still enjoyed being on the beach for a while before heading back for showers. Stephen used the public showers and I went in the Sherwood.

When we got over to the Club and we found the restaurant was open we decided to go in and sit in the outdoor section, as before. This time we were at the other end of the outdoor area. We had a shared breakfast of Italian baked eggs, followed by an almond Danish. The restaurant is Italian and in the evening we noticed the background music was Italian themed.

The food and coffee has been excellent for our three restaurant experiences, afternoon tea, evening meal and then breakfast. On a cooler morning we might have just had food from the kiosk, but actually the outdoor seating, which had good shade, was the perfect venue for sitting around after eating.

In the afternoon of Wednesday when we arrrived we had managed to find a parking spot with some shade, and coming back on Thursday morning we also had a shaded spot. By late morning the sun was starting to impact the Sherwood and we decided that it was time to head home. Stephen has choir on Thursday evenings so we couldn’t stay even though home was going to be a lot hotter than where we were. Yesterday the maximum in Victoria Park got up to 42.5C, which is 108.6 F.

So, the results of our research are:

1. No overnighting at Pinaroo Point
2. The downstairs restaurant is lovely, if fairly high end and the upstairs is just possibly more posh with it’s own menue and views.
3. The kiosk operates from early until about 12.00 p.m.
4. It could be extremely busy on the weekends, but the kiosk offers light breakfast food and in cooler weather we could bring our own outdoor seating and enjoy breakfast.
5. Whitford Nodes still allows campervans to stay overnight and is only a short drive away. It’s beach isn’t as nice as Pinaroo Point, the toilets and showers are a fair way from the car park, and it normally doesn’t have any food options, apart from when there is some sort of event in the park. So, it can be the overnight venue, but it’s worthwhile to drive back to Pinaroo Point in the morning.
6. We had a lovely time. We had taken a small amount of breakfast food and fruit with us, but simply relying on the Hillarys Beach Club for everything is going to be a good option.