Tuesday 9th to Thursday 11th April, 2024

Don’t forget to click on the first photo to open as a gallery for better viewing.

We have stayed in Balinup for three nights, going out to the Golden Valley Tree Park twice for most of the day. Looking at the photos and videos I have taken in the park I don’t feel they really do it justice. There is a lovely feel to being in the park that the visuals can’t capture. However, the photos and videos will be good for helping us remember being here. We went to the world collection the first day.

On Tuesday we spent the whole day in the park, after admittedly getting away quite late in the morning. There are short walks and longer walks, and we took the Pear Walk which takes you gradually uphill until you reach a viewing point, then it is a quick, steeper downhill walk back to the carpark.

I cooked lunch for us, a sausage curry, very delicous. A ranger came and spoke to us about not camping in the carpark and we assured him that we were staying at the Transit Park.

It was disappointing to find someone in our camping spot when we returned in the evening. They had rung the out of hours number and the person they spoke to did not have a way of checking which sites were booked. We parked on the other side next to the oval for the night. Yesterday morning I confirmed our site booking and when we arrived back it wasn’t taken. We like this side because it overlooks the river (dry at the moment) and the little bridge. It also has thick grass which means we are not trekking dirt inside.

Instead of going straight out to the Park yesterday we stopped at the little General Store for some essentials, then went to one of the two cafes. It is called Mr Foster and is very quirky and interesting. I took a photo of the dragon outside on our first evening and was able to get a better photo in daylight.

We had our first cloudy morning today, which meant we had a colourful dawn.

Today we move on to a new location. But, we have our site here until 12.00 noon and are having a relaxing morning. The Bibbulmun Tracks runs through here and we may take a walk along in the other direction as we have already followed it into town on the first evening we were here.

Sunday 7th to Tuesday 9th April, 2024

Sunday was hot and we didn’t do very much. We walked along the estury in the evening, but gave up when it became rather difficult to get through. We ran into a couple of boys (grey haired, balding) who were playing with a frisbee and they pointed out an eagle’s nest and said they had watched a mating pair bring up a fledgling and send it on it’s way. We saw one eagle (a sea eagle) but it flew away before I could get a photo.

In the evening after tea I set up the projector and we watched a bit of Youtube. I find I’m getting very tired and need to get to bed early, but the tiredness has the bonus that I sleep extremely well and wake up refreshed and with some energy.

We also had a Facetime session with Matt. He seems quite happy and said that Marianne, another resident’s mother, had been to visit and bought cake. He also said that he and Eli had been shopping for toilettries and some long pants (trousers) on Friday.

The wind had picked up during the day and by evening was quite strong. I decided to bring in our Starlink as I was worried that it might get hit by flying debris. It was lying on an outdoor rug, and the rug had blown up and wrapped itself around the Starlink. Obviously, we hadn’t been getting a signal for a while, but our neighbour’s Starlink had been giving us the internet and we hadn’t noticed.

Yesterday was a moving day. We had settled ourselves in and it took quite a while to pack up. It was still quite windy in the morning and a bit cold when we went down to the water’s edge to watch the sunrise. I set the alarm for 6.00 a.m. to make sure we woke up in time. Unfortunately it wasn’t as lovely as the first morning as the sky was completely cloudless.

Once we were on our way we took a slight detour to visit Lake Clifton to view the thrombolites. The nearest giant (Giants of Mandurah) was just 1.4kms along a path, but I was worried about getting to our next destination in time, so we didn’t go to see it. We could go to Mandurah another time to see Robyne and take in some Giants as well.

We realised as we drove down to Balingup that we have not been to this area for many years. It is good to come in autumn as there are many deciduous trees which make the area especially lovely. On the way we stopped once to get fuel, then a second time in Donnybrook for shopping.

The Donnybrook IGA was on the edge of town and there was a cafe in next door. We thought about driving further to find a cafe, but decided that it looked quite nice and it would save looking for parking if we had lunch there. The food was good and the staff were friendly and professional, a good choice in the end.

Why Balingup? Stephen had been reading about the Golden Valley Tree Park, an aboreatum. We will visit it today and I’m hoping for more autumn colours as the park has a huge variety of trees.

We arrived in good time to pick up our key (for electricity linkup) and a code for toilet/showers. The Visitor Centre runs from 10.00 a.m. until 3.00 p.m. and we made it here at about 2.30. We chose our spot, then I drove back to the Visitor Centre to pick up our key and paperwork. We are booked in for two nights, but may stay for three. The Transit Park where we are staying has a time limit of 72 hours, but a longer stay can be negotiated if they are not busy.

In the evening we went for a walk into town, and it was very short. We could have parked up and walked in together to the Visitor Centre. The walk has Bibulmun track signs as the track passes through Balingup. We wandered up and down the street. When the sun set we decided to get back to the Sherwood before dark.

There is one other campervan staying here and some young people who were camping in their very small car. It is getting a bit colder and we needed our doona overnight. Stephen was brave enough to sit outside after tea to observe the stars, but I was worried about getting a chill. He said that he has now done the research and has some things he can show me tonight.

Obviously an immigrant from Great Britain! The reason I’ve used the alternative form of the name instead of Pixie is that this is a rather ugly creature, more in keeping with pre Victorian pixies which were not cute little creatures in green clothes with pointy ears as we often see them in pictures.

We are at the Hideaway Caravan Park south of Mandurah for a couple of nights. It took us ages to pack for this trip because I took so much out of the Sherwood and stored it in the house because of the heat, then we had a couple of jobs done at Ken Peachey just before leaving so took out even more stuff. One job was to put in a new power point for the kitchen, another to change the sacrifical anode in our hot water system and we also had the solar panels cleaned. With the dry weather solar panels are not getting natural cleaning.

We are not really used to being surrounded by other campers. Of course, as it’s the school holidays there are lots of families with young children. But, we chose this spot for the location on the estury, hoping for lots of birdlife. There is certainly some birdlife, though not as much as we had hoped.

Our spot, despite being one row back, has a view of the estury, especially when we are inside and a bit more elevated. The toilets and showers get very dirty when there are lots of people at a caravan park, especially the women’s when there are teenage girls about. So we are mostly using our own facilities, especially for showers/washes.

We have nine nights away on this trip. We have to be back for three choir rehearsals before going to the Fremantle Songfest in a couple of weekends time. Stephen has mapped out an itinerary, and unlike our usual trips, we may spend most nights on powered sites at caravan parks. This is due to choosing locations near things we want to see.

When we arrived my devices jumped onto a Starlink network that wasn’t password protected. Very foolish as I could access their dish for some functions through the app.

We set up our own Starlink this morning, we have the new flat design with a cord that plugs in using RJ45 plugs, so quick and easy compared with our other setup. We were online within five minutes of setting up. I had checked other Starlinks for the orientation to use and didn’t need to do any adjusting. The flat design without motors means that you may have to make adjustments by moving the dish around. There is a guide in the app which gives real time feedback. But, it was nice to not have to worry about doing any adjusting.

We are not sure of our plans today. We may be in for a hot afternoon as the weather is not predicted to cool down a bit until tomorrow. It was hot yesterday afternoon and although we used the air conditioning for short periods, we mostly sat outside where there was a slight cooling breeze. Fortunately, although it was completely still overnight the temperature dropped enough for comfortable sleeping. We had the windows wide open and the fan helped move the cool air around.

Stephen woke up at 6.00 a.m. this morning. He was able to dress and leave the Sherwood without walking me. When I woke up to the alarm at 6.30 am he was just back. I quickly dressed and went down to the water for photos. The alarm is set for 6.00 am tomorrow morning so that I will be able to photograph the pre dawn light.

Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th March, 2024

The aims for the weekend were to go to a Wildflower Society talk in Glen Forest, see an opera film in Leederville (didn’t happen), stay overnight outside E’s apartment and be in place for the walking group at 8.30 a.m. Sunday morning, go to the Jackadders Folk Music Club in the afternoon and call in to see Matt on the way home.

To begin, we drove up to Darlington to have lunch at the Little Nook Cafe. It’s not in the town, but fairly close to Glen Forest and the photos on Google Maps were lovely. It was even better in person and we had hamburgers, one each, because it was about 1.30 and we were quite hungry.

Then we drove to Glen Forest and drove around a bit looking for a place to stay that was near the Octagonal Hall where the Wildflower Society has their meetings. In the end we settled on a paved car park next to the children’s playground. We had leftover food to heat up for our tea and then walked about 400m to the hall for the talk.

Although the speaker was actually on Zoom from Albany it still felt like we were in the room with him, though his speech sounded slightly muffled. We couldn’t follow all of the technical stuff, but still found it very interesting. The speaker and our picture were on one side, with the slides showing on most of the very large screen.

The speaker was Steve Hopper of the Albany campus of UWA and the talk was on the genus Haemordorum. We recognised many of the plants on the screen although we didn’t know the all of the names of them.

We wondered about the safety of leaving the Sherwood parked by itself, but when we came back there were emergency vehicles nearby working on a mains water leak, with lots of flashing lights. We went to sleep with all of that happening just across the road!

The weather can be quite warm during the day, but usually cools down overnight, and was very good for sleeping. In the morning there was a breeze and the cool, sunny morning made a walk more appealing than heading down to Leederville for the film. The Heritage Trail runs through the town and we walked towards Darlington and could have made it back to the Little Nook Cafe, but decided instead to return to Glen Forest as they have a little cafe as well.

Eventually, we felt like moving on. We drove up to Great Eastern Highway and I called in at the IGA to pick up some food for our lunch. We drove to E’s and found a good parking space opposite her place. We exchanged texts as she was busy in the afternoon, but set up when we would meet for tea.

At about 5.00 p.m. we went to her place, taking some wine and nibbles. I ordered a pizza as well, it was disappointingly soggy and very salty, but tasty. My review was honest on this, I’m not sure what they can do, but have to say that we definitely wouldn’t order a pizza from them again. We had a good catchup with E and left to go back to the Sherwood at about 9.00 p.m.

In the morning we took our time getting up and ready and were only just on time to the corner of the street where we met up with E and the other folk. We walked around the lake, then over to a nearby shopping centre with a lovely cafe. Stephen and I left a bit later than the others, but he was not feeling totally fit and we walked back to the Sherwood soon after.

Gwelup Lake looks completely dry, but could have water in it around the edges. The water authority manages the flow between the lakes and at present keeps Lake Monger full to use for a water source for fire fighting. They need to keep it deep enough, so don’t let the water flow through to Lake Gwelup.

At the cafe we had shared a muffin for breakfast, and then had our breakfast cereals for lunch. The folk concert was at 2.30 p.m. and we went early enough to enjoy a cup of tea sitting in the park next door before the concert.

The concert was patchy in terms of the performances, but the excellent ones made up for the others and the goodwill was perhaps the best part. The person who organises the folk club has decided to retire, but there are other folk clubs around Perth that people can attend. This one has been running for about 20 years, so that’s a pretty good innings.

Then it was time to head off to see Matt. He had just finished tea, and we went to his room for a bit. I had a shirt to give him, part of his birthday present, but I had to go over to get it from Belmont Forum, so it hadn’t made it into his birthday gift bag. Plus he has a shirt that needs a new button, so I picked that up. Then we sat outside for a little while with Seona and Matt before heading home for tea.

When we arrive home from a trip Stephen now brings in food from the fridge and cupboards and puts it away, so I don’t find it quite so much to sort out when we get home. We reverse into the parking bay, which makes it easier for accessing when we are packing/unpacking and also driving out.

Sunday 10th March, 2024

This place is attractive because of the views of the river, including over towards the city, a good walking path, a fishing jetty and the birdlife.

We walked along the boardwalk around the cliff where we saw more waders, a duck and the para surfing. Then back the other way past a tennis club. We don’t remember the tennis club, but perhaps we haven’t walked this way before. We usually focus on the boardwalk and the bay beyond. This evening the sun was still high and the wind there was very strong. It was a bit uncomfortable. We were glad to get back to the side where we were parked.

We had a meal already cooked and went back to the Sherwood to heat it up after sunset. We enjoyed a relaxing meal before going home at about 9.00 p.m.

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.

It is time to find out if we can still do an overnight at our favourite beach spot Pinaroo Point. Since we were there last the new ‘beach club’ has been completed and is now open. My online research suggests that Friday night is not a good night for sleeping due to live music until midnight. We first want to try out a weeknight, just to see if it is still possible.

We have a backup plan, to go to the Whitfords Nodes car park which is a couple of beaches south, but still north of Hillarys Boat Harbour. It does have the advantage of having a lot more shade than the Pinaroo Point carpark.

Of course, these are unofficial camping areas, only possible through the tolerance of rangers and police who patrol at night, and the good behaviour by campers. Plus, it does not appear that the locals have complained, although the new beach club owners might have complained.

We plan to take advantage of the new beach club for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning.

I’ve checked with the Quindanning Hotel for our overnight with M. and G. We’ve chosen a couple of possible dates (Sunday nights) and they do indeed have meals on Sunday evenings. We might need to do our own breakfasts as breakfast seems to only be available to people staying in rooms.

They leave the toilets and showers open 48hrs for campers and you can actually stay for two nights. The deal is that you at least have at least a drink at the pub, but all of the reviews are very positive about the food and overall hospitality. I will book us in when we know what the weather will be like for our first chosen weekend. If it’s very hot we will try for the second date a couple of weeks later.

I will bring the Ecoflow Delta Mini for M. to trial as a backup power source and the Starlink, which can be used for wifi calling as there doesn’t appear to be any phone signal in the town. M. will want to be available for her son if necessary.