Travel Plans Update - Dec 2020

Extending the trip!

If you've been reading our blog for a while you'd realise our travel plans have changed a fair bit since we left! Covid of course has had an impact, particularly with border closures, and we've come up with various solutions. This doesn't overly bother us as one of the pleasures of being on the road without a fixed schedule is that we've been able to adjust our plans to suit our circumstances, rather than having to stick to a preset plan which may no longer be ideal.

Back in August we toyed with the idea of extending our trip by an extra six months in order to give us time to get back up to the north west of WA, which was one of our favourite places from our last trip. Due to the wet season, the top end is an unpleasant place to be in the wet season so it's not the sort of place we could go at our current time of year (December). At the time we discounted this option, but since we arrived in Perth we've reviewed it again, and after much consideration have decided to go with this option. This means that God willing we will now return to Adelaide in June 2021.

Dec 19-30 - Around Perth, End of Year Studies

Just a few highlights of the past week and a half.

On a couple of days we've gone down to the local park. There have often been other local kids there. Jude took the whip down the first time, and wow they were stunned when they heard it crack out! They all lined up and wanted a go, and on the three occasions I think we've been down there the same kids have all had a go at cracking the whip! They demonstrated what we had learned ourselves, that it's a lot harder than it looks!

 

Our three (centre, rear), with Josh and Lynette's kids Laila (far left)
and Luc (far right), and Johannes (front centre). Oh, and the whip far left!

Readings at Chris and Kathryn's.

On Friday Dec 21 we went around to Chris and Kathryn C's house to do the readings. Chris has been reading the blog in detail since he found out about it a week or two ago, which led to the curious circumstance where most things we went to mention about our trip he'd already read! He knew our car, he recognised the damage on the front of the car from the kangaroo incident at Coen in July, he'd read about the caravan leaf springs breaking (both times) and our quarantine dramas when we entered WA! There really didn't seem to be much news to tell him!

Dec 16 - 18 - (Day 320-322) - Billabong to Perth

538km. 176km (16th), 128km (17th), 234km (18th).
Lines are marked different colours for different days.

Wednesday 16 December

This was the collection of cans the kids came back with last night!

Flat battery - started thanks to solar blankets!

Mim's parents headed off fairly promptly as they needed to get back to Perth before us. After they left we found we'd left the Cel-Fi Go (mobile phone signal booster) in the car turned on overnight and we had a flat battery. Fortunately with both solar blankets out we got enough charge into the battery after about 10 minutes to restart the engine.

 

While I was working that out the kids wandered over to where a Great Dane was tied up near a tree while its owner went into the roadhouse. Pretty enormous dog!

Dec 13 -15 (Day 317-319) - Billabong to Carnarvon to Billabong

Sunday 13 December

We set off promptly next morning and drove most of the day before reaching Carnarvon about 3pm.

Before heading to the caravan park, we decided to go past the market gardens we'd been to last time. This one's accessed by a dirt driveway to one side of the Caltex service station on the main road which leads to the farm direclty behind.

 It's such a lovely place! Tall trees, banana plantations, orchards with lush green grass and chickens and turkeys grazing amongst the trees. It's exactly the type of place I'd like! This time we bought some bananas, pumpkin, paw paw and a couple of dozen eggs.

The driveway into the plantation

 

Dec 10-12 (Day 314-316) - Kalbarri to Billabong

 Thursday 10 December

Today we drove from the free camp into Kalbarri where we found a caravan park that accepted TAWK (Travelling Australia with Kids), which allows us to stay for 2 nights with the kids staying free. It's only a once of fee - when we bought it a couple of years ago it was $25, it's up to $40 now but definitely worth it. Their website has lots of other useful info for travelling Australia with kids.

Some caravan park around the country are quite supportive of this and it's very handy to help us decide where to go with this option as it does get quite expensive if you go to caravan parks a lot. We have tried to free camp around the place as much as possible and then just spend a little in the town we are staying in to save on the cost a little.

Also along the road we saw quite a few wild goats just galloping across the road and in the nearby bushes.

We arrived in Kalbarri around 1pm and needed some bread for lunch so went straight for the IGA and then the information centre for some other 'must see's' while in Kalbarri. We also needed to purchase a pass to go into the National Park to visit so did that while we were there.

We went to the park across the road briefly before heading to the caravan park to set up.

Dec 9 (Day 313) - Geraldton to Galena Bridge

 Wednesday 9 December

We were woken quite early this morning by numerous fishing enthusiast coming to the boat ramp to drop off the boat and park at around 4.30am and continued even while we were leaving around 6.30am.  So we decided to pack up and move closer into Geraldton to have breakfast and where we needed to get a few bits and pieces for the van.

Because we had been woken quite early no shops were open so we found a lovely spot on Marine terrace at a park near the beach where we had some bbq's, playground & amenities. Perfect spot for a nice cooked breakfast. Unfortunately none of the bbq's worked so we got out our own equipment and it worked a treat.

Dec 8 (Day 312) - Jurien Bay to Geraldton

We woke to a hot, windy morning with a forecast top of 42 degrees C! The site we were staying in was on the top of a hill so was always going to be a bit windy.

Our campsite near Jurien Bay

Morning tea at Jurien Bay with Mim's parents

After breakfast we did our two morning readings, then discussed our plans. On such a hot day we decided to try to get a good leg of driving done, and to stop and enjoy the surroundings on cooler days. So we packed up and headed down to Jurien Bay to take a quick look at the water. By this time it was about 10:30 at the time which is the traditional hour the stomach yearneth for a bakery! So we pulled into the Bay Bakery in Jurien Bay and enjoyed a delicious morning tea.