We had plans to leave Geraldton
today and fortunately the part had arrived for the fridge in the caravan. We packed the van, hooked it up and dropped
it to the caravan service area for repair around 9am. They were going to call us once is it was
ready for pick-up so we headed out to find something to do for the day. First, which we nearly forgot to do, we
headed to the post office to pick up a bundle of school work; and then we went
on the search for joggers as mine were giving me blisters just from
walking. We found a new pair of ASICS
for me and Josh got a new fancy pair of reflective swimming goggles for his
birthday in a few days. There was a
nearby bakery so we grabbed a quick snack and decided to go and do the grocery
shopping. The car was full with bags and
boxes by the end of all this and we had no home (caravan) to unload everything. It was about noon so we headed to the van
service area to see if the van was ready to go.
Upon driving in, we noticed that our caravan was still in the shed –
damn – it still wasn’t ready! Josh had a
chat with the guys, we offloaded a bit of the shopping into the caravan and off
we drove once again. We found a lovely
little park near a beach and decided to cook up some burgers for lunch, the
only downfall was that it was very windy.
The kids ate and then went to the park to play for a while whilst we
cleaned up. Next we found another big
park area and at this one it wasn’t quite so cold, there was a bit of sunshine
by now. The girls ran off to play once
again and we enjoyed some sunshine and made a few calls. It was nearly 3pm by now so we headed back to
the caravan once again and the workers were just putting everything back
together again so we could make tracks to our next stop at Jurien Bay. It was a couple of hours drive from one point
to the other and by the time we arrived it had just gotten dark. Fortunately, Josh had rung ahead for a late
check-in… After setting up, Josh went to
the park bbq to cook up some snags for dinner and noticed that fellow
travellers Steve, Vicky, Taylor and Mia were camped here – funny how we just
run into people we know from all over the country these days.
Our washing was overflowing so
today we got this underway early in the morning and the wind was out in force
assisting to dry it. We had very little
planned. The kids were having lots of
fun yet again on the jumping pillow, this time with Taylor and Mia, but it had
to come to an end to get some overdue school work finished off. They spent a few hours indoors getting this
done with our help – not the best of days but we’ve come to expect these very
ordinary days! The kids were back on the
jumping pillow late this afternoon with Taylor and Mia so Steve and Vicky came
around and sat in the wind for a few drinks and a chat while watching them. I just can’t believe how cold it is…..
Josh’s 38th birthday
was today – unfortunately we had nothing big planned but he has said that it’s
no big deal. He got his kisses and
cuddles with a card and gift from the kids and we decided to get out and about
today. After packing up our lunch, we
headed to Lesueur National Park which is a park full of wild flowers, not that
it interested us greatly but at least it was something to see. We went for a bit of a walk after scrubbing
our shoes at the shoe scrubbing station, but after following this little dirt
track through a huge forest of flowers, it looked like we were a long way from
the end of the track. We decided to stop
after about 15-20 minutes in the one direction and turned around to head back
to the car. There were lots of beautiful
flowers of all different colours and also many bees buzzing about. Back at the car we noticed that we weren’t
even on the right track to the top of the mountain that we were aiming towards
so lucky we turned back when we did. There
were caves further north called Stockyard Gully Caves (in the Stockyard Gully
National Park obviously)so we decided to check them out. We knew it was a soft sand four wheel drive
track to get in but that was obviously no problem for us. Half way in however, we came to a stop. There was a non 4WD Apollo rented motorhome bogged
out a right angle directly across the path on which we were taking and there
was no way past. Josh to the
rescue!!! He hopped out and went to find
out the problem, it was two Chinese tourists (Victor and Cathy) that had been in the country for
two days and stuck here on this spot for over an hour. They had attempted this sand track, realised
it was getting too soft for their vehicle and attempted to turn the motorhome
around – getting stuck half way through their turn. They had been stacking small branches under
their wheels when we’d found them but that hadn’t worked yet. Josh pulled out the winch first and attempted
to drag him out sideways but this was lifting our car, it wasn’t going to work. Next, he pulled everything out of the back of
the car to get the snatch straps and hooked them on. First pull and he was scull dragging them
sideways out of the hole that they’d been stuck in. Again, he dragged the back of their vehicle
which turned their vehicle enough that the front of the car was now on the road
but the back was still stuck a little in the sand. Josh was now able to get past and head to the
front of their car. He pulled them from
the front and was able to get them back on the track and they were very
relieved and grateful, so much so that they wanted photos with Josh, their
saviour. As their vehicle was not worthy
to travel this road, Josh offered to show them the caves so we made room in the
car and in they got. The caves were lovely
but extremely dark (lucky the tourists came with us as they didn’t have a
torch. We waded through the ankle deep
water for about 300 metres before reaching the daylight at the other end. The only thing we had to avoid were the
swarms of bees at each end of the cave.
After dropping our Chinese friends back to their vehicle, there was a
tow truck arriving to help get them out of their dilemma. I don’t think he was too happy that we had
already done his job, and now he had nobody to pay his fair. I think he was a little comforted when we
made him some lunch to take on the road as he rushed off to his next job
though. We headed towards the coast next
and stopped for a look at Green Head, and the kids had a chance to play at a
nearby park for a while. The water
looked lovely as usual but we were surprised at just how much seaweed was
washed up along the beach – to the point where you could barely see any
sand. Back at our caravan we got talking
to some other neighbours that were also travelling Australia with their two
boys: Ian, Judy, Jake and Kane. We invited them to come to the pub for some
dinner and birthday cake with us so they too came along. The company and conversation were both
fantastic and we will hopefully see them back on the road in the future.
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