Perth to Coral Bay | FindPenguins

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Début du voyage
20 mai 2019
Perth to Coral Bay
Leaving Perth
20 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Day 1 of our new trip. Heading to Coral Bay hopefully.
Usual scenario before we hit the road. I took my eyes of the van door for a few minutes and returned to find the van creaking on the axle. Elvira at her best loading form. Anyway, we should not have a shortage of anything.
Took the road through Midland and headed to York.
Discovered a 24 hour RV stop right on the banks of the Avon River. Power provided and water and all for free. Right next to a park with gazebos and bbq's. Currently we are one of 7 caravans parked here for the night.
Walked around town in the afternoon. Toured the old town hall. Scored a personal tour of the chamber offices by one of the town councillors who was waiting for a meeting to start. Very lucky.
This site is to be recommended, and you can't quibble about the price.En savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
Toodyay
21 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Our night stay in York was quiet and uneventful, apart from the sprinklers in the park next to us, switching on in the early hours of the morning and some overspray washing down the one side of our van. Must remember to park the other way round next time and get the other side washed!
It was a very cold night though, and we were both cold. But one of those situations where you want another blanket on the bed but don't want to get up and do it. So, we froze. That blanket is definitely going on tonight.
Travelled from York, through Northam, on to Toodyay. Easy driving on quiet roads.
Did a walk around Northam. Not a bad little town. But it seems everyone is trying to sell their house and get out of there - 3 estate agents in town all with windows full of property for sale. And very reasonable prices as well. A 4 by 2 in reasonable nick can be had for about $270,000.
At Toodyay staying in the Holiday caravan park. Out in the bush. Great setting and quite peaceful. It is part of the Kui group of parks. We have joined $32 for 2 years and we save 10% on every stay. Should work well.
About to have supper. Sun has gone down and the cold is creeping in.
Good night.En savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
New Norcia
22 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Another cold night in Toodyay, but with an extra blanket, not too bad.
Made our way to New Norcia, which was just up the road. Thought it would be good to get up to date with some of the history of the area, which is mainly centred around the monastery and the monks who stay there.
Parked the van on a deserted sports oval. Don't think there have been many sports played there for many a year.
Walked into town and joined a guided tour of the area. What a great tour. Walked around the whole town (not a big area) and visited all the old buildings (except for the monastery which is a private area for the monks.)
The guide was very knowledgeable and we spent an interesting few hours. The church and chapels were amazing. Huge area of farmland as well. Those monks did a lot of work over many years to build up the town from scratch and become self sufficient.
Back to the sports oval for dinner. Had a chat with a fellow Supreme van owner and picked up some good tips.
A quiet night on the oval, even if still a bit cold.En savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
Moora
23 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Up fairly early with a walk to the roadhouse to use the loo and buy a fresh loaf of bread from the monastery. It was really yum.
After brekky, we did a walk around some of the farm land and along the Moore River. Not much water in the river.
Headed to Moora just up the road. Booked in at the local caravan park, to make sure we could charge up fully and load up with water.
Had a good walk around the town. Some good murals painted on several buildings. Some war memorials around town as well.
Again, not much water in the river - a far cry from 20 years ago when Fabs was up here with Apex, helping the locals combat and recover from the floods.
There is a very nice pool next to the caravan park, but unfortunately closed, so once again I could not get some laps in.
The CP is small but good amenities and clean. Very friendly caretaker who somehow knew my name!
A quiet night in the van.En savoir plus
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VoyageurI used to stop for breakfast at a cafe in Padbury St when I was travelling to Dandaragen
23/05/2019Répondre
VoyageurLooks like you guys are having a great adventure Will and Elvira
25/05/2019Répondre
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Perth to Coral Bay
Milligan's Island camping
26 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Our next stop along the way was at Milligan's Island, situated just north of Greenhead. The drive there was very easy and relaxed, until Elvira took over driving duties for a part of the trip. Elvira seemed calm and relaxed, but her passenger was digging heels into the floor and the finger mark indentations on the arm rest are still there!!
Anyway, we arrived safe and sound, although it took a bit of searching to find the place. It is quite remote, despite not being far from Greenhead. Not helped due to no Comms in the area, and google maps not cooperating. Must remember to download off-line maps for the area.
The camp is a free camp, from the point of view of no water or power. Cost $15 though. But it is well laid out. Spacious sites, good drop loos and camp kitchen. Right next to the beach. You feel you are in the middle of nowhere.
We had a great time, a relaxing time. Walks on the beach. A trip to Greenhead and Jurien. Etc, etc.
Put our portable solar panels to use for the first time. We were lucky with sunny days and the panels worked well.
Some amazing sunsets whilst we were at Milligan's. A great place to get away from it all. Apparently busy during holiday weekends, but the rest of the time, easy to get in.
Highly recommended.En savoir plus
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Voyageurhahaha William your posts are always good to read thanks for the Monday morning laugh
26/05/2019Répondre
VoyageurGood evening Will and Elvira looks like a great place there we will need to put it on our travel plan
27/05/2019Répondre
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Perth to Coral Bay
Jurien for a few days
30 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
We decided to move down to Jurien Bay for a few days and relax down there.
From our research, it appeared that the Apex camp might be an acceptable and low cost place to stay, and it included power and water. So, that was our target, all of 50kms away!
Easy trip down, even with Elvira driving from Milligan's to Green Head. Perhaps her passenger is becoming more relaxed and letting go a bit. Maybe.
Got to the Apex camp. Nobody around to welcome us. Phoned a number on the office door and spoke to the camp manager who was away for a couple of days. Very casual and laid back system of managing the camp. We were told to put some money through the door and choose whatever site we wanted, which we did. And after speaking to a few others around the camp, that was their instruction as well. How on earth she accounts for everything, would be a miracle.
Anyway, the Apex camp has seen much better days. Rough and ready. But everything worked, somehow, and it was cheap. Also, close to town. A good place to relax. And everybody in camp was friendly.
We spent the next few days just relaxing and recharging everything. Went for walks around town and on the beach.
Every day was very windy, mainly with easterlies, which I think is a bit unusual for this time of year.
I wanted to do some ocean swimming, but unfortunately I was trying to fight off a bit of a cold the whole time, so decided not to swim whilst that was happening. Pity, because, with the easterlies, the water looked calm and great.
But we did have a game of golf at the Jurien Bay Country Club Golf course. What a grand title for a goat track!
The tees had a bit of grass on them, but that was it, as far as grass goes. The greens were sand. I think we were allowed improved lies on the fairway, but probably the limit of improvement would have to be 15 metres, since you need to move that far to find a tuft of grass! One of the rules required us to carry a bucket of sand, to help repair divots. Seriously? That is the last thing you want on those fairways. Instead, they should be encouraging people to make as many divots in the fairway as possible to help aerate the soil.
We have not travelled with our golf buggies this time, and since the club did not have buggies for hire, we had to carry our bags. That certainly added a degree of difficulty to an already difficult situation. But we rose to the challenge and did it. Because we were carrying our bags, we decided not to take our bottles of water. Big mistake! By the end of the round, on a warm and windy day, we were gasping for water.
Needless to say, our scores were not very good. Scores that will be scrubbed from memory banks very soon.
One positive though - the sand greens were well compacted and a lot easier to putt on than first thought.
Our walks on the beach have yielded some good sunsets. Jurien seems a nice spot to spend some time. The Apex camp is an acceptable place to stay, unless you are quite fussy. And if you are fussy, then you probably won't be caravanning around the place, anyway.
Tomorrow, we head off to Cervantes to meet up with Fabs and Mel and kids, to spend the long weekend there.
CheersEn savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
Cervantes - day 1
31 mai 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
An easy drive down to Cervantes. This being the second time down at this park, so we knew the ropes quite well.
Check in time was 11.00am, and we were there at exactly 11.00am. Not sure how we jagged that.
We set up camp, and met with Fabs and Mel and the kids around lunchtime. They were soon set up and organised.
Spent the rest of the day, catching up, at the camp.
Had a good sunset that we were able to catch down at the beach.
Dinner today was a joint affair - portions of the meal being cooked at our respective caravans. Luckily, both our vans were only a few spots away from each other.
A quiet night.En savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
Cervantes - day 2
1 juin 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
It was decided to do a bit of a trip on this day.
Elvira and I joined with the others, in there car, to do a bit of a trip further north, to visit Stockyard Gully and caves. And thank goodness we decided to all go in 1 car, with that car being Fab's one. If we had gone in our car, I think we would still be out there, negotiating the track - very slowly!!
Drove up through Jurien and Greenhead, and then turned off to Stockyard Gully - an old area where the old cattle drovers would rest up and get some shade and some water, possibly. Part of the road in was a good gravel road, which then turned into a bumpy track. 4WD was needed, but did not need to lower tire pressures.
After arrival, we took some lunch down the short walk to the caves. Had lunch at the cave entrance. Nice cool area, compared to it being fairly hot outside.
Then, a walk of about 400 metres through the cave. A bigger cave than I anticipated, and very interesting. When the rains arrive and the rivers start flowing, the caves are totally full with water flowing through them, but when we were there, there was not a skerrick of water around - very dry and hot.
After the caves, we exited the area via another longer and rougher track. Quite bumpy and rocky. Hope the car was ok afterwards. And as I mentioned, thank goodness we did not have our car out there.
on the way back to Cervantes, we called in to look at a couple of places - Leeman, Greehead. Had tea and coffee in Greenhead, at a nice spot near the front.
Had a bit of a beach drive with the car.
Back in Cervantes for yet another great sunset.
Another shared dinner, followed by a belated birthday celebration for Mel - some yummy cheese cake for the occasion.
Another quiet night.En savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
Cervantes - day 3
2 juin 2019, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
A good day in Cervantes.
Fabs cooked pancakes for brekky, which was our second brekky for the day, but all very yummy.
Just kicked around the park for the morning, until we headed over to the Lobster Shack for lunch. The Lobster Shack is an institution in Cervantes. And when we got there, it seemed that everyone from miles around had flocked there for lunch. It was heaving at the seams, but Fabs managed to find us a table on the front verandah area, with a view of the beach and ocean.
We all had a good lunch there, despite having to wait exactly 1 hour for the food to arrive.
Then, there was a rush to get to the Cervantes Country Club, to watch the footy. Eagles playing against the Western Bulldogs. The Country club was the scene of where we watched the mighty Eagles win the premiership, last year in September.
Anyway, the Eagles had an easy win. We exited the club after the game and it was already dark outside - winter evenings are creeping in.
Julia and Cynthia were organising supper for us today. They organised a menu, picked the items at the shop, and then did all the cooking and serving to the rest of us. This all happened in the camp kitchen, which has great facilities for doing this sort of thing. We ended up being served a 3 course meal, which was all very yummy. Well done to Julia and Cynthia.En savoir plus
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Perth to Coral Bay
Geraldton overnighting for repairs
3 juin 2019, Australie ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
The next day saw us leaving Cervantes after a great weekend, and we turned left and headed further north, whilst the others turned right and headed south back to Perth.
We were headed somewhere north of Geraldton, and the trip went well, for a while.
At one of my pee stops, (they have them every 20 or 30 k's along the road) I happened to check the connections between car and van and noticed that the electrical connection was dragging along the ground, and part of the wiring and the anderson plug were cactus. Looks like I forgot to connect it properly when setting up to leave.This meant that there was no power to the van battery or fridge.
Thought I could fix it myself, but when I realised that we did not have a crimping tool, we decided that the services of an auto electrician were needed. Being a public holiday, there were no electricians available anywhere.
So, we decided to stop over in Geraldton and try and get things fixed early the next morning (Tuesday).
We stopped at Bellair Gardens in Geraldton, which was a good park, despite being located in possibly the worst part of Geraldton.
Took a drive around Geraldton, which seems to have been improved quite a bit since we were last there, many years ago. Found a good free camp spot down near the wharf, which we will remember for next time. Spent some time up at the memorial to the sinking of the HMAS Sydney - interesting place.
Bit of a noisy night at the park - rail track and processing plant quite close to the park.En savoir plus
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