After our slightly longer than expected stay in Perth, we were ready to hit the road again today. There was just one last thing I needed to do. I had seen a bag I liked in town the other day, in fact it was the same one I had looked at longingly when we were here last year. I had talked myself out of it, but yesterday decided that it was a long way to come back a third time for.

Our dallying’s didn’t allow me to get to the shop yesterday though, so I thought I had missed my chance. Then this morning, as we turned out of the caravan park a good 25 minutes earlier than expected, I decided to brave the streets of inner Perth with the van hooked up. Bec didn’t like the idea, but I figured that being a Saturday morning, the roads would be relatively quiet. As far as parking was concerned, I had to agree with Bec, that it might present a problem. I assured her that we would drive past the store in question, and if there was no parking available I would give up on my quest to obtain a new, although entirely unrequired back pack.

As we exited the freeway onto the narrow surface streets feeding into the city centre, Shazza decided that a better view of the encircling satellites was required to give her a clear idea of where we were. Without Shazza leading the charge, we were flying solo as we weaved a circuitous path through town, stuttering along in traffic, the van bouncing along behind, my eyes darting everywhere to ensure we didn’t collect any stray pedestrians, cyclists, cars or anything else immobile. A flight of fancy it was to be honest, as I fully expected to be forced to drive on by the store without stopping. Surely I would be lucky to find one vacant car parking space, let alone a string of empty spots lengthy enough to accommodate the nearly 15 metres of Beast and van. We peeled around the final tight corner, making good use of every inch of the road, and there, laid out in front of us, 3 car spots alongside the road, less than half a block from where I needed to be. I took it as an omen, a sign that it was meant to be, as I sidled ‘The Beast’ snug up against the curb, before bounding down the footpath to do one last bit of shopping.

Happy with my new haversack, it was now time to get out of Perth, as Shazza came back to life and tried to direct us down one-way streets and roads closed for works. I ignored her, finding my own way onto the freeway that would soon have us south bound, heading for Bunbury and Busselton. The whole exercise had wasted about an hour, which left Bec a little flummoxed at my apparent tardiness with time. It had all been carefully calculated and allowed for in my plans for the day, even if I hadn’t let Bec in on the secret.

With Perth in the rear view mirror, we hit the open road again.

On the smooth, open freeway, ‘The Beast’ gave no hint of its earlier illness, as I got it up to speed, rolling along towards our next stop for the day in Bunbury, where ironically, we were stopping primarily to buy a cardigan for Bec. The shop in town hadn’t had her size in stock, so the Bunbury outlet had put one aside for her. Maybe that was why I didn’t get too much complaint from her about my foray into Perth.

Bunbury is an easy 2 hour drive from Perth, and from what we saw from high up in ‘The Beast’ is a big, but lovely looking town. We had hoped to spend a couple of days here to give us a chance to explore a bit, but decided to cut it from our itinerary, so as to get back on track. Instead, we planned on stopping to pick up Becs top, before continuing on to Busselton, a further 40 minutes to the south.

As we reached the outskirts of Bunbury, we saw the bright yellow signs of a JB Hi-Fi store, which held the promise of a new release CD by Sara Storer we had seen advertised on TV yesterday. Without even thinking about it, I had managed to swing our rig across three lanes of traffic and turn into the small car park that made the streets of Perth look like 6 lane freeways. Our luck held out though, as a string of car parks long enough to take our hefty ride materialised in front of us. Bec ran in to buy the album, while I waited eagerly for her like a getaway driver.

Hardly 5 minutes later, we were holding up traffic as we slowly tried to get back out of the car park and find our way back to the route we needed for our next stop. Thankfully, when we did find our way to our next location, we found a dedicated caravan parking area. We managed to slot in, just, between a tiny campervan and a couple of public transport buses. So much for caravans only.

This time, it was Bec who was happy with her new purchase, as we mounted up for our final leg of todays journey. Bunbury to Busselton, with just a single quick halt enroute.

How could we pass up the chance of stopping at a cheese factory. Our afternoon cheese platters have been relegated to history, since good cheese has been hard to come by, but here as we travel towards the gastronomically delightful Margaret River wine region, the gourmet food outlets are making a pleasing reappearance.

Stopping in at the ‘Old Cheddar Cheese Company’, I was transported to whey heaven. I am a lover of the harder cheeses, and the samples on offer here were to die for. All based around an almost soft, creamy textured cheddar, about 18 different flavours are generated. From chilli infused to green olive, I didn’t know where to start. We ended up buying a veritable smorgasbord of cheeses, getting a selection that included a half a dozen different flavours.

With our cheeses safely stowed in the cooler, it was only a further 35 minutes to the caravan park we are bedding down at, in Busselton. Only a couple of hundred metres from the beach, we selected this park based on its advertised dog friendly status. What we didn’t consider were the sizes of the sites, which was a little difficult to judge online.

The lovely lady who checked us in was a hoot, as she directed us in the direction of our allocated site, with the parting words that should we prefer a different site, to let her know. Maybe she knew that we weren’t going to fit on the site she had selected for us when she said it.

Well, to say we didn’t fit would be a lie to be honest. We did fit quite well, snug even. So snug in fact that not only would we not be able to extend our awning, owing to an oddly placed tree, just opening the caravan door would be fraught with danger due to the same tree. A bit of head scratching later (Is it any wonder I’m going bald with all of this head scratching?), we opted to slide the van out and take up residence on the next site. Ever so slightly longer and wider, we were able to fit the van, pull out the awning and even park ‘The Beast’ alongside.

Before getting the van in order, we took a break for a late luncheon of cheese and crackers, accompanied by a beer. Oddly, Bec spat her beer across the van at the first taste. Without saying anything, she began guzzling lemonade from a can, spitting it down the sink. It was several minutes later that she was able to articulate that the beer was soapy. As it turned out, our dishwashing liquid had inexplicably leaked from the bottle, creating a sticky, but very clean, mess in the bottom of our crockery cupboard, while coating the rim of Becs beer glass with a film of Palmolive. Might be easy on your hands, but as Bec can attest to, is not great for the taste buds!

Moments before Bec turned into a frothing at the mouth beer fountain.

With a fresh beer, it was time for cheese and crackers.

My next issue was that we were camped beneath the dense canopy of shade giving foliage of the surrounding trees. Great to keep the sun off, not so great for allowing the satellite TV signal to reach our dish. Nonetheless, I opted to get all of the gear out, if for nothing else than a bit of practice in setting it all up. I checked the data I needed to get the angles, then selected a bit of dirt that looked as if it had as much chance as any other of allowing us to get a signal. Lined up by compass and angle, I was surprised when it needed nothing more than an inch of tweaking to put a picture on the TV screen. That was simpler than setting up the regular antenna.

With our roast from last night having now defrosted and Bec on kitchen duties, while I set everything else up, life was indeed good today. Even the blue bathrooms couldn’t dampen my good mood, but I’ve already rambled on long enough for one day, so more about the ablution blocks tomorrow.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.