Albany {Caravan Park}

Two nights turns to three when you get 50+mls of rain the night before you are planning on leaving.

Now I don't mind packing down in the rain, it isn't that much of an issue when you are setting up again a few hours later.  But after the road in front of us is turned into a river and it is still coming down in bucket loads when you are supposed to be leaving it is just easier to say 'I will take this ensuite site for another night' and that is what we did!

With no real plan on where to go and by when we decided to spend a few days in Albany doing some running around for supplies and other bits before we made our way somewhere else.  We splashed out with our own bathroom and it really wasn't too bad at $56 a night for all of us {cheaper than some places have quoted for just us on a normal powered site} and after so long without a real hot shower it was worth every cent we paid :)

Surprisingly the caravan park was a Big 4, the first time we have stayed in one and it had heaps of things for the kids.  A nature park with heaps of different animals, pool {although why anyone would have swam in the weather we had was beyond me, but some people did}, playground and a great camp kitchen.  Even better it had a massive drier that all but dried the washing in one cycle for $1!

Thankfully we managed to get out on our full day to explore some of the national park that is around Albany, drive around and look at some of the wonderful old houses and look outs.  We even took ourselves out for a meal, to a pub!  The wind farm was a great way to further the kids learning of all things electricity and we also spent half a day looking around the museum and the old boat {which was kind of scary to go down under the deck in}

After much twoing and frowing we have decided to make our way towards Kalgoorlie, going through the Stirling Ranges, Hyden and then heading up the Holland Track.  It should be good.

Cosy Corner {Free Camp}

A Free camp for more than a night or two, that's right we are planning on staying till the weekend {we would have stayed longer but the weather was due to make a big change and I decided we needed to relocate}.

When we arrived all of the spots 'down the bottom' where actually full but we managed to find a nice spot between bushes.  The only downfall was it was on very find grey/black sand which I imagined ended up in everything {and I was right haha}.  After we arrived and set up we set about exploring by foot around the area.  The camp it's self is simple just a drop loo and gravel spots on the back of the dune system under peppermint trees it really did look lovely down there.

The beach was lovely although not the best weather the smalls decided that they had to have a swim, CRAZY. We did some school work, took a trip to Albany as we desperately needed some fresh food and explored the National Park.  The National Park also included some 4WDing and even better driving out to the southern most point of Western Australia.  How many people can say that they have done that?

It has been a long time since I had been to Albany, I think it might actually have been our honeymoon nearly 9 years ago but it has some of the most amazing beaches around.  The way the rocks fall down into them and form islands all around is really interesting.   The kids though it was exciting to see some paragliders jumping off one of the rock faces and over the water, me I thought it was terribly frightening.

Pack down, time to shower and wash in Albany

Peaceful Bay {Lawn Squatting}

After all this time you would think we would have some idea on when public holidays are in WA?  Apparently NOT! We planned to leave Windy on Friday and had it not been for a wonderful woman there asking me, we would have forgotten it was a public holiday and been stuck no doubt as we planned to do some free camping after leaving.

Thankfully after a quick, cheeky SMS to a friend we landed a lovely spot on the front lawn of his holiday house in Peaceful Bay.  It was peaceful when we arrived just after lunch but by 8pm all of the surrounding houses {alright most} had people and there where cars everywhere.  The caravan park was PACKED.

It worked well for us, we had power, a shady spot and got to do some real exploring that we missed out on doing in November {because we spent so much time eating, talking & drinking}.

We went down the the river mouth a few times, took a drive though Denmark looking at a few different spots and much to J's pleasure we even did some 4WDing in Peaceful Bay {although it didn't go so well to start when we discovered our wonderful tyre gauge was lying about our pressure, cue embarrassed husband when he got stuck and caused a traffic jam}.

Everyone cleared out on the Monday so we got to spend a day in a truly peaceful Peaceful Bay before we packed up and headed to our next spot, a real free camp.

Windy Harbour {Caravan Park - Work}

Well the weather is very different to the trip we made down last week to check out the job, it is most certainly living up to the name 'Windy Harbour'.  There is a small number of people that permanently call this place home but for the most part it is just holiday homes, so not many people at all.

The caravan park is a lovely little place, with a small camp kitchen and toilet block.  Now Windy Harbour has no water {other than bore} and no electricity {other than solar/wind/generator for each house there}.  So the park is very small on numbers which was great and only offers six powered sites, we ran with solar for the time we stayed.

It was lovely to have nightly visits from Kangaroos, daily visits from cheeky birds who came up right under our feet to see what they could find and we did see some amazing sunsets.

Justin started work two days after we arrived and the kids and I slotted into a nice little routine.  School work, walk lunch to Dad and then beach or playing in the afternoon before heading home to get started on dinner.  Might I just say that J did a wonderful job of the tiling it looked amazing to see the house transform over the two weeks that we stayed.

We made sure we did some exploring before we left the area, checking out the national park and lighthouse.  We even headed out for the an afternoon or 4WDing, exploring some of the more remote camping locations and old cabins in the area.  There was even a 'river' crossing to be done.

It was actually a reasonably relaxing two weeks, the local people we interacted with where lovely and other than the random weather the area really is relaxing.

Next stop Peaceful Bay to hide out for the long weekend {which yet again we didn't plan for or remember until it was mention the other day by the park manager}.