Now it came time to get the kids cleaned up and fed and drop
them over to Ian and Gwen. We were
loaded up like pack horses with everything we could think of that they might
need, even giving them the keys to our van in case we had forgotten anything. The words “good luck” may have come out of my
mouth before we headed off into town (which Ian very kindly drove us in). I tried to say goodbye to the kids but they
were more interested in checking out the van and Hamish was non-stop talking
and giving instructions.
We had decided to eat out at the Loose Goose and had no idea
what to expect but it was really nice and I remember commenting after the
entrée how I got to eat it slowly whilst having an uninterrupted
conversation. It was just what we needed
and we really enjoyed it. At the end Ian
kindly came and picked us up and it was good to see he was still in one piece
and by the time we got back to the van Kayla was asleep and Hamish was still up
playing on his iPad. I can’t thank them
enough. It was so nice to have that time
out together after over four months on the road.
Monday saw the start of another school week so we got in and
did that. I was in charge of trying to
keep all the kids away from our van whilst Hamish completed his lesson. I had five at one stage (including Kayla) to
try and keep away and I don’t think I was doing a very good job at all. Luckily Jason was smart enough to lock the
door as one kept trying to get in. It is
honestly hard enough trying to keep Hamish focussed without him hearing all the
other kids outside having fun.
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| My crazy two having some fun. |
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| They never seem to run out of energy. |
We were in quite a lazy mood today so just focused on school
and then headed down to what I thought was a patrolled and gentle beach. It might have been the other day, but on this
day the wind was picking up and the waves were quite big. Also it seems the surf club may only operate
on weekends. There were also a lot of
tourists around as a big cruise ship had pulled in. Still we enjoyed our time out of the van and
Hamish and Kayla had a paddle and explored a bit. Jason also spoke to a gentleman off the
cruise ship who was from England and also had a holiday home in Florida. Then the other family from Queensland turned
up with their two kids. Their daughter
is close in age to Hamish and such a good kid, so they had a blast swimming
together in the more shallow area.
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| Yep I think it is safe. |
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| Not as gentle as the day before. |
We returned to the van for lunch and then did a bit more
school and just chilled. We are in no
real rush so are enjoying the green grassy sites and the kids play
facilities. Jason borrowed Ian’s hand
held vacuum and set about the task of cleaning out the car. Gosh it was in an embarrassing state with the
kids mess and the sand everywhere. By
the time he finished it was happy hour time so we headed over to Ian and Gwen’s
van to join them. In the meantime, as I
had extended our stay for yet another night I had the park manager call me to
say we could stay for another night for free as we had now paid for six
nights. Well they didn’t have to twist
our arms and I guess we will now be staying here for seven nights.
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| Hamish having fun. |
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| Could never get sick of this view. |
Oh and did I mention we lost our good neighbours John and
Jill and they were replaced with another family! Don’t get your hopes up. John and Jill though had been fantastic and
John had lived near Winton when he was really young but had retired from his
place at Westmar at a property called Green Hills. They were a lovely couple and we chatted
about all sorts of things and the land out there at the moment. We would soon wish that they had never left.
It will give us the chance to go back into the National Park
and see Hellfire Bay. We didn’t get to
see it the other day as we thought we would go in there on our way out of the
park, but because it was raining, we didn’t go in and assumed we weren’t really
missing anything. How wrong we were. Ian and Gwen said it was the best one of the
lot. We might also get to tidy up a few
loose ends like send the massive pile of postcards I have written and hadn’t
posted (as I need stamps) and get to that French Bakery. You know the important things.
So around rolled Tuesday and we seemed to be just having one
of those days. The day started well with
Hamish doing his on air lesson but it seemed to all go downhill from
there. I really want to stay on top of
school as it will be harder to catch up so Jason took over and did a few
lessons with him which was great, however he did all the easy and more fun
lessons. So when it came to a little
later he was left with the lessons that required more concentration and well
that didn’t go down well and I think he has learnt that choosing the order of
the lessons is very important. Trust me,
I learnt the hard way too. We had heaps
of breaks in the lessons and even did some with the little girl next door as
she is meant to be starting prep this year too.
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| It is hard to see but it is a truck motorhome towing a car with a boat on top. |
I felt a bit like a baby sitting service as here I was
trying to teach Hamish school. I didn’t
mind the little girl as she was keen to do the lesson too but having Kayla and
the little boy in the van who were intent on playing with the learning tools
made it a bit frustrating. I managed to
locate Jason who was chatting to the neighbour across the road and off loaded
Kayla. I mean it was good that Jason was
getting tips from someone who is from Western Australia and had done a lot of
travel, but I just needed him to look after Kayla at the same time. We then said goodbye to the family on our
left and I think the van park breathed a sigh of relief that they were
gone. They were actually nice people to
talk to and the kids were lovely but the domestics and how he talked to her was
appalling.
Kayla and I went out and did some food shopping and by the
time we got home we had some lunch and decided the rest of the day would be a
relaxation day in the van/caravan park.
This I think would nearly have to be our all-time worst decision on this
trip of ours. What we wanted to do was
just sit back and relax, maybe put a movie on for the kids and just sit inside
and read (there were bad March flies outside).
This plan would have been great except our new neighbour on our right
decided now was the best time to go off the rails. She took off on a bike and I am assuming he
must have been asleep. When he woke up
and couldn’t find her he decided to go looking for her. Yep I don’t know how much he had already
drunk but he tried to reverse his little bus/van thingy (held together with
duct tape where the rust spots were showing!) whilst items were still by the
door and the awning was still up. He
went a good 5 metres before he actually got out and put the awning in.
I couldn’t help but worry about their son being in that van
with him as I don’t think he was really in a state to drive. So off he went and after about ten minutes he
was back, but not for long as he pulled out again. Good I thought, peace and quiet, but he had
just moved across the road to the shade.
He then came and asked if he could use Jason’s phone. Then we got the story about how his Mrs has a
drug problem and he is trying to get her clean.
My heart broke even more for the son.
I don’t know if his story was true or not but I don’t think he was
really helping her with his state. Next
thing he was back at our door asking Jason to drive him down to Centrelink and
for me to look after their son. Sure why
not, I feel like a free babysitting service and now we are also a taxi service.
To be honest though I was happy to take the son out of that
situation, be it just for a short while.
So here I was looking after this little boy, who my kids didn’t really
like as he constantly hit them (he was only 18 months old) at the same time
hoping Jason makes it back safely. Yep
we would have been a whole lot better if we had just gone out for the
afternoon. Eventually they were back,
still no sign of the Mum but he took his son back to his van and told his story
to other campers. They kindly offered to
cook him some food for dinner as apparently he had none (Mum took the money for
the drugs). We spent the rest of the
evening hiding out in our van, praying to be left alone. Which we were.
Our plans for our last full day in Esperance was easy, we
were too do Hamish’s school and then get out of there for the entire day. Just be anywhere but where the drama
was. Our day didn’t start well when I
realised one of our towels had been taken from the clothes line which was two
metres away from the van. Luckily that
was all that was missing, still it annoyed me and they had kindly left the
pegs! So whilst Jason did the on air
lesson with Hamish, I took Kayla out for a drive. Low and behold we found our missing towel
hanging over the front fence of the park as we drove off. I left it there as I needed cake and coffee
after the day before. I was also in two
minds as to if I really wanted it back or not.
Kayla and I found the French Bakery that had been
recommended to us and the display counters were filled with yummy treats. We sat down and enjoyed something special
each and decided we had to bring the boys back here later on. On the way back we did pull up and pick up
our towel. I decided that if I washed
them on the highest heat setting on our washing machine then that would surely
kill all germs. I washed everything we
had on that line as there was no way I trusted any of it. Whilst Jason was finishing the lesson I got
talking to another lady from the van park.
I think everyone felt so sorry for us from the day before, but at the
same time were so grateful that it wasn’t them – yep, we took one for the team!
Anyway she gave me a great tip about a yabbie farm where you
can go and do a tour. So I called them
up and yep we could do one that morning so as soon as the boys finished the
lesson we packed up and were out of there.
The place was only small but wow I learnt a lot about these little
creatures. Hamish was very excited and
loved looking at them but then was more interested in being able to catch
them. So I constantly got the question
of ‘How long until we can catch them?’
We even got to see one shed its shell, which I had no idea that they
did. Eventually the time came to catch
our dinner. Hamish had a go, but was too
slow, Jason had a go and was a bit faster but I think at that rate we would
have been there a lot longer. So the
lady took over and in no time we had a kilo of yabbies for dinner. The best bit is the tour which would have
only cost us all $12, is free if you buy some yabbies, so for $20 we got the tour
and a kilo of yabbies.
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| I never knew yabbies shed their shells. |
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| Jason and Hamish trying to catch our dinner. |
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| I think they look pretty impressed. |
We thanked her ever so kindly and set off to drop them back
at the caravan park. After the quickest
drop off ever, okay not that quick as I also hung out a load of washing and put
the next one on, we were out of there again.
This time it was to take the boys back to the French Bakery and of
course try out another one of their wonderful treats. Before heading back I popped into the shops
to grab a present for my cousin who had just become a Dad for the first time to
an adorable looking baby boy. Hopefully
I will get to meet him when we get to Darwin.
Whilst we were at the coffee shop we had decided we should finish off
school for the week but to avoid being caught up in the dramas of the family at
the van park, we would pack up and go to the library.
Well that was interesting and we managed to get a lot done
but there was a few distractions of other kids but nothing as bad as the
afternoon before at the van park. By now
we decided we would try again for our relaxing afternoon and it was more
successful. Apparently the Mrs did take
off again so we took this as our cue to go and join Ian and Gwen at their van
for happy hour. I tell you what, it has
certainly provided us all with something to talk about and the manager even
offered us a couple more nights free. It
was a lovely gesture but we did need to move on otherwise we will never get to
Mandurah by Tuesday. I think they were
worried we would hold it against the park, but I assured them we loved the
caravan park and know that you can get these people anywhere. I never once complained about either of the
families. If I felt threatened or that
they were putting others at risk I would have, but I just felt the only damage
they were doing was to themselves.
We received so many lovely complements about our kids from
the other fellow campers. It was really
nice to hear, but then I have to admit we probably looked like the perfect
travelling family compared to the other two that had been either side of
us. We packed up that night when the
kids were asleep so we could get away straight after Hamish’s lesson. We are planning to go to Wave Rock so it is a
bit of a drive away.
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| Honestly I swear she does start off clean. |
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