Free Camping Our Way to Mandurah

Another cool and crisp morning in the countryside saw us pack up and get ready to hit the road again.  We have the caravan booked in at Mandurah first thing Tuesday morning so we have three days up our sleeves to get there.  I had been looking for free camps and found a nice looking one only about 80km down the road so not a big drive at all.  Jason had a chat with Ian and decided we would travel together until that point.  We even managed to knock over two school sessions before we left.  The road to Kulin was interesting, quite narrow in parts and bumpy but at least it wasn’t a long drive for the day.

When we pulled up we were quite excited as it was a nice gravel area next to a pretty looking park which had a big playground area.  So we unhitched the van as this place is well known for its Tin Horse Highway and well there is no way we were towing a van down and back a patch of highway for the sake of it.  Then we took the kids for a play in the park after ordering some lunch in the café across the road.  The steak burgers we had were delicious and so filling which was great as we didn’t need anything more to eat until dinner time. 

The pretty park area beside the free camp.

Looking back the other way.

The kids favourite spot.

After we had finished them off we headed off to do one half of the Tin Horse Highway.   About 5km out of town we realised we had actually taken the wrong road.  This was no fault of the navigator as she did ask if this was the right road to which she was re-assured all the signs pointed this way.  On returning to town it was discovered that all signs actually pointed left!  Still off we went and it took a while but we started to come across them.  A lot of effort must go into making these and coming up with the unique and quirky ideas.  I loved the one that represented the towns water slide.  

Just the start of many.

You are going to see more.

I thought this one was very cool.

At the start of the Tin Horse Highway.

 After we had reached the last one we turned around and headed back to town.  Kayla was fast asleep so we jumped at the opportunity to all have a rest and relax for a bit.  The boys watched a bit of Top Gear while I caught up on the blogs, posting one and typing the next.  When Kayla woke we headed straight out to the pool.  I mean what else would stop Hamish from asking when we were going to go.  I mean the place has the biggest waterslide in regional Australia so one must tick that off their list of things to do. 

Jason didn’t seem too keen to go up at first so I thought I would take Hamish up.  Probably about half way up I did start to wonder if it was such a great idea.  Maybe I should have done it on my own first up.  Hamish did a great job climbing all the stairs and by the time I got to the top he was a bit scared but once I sat down and managed to get him on my lap there was no turning back.  He did get a bit scared at first saying we were going too fast, but in the end it was fine and we had a blast.  Then I convinced Jason to have a go with Hamish.  The only problem was that he lay down part way down and couldn’t get back up, so he had water going up his nose and had a big splash at the end!

The biggest waterslide in regional Australia

Here we come.

Kayla loved the little house.

Still it was fun and a great way to get a bit of exercise.  Hamish and I went one more time before retreating to the pool area.  It is a great little setup and they even had a little kid’s playground which Kayla seemed way more interested in then actually swimming in the pool.  Sometimes she looked very torn between the two but the little house won her over and she claimed it as hers.  It was a lovely relaxing afternoon but as it neared 5pm we decided we needed to get out and go check out the other half of the Tin Horse Highway, this time heading more south.

Very creative.

Jason's favourite.

This poor fellow got bucked off.

Jason wanted to take a photo of every single one of them, and at first I thought that was a great idea.  However there were way more along this road then the other one so in the end we decided to just pick the ones that made us laugh or caught our attention the most.  It was also hard as a lot of them didn’t really have places to pull over and take photos so you had to be careful.  I think it is a great idea and hats off to the farmers and people who made them all.  On returning to our van we noticed another family had pulled up for the night (pretty easy to spot with the bunk bed windows).

This would have taken a while to build.

Nothing like a cricket match.



Love it.

One last one.

The chaos of dinner and showers started and low and behold our hot water system worked with no issues!  However we had already decided to use the free hot showers there as that would save our water and allow us to free camp all the way to Mandurah.  As I returned from the shower Kayla went to join Hamish who was already playing with the other kids.  I got talking to their mother Kelly and it ends up that I was already following their page and had only had a conversation with Jason that morning about this family setting out on their trip that day from Bunbury.  I never thought for a second we would cross paths.  We also found out that they had been reading our blog. 

It was great to have a nice long chat and admire their awesome setup with the boat and everything. We kind of looked like the sad cousins with a van with three legs that is extremely dirty.  I hope none of our stories scared them off their travels but they were all told whilst laughing as looking back most of them are quite funny and all part of the trip.  Maybe without the issues, but still we are becoming experts at trying to work out solutions or working our way through the problem.  I just have to remember that in three days, the van will go in to be fixed up and all these problems will be a distant memory and shouldn’t (fingers crossed) happen again!

The night was pretty cool but luckily we have become experts at predicting it and had all rugged up in our winter pjs.  Our water pump decided to play up a bit.  Well we thought it was playing up but in the end we actually think we didn’t fill the back water tank properly and was probably empty (whoops) so we turned on the front tank and ran the air out and all was back to normal.  Still we should probably get it checked out all the same to make sure everything is all good.  I mean there is no harm in getting things double checked!

We hit the road after saying goodbye to the other family as we had just under 200km to go.  It was a good drive with the countryside constantly changing.  Before we knew it there was only 50km to go and after a quick toilet stop we were on the home straight.  Jason and I were saying what a great day it had been and how we were enjoying it but then suddenly we saw cop car lights ahead.  We knew that couldn’t be good but it was off to the right and wasn’t stopping traffic so it wasn’t going to affect us.  However as we drove past we realised there had been a caravan accident and the car had flipped onto its roof and the caravan was ripped open at the back.  How the mood suddenly dropped and we just hoped that the people in the car were okay.

Sunset in Boddington.

Suddenly we just wanted to pull up and set up for the day.  We have no idea what caused their accident but we had an urgent desire to get off the road.  Luckily we didn’t have far to go and both of us admitted that once we pulled off the main road and headed along a back road we both felt a sense of relief.  Before we knew it we were in Boddington which is where I had found another free camp by a river this time.  The camp area isn’t huge but being the only ones here we got the pick of sites and unhitched.  The idea was to fuel up and find a laundromat to wash our clothes.  Well there wasn’t even a fuel station open so I didn’t even try to see if there was a laundromat.  Worst still they didn’t even think the service station would be open tomorrow!

Our free camp in Boddington.
 

Obviously they didn’t expect much weekend traffic.  So not wanting to be caught up tomorrow, Jason took Kayla for a half hour round trip drive down the road to the nearest open service station.  Whilst he was gone Hamish and I did a bit of school work.  The rest of our afternoon was spent relaxing and checking out the river and the streets of Boggington and catching up on a load of washing at the local laundromat.

Another day, and another short drive to the next place.  For some reason, even though it is the last day of the long weekend here in WA, most of the caravan parks are still charging top dollar.  I found an awesome one that the kids would just love, but at $61 for one night I quickly decided free camping was the way to go.  Luckily I had already bookmarked one that was only 20km from Mandurah where the van was going the next day.  That way we didn’t have to get up too early and have a long drive to be at the service centre as it opened at 8am.

So we moved to the town of Pinjarra which was an easy drive of less than 80km through the ranges which weren’t too bad at all.  We were amazed that our fuel economy was sitting at under 17L per 100km as we came into Pinjarra.  I did notice too that we had a good tail wind so maybe we could just turn off the car and it would push us into town.  We pulled in the free camp nice and early and were the second person to arrive (there were more there but they were leaving).   As Jason did some school sessions with Hamish I took Kayla for a walk and went past the pub and over the bridge and there we discovered an awesome playground.   So we spent a bit of time there before venturing over the suspension bridge and back to our caravan.  When the boys finished their lesson we headed back over there and managed to do another lesson in the park and let the kids have a play before going to a local café for a delicious lunch.

Hamish walking across the bridge.

Now for Jason and Kayla (who didn't like it in the stroller).

Then we headed back to the van as my sister Jodi, niece Madie and nephew Hugh had decided to come out for a drive to say hello.  So we showed them through our new home (which filled in a minute) and then spent the rest of the time catching up.  Jodi then took all the kids to the nearby little playground while Jason and I madly packed her car with everything we might need for two days while they work on the van.  We don’t have suitcases so plastic bags it was!  All that is left is the dirty washing, school books and toiletries.  I so wanted to head back with Jodi and the kids to their home but one more night and then we will get to have a quality catch up at their place.

I think I more so wanted to go to their place after they left us.  We went to turn on the hot water system on the gas and of course it didn’t work!  It is all okay though as I gave it a little time to think about its actions (just turned it off) and when I turned it back on it worked.  Yay hot showers tonight!  So just as Jason started working on dinner and I had given the kids their showers I popped outside.  I have no idea why but for some reason I looked at the car and noticed one of the tyres looked flat.  Hoping I was wrong I glanced at the front one and then back at the back one and yes it was flat! 

So we then had to unhitch the van and Jason moved it to flat ground to make changing it easy.  I then proceeded to cook dinner whilst cooking dinner and keeping one tired and cranky little girl inside.  The last thing Jason wanted was Kayla wanted to help, especially considering it was his first time changing one on the Pajero.  I needn’t have worried.  He handled it like a pro and that 12 volt ratchet gun that took us forever to find in Mt Isa was a true blessing.  So by the time I had cooked dinner and fed the kids Jason was done so we sat down and enjoyed dinner.

Jason changing the tyre.

Before we could fully relax we had one more job to do and that was to hitch the van back on.  Normally a simple task but this afternoon it was proving to be a pain and we just couldn’t get the hitch part locked in.  It didn’t help that I had a friendly fellow nomad chatting in my ear wanting to watch whilst I was trying to give Jason directions.  I think by now we were just tired and over all this but we eventually got there and proceeded to go inside to get the kids to bed!  One more night… just one more night and the caravan goes in to get fixed up and we will spend the night in a house and I am going to have the longest, hottest shower without worrying about the water or if the hot water system will work!