Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 68 - Saturday July 16th 2016 - Perth to Cervantes, Western Australia

The alarm was set!

Joe had already gone off to work with his alarm going off sometime around 0530.

We followed the usual routine but with a bit more pace, wanting to get to the camper van hire place as early as we could. We had coffee and a very quick bowl of cereal before heading out of the door in Joes car to the other side of Perth to pick up the camper.

Kate had been out the night before on a friend’s hen do so we were being as quiet as we could.

We were totally reliant on the sat nav taking us to the hire place so when we were hit with diversions it all got a bit crazy for a time but we found it despite making a questionable U-turn on the main highway in a car belonging to a cop (sorry Joe!).

Now the Mighty Hire place had advertised an opening time of 07:30 on their website but when we got there it informed us that it did not open until 10:00 during winter months. To be fair this was the time that we had said we would collect so we couldn’t really be disappointed but we were. Luckily for us the two girls manning the hire place opened a bit early and let us in and started to process the hire around 09:30.

Our van is small! Super small and certainly a hell of a lot smaller than the last van that we hired when we drove in Australia in 2010. It’s a Toyota Hiace with a high top so at least we can stand up. We have a small fridge, a sink and microwave and storage under the sleeping area along with a table that can be up or down and a bit of storage in the roof.

This would never have been our van of choice but it was all we could get (we never anticipated that). It turns out that it is school holidays here in Australia and a lot of vans are out on the road so it really was a case of beggars cannot be choosers. If one person is standing up the other has to sit down, there is standing room or one only but this will be our home for the next seventeen nights and we will make the best of it, we have to!

As we had Joes car we had not bought all our stuff with us so it was a drive back across Perth and back to Clarkson first to load the van up with our cases and the food that we had bought yesterday at Coles and then hit the road north!

Kate was up when we got back and we loaded up in a rush so we could get off, sorting out the van properly could wait until we got used to it a bit and started to understand where the pinch points would be and how difficult it would be to live in but for now we just wanted to hit the road, unfortunately it had already started to rain in Perth.

Before we headed off though we had to get some more supplies so we took advantage of Joes car one more time and headed off to Ocean Quays, the shopping centre opposite Joe & Kates house to stock up on a few things.

We bought two glasses (everything in the van is plastic and wine never tastes the same) two towels and two pillows and pillowcases and a duvet. All of them were the cheapest options in the shop, after all we would be dumping them by the end of the trip so quality we did not need but 17 days usage we did!

We said goodbye to Kate and drove off into the rain that thankfully was showing some signs of respite. We made a quick stop up the road at McDonalds, Jonathan really needed a coffee after our rush to get out of the house this morning and as we passed one he caved in to the need for caffeine.

Now we have driven extensively in Australia before but driving in Western Australia is completely different or should I say that it is different in two ways. The first reason it is different is that it’s cold, its winter and we could really feel it but the second more important note is the landscape is so so different.

ITS GREEN !

Yes, its green, as we left Perth and passed through the shrub and blackened trees that we had gotten used to seeing it all changed. In roughly two hours we were transferred into pastoral land, really vivid green abound everywhere we looked and it was also just so flat!

We had driven north out of Perth before to the same place we were heading when were here in 2015 in December for Joes graduation from the Police Academy but not on this road and it was so different.

Joe and Kate had told us to head for a place called GinGin. Now we were not going to argue, any place that has the word gin in it is good for us so we headed up the road, up this green avenue of trees and pasture land and meadows. Livestock was in every other field, we passed cattle and sheep and the odd emu, this really was nothing like we had seen before in Australia.

We made it to GinGin and being totally honest we really could not see what the fuss was about it. It was a typically Australian small town in the bush, only a handful of shops, an older church and lots of steel verandas on the buildings. Don’t get us wrong, it was pretty and had a charm but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary or something that we had not seen before so wanting to keep going we didn’t stop. We may have missed something, maybe we just needed to turn a corner and a whole magical town would reveal itself to us but we just didn’t see it and with a big drive still ahead of us we pulled out and carried on our way.

We travelled across the country until we hit the coastal road called Indian Ocean Drive and you can guess why. This is the road that we had travelled on before when we came here last year and we had travelled this very stretch.

The rain had stopped but the sky above us was looking decidingly grey as we left the Indian Ocean Road and headed into Lancelin for a lunch stop. It was all looking so familiar as we had again been here for lunch before when we travelled here with Jonathans sister Janee in December last year on our way to the pinnacles. Lancelin is famous in Australia for one thing, the sand dunes and all the shops offer sand boards to rent so you can dry surf them.

We parked along the seafront road in front of a toilet complex and an access point to the beach.

With supplies on-board we didn’t need to shop so Trev knocked us up some cheese and ham sandwiches with tomato and capsicum salsa courtesy of the Margaret River Shop in Perth. Jonathan went off and washed the dishes in the gents and then we headed off to the seaweed strewn beach.

The beaches along this stretch of coast are all made up of really white sand, Perth and indeed WA are all built on sand and although it is green the plants here have really adapted to their surroundings. You can drive along the road with fields that look like grassy meadow only to see a sand dune as their back drop, it really is quite peculiar.

Back in Lancelin the beach was awash with seaweed. Now bear in mind that it is winter here and it is probably not cleared but there was a real visible line of seaweed in the shallow wash of the waves and the beach as we said was more seaweed than sand.

We only stayed as long as it took to drive through the town (and a very sleepy town it is) and refuel (we had already used half a tank of petrol) and make lunch before we headed back to the Indian Ocean Road and our next stop was to be the Pinnacles.

Now unfortunately we did not make it to the Pinnacles today, the heavens had opened and they were to stay that way for the the rest of the day and night so with neither of us fancying getting soaked we headed to out first night stop just past the Pinnacles at Cervantes.

This was as north as we had ever been in WA and in fact again we had been here before. As soon as we pulled in we recognised the blue painted wooden shack set just off the beach at the entrance to the camp site. The last time we had stopped for coffee and cake, this time it was for a powered site.

We plugged in and started to sort out the van the best we could in the rain, we were hoping that it was going to let up and we would at least get to go for a walk around the beach area but that proved to be wishful thinking.

The rain lashed down on the roof of the van to the point that it was hard to hear anything else so we both ended up getting our iPad’s out and putting on our headphones and blocking out the noise for the remainder of the early evening and night.

The reality of having a very small van was hitting home, especially as Trev tried (and succeeded) in cooking dinner on our two gas rings. Tinned Stag Chilli is a bit of a van ritual for us as we used to look forward to it so much the last time we were in Oz in a camper and tonight it did not disappoint at all.

We stayed in the van listening to the rain falling all night. When it came time to make up the bed for the first time it really was like being a magician’s assistant in a box. Trying to get all the parts in the right place (the table top becomes part of the bedstead) and then getting all the bedding on when you have a square of space that’s about sixty centimetres square is really not that easy at all, especially for two quite big blokes but in the end we got there.

The saving grace in all the rain and the lack of space was that it was not cold, not in the slightest and that had been Jonathans biggest worry. We actually had the window open in the van despite the rain to try and bring the temperature down (also to allow the gas fumes to escape since we had been cooking).

We turned in for the night, lights off with the sound of the rain falling above us on the the metal roof. Being honest it kept Jonathan awake for hours and as per usual Trev just fell asleep, snoring in ignorant bliss. The rain would fall all night as we drifted in and out of sleep. The other positive was despite the construction of the bed it was actually quite comfortable and we were warm, two of lives essentials.

We had made it through the first day, hopefully we will get better at the van, making up the bed and making the best use of the space, either that or it will drive us mad!