17 – 31 March 2023

Well, after a lot of preparation and tweaking to the caravan we are finally on the road. We have a rough idea of where we are headed for the first month or so but after that, we will see were the road takes us. We made use of our slow drive northward to catch up with some family and a few old school friends. Lyn & Rowan looked after us on our first night, then we met up with another family member in Perth before catching up with old school friends Jodie and Kylie and Glen and Kelly over the next couple of days. Matt & Sarah who live just north of Perth, gave us a place to stay for a couple of nights. Even Zoe came up to see us for a few hours. After enjoying a couple of days and more than a few beers including a visit to Moore River for a swim, we said good bye to Matt & Sarah and headed to Lancelin for the night.

We thought we’d try Lancelin pub’s Tuesday night Chase the Ace. Despite trying our best to get as many tickets as possible, we didn’t get drawn out. The jackpot didn’t go off, so will be $5,800 next week. The view of sunset and the cray boats in the bay from the pub was pretty spectacular. We stayed at a free camp about 15 minutes out of Lancelin which was surprisingly quiet and busy.

We then moved on to Cervantes, a whole 85Km up the road. There’s no free camps in Cervantes, so we stayed in the caravan park for the night. Once again, we thought we’d try the Cervantes tavern’s Chase the Ace who’s jackpot was sitting at a mere $13,000! What would we do with that I wonder? We met a lovely couple who were on holiday’s from Wimbeldon and were visiting friends and family in WA and VIC. We were chatting to them about how chase the ace works and we all got as many tickets as possible. Low and behold our ticket was drawn out. I’m sure the locals were a bit annoyed that it wasn’t one of them. Well we choose a card but we didn’t win. Oh well, the locals will have another chance soon enough.

After our night in Cervantes, we moved on to Sandy Cape, just north of Jurien Bay. We have never stayed in this camp before so were looking forward to being on the beach and enjoying being off grid again. This place certainly didn’t disappoint. The site we had was shady, quiet and right next to one of the many beach accesses. At only $20 a night and a max of 4 nights, it is very popular. You can 4wd on the beach which is only a couple of kilometers long, but nice all the same. We tried some beach fishing and cought a couple of flathead & a squid over the first few days. After that though the wind picked up and the fishing was pretty poor. We decided to take advantage of the windy days and went walking to the local lookout. The views over the bay were amazing. The colours of the water and rocks did not disappoint.

After our relaxing 4 days at Sandy Cape, we moved on to Dongara for a night. The wind was really strong so our original plan to stay at a free camp on the coast changed. Dongara has a cheap 24 hour rest stop for travellers, which is very much appreciated. We thanked the town for this stop over by visiting the pub for a meal and a few drinks. The next morning we headed to Geraldton to restock on fuel, food, water and a couple of other bits and bobs. With the weather not being the best, we decided to find somewhere to stay that was not right on the coast. We found out that there is a motel that has space for a caravan or two. The Rhodside Lodge is run by a lovely couple, Alison and Guy Lodge. They have only recently bought the motel and are loving their new Geraldton life. We managed to fill up the car, cupboards and even took advantage of our time and saw a movie (John Wick 4). Alison was in need of some help with changing a lock in the motel which Pete helped with. For that, we were allowed to stay for free. Now that our tine in Geraldton is over we are we moving on to Lucky Bay between Port Gregory and Kalbarri. We’ve been going to Lucky Bay for many years to camp on the beach, so for now, it’s off further north to the beach and we can’t wait.