Southern Forrests

Well I always knew travelling with kids wasn't going to be easy. Although I have loved Pemberton, it has not been easy.
Getting there was my first hurdle. The assistant navigator, newly reinstated but in a smaller and less important role (putting the address in Gary the Garmin), didn't look up the actual address of the only caravan park in town. Having no phone service til we passed the Pemberton sign means head down quickly googling then driver says, 'There's a caravan park sign". Ummmm yep. One caravan park in town.  That'd be it. Quick, find an alternate route.... according to apple maps, up here turn left and then left. But is it that dirt road? No, apple maps doesn't show gravel so we kept going and this road started going up.... no where to turn around. Up, up and up. Dragging our 4 x 2 house up Mount Everest. When Dean changes down to 1st gear my anxiety hits the roof. Choice words get flung around and then finally a place to turn around we are back on track.
Pemberton Pool, visitors centre, skate park, BMX and a quick mountain bike I'm thankful today's done.
The next day poor Huddy is sick, headaches vomitting and sleeping most of the day.
We push on. Only one day in Pemberton so we have to get going.

This beautiful picture of Big Brook Dam tells a thousand words. Lovely, tranquil, peaceful.... Nope. We try and push Hudson in the stroller but Juddy, ole jealousy, screamed and screamed. We walked to the beach entry where 2 back packers were ready to take a dip. Their nice peaceful swim interupted with screaming 2 year old trying to fight his way into the pram, Hudson whinging cause he was sick and didn't want to walk. Get me outta here. Poor Dean, just a little disappointed. Time to move on.

 Beedelup Falls sees Huddy a little more sprightly. Although he had to walk to stop Judd from crying. Dean still had to carry him anyway so I'm pushing the empty pram thinking I wanna sleep and have someone push me. The family run happily accross the suspension bridge leaving me on one side. I must show the boys I can do this, I can walk along this swaying tiny bridge. Not happy Jan. There is footage.
 It shall never surface.

 Lunch at Karri Valley Resort was beautiful. And relatively pain free.
Timber gallery, yummy choc avocado cheesecake and we are back to camp.
We decide to treat ourselves to a night out so I feed and bath the kids early. (Yep, moneys tight)
Happily doing the dishes whilst Juddys in his bucket bath and I hear, "It's touching me!" What's touching you? What? Shit! Oh shit. HELP!!!! Yep, call for help. Call the authorities, we have a chikito in the pool situation.
Reheated chicken parma for dinner, mainly because my brain was fryed so I just ordered 2 and my day was done. Brain fryed.
Oh and I forgot. I walked into the tow ball and put my back out.
Are we having fun yet?

Onwards to Walpole, with a quick drive by in Northcliffe. Quick, put on John Butler beacuse he has a song that mentions Northcliffe. 75kms and 3 John Butler songs later we are in Walpole. It was a struggle. Driving through the Great Tree Drive, trees, trees, so many trees.... {lets out a little snore} I'm awake. Where are we? Did I miss it?
Sadly, we sit in the caravan carpark at the visitors centre waiting.... waiting for pay to go in.
We give up waiting and thankfully the caravan park owner lets us move in without paying.

Weather has changed. Coalmine Beach is beautiful.
Rain, hail or rain, we were off to the Tree Top Walk.  My hands are sweating thinking about how windy is it? Do they shut it down if its too windy? How high is it?  Surely it's secure and wont sway to much.
It sways alot. Just 4 pillons holding up the metal suspension bridges. It rained. I tried my best to take photos whilst pushing an empty pram.
Be brave, be brave.... Lets just say, it was windy and raining and Judd and I were not happy. But we did it. And it was worth it.
Dean wanted to do it again minus screaming kids so I spent 15 minutes embarrassingly standing outside the mens toilet with Judd waiting for him to come back.

Anciet Empire Walk through the Tingle Trees. Giant Tingle Tree, Circular Pool. 

Coalmine Beach would have been awesome had we had good weather and it seems the warmer weather is on its way so we push on to Demark.

Margaret River and Beyond.

We are back at it after a short pause and with a few delays we have arrived at Taunton Farm in Metricup.

Now this is more like it. Love farm life. Beautifully relaxing. Animal feeding at 5pm was a real hit. Cows, goats, a very sad donkey, two giant pigs and sometimes a sheep. All very polite except for Bullet, a 100kg black pig who likes fingers.

Taunton Farm is most conveniently located between The MR Dairy Co. and 3 Oceans winery.

Off to collect cheese with our new best purchase.

Amaze n Margaret River was the second stop of the day after Koffee at Yahava and a few choccy samples next door at Temper Temper. Hudson is super keen to lead the family through the huge hedge maze which was planted over 20 years ago. Thats some forsight. Round and round, go left, dead end, we finally make it to the middle viewing platform. This is no help. The man at the beginning said 15 minutes if you were travelling well. Lets just say we are not travelling well. We hear another groups elation at finding the exit. Makes the group a little disheartened. Huds wants to push on alone. Mum stresses out. It's a bit hot. Finally we are out. 

Didn't really stand a chance.

Quick trip through Margs, down to watch the kitesurfers at main beach and river mouth.

Dinner with our genetically blessed neighbours. Danish man meets sweedish girl whilst ski instructing in France. Have two cute kids Constance and Edward and take a holiday is the Souwest to escape the fog in Singapore. By the way, those Maui/Kea vans that you see everywhere are $320 a day! A day!!!! Must be money is sales.

Moving day. Off to Augusta.

Flinders Bay. So pretty. In love with Augusta already although I hate caravan parks that charge a bomb for kids but have no facilities for them. I don't mind $11 a night per kid but not even a playground. 

Straight to the main tourist attraction Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse and where two seas meet. We try to enjoy the self guided walking tour but one child who needs to push around too fast and the other who is hogging the speaker means I may have missed a few stations. Gorgeous view. 

Off to the second main attraction Jewel Cave. Unfortunately there had been a fire in the new cafe/discovery centre a few weeks earlier so we wait under a marquee getting bitten by march flies. Jewel Cave is worth a visit. The tour is amazing, fully guided and very informative. The walkways head down 40 metres into the cave, through low points and spectacular natural wonders. Hudson absolutely loved it. Juddy did not love it when they turned all the lights out.  Sorry other group members. What goes down must come up and sadly Judd only wanted Daddy to carry him. Up 400 stairs. 

 Morning rides. Yes, Juddy is asleep.

 Fishing the Blackwood River.

 Hudsons first whiting.

 Funny little thing.

More fishing, swimming and riding. 

One last fish on moving day sees us drain the auxillary battery and no fish. The 2 1/2 hours spent chasing the kids around was not well spent and I was not happy.

Caravan lesson 132 learnt and onwards to Pemberton.

Mandalay-The happiest place on earth.

Before we get started, this post will not include any mention of Bunnings.

Not that Busselton has a Bunnings, not that we may have visited Bunnings, nothing, nada, zilch, done.

Mandalay certainly gives off a fabulous first impression. Beautifully manicured gardens, 3 pools, rainbow slide and the tallest bouncy pillow ever. We are escorted to our site by golf cart and our friendly host eliminates reversing wars by assisting with caravan alignment. Ahhh perfect.
The bare minimum of assistance is given before the nagging drives us insane and we are off to the pool. 3 pools all to ourselves. Up the stairs, down the slide, repeat 400 times. Yep, this is the happiest place on earth.

Morning beach run includes an impromptu swim, keeping my eye out for sharks and stingers. When we were kids my Nan would send us off to the beach glistening with baby oil. Bring back the eighties. We would come back 6 hours later bronzed beauties but still stung everywhere. We would then be drenched in vinegar which stings more than the stinger and she'd always joke about no vingear left for fish and chips tonight. This may be why I don't like vingear on my chips.
Train obsessed 2 year old loses his mind as we arrive at the jetty ready to ride the 1.9kms there and back. Unfortunately they were sold out and we had to wait an hour. What else is there to do but coffee at Goose. $27 later, its the most extravagant coffee I've ever ordered. Maybe we are paying for the view. How things have changed... My sister and I would walk the 4kms to the Jetty with a $2 note in hand and spend all day at the Nautical Lady. Trampolines, motorboats, karts. No more Nautical Lady and the most cash I've spent there ever.
Unfortunately the weather rolled in but it didn't dampen Juddys enthusiasm.

Back to enjoy our caravan park facilities. Straight back, no detour, definitely not stopping at the store that shall not be named.
Our quiet, lonely little stay at Mandalay started to be invaded about 2pm. We went from having the pools to ourselves to 100 screaming kids running around the pool and 200 beer and wine drinking parents catching up on the last term of school. Year 6 parent organised camp moved in next door and across the road and everywhere.
We decided to escape the madness and head to the local Arg show. Alot less quiet than our caravan park.

Zorb balls, tea cups, individually lit fireworks and a bertie beetle bag. Life is complete. By the way, when did they become $6! $6!
After a very rowdy night and not alot of sleep, Dunsbough is calling. Tradional bakery, town beach and fun with the wildlife.

We saved the starfish.

Halloween caravan style was a hit. So many kids running around. Minion got a few extra choccies, the cuteness factor getting to the grey nomads.

Zorb ball action at the Farmers Market. Notable mention goes to Vibelicious for my frozen acai bowl.

Old Firestation bar. Yep, we had to go there.

Superman.

Quick visit to Simmos. Judd was asleep in the car. Asleep walking in. Asleep during the 15 mins of perusing the flavours and asleep during the 10min wait to be served. Hence I only bought 3.... The second I walk out with the icecream he's awake and claims my burnt caramel with salted caramel swirl.  😦

Simmos has a few friendly wildlide including my friend the Emu. Of all birds, I dislike the Emu the most. There's alot of 'Get away from the fence' 'You're too close' and I may have let out a scream when Dean tried to feed it icecream and it's head and neck came darting through the fence. They laughed. I almost cried.  It stalked me all the way down to the camel. Or maybe he was following the icecream. Either way I showed why I'd be Australias next walking champion.

Meelup beach. My favourite.

Bunbury

Bunbury has changed so much for me over the years. When I was a kid visiting my Grandma it was an old country town. The highlight of eating out was River Rooster and entertainment was swimming in Grandmas pool. Now its a hipsters paradise. Cool cafes on every corner. Long Mac topped up with almond milk over here, thanks.

The boys swam, bounced, rode, scootered, played and kicked the footy all in the first hour of arriving.  And with that, big boy was off the Bunnings to return items strapped to the roof purchased from Waroona Hardware that may not have been big enough. How does thay saying go, measure twice...Luckily he is an upgraded, gold class, spent a fortune, life member at Bunnings so no questions asked.
Our lovely well appointed new park has us parked 20 metres from Koombana Bay, a gorgeous beach, flat as a tack and a playground for dolphins. We are also parked 10 metres from the busiest road in Bunbury.

The boys and I headed to the Dolphin Discovery Centre while Dean headed into his second favourite store, BCF to spend his $10 voucher without spending $80 to go with it.
Unfortunately no dolphin sightings today but the boys loved the aquariums, including the octopus feeding and Judd was especially fond of Jackson (Port Jackson Shark) for obvious reasons.
Climbed the lookout, visited my dear Nana and more caravan park action to be had. The lookout was not a highlight for some, Hudson only made it half way up and shuffled down on his bum. He may be scared of heights.

After an interesting sleep, did I mention we are parked 10 metres away from the busiest street in Bunbury we had some shopping fixes, which involved me sitting in the car with sleeping beauty. Caravan shop, Bunnings, BCF, Supercheap, Jaycar. Least someone was happy. Fancy coffees, beach walks, may have tormented Hudson with the lookout again,  then jetty baths.

Hudson taught his new friend Niall, who is all the way from Scotland all about footy, well the aussie version. Unfortunately he left for Perth after 2 days of best friends leaving with his oval shaped gift under his arm. See ya Niall.
I scooted home for a day/night of peaceful sleep to see Shadae graduate. From all accounts, the guest blogger did not contribute much, nothing much happened except Dad solving my screaming shower dilema. 2 weeks!!! 2 weeks of constant screaming about the shower, and yes, he does shower at home, fixed. Daddy saves the day.

 Let it be noted though that Daddy has been awol during all nighttime nightmares before mum left.

We visited Jetty Baths again fantasing that we were kid free sitting in the Vat sipping on pints overlooking the bay..... Instead Dean was forced against his will to continuously go down a tube slide with Judd and Hudson was whinging about something I'm  sure.

Anyway, lovely lunch at one of those hippie cafes(you can sip your long mac on a swing), Halloween costumes soughted, 57th visit yo Bunnings just incase we don't ever see one again and we were off to quieter more serene resort (Australias most expensive caravan park).
But not before a Firestation visit.