Busselton and Margaret River (April 2015)

One box of schoolwork we have, the other will get redirected to Bunbury, surely that should work. We continue are trip towards Busselton. The last days of Woolworths domino action are expired, so for the last change we visit both supermarkets there and get a few last ones. There is also another jetty for us to walk, this time with some fishing equipment and a packed breakfast picnic. What is it about jetties that make them so much fun to walk? This particular jetty is very well kept, and sure enough is attracting many tourists, judged by the full little mini train that rides up and down. Of course we walked the whole thing and unfortunately did not catch anything worth taking home.

We also visited a caravan shop hoping to find some doorknobs for the bus’ interior but no luck.

Now that Jolmer is not working in Manjimup we have some time on our hands, anticipating the arrival of Jolmer’s parents end of April. We decide to take up residence at a sheep farm just outside Margaret River for about two weeks. It is truly unfortunate we both don’t appreciate wine. We can tell for those who do, this would be an amazing region to enjoy. Lucky for us, with wine growers come the gourmet style food produces –and by that I mean nice, well grown fresh produce- and so we have a really good time at the weekly farmers market. Also the local Aquatic centre offers a great opportunity to swim some more with Tim. The public library accommodates my need to work on getting my research published and the campsite is lovely too.

Better still: the surf-world-tour-championship is on. How much we love Australia: all of this is very well set up. All you have to do is rock up. There is parking; there is grass to sit on; watching the surf and keeping an eye on the big screen. We have never seen real people go out on real waves that high. Also we had no idea two surfers compete against each other in heats. Now it is no longer just about who does was, but strategy and tactics come into play. We enjoyed it so much, we went twice, once to watch the men in action and again to see the women. Very cool crowd.

Other things we do include getting the children to climb at an indoor climbing wall –lots of fun- and visiting Lake Cave –very beautiful little cave.

On one of our daytrips we go to Hamelin bay and during a quick scout we spot a school of salmon close to the shore. We all rush back to the car and get snorkel gear and the spear gun. Once in the water it takes about 5 minutes for Laura and me (Jolmer) to find the salmon again. With a well-aimed shot we claim a 76cm specimen. What a magnificent fish and what a magnificent meal as fish and chips! Christel and Laura are experts in making beer batter for the fish. Find the recipe on the Bus-Tucker site.

At the campsite we find some time to wash the whole bus and trailer and wax/buff/shine the bus as well. Couple of hours later he looks just as good as when we first picked him up in Alice Springs. On the way back from where we wash the bus to where we were camping we get stuck in the soppy grass of the hilly paddock. Oh dear. And the lady had said we could stay there only if we weren’t going to make deep tracks with the bus. We end up hooking up the trailer to someone’s 4WD while Jolmer skirts the bus uphill into it’s spot.

The inside also gets a good cleanup. Ready to meet my parents from The Netherlands. We’re heading for Perth.

No mail today. Manjimup (April 2015)

Jolmer was set out to do some locum work in Manjimup. On our way there we paid a short visit to Mount Franklin National Park: a short stroll to a nice lookout platform.  More Karris to be seen. From the information display there is also another 600 meter walkway to the summit. How hard can it be? It didn’t say however that the route would take us a couple hundred meters up, although I feel I should have been able to figure it out.

Never nice to get confronted with your own lack of fitness while the children are chatting and joking away as if this climb is like walking on any flat surface. How do they do that?

At the top is a fire watch and weather station. The low hanging clouds formed a spectacular vista. Worth the climb, worth a sweaty shirt underneath my rain coat and worth a little extra deodorant. Who cares?

The work in Manjimup that was in the pipeline eventually never came through. Unfortunately we asked the school of distant education to send the work for next term to Manjimup and when we arrived there the mail had not.

It started to rain and we needed to hang around a couple of days until after the weekend.

Greenbushes is where we set up camp: it’s a free site in the midst of the towns sport facilities. We parked right next to the tennis courts because we figure there is the least amount of mud at the time we need to drive out again.

Good thing we brought tennis rackets. Between showers the children got out on the court and had a lot of fun.

On Monday still no mail.  We cannot contact the school for a tracking number because of the school holidays. Jolmer is also awaiting the arrival of a surfboard. Apparently you cannot ask the post office to hold anything that is larger than a certain standard size, so we’re redirecting the surfboard. But the schoolwork has to get collected once it arrives. We give it one more day. 

Tuesday I drive the children in the bus to Donnybrook and Jolmer drives to Manjimup: one of the two boxes arrived. By now we are almost on a first-name basis with the staff at the Manjimup post office and the team from the help desk phone line. Because we have no tracking number we have no idea where the second box is. Most likely it will arrive later.

Donnybrook in the meantime is a fantastic place, known for a lot of apple growers producing delicious fruits, and, more importantly, Australia’s largest public playground. Ignoring the rain, promising the children hot chocolate should they get soaking wet, we enter the fun park, amazed by the variety of equipment. The Flying Fox in Kerang is still the number one Flying Fox so far, but the rest of the play area is just a lot of fun, and indeed the best playground in Australia. I am being challenged to play tag in the giant web, no worries there. Then I’m challenged to go on the purple slide, which proves much more tricky. It doesn’t have a normal set of stairs to take you to the top of the slide, but a narrow winding tube. As I am trying hard not to get stuck I can hear Peter at the top talk to a newfound friend: “I am waiting for my mum, she is very big”. Not helping.

Peaceful Bay and a birthday (April 2015)

We have arrived in Peaceful Bay. They know how to name their beaches in Western Australia; that is for sure. Jolmer is turning 40.

He starts off his birthday with a snorkel, accompanied by Laura, Jaap and Tim.

The usual singing, presents and decorations follow, and we continue our travels towards Walpole. 

From here we can take the car to the Karri and Tingle forest in the Valley of the Giants. We are going to do the very well advertised tree top walk. The weather is cloudy, rain is predicted for later today and tomorrow, and for a couple of days to come.

That doesn’t stop us enjoying the tree top walk: we have a good view and marvel over the sheer size of these trees.  Now apparently the Karri’s have the better root system of the two and have really sturdy wood. The Tingles, apart from being pretty have little use. Their roots go about one meter deep, therefore the base of the tree is wide for more balance and support. These trees however due to fungus and parasites and other processes become hollow on the inside. Not a lot of wood to harvest. We think that explains why they weren’t all cut down in the previous century. Very characterful trees.

Because it is a special day I suggest the children go abseiling from a 10meter platform. Jaap and Peter are keen and get suited up, Tim is VERY keen and will also do this thing! Laura claims she does not like heights –at all- and says she won’t go. Of course, as we thought she would- she changes her mind after she sees her brothers have fun. She tells the man to do all the things normally and not listen to anything silly she might say in the heat of the moment, but when the time comes, she is focused and determined and doing very well.

They all get a second turn, and we can tell they feel very brave and unstoppable now. The boys start walking in some type of tough-looking walk, with their harnesses and helmets. Great fun and a really nice company. Also recommended.

The planned birthday cake with apples is not such a success as I hoped. I should have followed a recipe. The dough had way too much butter –which is nice if you want to snack on uncooked dough (my favorite part of baking apple pies) –and the pattern over the top melts instead of bakes. Taste is good though.

Jolmer and I argue about the moist absorbing agent best to use. I always thought Dutch dry rusks –beschuit- but Jolmer insists his mother always uses custard powder. I am sure there will be a rematch not very far away. Better keep an eye on the ‘Bus-tucker’ blog!

Albany 2 (April 2015)

Returning to Albany feels like coming home. Funny that.

On the parking lot of the Memorial Hill there are interestingly no signs that you cannot occupy a vehicle over night. That helps because we want to visit the museum as well as the monument at the top of the hill.

The museum is very well set up; at the entrance you receive a card with a real person’s name on it, with a bar code. Throughout the exposition you can scan your card for more details about that soldier/officer/nurse. Not all people on the cards survive the war, some return home and die prematurely. My nurse actually was in her 90’s when she passed on. At the end of the route you can leave a message to your person. Children write the darnest things.

We learn about the characters of the ANZAC troops like John KirkPatrick with his donkey –he died- and we learn about the statistics, the casualties, the staggering numbers of lives lost on both sides. We learn about the significance of the symbols. Coming from Europe a lot of this is new to us. We try to understand what it must have been like fighting from the trenches. Why did they do that?

Jolmer and I are affected by the museum and tears are rolling down our cheeks. Such a gruel war.

The children have to write letters –as part of their schoolwork- as if they are at the fighting front, and as if they were still in Australia. They have to make a care package and we bake ANZAC biscuits, of course. This is something we had actually done a couple of times since arriving here in 2006.

The Kids wrote a recipe and background down for Anzac Biscuits. Well worth the read and give it a try if you like. Click here for the link.

The next morning we visit the monument at the top of the hill. A little Bandicoot roams around. What a view over the bay. We can almost picture all the boats in the harbour getting ready for departure. It must have been an impressive sight. There is a lone pine tree as well, grown from one of the seeds from one of the very few pinecones taken from Lone Pine Beach. It all has more meaning now.

We’re glad we went back. Whenever you are in Albany: Memorial hill is well worth a stop.