Blog 1: Western Australia - Perth to Margaret River
Still can't quite believe this is real. We have had the 'which pronouns to use for the blog' discussion this morning, and settled on we/our/ours for joint posts like this one, and perhaps the singular if we blog separately. See if you can guess who is writing what.
Today is a bit of a rest-and-catch-up-and-escape-the-rain-in-a-cafe day here in Margaret river. Our goal will be to blog on Sundays, perhaps earlier or later if we are going somewhere away from the internet (which we hope to many times), so stay tuned! If you want more Ruth and Adam in your life, you can subscribe to our instagram by clicking the little purpley orangey instamatic camera icon at the bottom right of this page.
So where have we been since we made that ambitious map of roughly where to go, you ask in your head (or aloud, if you want people nearby to think you talk to your computer/device)?
By the magic of embedded maps!:
And here is a little statistical update from Adam the Spreadsheet Nerd:
Days on the Road = 5
Distance Travelled = 407 km
Mean Distance per Day = 81.4 km
Mean Fuel Economy = 13.30 L/100 km
Nights Free Camping = 0
Nights in Roof Tent = 4
Coffees Purchased = 2
Instagram Posts = 23
Instagram Followers = 77
Geocaches Logged = 1
Gary Breakdowns = 0
Drone Flights = 0
Videos Made = 0
So settle in with a tea, coffee or water and enjoy the story so far...
The plan to finish packing Gary the Land Rover completely so he was ready to go, then waking up and leaving town bright eyed and bush tailed didn't go exactly to plan... Wednesday the Thirteenth of December saw some hurried extra morning packing, Gary getting a reasonably thorough wash and some furniture rearrangement for foster-cat-dad Aden before we finally left the house at lunch time.
A detour to visit our favourite Perth vegan eatery The Pearfect Pantry for lunch, a drive by Hyde Park (where we got married, just a couple of weeks ago), a stop at the camera shop for some extra equipment and finally, after hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning, saving, setting up Gary, somehow making a wedding happen and crossing out hundreds of items on to-do lists, we were actually heading south on the Kwinana Freeway, departing on our Big Adventure.
The Wellington National Park is a special place. When the night becomes quiet and the mosquitos settle down, the orchestra of birds sing into the cool night air. Despite the frequent incursions of good-time youngsters with loud sound systems, louder vehicles and the occasional being-a-dick, the wildlife returns with the quiet. In our time camped at Stones Brook (just the other side of the river from Honeymoon Pool) we saw Red Tailed Cockatoos, Currawongs, Yabbies doing their thing in the crystal clear waters of the pool, a large goanna and countless butterflies, friendly spiders and even friendlier ants. A wallaby even came and nosed around under our roof tent on our second night there.
Bird species are identified thanks to Adam's copy of the Simpson and Day "Field Guide to the Birds of Australia" which bears the inside cover inscription "To Adam on your 10th Birthday, Love Grandad and Nana. 1996." A most useful book with excellent hand drawn illustrations.
While staying in the park we got to do our first Wedding Registry gift adventure. Aden (best man, comedian, tall and handsome single cat foster father) got us a subscription to Geocaching (Adam likes to say "gee-oh-cash-ay", after the etymological french root, rather than the more ubiquitous, and more American "gee-oh-caysh" ) a world-wide, GPS based treasure hunt. We hiked to the lookout above the pool for stunning vistas and our first geocache find. After the three-and-a-bit hour return hike we had a dip in the chilly but very clear and refreshing Honeymoon Pool before relaxing to soak up the clean air and sounds of the National Park.
Interlude: Lookout Hike Haiku.
Hanging leaf ahead
Must be home to a spider
Brush aside with stick
When the wind picked up the flowers and leaves of springtime would rain down from the trees around us in a beautiful and delicate shower. A truly magical place, best visited when there aren't many other campers around. We will be back again.
From Honeymoon Pool we journeyed to Bunbury to visit some family - Hayley and Mikey and their new son Will, who, at just eleven days old managed to make mum and dad miss our wedding. He is a charming young man however, and easily forgiven for his sense of timing! We spent a night at the Discovery Parks Koombana Bay.
Gary has been packed and repacked a few times now. We are slowly figuring out the practicalities of what needs to be most accessible, what we really need and what we don't. A stop at BCF and Bunnings for some bits and pieces meant some on-the-road projects got added to the list. We will do a post sometime soon showing the touring setup for Gary in detail.
We got to enjoy a morning tea with delicious home-made vegan treats and the Morrison-Piper-Batman clan before heading south again, this time towards the world famous Margaret River. We seem to have arrived here at the same time as the rain, but it is actually a blessing to be encouraged to slow down, catch up on the boring administrative stuff, like entertaining all of you ;) and remember that as well as an adventure, this is a holiday!
Plenty of other stuff is happening in-between, so stay tuned, follow, like, upvote, repost and RSS. Whatever your digital poison. We will post again soon.
All our love,
Ruth and Adam
foragingforvegantreats
