PSA – Feel free to ignore my travel posts. They are as much for my own benefit and memory and for anyone else who may be planning a similar trip.
I’m a fan of free camping. Not so much for the money saved as for the experience of pulling up in the middle of nowhere and simply stopping there. I’m less excited about crowded caravan parks where lights beam thru your window at night and other campers wake at sparrow’s fart to go fishing and leave their car idling outside your van while they pack their gear. ‘Grumpy Andrew’ shows up much more at these places, while happy Andrew loves the remoteness and aloneness that so often is found at the free camps.
So far we have stopped at:
Karalee Rocks – a pretty cool camping space well off the main road just out of Coolgardie. There was a dam for swimming and a rock for climbing- if you could tolerate the harassment by flies!
Caiguna Blowholes – we didn’t get to see the blowholes, but we did enjoy another perfect spot tucked away from the crowds and just 10km out of Caiguna itself, (not that there is anything in Caiguna.)
Great Australian Bight – Scenic Lookout No 4 – as titled by WikiCamps. Just 13kms past the border and we parked up overlooking the beach part of the Bight. It looks like you could walk to the beach as it’s only 1km (as the drone flies), but the fly plague is the worst we have seen right here and the temp is in the high 30’s so we will enjoy a quiet arvo of reading and writing instead.
Coorabie – a fourth generation Aussie farm about 60kms west of Penong. Friendly owners and good value for money, but with it being the Easter weekend there were around 30 small children running around, so the peace of the previous few nights felt like a distant memory. We did some exploring around here and found some beautiful beaches, but decided that one night was enough. we definitely weren’t in a kid friendly mood ourselves yet!
Ceduna – We had run of water after 5 nights of free camping so this was a stop to fill up, do some washing and get the ship back in order. There were a few running repairs needed as well as some shopping to be done. How do we choose caravan parks these days? Generally – look for the one least likely to be busy and go there. The airport caravan park was all but deserted while the ones in town were back to back. We will take the space over the bouncy pillow every time!
Perlubie Beach – So far it’s been one night stops as our goal has been to get to the Eyre Peninsula and sniff around here for a while. This place rated pretty well on Wiki-camps and certainly looked the goods, so we pulled in and found ourselves a spot on the beach where we will hang for a few days now. We managed to slide in as a lot of the Easter weekend trafiic went home. That said there are still plenty of people here. Its a calm beach, great for kids, but I’m yet to get the surfboard wet.
Its been good to chill, but a challenge to simply relax as there is an inner urge to always ‘go do something’. Sometimes the thing you need to do is stop. It can be hard. I felt that today, but then I did also have a two hour nap this afternoon so maybe I am doing better than I think.
On the road its Spotify (I like their ‘road anthems’ collection) and podcasts – Scot McKnight is always good, Pete Enns is interesting and Rob Bell is nice in small doses. We really enjoyed hearing McKnight interview Kirsten Kobes Du Mez, the author of Jesus and John Wayne. I read the book a little while back and found it really insightful as to how American evangelicalism (and other nations) has been co-opted by a political agenda and a particular image of ‘rugged masculinity’. I’d say the influence has well and truly reached us too, although our church is less driven by politics.
David Fitch made this comment on FB:
“I’ve seen a lot of people leave their church because it doesn’t match their political party. I’ve rarely seen anyone leave their political party because it doesn’t match their church.”
I don’t see this as much in Australian evangelicalism, or maybe its just the churches I am connected with. There is no doubt it is definitely there, with the ACL and the like.
In other news the car/caravan combo is working well. The car got pretty hot as we towed 3 tonnes at 95kph in 40 degree heat across the nullabor. We ended up slowing a little to ensure there were no unforeseen incidents, but all seems to be good. The Colorado tows easily and the van sits on the road nicely.
The van is great to live in, but its downside is probably its construction and suitability for rougher roads. It is definitely a ‘tourer’ – and built to be used on roads rather than tracks. There have been a few things rattle loose as we have taken a few dirt roads, but in the end it isn’t anything I can’t fix so we will keep looking for the ‘road less travelled’ as it really does seem to make all the difference!
Anyway these types of posts are more rambling thoughts than anything deep, so until next time 🙂