Jo scared the crap out of me, She was meant to be at work but had decided to come home early and when I came in from doing some shopping she was standing in the kitchen scared the bejeebus out of me.

So then timeline was bought forward it was full steam ahead to finish packing our little bus, we chose to go down to her brothers so he could see the bus and then leave from there for the bush also mainly because fuel watch said it was really cheap diesel on Pinjarra Road.

The first round about the fridge door opened and all the frozen food and stuff slid happily onto the floor! “Oh crap mustn’t have closed it properly…” so pulled over put everything back in, only to have it happen again on the next right hand corner “OK something’s wrong..” wedged a lump of paper in the door when we noticed it had dropped enough so the catch wouldn’t work full “that will do for now”

After leaving her Brothers (who loved the van), we headed down Pinjarra road to fuel up, finding the united we lined up with a few others to take advantage of the cheap price, once we figured out how to access the cap and fill her up we set off, aiming for a camp a couple of hundred km’s away, well let’s just say we changed our minds, intending to go through Pinjarra and then up via Dwellingup, we got as far as the pub, well not just the pub but fractionally past it to the free RV stay, just down from the pub, 50m in fact. The RV site is located at the railway station, and as we both like trains it cemented us staying there the night.

So having never had an RV to stay in one of these free RV places we took advantage and parked along with a few other freeloaders…. I mean fellow budget conscious travellers,

After looking in the van for 5 minutes and deciding “yep so what else we need to do?… Oh nothing we walked up to the pub for a beer, then deciding the pub menu was decidedly uninspiring ordered two pizzas from in town walked 400m  in to collect them, walked 400m back to the van and ate them, and the garlic bread and the meatballs then lay around going “ohhhh I ate too much”

Making the bed up we crashed for the night but were up early again having slept solidly and enjoying the sound of the trains passing through. So where to from here?

This is what we hoped for and love about the little bus, the idea that we don’t have to book in, we don’t need to know if we can pitch on a site, just the fact that when we have to stop we can just stop and all we need is space for the four wheels that little bus sits on.

So we decide that to solve our “fridge door opening every time we go round a corner” problem we need a wedge, or a bracket or something to keep the door lifted up and the catch engaged until a more permanent solution could be found, Where to get one, the Mitre 10 is closed so hey lets head down to Bunbury, they have a Bunning’s and also a mother… Helen hasn’t seen the little bus yet so we hop in and toddle off, back roads are our thing so it took us a while but we rolled up at said mother in laws and later, after a coffee and a van tour (who scared herself with the  mirror door) we cut a rubber (eraser) in half to form two wedges. and shoving one under the door we left, so again where to? Hey haven’t been up through Darkan for a long time so off we go to Collie.

How is the little bus going to go up the steep Roelands hill? As it turns out with ease, cruise control set at 100 and she didn’t drop below 98, awesome, how we love our little bus.

Collie is Collie and when all said and done is trying hard to reinvent itself, found a nice little shop that sold all sorts of stuff, including some foam gliders from when I was about 10, cool and for $1 each bought two. Something to play with later.

Changing drivers Jo drove us out of Collie and on to Darkan, stopping for a break and a gander at the park and old siding station and to play with the gliders, yep still the same after 45 years, after that on to Wagin, and via Dumbleyung to Lake Grace, turning left we finally arrived where we were heading for the night before, the ‘Jam Patch’.

Now a Jam tree is an acacia tree that grows in vast regions of Western Australia, used for fenceposts and other stuff like keeping you warm at night, the Jam Patch is a uniquely special place to camp, several walks in the area, we did the one that took in the salt lake, and a very scenic “coastline”, we shared the site with a few others Enjoying a Jam fire, we were asleep by 7:30 and awake at first light. The Jam Patch is a great place for birdlife, regents Parrots, 29’s, Pink and Grays, Coorong, Maggies etc.

Next morning we headed north, stopped at Pingaring, a very small hamlet (say population Less than 50) for breakfast, a sad little place in a way so small it didn’t even get electricity until after 2000.

After breakfast and a look at the overgrown footy oval, we continued north to Merriden, then after a walk through and a purchase of highly essential supplies from the local BWS we continued out to Eaglestone Rock. Previously we had stayed there and had the place to ourselves but not this time, seems the presence of a few pretty flowers brings those budget conscious travelers out in droves. So sharing the campground with a dozen white boxes and a few more dozen flies/midges we walked up to watch the sun go down, partook of said essential BWS supplies and then crashed, slept soundly in the little bus that was now a little dusty bus and again up at first light. Warm as it was when we got there, the night was cool, the morning even cooler.

Next day heading west we stopped at our first town Nungarin, essentially the history of this town surrounds an army ordnance base that was established there in WW2, see the other post on the museum. Nungarin possesses a back alley passing the AWAS WSW2 hut and at the end of this alley is a ditch, so slowly ever so slowly we creep the little dusty bus down the ditch until we hear the grinding noise from the left side, our step versus gravel for the first time, OK reverse but not that easy with the automated manual gearbox, the lull means you roll a bit, more scraping, tried a different angle but even though there was no scraping on the step but wait there is a tap on the other side… bugger nearly took that out. So back up and reverse all the way back down the Alley, luckily little dusty buss is easy to reverse and we make it out alright No damage from our little test of the clearance, definitely something we need to keep in mind.

So we find the museum, Jo opting to read a book while I explored the place for an hour, one of the best museums I have ever been in, not just that it took me back to my childhood but that they let you climb over, on and into the exhibits taking a more hands on approach. Not only heritage farm and military stuff from ww2 but also, dolls, household items, a shop, 1940’s kitchen appliances and a local telephone exchange from some small hiccup.

Then carry on west, lunch in Wyalkatchem, a brief stop into Minnivale, a free RV stop that really is an old tennis court with a tin shed, not that inspiring, so found something called Oak Park 16km from Dowerin and headed for there.

Arriving we were surprised to be one of only two campers, but that changed quickly when another couple of cars rolled up, Maybe it was the lack of little pretty flowers or the gravel road to get in there. Oak Park is an old settlement where there was a hall and a cricket club on the banks of a shallow creek leading from a salt lake, plenty of room, long drop and picnic tables. We enjoyed a fire and a wine or too when a German couple turned up asking if we had seen a crystal sculpture… A what?, apparently they were staying at Goomalling and had a sculpture trail map and there was meant to be one out on one of the roads, They couldn’t find it and thought we might have, we chatted for a bit then we went back into the van when the 747 mossies turned up and before they carried us away or ate us alive.

Again a comfortable night possibly a bit cool and next morning a walk along the watercourse up to the lake and back in a circuit taking in some Gnamma Holes. We went for a drive up the road but couldn’t find anything resembling a crystal serpent sculpture so then headed off to Goomalling, and Toodyay, Toodyay as ever was full of tourists with the Christmas shop being the untold favourite, always worth a wander around, stopped for lunch deciding what to do but ended up deciding to head for home taking on the challenge of avoiding major roads and highways, so via Mundaring weir and the back roads across to Brookton Highway where we came unstuck in the challenge by an event causing us to detour down the highway… oh well.

Then home and empty out the Bus ready to spend the next day preparing it for our next adventure.

So now it’s full of water empty of black and grey stuff, empty of food, and ready to be fueled up and for the next trip