Author: lynnie57

Setting off (almost) on our own

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It was time to leave Kalbarri and family behind and head off on our own – well almost. Some friends suggested we call in and park our van in their driveway at Useless Loop in Shark Bay. We have never been there and thought it was a lovely way to start our holiday. Besides, Useless Loop is fairly remote and we thought they probably didn’t have many visitors. We decided to pop up to visit and stay two nights. Great plan!

Useless Loop is located in Shark Bay, opposite the town of Denham and Monkey Mia. It is a closed company town with 70 employees and their families servicing the Solar Salt Operation. John and I had to be sponsored and meet certain requirements to be able to enter the town.

View of the salt ponds from Useless Loop pub at dusk

Kim and Bec warned us that the road to Useless Loop was not in the best condition. Boy were they right! We filled up with fuel at Overlander Roadhouse and set off towards Denham with me in the driver’s seat, and then took the road to Useless Loop. It started off as bitumen but soon changed to gravel and corrugations. We expected it to be a bit rough but we were not prepared for the shaking around our poor car and caravan had to endure. We were all shook up for the best part of three hours. But we survived and made it to the town before dark.

We made it to Useless Loop

Kim is Principal at the Useless Loop Primary School, a beautiful little school with only two classes – lower and upper primary. They have a lovely home and a lovely life actually. We met some of the locals and it is clear that Useless Loop has a tight-knit community. While Kim was working and Lennox was in school, Bec and Naia took us on a drive around the area. We had a picnic at Cosy Corner, a lovely little bay with an area for camping, and also checked out the fish cleaning area where we saw lots of small sharks swimming all around. It is a beautiful little town with the ocean on one side and the salt ponds on the other.

With a population of around 200, there is a small convenience store that opens for an hour each day, a medical room, library and playgroup. In the evening we joined the other families at the Mess (aka the pub) and had dinner there. There was a pool competition going on and a raffle for meat packs. Everyone knew each other and all the children played together. What a great atmosphere and a terrific place to bring up a young family.

On the desk at the Mess

As we enjoyed the ambience of the local pub, we were treated to a wonderful display of lightning – then thunder and then a massive storm that went on all night. This made the road out impassable and it was closed. Kim and Bec must be used to this because they weren’t at all phased that they were stuck with us for a few extra days. Bec mentioned she had bought in extra supplies in case that happened. She had obviously been caught out before.

Our wonderful hosts, Bec, Naia, Kim, Lennox – and Mojo the pup!

We had a lovely visit to Useless Loop but, because of the rain, our planned two nights there stretched out…..

Finding our balance

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Before we could take off for real, we had a few important things to attend to. Of course, top of the list was seeing our children, grandchildren and friends to say cheerio. We used our visits to them as more practice trips and a way of getting to know more about our van. Someone said that it must be sad to say bye to everyone but it wasn’t; in these days of mobile phones and Zoom, we will still see them and chat regularly. Everyone is busy with their own life too, and they are all very happy for us to be going off to do this trip. (When I first came to Australia on a working holiday in 1979, I had to wait a month to receive a letter from my family and vice versa. It was very expensive to call home in those days. The world is a much smaller place in 2021).

The second thing we had to take care of was having our Emu serviced after 1000kms. Living about 350kms from Perth, it didn’t take us long to log the distance. We took the van back to Eagle Outdoors and they were incredibly efficient in carrying out the service and fixing up minor issues.

The last thing we had to do before leaving civilisation was have our caravan and car weighed. We had previously watched Youtube videos on how to distribute weight and we had tried to think it through as we packed. There was a weighbridge close to Eagle Outdoors and we were relieved to find that we were well underweight.

So having caught up with those around Mandurah, we headed for Kalbarri to see more family and friends. Six weeks or so after Cyclone Seroja hit, it was nice to hear stories of how the community had come together to help each other. Although there was a lot of damage still evident, the recovery process was well underway. We love Kalbarri and enjoyed a couple of nights there before heading off on our trip.

One of the few signs still standing around Kalbarri after Cyclone Seroja

First Step – Practice Run

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After collecting our rig, we knew the first step was to do a practice camp in it to learn about how everything works. We organised a weekend away with friends, Michelle and Richard, who had just bought an MDC15 hybrid. Our plan was to meet at 2pm in Perenjori and go out bush to camp for two nights. We were all really looking forward to the weekend.

Thank goodness it was a practice camp! The first thing that went wrong was that John had organised for a small, one hour job to be done on the car. It ended up taking six hours! I rang Richard to tell him we would be late. That was fine because he was also running late. This was his first attempt at towing a caravan but he said it was all going smoothly and he was feeling relaxed. It was four o’clock before we even left home but we thought we would arrive before dark and hopefully miss the kangaroos at dusk.

We were quite shocked at the devastation all the way inland from Cyclone Seroja four weeks previously. There were trees and fences down everywhere. This was my excuse for getting lost. I was driving and John fell asleep. The large sign to Morawa had blown down in the cyclone, so I drove straight passed the turn off. About ten minutes further on, I realised I had gone the wrong way but, with the caravan behind me, I could not turn around. The GPS told me to turn left and so I followed instructions but found myself on a gravel road at dusk with kangaroos hopping all around me and trees uprooted along the road. What a stressful detour it turned out to be. We finally reached Michelle and Richard close to seven o’clock.

Unbeknown to us, Richard had only just arrived himself – minus his caravan! While travelling along at 95kms per hour, the caravan wheel had sheared right off and he ended up in a paddock! Luckily he was unhurt and the van could be fixed. A few of the locals helped him find the wheel and get the van back to town. This was not the start to the weekend we had hoped for! However, we didn’t let it get us down and, instead, decided that John and I would camp on their driveway, we would have the campfire in the back yard, and do a day trip to where we could have camped.

The mark on the road after Richard’s wheel sheared off!
Richard and a friend found the tyre and limped the caravan into Perenjori to be fixed

Not to be beaten, Richard built the best campfire!

Campfire in the back yard

The next day, we went to explore the local area including Camel Soak, Experimental Farm, John Forrest Lookout and Rothsay. We had a picnic at the lookout and had a great day.

Camel Soak – where we had planned to camp
The Rock Hole, a watering hole for men and their camels while working on No 2 Rabbit Proof Fence from 1903 to 1905
John and Lynn at Camel Soak
Richard and Michelle at Camel Soak
Lynn and John at John Forrest Lookout. The Lookout was named for John Forrest after his 1897 expedition.
Richard and Michelle at John Forrest Lookout
Experimental Farm

Baby Steps – finding a rig

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Once we had sold our investment property, and our dream of travelling the country was becoming real, we had to then decide on what rig we would need. Swags and a tent were ruled out right away. We had a wish list: John wanted a comfortable bed and I insisted on an ensuite.

We did a lot of research – looked at various new and used caravans, watched YouTube videos and went to the Caravan and Camping Show. We narrowed our list down and decided that the new hybrid caravans would be perfect for what we wanted. Although we are not planning to do any serious four wheel driving, we do want to have the option to go off-road if we choose. So, our rig of choice is an Emu Expedition Hybrid Camper which is a combination of a camper and a caravan, with a queen size bed, drawers, sink and ensuite inside, and the kitchen and fridge outside. We love to cook outside so this is, we hope, a perfect solution.

Getting ready to take possession of our Emu Expedition Hybrid Camper!
My turn to drive!
We got it home!

As we were packing up our house, we slept in the caravan in the driveway for a couple of weeks before heading off! It gave us a chance to see how everything works, and we loved sleeping there because the bed is so comfortable!

Inside our van –

We took the extra bunk out as we don’t need it

Crawling – planning our trip

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Some years ago my husband, John, and I took off with our Jayco Dove from our home in Kalbarri in Western Australia across the Nullarbor to explore the eastern side of the country and Tasmania. We had a wonderful three months and I suggested we start planning for the big lap around Australia. Unfortunately, John wasn’t interested.

Fast forward a few years and, thankfully, he has changed his mind. At that time, our grandchildren were very young and it was hard to think of leaving them. But they have grown up and are busy doing their own thing. And….more grandchildren keep coming.

This is the first night of our big adventure, travelling Australia, and I am thinking back to how our idea became a reality.

How can we afford to travel Australia for twelve months?

We first had to work out how we could afford to spend a year travelling around Australia. I am 64 and a high school teacher, John is 76 and retired, so we are not really keen on backpacking and picking fruit. Luckily we had an investment property in Kalbarri, which was rented out. We decided to put it on the market to help finance our trip. It took nearly 18 months for the house to sell but that gave us time to put other things in place. In fact, we started to think it would never sell so, on a whim, we also put our home on the market! To be able to make our dream of travel a reality, we had to sell one of them. Our preference was to sell our Kalbarri house and rent out our home in Dongara.

The investment property eventually sold – two weeks before Cyclone Seroja almost flattened the town. We were lucky although we felt for the new owners. The sale of the Kalbarri house financed the purchase of a caravan plus some money in the bank for our ‘holiday fund’.

We were busy planning and minimising so we could rent out our home in Dongara – in fact, we were filling in the paperwork to get a tenant and filling up a local storage unit with our personal belongings (two weeks before our leaving date) when a lady knocked on the door and asked to look around the house. Although every room was full of packing boxes and the place was a mess, she told us she wanted to buy it! This was not what we had planned – to be homeless – but we had already discussed the fact that we did not want to return to a house with stairs and a garden, so we ended up selling both houses! I thought John would hate the idea as he has always been the sensible one who likes to have his base, while I am the one who gets bored and wants to move or travel. I usually have to drag him along or, sometimes, I go with my children or friends and leave him at home. However, he was quite happy to live dangerously for a change!