We checked into Woodman point Caravan park on the 5th of Jan and James got busy working for the next 4 days. We met up with people we had camped with at Parry's beach, we bought a new regulator for the 3 way fridge and we explored Freemantle. After James finished his work we decided to head south east to Potters Gorge which if you are looking for it on a map its near Collie.
We took our time getting to camp and looked at all the places on wiki camps we passed through Harvey which a a beautiful little town and made for camp. We arrived and had the pick of spots. The spot we took was the pick of the spots in the camping area. It was in a corner facing the water with a big tree separating us from any neighbours, shaded for 90% of the day and direct access to the lake. After set up we wandered down for a swim.
Friendly Locals
The view from the door :)
Friday we decided to go exploring through the rest of the park and visit Gnomesville. Gnomesville what the hell is Gnomesville I hear you asking. Well let me tell you its NOTHING like what you would expect. It is unexplainable just how many Gnomes have moved into (been placed) Gnomesville. Its a little town just made up of Gnomes and only Gnomes. It is NOT near any town that is lived in by humans and in fact if you didn't know where it was exactly you would be hard pressed to find it. We had a map :) First off for the day we visited the Dam wall of Wellington Lake and then drove the scenic route to Honeymoon camp then onto Gnomesville via the dirt/quickest route.
We arrived and just couldn't fathom how many smiling happy groups of Gnomes there actually were. We spent over an hour walking exploring and admiring the area. Unfortunately we didn't know we were going to visit this little town otherwise we would have added our own friend. We will go back and donate a Gnome before leaving WA. After farwelling the thousands of Gnomes we made our way to Collie. After a look about town and lunch we turned back towards camp. It was a warm day so we spent most the afternoon in and out of the water.
Wellington Dam/Potters Gorge
Saturday was a stinking hot day so we just had a quiet day keeping cool by or in the water until well after 7pm.
Oh I have to add a paragraph here about the Bleeeping 3 way fridge. So after we installed the new regulator we held high hopes again for it to work properly. Well we were in for a surprise not only did it not work any better it actually got WORSE. It wasn't cooling at all!!! There were a few choice words said to the fridge on Friday as we turned it off and gave up. It was during a conversation with our neighbours that we mentioned that it wasn't working and luckily for us that he wanted to help fix it. He convinced us to turn it back on and look at the pilot light. On inspection there was clearly an issue the flame was appalling. It was late when we looked at it so Sunday morning we took the chance and cleaned out the jet with someone there who was knowledgeable and confident in his skills to help us fix it. He also discovered that our hoses from the tanks to the regulator were stiff and they should be nice and flexible so after all this time the hoses seem like they could have been causing the issue. Anyways after cleaning the jet and reassembling everything we had a good flame. We were packing up so we could only leave it running for about half an hour but in that time it started to feel cool. We were thrilled. More to this story further down.
Sunday came around fast and though we really wanted to stay we had booked into Lake Leschenaultia, it was another day set to get above 40 degrees. We were nervous to head off but after finding out that the lake was still open for camping we packed early and made our way north. The car struggled with the heat and half way up the hills behind Perth I had a pull over for 5 minutes as I thought it really was going to boil over. We made our way oh so so slowly up the mountain and out through Mundaring. It was at this point we saw a HUGE bush fire. It didn't look good and made us both nervous. We arrived at the Lake and asked what the condition was, besides the fact it was 47 degrees!!!! The fire was catastrophic & out of control 20 km west of camp and the wind was blowing it in the direction of camp. We asked for our money back and they were happy to do this and we high tailed it out of there. We stopped in Mundaring to grab some lunch and the fear on the peoples faces and the tension in the air was tangible it certainly is something I hope to never again have to face. Every minute or so fire crews in all styles of vehicles were screaming out towards the fire. We called down to a C/P in Karrinyup and booked in for the night. We arrived stinking hot and exhausted. After a record fast set up we had cold showers and put on presentable clothes to head off and meet Monica and Neil where we were hoping to share their house for a few months. The house was great and they were really friendly people who we just hoped liked us and would pick us to live with them. From here it was to the shops to calm down with a coffee and get some groceries. We had turned the fridge back onto gas when we arrived at the park as we had a non powered site for the night. When we first got to camp the fridge had cooled down to 12 degrees running off 12 volt. After being out for a few hours with it on gas it was down to 8 degrees. By the next morning it was down to 2 degrees Woooooooo Hooooooooo we were thrilled. The fridge hadn't been that cold running on gas since early September. Late in the evening Monica had phoned to say we had been chosen and we now had somewhere to live until we choose to head north. Things were looking up. With the great news from Monica we deiced to book into the park for the next week and a bit so James could work and we could explore Perth.
I'm going to end this post here as the next 2 weeks are HUGE and it would make this post too long.
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