Wide open spaces

The drive from Busselton was really scenic, taking us through loads of tall tree forest as well as vineyards and pastural lands. The weather was horrible for the first hour or so, with heavy rain making the drive unpleasant but it then eased and even gave us a bit of sunshine at times. We spotted a turn off to a national park campground so drove through it to take a look. It was big and spread out but looked pretty exposed. There was another campground about 30km further south, also in the national park, which sounded better so we decided to keep going and take a look at that one before deciding where to stop. As we drove into the second campground, it looked deserted. There were a few tent sites as well as two with basic wooden huts. It was a nice, small campground situated in the forest with huge trees all around, as well as a big, sheltered camp kitchen with a BBQ. We stopped to look at one of the huts and decided that would be the perfect escape from the weather. It had a sheltered area out the front, with a couple of wooden bunk beds inside and a bench along the wall. The best feature was a fireplace in the corner. We parked the trailer next to the shelter and opened it up to give it an airing, as well as to get out our bags and bedding as we needed to use our own. We got the fire going which quickly warmed up the small cabin, but as we were unpacking the last of the things from the car, we unfortunately realised that we must have left my gortex rain jacket and shorts back in Busselton in the chaos of trying to get away in the rain. Deciding there was nothing we could do without phone reception, I headed down to the BBQ area and cooked a simple dinner of bacon and egg rolls. We enjoyed a cosy dinner inside that night, before setting up the beds. We put the kids on their stretchers on the floor with their sleeping bags, while we used their swags on the bunks with our sleeping bags. We were relieved to be in the cabin as we listened to the pounding rain fall on the tin roof above us.

The next morning I got up and started the fire up which had gone out overnight. We appreciated the warmth as it was a very cold morning. The kids had fun after breakfast making structures out of packs of cards, while we decided what our next move would be. We were really enjoying the cabin so decided to stay another night. Mid morning we decided to head back towards Busselton to find mobile reception so we could call the caravan park to see if they happened to find the clothes we left behind. It turned out that they were handed in, so we decided to drive back and get them. It was a long day of driving but we enjoyed the scenery and stopped at a cafe in Nannup for lunch. We also stopped at the Diamond Tree which was a massive tree with metal stakes driven into it, creating a staircase which lead up to a viewing platform that was used to spot bushfires. We didn’t climb up it as it was very slippery from the rain, and with a storm forecast to roll through at any moment, we decided it would be best to give it a miss. We picked up some firewood on the way and made it back to the cabin before dark. After I got the fire going I headed to the BBQ to make hamburgers which were devoured happily. After the kids went to bed Kat and I enjoyed a couple of wines in front of the fire before we collapsed into our bunks.

The weather that night was horrible. The rain fell heavily for most of the night, with a little bit of hail thrown in for good measure at one point. Fortunately the wind stayed away, so the trailer was in good shape when we got up in the morning, with almost no water leaking in despite the heavy rain. The sun came out that morning, although we had learnt not to trust the weather to stay the same for very long, as heavy downpours rolled past every 20 minutes or so between brief bouts of sunshine. We managed to pack everything back into the trailer and car in the sunny spells, and got the trailer tent packed up without getting drenched, which was a definite win.