Caiguna to Boondi Rock and Home

 Arrived back home in Safety Bay WA after battling the worst head winds we have encountered for many years, rain and wind, wind & rain ..  van is parked up and Chev in the shed, both filthy and will get a wash in the next few days if my OCD can wait that long 🤣 

Overnight stop at Baxter Rest area 

Huge area with tracks going back a great distance

The evening sky was beautiful with the ever changing clouds 

To recap .. we drove to the factory from WA to take delivery of our new Optimum, the drive over with the Chev was great but the weather was terrible, we thought we were youngsters and could tough it out with a roof top tent for a few days but we soon woke up from that fantasy .. 2 nights was enough and we got to our daughters in Adelaide and advertised it and sold it.  😂

Purpose of the trip was to give the new van a bit of a road test and were very happy to say it went extremely well. We have one cold water JG fitting going to the external shower with a slight drip which I can’t get my Mr Gadget arms in far enough to try and fix and the water tanks appear to have their own mind in filling up … seems to be a different amount each time and I’m using a flow meter I know is accurate .. ideally I’d like to get a 3rd non potable tank put underneath to suit our style of coastal camping.  I do think the layout of the water pumps and changeover taps could be easier accessible, maybe take a tip of what Bushtracker do and have an easily accessible manifold cupboard for changing tanks over in future models.  None of us are getting younger and getting on the floor to turn taps under the fridge could be better, IMO. 

The Van road superbly on its Terraglide airbag suspension, can’t say the same for the Chev, it’s definitely getting the bigger Bilstein shocks fitted plus possibly the airbags on the rear. Travelled approximately 13000klms and some of the worst roads QLD & NSW have. 

3 fatalities on the road , a huge Roo, an Emu and a small Bird, no damage to the Chev but it well could have smashed lights or grill so we were lucky … so we will be looking at having a Bull bar fitted before our next trip.  

Boondi Rock 

Thought this was interesting with the bark contrasts 

Info photos from the shelter at Boondi 

Our last camp fire for this trip 

Haven’t finalised the fuel cost / economy etc but it’s been a lot better towing a heavier van than our previous 200 series towing the previous Optimum and a Bushtracker prior to that. No way could I sit as long as I did in the Chev as the 200 series, I have some spine issues and the heated seats were awesome. 

Huge thanks to Remon Raffaello  and Bobi Petruveski and all the MP factory Crew for building us a van we can be very proud of. 👍👍

The trip home continues.

 We have stayed at the old Cohen School site approximately 14k west of Penong previously, it’s a large area and if you get in early there is a nice big patch of green grass, for us we found a big 5th Wheeler already there so we moved a bit further around along the old fence line. The wind had been horrendous but it was nice to see it had dropped off and we had a lovely view over the paddocks. 

Old Cohen School Site

Next night we stopped at 81k Peg Site along the Nullarbor, no one else around and the area was huge with tracks going everywhere. Another lovely night with a camp fire and music before it was more cards and some book reading. 

81k Peg Rest Area on the Nullarbor 

Made it through the WA Border with no fruit and vegi’s to hand over but we did lose our load of firewood. Anyone heading East there is a ton of it stacked up on the left hand side. 

They breed their kids fast at Eucla 😂

Tonight it’s the Baxter Rest Area.

Adelaide and heading West

 A 3 day catch up with our daughter and family in Adelaide was lovely and so was our two visits to China Town to have our favourite chicken & rice with laksa broth !! Mmmmm yum !!

We stayed at the Brownhill Caravan park and it is in a lovely bush setting, unfortunately the weather was shocking! thunderstorms, Lightning and very heavy rain made driving back to the van one night an unpleasant experience 😳 and the planned catch up with washing took longer than we expected. We enjoyed watching our grandsons play in a soccer game. 

Away from Adelaide and heading and West is a place called Stone Hut, they have a wood fired bakery and sell some of the best pies and pasties we have bought.  That was lunch sorted. 

 

We like to go via Melrose / Wilmington and it was just before Melrose we stopped at an awesome camp area called Doughboy Reserve, all by ourselves and all the lovely birds. We also had a nice camp fire. 

We have mates from Geraldton on their way East and it was arranged to catch up for a night at another nice place Kooma View Farmhouse. We have stopped here before and it is an amazing place, the Marshall Family have left the old farmhouse as exactly as if they were living in it and just walked away, well that’s what they did but moved to a newer home and allow visitors to camp and look through the old house.  Definitely

worth a look if passing by.  

The Big Galah at Kimba

Kooma Farmhouse

We had a great night with our mates from what I remember of it 🥴🥃 I do recall seeing a beautiful Striated Pardalote bird and have photos to prove it 😂

Presently stopped for the night at the old Cohen School Site. We have battled an incredible head wind all the way, hopefully tomorrow is a lot better.

Clare Sports oval - Pinnaroo RV Park

 Another day, another drive .. yesterday we stopped earlier than we usually do because the camp places along the Balranald Ivanhoe Road are few .. the spot we did stop at was the old Clare Sports Oval … I say old because the area does not look like it’s been used as a sporting oval for a long time. It did make a great overnight stop though and we enjoyed another camp fire before it was ‘more card games’ 🥴🤣 

We are going to visit our youngest daughter in Adelaide Tomorrow so today was a longer drive than normal to give us the time to get into Brownhill Van Park 😱😳😳🥺🤭 Yep NIKNOFF going into a van park 🥴.. But this is one of the better parks around set in a beautiful bush setting and only a short drive to our daughters. Usually we would park up in one of her driveways but the Chev being longer than the Toyota this seemed the next best option. 

Stopped for a look at the beautiful painted silo at Walpeup, awesome artwork.  👍👍

Presently camped at Pinnaroo RV Park. Thank you to the town of Pinnaroo for being RV Friendly.