A Night Down South.

A few weeks ago now we had to take some things down to the daughters place, not far from Nannup in Western Australia's Southwest so of course it was a great opportunity to camp somewhere for the night and give the new setup in the Cruiser another tryout.
Our plan was to drop the stuff off at daughters house, spend a couple of hours there then drive back through Nannup and camp at Barrabup Pool.  Not the pool itself as that's not allowed but there is a camping area very close by.   Hubby has been to the area before and had said how nice it was and as we drove past the turnoff on the way into Nannup and it was getting close to lunchtime we decided to call in for a look and something to eat before checking the camping area out.

The carpark at Barrabup Pool  was full of motor bikes...a trail riding group were there for lunch.  I was so envious, I would love a motorbike again but I know that is not going to happen now and I am happy with my second choice of the van.  The bike riders left soon after we arrived, roaring off down the road and into the bush...
There were a few people at Barrabup Pool swimming but it was a bit too cold for us.  I think I will come here again though as the water looked very inviting.
There is no camping at the pool itself which is a shame as it's a lovely spot.  The camping area is not far from the pool but it didn't really appeal to us.  You can't see the water from any camping spots and most were just small dirt camp sites.  There were toilets there but not much else.  There was a fee of $7 pp pn.  I didn't think it was worth $14 and we were pretty sure we'd be able to find a nicer spot so we left and drove on to the daughters place. 

Driving South on the Vasse Highway we came into a great ball of smoke, CALM had been doing their prescribed burns.  Hubby mentioned that it was a bit close to the daughters and that as a lot of these fires seem to get out of control he was a bit worried.  It was OK though, lots of smoke but the burning in this area was over, black burnt trees everywhere.  So sad to see the bush burnt like that but they say it needs to be done.

A few days later a prescribed burn did get out of control in the Margeret River area and many homes and hundreds of hectares of bush were lost.

Once at the daughters we went for a walk to see if there were any nice spots along the river to park and camp.  We sent the dog on ahead of us to ensure that there were no Boogeymens.

No Boogeymens, just a dreadlocked hippy. 

The river down here is the Blackwood River and if it wasn't  running quite so fast and if it wasn't quite so cold it would have been tempting to have a quick dip.  Maybe another time...

                         

In the end we decided to camp in the paddock near daughters place so it was back up the hill, over fallen logs and through flood debris until we found a clear path out.

Once back to the daughters we spent a few hours helping her in the gardens then off to set up camp as the sun was going down.  We picked a spot on top of the hill, overlooking the paddock where kangaroos and sometimes emus congregate but it was getting dark and we didn't see any.

Setup was just a matter of pulling out the table and a couple of chairs, the stove and esky.  Tea was bacon and eggs and leftover vegies brought from home.

 

Below is the two burner gas stove we got from one of the Really Really Free Markets.  We had the gas bottle and this works a treat.  Much more sustainable than the little camping stoves that use the disposable cylinders though we still have one of those.

While eating our meal we were hearing these loud crashing noises.  Hubby said that it was trees falling down from the fire and the sounds continued throughout the night.

I'm an early riser so the next day when I woke I automatically got up and starting getting the water hot for coffee.  Hubby was kinda awake so I made him one too.  It wasn't until I looked at the time and mentioned it to him that he was kinda disturbed.  I thought that it was funny that the bloke that is usually still in bed at 8 was having coffee at a time that started with a 4.

It was hot and sunny when we left home the day before and I didn't think to grab a jacket but at 4.45am it was cold.  Hubby was a bit smarter than me and he let me wear his jacket and he also had a spare beanie in the car so I was set to sit and drink hot coffee while looking at the view.  However the view at that time was hidden by thick mist and I saw nothing.  As it warmed up it cleared a bit but the paddock that is usually full of kangaroos was empty.  Maybe the fires from the day before had made them stay away.

Sun rising through the fog and smoke.  Mainly fog, it is hard to see anything there most mornings and this cleared up within a couple of hours.




 A leisurely breakfast, another coffee, a visit from the dog and daughter, into her house to say hello to the cats and get some seeds then it was time to leave.  By 9am we were on our way with a plan to stop off at a place called Grimwade.