Tuesday 4th (276 km, Perth (Guildford) – Bussellton)

Wow-wee, first real day of our trip! Writing this at about 8:30 pm, in a campground at Bussellton. We are in the cabin of our faithful Toyota Landcruiser Bush Ranger model (a.k.a. ‘Ned’ - see photo above, at Bunbury) collected this morning from the Camperworld depot at Guildford, near Perth airport. Sipping on a coffee made from our espresso cook-top coffee maker (bought at South Wharf about 6 weeks ago, when we stayed at the Hilton with Kaye and John), music playing from the iPod and speaker system (bought at JB Hi Fi Nunawading about 2 weeks ago), after a nice meal of steak, salad, mushroom and onions (bought earlier at IGA Bussellton) and chips (donated by fellow grey nomads at the camp kitchen) and after finishing a Durif red wine from Rutherglen and bottle of French white wine given as a gift from the University at my farewell exactly a week ago (give or take an hour or two due to the time difference between WA and Vic).

Our home-on-wheels is set up as best we can in the first 24 hours. Clothing all stowed, nick nacks all tucked away in a drawer here and there. The cabin on Ned’s back is, ahem, cosy, but we have had fun setting it up as we want it (and will no doubt change it several times over during the next 90, oops, 89, days). There is a large bed, which slides back and forth from above the driver/passenger cabin), fridge, 2-ring gas cooker and a sink with water pumped from underneath. Also underneath are 2 diesel tanks and 2 spare wheels, plus various items of equipment kindly supplied by Doug et al at Camperworld.

Jen rates today so far as: “A1! Very impressed with the sound system. Bed is going to be our biggest challenge, creating a little nest every night. Very impressed with the French wine, how are we going to keep that standard up?!”

We are at Manadalay camp ground, about 4 km from Bussellton town centre. Arrived here about 2:30, conscious that we needed some daylight to sort out all our stuff in the campervan and generally get set-up. Route was via Pinjarra (nice coffee and muffin had there), Bunbury (stopped for a while to admire the beach and the harbour) and then Bussellton, which has a sweeping sea-front onto Geopgraphe Bay, a mere 200 m from our camp site. There is a wooden jetty 2 km long here, but it is currently closed off for a make-over. The town has a nice feel to it, as did Bunbury.

Already we have encountered the nomadic tribe. We cooked steak, mushrooms etc in the camp kitchen, where about a dozen grey-ies were congregating and, wouldn’t ya know it, the first people that we chatted to were from, you guessed it, Surrey Hills, Elgar Road to be precise. How freaky is that!