Trip 9 – Bremer Bay

I don’t think there has been a trip when leaving home for an extended period where we felt a little “flat”.  This is the first trip where we have left the girls behind.  So after bidding farewell and making sure they were set for the next month, we were off……on our own.  Once we turned the first corner out of our street, we giggled and thought “sucks to be you,”  hahahaha, as we made our way south towards our first overnight stay at Bremer Bay.  After a stop at Williams Wool Shed for a homemade pie to see us through to wine-o’clock, we turned off at Arthur River and bid farewell to Albany Highway, trucks and dickhead drivers and meandered through the beautiful green countryside where there are lovely plump sheep one side and the abattoir the other.  Those poor sheep, if only they knew!  We took a spin through Wagin, Katanning and Kojonup. The back roads to country towns away from the main highways are, by far, the best.  Following a coffee stop at Gnowangerup we were headed to one of the best bush camps we have stayed at, “Tozer’s Bush Camp”, approx 20k’s from Bremer Bay.  Rob Tozer is a sheep farmer who has sub-divided part of his property to accommodate travelers whether they be in buses, caravans, tents or motorhomes.  There is no power or water at camping sites, but there is power – fully run on solar –  in the HUGE purpose built shed that is the campers kitchen / common room. So fear not fellow campers, you can charge your phones and laptops without a worry.  There was only us and another two couples, who were travelling together, staying here, so had a nice night chatting around the combustion stove to keep warm.  It was a bit blowy the first night, but our little van held up well under the pressure, although tonight we are forecast gale force winds with a weather alert out – we shall see how we fare!

Today we took a drive into Bremer Bay township.  Was windy as……but not to hold us intrepid travelers down, we ventured to every beach on the map.  We had lunch of homemade beef soup – which was divine –  at the Wellstead Museum.  The museum is well worth the $6 to check out the vintage cars, motorbikes, bicycles, vintage home accessories and autopsy instruments!  We came back to camp and went for a wander through the bush, which Rob has marked out with walking tracks, to spot some of the magnificent South West orchids, which are just beginning to show themselves.  Rob’s little dog, Alf, decided to accompany us, but as we didn’t know his name at the time, we named him Brian.    He probably won’t respond when Rob calls him now.  Another night spent by the fire with our fellow travelers, watching the Olympics on Rob’s big tele and that was pretty much our stint in Bremer Bay done.  Tomorrow we head off towards the Nullarbor to Fraser Range National Park and another bush camp.  We can only hope that it is as well thought out and as great a bush camp as Toze’s.  Thanks for a great couple of days Rob.

Some pics from the last couple of days travel.