Wilsons on the road: Saturday 11 January 2014

Saturday 11 January 2014 - Yanchep, WA

While we were packing up to leave Perth yesterday, Glenn found a nut hadn’t been replaced in the car after it had been at the doctor’s the previous day. So our first port of call after leaving the caravan park was back at United to rectify the problem, which took about half an hour because it was fiddly – lucky he checked, it would have been annoying for him to try and do it himself! Then we went to Coventry Village, an ‘international’ shopping centre and had a great time – Asian groceries, budget fruit and veg, organic sourdough, cheap cleanskin vino and a kid’s playground in the middle of it! We treated ourselves to a $10 plate each of yummy Eastern European food for lunch while Sienna demolished a 99c punnet of strawberries and Yasmin wolfed down a sandwich so she could go and play some more before we left. Next stop was the ‘sister’ deli to an awesome one we found in Freo the other day, where I stocked up on lots of yummy goodies for our Jurien Bay stay next week, when we get to catch up with the lovely Scott family! Finally we hit the road (and traffic) and headed for Yanchep, which was only about an hour (or even less) away.

We didn’t do much after arriving and setting up, but were quite pleased with our little campground and our secluded site right at the back. There are a few people around us but not many, lots of big shady trees, some grass, heaps of birds and a good breeze. I guess if you had to find a downside it would be the machinery beeping and roaring all day long as they prepare the land next door for a housing estate. But hey, you can’t have everything. It’s cheap ($30 a night unpowered) and there’s a pool to cool off in. This was kind-of vital as today was predicted to hit 44 degrees – I’m not sure if it did here, but it was 41 in the shade at 12 noon in the shade at our campsite. Needless to say we haven’t done all that much today.

This morning we went for a bit of a drive around and it’s a nice enough area but getting very very busy, with stacks of new big housing estates being built. There’s even a Woolies here! When we got back, it was off to the pool for a cooling dip and paddle. After lunch we drove to the airconditioned shopping centre where I indulged in half an hour of heaven – a $30 spa pedicure at one of those very politically incorrect Asian nail salons... something I’ve never done before, but God it was good. The chair I sat in gave an awesome massage and my poor little tootsies were in a pretty sorry state to start with, but now they look great! Plus, child-free time is pretty scarce so that in itself was blissful. Did I mention I’m in a good mood? Glenn occupied the girls with a four-pack of Cornettos (budget buy – $4 at Woolies!)... there was one each for the girls, I didn’t have one – who had the other two? Then he was ‘allowed’ to indulge in a totally money-wasting practice of buying a magazine as compensation for his childminding troubles. We were going to hit the library after that for some more airconditioned time-killing, but it was shut, so it was back to camp. Fortunately the hot noreasterly had swung around a bit and it was much cooler, so we could all have a relaxing afternoon nap amongst the shade of the trees.