Another long weekend arrived, this time it's the 'Labour Day' public holiday. I think that it's not held at the beginning of May, when most countries hold their Labour celebrations, because that would be too close to the June 'Foundation Day' holiday. To add to the confusion the June holiday in the rest of Australia is the 'Queen's Birthday' holiday (her official birthday / coronation) but the WA state's foundation anniversary is in June, we don't miss out though, having another public holiday in October, which we call the Queen's Birthday. Confused? I am, but along with everyone else I'm happy to enjoy a holiday.

We were going to spend the long weekend with a chapter of the motorhome club.
The club is CMCA (Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia) and the local groups are called 'Chapters' which I think makes them sound like a motorcycle club. The 'South West Wanderers' are mainly based in the Bunbury area so it was a fair distance from home for us. We left home after lunch on Thursday to travel, via the Freeway, south of Perth City. We were heading for a spot near Capel (our weekend destination) and decided to treat ourselves to a stay in a caravan park.
We cut across country when south of Yarloop, to leave the coastal road and join the south west highway just north of Burekup.  The caravan park is in the locality of Waterloo. We had stayed here before and this time noticed a few changes to the reception area. Sadly the previous owner had died but the new owners were very friendly and despite never having heard of CMCA  they gave us a very nice 20% discount rate.
We picked a quiet, level spot at the rear of the park, well away from the noise of the highway, but, we knew from our previous visit, next to to the railway track.(We prefer the occasional train to the constant traffic hum). We were settled in by late afternoon and enjoyed a private 'happy hour' before dinner.

There were a few trains in the night, we both felt that there were more than previously, but we had a good night's sleep. Just before 10am we were on the road south again, bypassing the city centre of Bunbury and heading on down to the little town of Capel.
Our destination was about 12 kms East of Capel, Arden Vale,a B & B Farm stay with facilities for camping. The temperature was already around 30 degrees when we arrived so were pleased to find some shade to park near. The group had the use of the 'bunkhouse' - kitchen and large living area and 2 toilets and a shower, so we sat inside for a while before moving out to the garden and the shade of the trees.
One of the huge trees was an English oak, planted by the current owner's grandfather. The farm has been in the family for generations. Around the house grounds they have a few sheep, chickens and guinea fowl and in the paddocks near our camp area there were some lovely young cattle.

Gradually over the afternoon the vans rolled in, the social circle expanding as more people arrived. By evening there were 15 motorhomes of various sizes, from small vans to a large bus.
The weather can only be described as 'hot' ( Australians called it 'warm!')
The evenings brought a welcome cool spell, with some having to fetch jackets to put on as we were sitting outside. The weekend saw the chapter celebrate it's 19th birthday and the party on Saturday night had an Hawaiian theme. Lots of Leis, frangipanis and colourful shirts.
 Michael never needs an excuse to dress up - and won the prize for 'best dressed male'  (a choc. bar).

Some people had to leave on the Sunday, some on the Monday but about half of us hung on until Tuesday morning, letting those that had to return to Perth and work to clog the highways.
We had a lovely time with the group and would love to join them again for another weekend so we'll keep an eye on the local clubs magazine for events.

We left on Tuesday morning, around 9.00am, backtracking into Capel for some shopping (newspaper, milk, bread) and then back Eastwards to Donnybrook for a wander around town and some more shopping (Op shop in town is very good, got a skirt, a book and a picture frame).
We then drove out to Glen Mervyn Dam on our way to Collie Glen Mervyn Dam is listed in our camping book but the sign said 'Day use only". The road in stopped right on the Dam's shore and was quite steep so was not suitable for an overnight stay anyway. (There is possibly another spot, as upon leaving we spotted another road in but this is closer to the road and quite a small area).

We had  lunch listening to Red Tailed Black Cockatoos in the trees around us and then drove on to Collie.

In Collie we stretched our legs with a walk around town and then headed Eastwards again to Narrogin.
We checked out the caravan park, having heard a couple of good reports, but it didn't appeal. Too much bitumen and too little shade, so we headed on again.
Our camping book listed another dam, Yornaning Dam, about 10kms north of Cuballing, so we gave it a try. What a nice place! Lots of room to park, lots of level ground, lots of shade, a BBQ, a toilet and a children's play area.
There were a couple of fellow campers, but with so much space we could hardly see them and definitely couldn't hear them.

We had a really good night's sleep, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and a look at the birdlife around the lake before heading northwards, towards home. We stopped in Pingelly, Brookton, Beverley and York, stretching the legs and checking out the Op shops. We stopped in Northam for lunch (and more Op shopping) before arriving home late in the afternoon.
We have about 2 weeks at home before our next trip - back to Brookton for the Old Time Motor Show. A fantastic country show with a distinct motor flavour, this year the special theme will be 100 year celebration of the Anzacs. We are going with a group from the CMCA and will be camped at the showgrounds....
will blog later.

Australia Day weekend and a swap meet shower

Finally getting back to the blog - now have to remember what we've been up to for the last 4 weeks.
January 26th is Australia Day, the day we celebrate the white man landing on Sydney's shore and claiming the land for England. Apart from a few'official'celebrations it's basically time for a get together with friends and unfortunately a big excuse for a lot of people across the country to get drunk. We celebrate with the middle option - a get together with friends. The Citroen car club has a tradition of a breakfast get together and this year it was held at the club president's place, he has 5 acres in an outer Perth rural suburb. We went along the evening before and camped on his back lawn to be ready for an early start. The weather was quite a bit warmer than usual - in fact it was hot! so we all spent most of that previous afternoon and evening inside in the airconditioning until it cooled down in the night time. The next day was another hot one and so it was back inside for most of the time. Breakfast was a long casual affair, lots of bacon and eggs cooked outside on the barbecue. The morning melted into the afternoon and before long it was time to consider our next move - where to spend the night.
Ralph and Hanny had come along in their motor home too and their niece, Elizabeth, another Citroenophile, was at the breakfast too, along with her Mum and Dad (Diane and Alan, who also have a motor home, which they store on Elizabeth's farm). There were a few suggestions of where to go but as the afternoon stretched out we decided to just drive about 15kms down the road to Elizabeth's and spend the night there with her family, parked next to Alan and Diane. So that's what we did - setting up for the night under the gum trees, among the chickens.

The intention was to move on the next morning but after some chatting and a few cups of coffee someone noticed that Ralph had a flat tyre - that would explain the slope inside the motor home!

Everyone gallantly left Ralph alone to change the tyre and then we had more coffee, then some lunch and then we ladies challenged the gents to a boules match. After this, ( we ladies lost, narrowly) we again considered where we would be spending the night but Elizabeth kindly invited us to join the family for a barbecue dinner so it was decided, we would spend another night on the farm.

The next morning it was back to work for the family and after a slow start we headed off too, slowly making our way northwards and home via Kwinana Beach for a paddle.

Gary and Petra, our Berlin friends, were over in Perth enjoying the 40 degrees heat. They took off for a few days camping in the bush but found time to come up and stay with us for a couple of days.
We took them on a little sightseeing tour of the northern  beaches, and Petra just loved the sales in KMart - I think she bought about 15 Tshirts.(and went back a couple of days later, before flying home, to get more).

February arrived and the summer heatwave continued, most days the maximum temp is around 36 degrees. If it's less than 34 we don't put the air conditioning on, we open the doors and windows and run fans. Thank goodness for the almost constant sea breeze that we have where we live. At night it drops to 19 or 20 degrees and in the early hours of the morning I have been known to pull up a blanket  (much to Michael's amusement - I sleep near the window and feel the cool breeze.)

The annual Vintage Automobile Swap Meet, in the nearby town of Northam, is our excuse to try and clear some 'stuff' out of the shed. This year, we once again loaded up a trailer and taking the motorhome set off on the Saturday afternoon across country to Northam. We had dinner with friends, Tom and Lois, before heading down to the showgrounds just before 10pm to camp the night in readiness for the morning's sale.
Once again Ralph and Hanny were with us and after a drive around the ground looking for an open gate, we were parked up on the grass. We had a bedtime cuppa before heading off to bed around midnight. We had a rude awakening in the early hours when the sprinklers came on. We weren't parked right next to them but they had a very long wide sweep, spraying our vans with really smelly 'recycled effluent' - ugh! We closed any open windows and tried to get back to sleep for a few short hours. Country folk do not have 'lie ins' - there was movement outside our van around 4.50, and the gates were opened to the first 'sellers' at 5.00am.

We got up then and after breakfast, which shocked the system at that hour, we were out unloading the trailer. It was a hot day, as expected, but the trailer was a little lighter on the way home and I had an extra $180 in my purse.

Since then we had been pottering around the house, actually got around to replacing a couple of broken venetian blinds.
Our next trip away is coming up - a weekend away with another motor home 'chapter'.
Will take the camera and blog later!