Found temporary safe haven in WA at time of Covid-19

Western Australia is the largest state in Australia in terms of geographic area.  It is difficult for people from the eastern side to fully appreciate how big this state is.  Especially in the north where the distances between roadhouses can be 300 kms.

After speaking to Andrew's eldest son Michael and his wife, also from Canberra and also travelling around WA separately from us, we had big decisions to make.  Driving around WA as we had planned, was fast disappearing as a viable thing to do.  Restrictions on travel were rising around us with some remoter areas closing their local boundaries, and also we did not relish the prospect of either or both of us falling ill in the middle of nowhere. So, do we turn around and go back home?After making this mad dash to cross into WA, not realising how the world would change further in the next few days????  The other possibility was to drive up to the west coast and rent a house in one of the coastal cities north of Perth.  Maybe Carnarvon which we had visited and liked.  Or maybe Geraldton, a much bigger place with better health facilities and possibly more prospect of something furnished being available to rent?

Michael and Jen decided to head back to Canberra.  They had seen and enjoyed the south-west area for a few weeks but their hopes to visit Ningaloo Reef (closed now) and Dirk Hartog Island (also closed) had disappeared.  They also have a son at home and a daughter at uni, so that decision made good sense.  We have no-one directly dependent on us, being the oldies we are and used to travelling each winter.  So, we decided to head north as quickly as possible before it was actually expressly forbidden to do unnecessary travel.

We did not have time to enjoy much along the way by way of sightseeing for two reasons.  One, that time was of the essence in getting there and we were driving along the inland route, partly along the wheatbelts of WA, not the most scenically exciting.  These are the few interesting things we saw along the way.

A dog cemetery near one of the towns.

A statue of a digger in Moora.  Albany in WA was the last point of departure for the Australian troops leaving for WW1.

A beyond blue tree in a field.

The sign accompanying it.







We arrived in Geraldton.  Apart from holiday rentals which are very expensive, there were only two furnished houses available for rent at short notice.  Maybe we should have gone on to Carnarvon?  The one that was 5 minutes walk to the nice town beach turned out to have complications with the tenants being late moving out and would not be available for a fortnight.  The house we are renting is very ordinary and driving distance to a much inferior beach.  But it was immediately available so that decided us.

This is our temporary safe haven.  I think longingly of my nice comfortable house back in Canberra, with Netflix available, all my as yet unread collection of books, all my creature comforts around me and I feel a bit sad.  Stranded in this strange city, one of the windiest in the world, probably after Chicago and Wellington.  Not knowing anyone and with no prospect of making friends through socialising or playing bridge.  Bridge clubs closing all over Australia is one of the biggest disappointments for all of us keen bridge players.

But, as I remind myself, we are lucky.  There is a lot of social unrest out there with people losing their livelihoods, the economy spiraling out of control, people contracting the virus.  We are currently of good health, we have each other for company, unlike some of our friends who live alone and have to socially isolate with no other person for company, and we are feeling safe again under a roof.

Travel in WA under the Covid-19 restrictions

We are starting to feel like fugitives, running, running running - just one step ahead of the law.  In order to try to grapple with the virus spreading, it is very likely that the state government in WA is going to try to keep people at home and to restrict people travelling needlessly.  But for people like us, away from our domicile, the motor home is our home.  Like snails with their home on the back, we are more or less isolating ourselves. Certainly socially isolating as we are the only touching each other and the dog :-)  We do shopping but that is all.

Now that restaurants, cafes, wineries and most importantly for us, bridge clubs, all closing their doors, our dream of wining and dining around the fabulous Margaret River region we experienced all those years ago is not available, we don't want to be stuck down here where winter is almost as bad as back home.  We want to be locked into the northern part of this huge state where at least we will be warm.  So, we will leave Esperance today and head north along the inland back roads.  This will be safer for us contamination wise and hopefully we will not be stopped as it is off the main tourist track.

Statue of a whale in Esperance.

One of the many beautiful beaches along the great ocean drive.

Another beach.

Panorama view of the same beach.

Our minor disaster was a broken door lock on the motor home.  For a couple of days we had to clamber over the front two cab seats in order to get in and out.  We manged to get it fixed in Esperance to my great delight and relief

Reached Western Australia on Sunday 22 March

We realised on Saturday 21 March that it was very likely that states would close their borders in order to contain the spread of this dreadful Covid-19 virus.  We want to spend the winter in WA where it is much warmer than back in Canberra,  The choice was to continue with our plans or return home which would have seriously disappointed our long term house sitters, Annie and Peter, as well as ourselves.  So, in order to make it into WA, we drove nearly 800 kms one day and 600 kms the next.

Here is the start of the Nullabor.

Here is the sign indicating the start of the longest stretch of straight road in Australia.

One of the few features along the Nullabor, a small dam created at the top of these rocks, now used as a watering hole for cows.

The winter journey to West Australia begins

We set off from Canberra for winter away, aiming to get to the Murray River for our first night.

We camped at Quick's Beach near Barooga which was described in our older Camps book as in the Murray River Regional Park which allows dogs.  In the meantime it has unfortunately changed its status to a National Park which does not allow dogs. We stayed anyway and luckily no ranger came to evict us.

Here is our Winnie back in harness.

House boats on the Murray.

A Murray paddle steamer taking tourists around.

Echuca historic port.

Another nice camp spot on the Murray, Gunbower Creek near Koondrook.

Hogwash Bend, near Cadell.  So much for social distancing.  RVs cheek by jowl.  We kept well away.

Toorongo Falls, Victoria

After several months we were finally delivered a new gearbox.  We then had to take Winnie for a test drive. We decided to visit the Struiks in Glen Waverley and the Thomsons in Healesville. On the way south we detoured through Beechworth and the Milawa cheese factory before overnighting at a nice campsite at Edi on the King River. The two family visits were most enjoyable and also gave us a chance to see the various renovations.

In between we travelled out to Toolongo Falls near Noojee. The campsite was right beside the Toolongo River which had lots of icy water flowing rapidly through the valley. Great way to cool off on a day when the temperature was near 40 degrees.

Shows Winnie at the campsite.  We, and one other vehicle were the only campers there.

There was a 5km round walk to see both the Toorongo Falls and the Amphitheatre Falls.

An ignominious return to Canberra

Sadly, Winnie let us down badly on the very last day of our winter sojourn.  Just as we passed Gosford on the hilly up and down road the gears started acting up and it seemed we had lost 6th gear. As we progressed through Sydney it seemed that 2nd and 4th were also noisy and we consulted transmission specialists by phone. Andrew was hoping that the remaining three gears, 1, 3 and 5 would allow us to get home but alas, just at the Campbelltown turn-off, 5th gear also gave up the ghost and we were stuck.

We had to be transported all the way to Canberra.

Had we not been facing departure overseas for two months in five days time, we would have had the insurance people get us to a repair service centre in Sydney somewhere. With the car they would have provided we would have driven on to our home destination in Canberra and returned to Sydney to pick up the truck when it was ready.  As it was, we had many things with us that we needed to take overseas, so we decided it was more convenient (although much more expensive) to be towed all the way home.  On the next available working day we will once again have Winnie freighted to a transmission repair shop locally and repaired while we fly off to Scandinavia.

Morayfield - almost like a farm stay

We are doing our last house sit this winter and we are among a number of animals which we really like.  The two dogs, Kipper and Hendrix are ball mad and they would like it if we threw the ball for them all day long.  Maxi has proved herself well able to cope with having bigger dogs around her and whilst she is not friends with them, she tolerates having them around.

Kipper is the older and cleverer of the two dogs.  He is a confident dog and he has made himself quite comfortable on our bed.  He also sometimes sleeps on Maxi's blanket.  Basically, he considers himself the cock of the roost.

Talking of roosts, there are four hens who lay lovely tasty eggs.  This photo shows Maxi, quite happily sniffing around the hen pen.  The chickens are allowed out of their pen for a about an hour each afternoon so they can graze on nice grass.  If any of them get a little lost in the very large yard, Kipper will helpfully round them up if we ask him to.  He does this without hurting the chickens.

Belle is a former race horse and she is lovely.  Like all horses, she loves her food and she likes an extra apple, a carrot, a corn cob or even the corn husks.  It is really satisfying not to waste any food scraps as either the chickens or the horse will eat all edible food stuff that is excess to requirements.  Here, we have little wet rubbish as I forgot to mention, there is also a worm farm for the food scraps the chickens and the horse don't want.

As well as the animals, there is also a nice bridge club at Caboolture with bridge sessions three times a week so our social life is also catered for.  The Caboolture library is a nice one too and as we did in Shailer Park, we use it on a regular basis.

After a hard day's bridge, feeding all the livestock, etc, here is Nikki relaxing in front of the TV with the dogs.

Rob and Denny, who are staying at their Bribie Island holiday home where we were 3 months ago, came for lunch with Denny's sister Beverley.  It was a lovely sunny day and Andrew and Rob carried the table and chairs out onto the grass.  You can see the two big dogs, Kipper and Hendrix, in the photo but the two small ones, Maxi and Bella are out of range.  Nevertheless, all the dogs had a lovely day.  We even let the chooks out and all the livestock were wandering around quite happily.

We spotted a couple of kangaroos in the horse's paddock and I was quick enough to capture kangaroo and horse in the same frame.

We Canberra city folk are getting our dose of animals at this very pleasant house sit.  All the animals are a joy.  The dogs with their incessant ball chasing, the horse with her lovely nature and the chickens who provide our daily eggs.  This is better than a farm stay by far.

This will be our last memory of Kipper and Hendrix with Kipper's friendly paw over Hendrix's shoulder as they sleep on the couch.  Kipper often preferred our bed as the first photo showed but they also spent evenings with us as we tried to watch tv in the small space they left for us on the couch.  They exhausted themselves chasing after the ball as much of the day as they could persuade us to throw or kick it to them.