044 - Herron Point to Fremantle (10/5/17)

Big smoke time, relatively speaking. After weeks of smaller coastal towns, National Parks and country roadside stops, it was time to get back to the concrete kingdom of a capital city. I’m sure the locals in Freo would probably argue that it isn’t part of Perth, but to me, it’s kind of like arguing that Sandringham isn’t in Melbourne. There’s no “green wedge” between them, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s that same city.

But before we got there, we engaged 4WD again to get the van out of our sandy spot at Herron Point, and rolled over the highway towards Pinjarra. We’d heard about Pinjarra Bakery somewhere on the grapevine and after calling past the day before, I thought it was worth the detour back to it.

I’m a lover of country town bakeries, and whilst this one has expanded to another two shops elsewhere, unlike Beechworth Bakeries, still felt like it was run by the little Nonna that set it up all the years ago. Brilliant pastries and cakes, B and I tucked into a “Truckers Breakfast Sub” which was a collaboration of all the breakfast food groups. Pastry, eggs, sausage, tomatoe, cheese, and a few other things in as well. ‘Twas awesome and paired with a ripper coffee, made me feel like I could jump in my Road Train and head down the highway to torment backpackers…  (gotta love a good stereotype).

The BGL wanted to come in, but settled for letting me park her literally as close as I could.

We had lined up one of the Big 4 parks in Freo (Woodmans Point) as B had run and confirmed that they’d be able to store our van for a measly sum when we did an overnighter to Rottnest Island later in the week.

We got into Woodmans and were offered a paved site! I’d never had a paved site! I was so excited… Until I saw the paved site. Tight pokey and over in the “Departure Lounge” surrounded by Nomads galore… So we went and had a look at the grassed alternative… Large, soft with a mat, literally opposite the jumping pillow. We put it to a vote to see which one the family liked more. Unanimous 5-0 in favour of grassed site. So we moved over, and after a bit of tight manouvering, convinced the Big Green Lizard that this was the place to be.

Was a little tight swinging past the playground fence but we got there without to many issues. Needed to adjust the jockey wheel though as it had a reasonable lift to get level!

And what it looks like once set up. It still amazes me how compact our life is at the moment, and really how little we actually need. And we're doing it "luxury" style.

After set up, the usual “proximity walk” was undertaken where we walk the park to check out and establish boundaries for the kids. It’s usually about working out who the “likely types” are, where the safe areas are located and basically to stretch legs after being in the car. Also helps to soothe any frustrations that may have occurred during setup (which thankfully are getting few and far between).

This walk took us up to the jetty which we were told was only a short 10min walk. Hmph… maybe for Kerry Saxby but by my counts it was a solid hour round trip once you take in 10min on the beach and jetty itself. Still, it showed a beautiful spot and we knew this was a nice place to base our Freo/Perth adventures from.

James pondering. Not sure what about. Maybe "could Gravedigger drive on this water?"

Another location, another cartwheel.

This bloke was camped on the jetty. Wasn't budging. I called him Mr Percival. Went over the heads of 100% of my family, unsurprisingly.

Afterwards, we took off in the car as we’d promised to take B somewhere she’d been waiting to go for ages. Not a winery. Not the movies. Not a teapot making factory. No… she was hanging to go to… ALDI. So we found one nearby and dropped her off… Weird. In the meantime, the kids and I gave the Rock Truck a long overdue bath and a bit of TLC. Wasn’t as good as I wanted due to the absorbant cost of the car wash, but I think at one point I counted four shades of dirt/salt/sand coming off. So probably worthwhile…

I can only imagine this is the car equivalent of the shower I have when I get back from Bathurst every year. I could almost see the truck smile.

Picking B up I thought ALDI must have been running a “buy one of everything” promo, but she certainly took her chance to shop!

Before calling it a night, I decided to reward Sam with a couple of days of pretty top behaviour with a bit of a late night journey down to the jetty for a fish. We ran a cover story of “Mum forgot something at ALDI and Sam and I were going back to get it” and amazingly the other two bought it. I mean… as if there was anything else left in the shop…

Sam and I headed back to the jetty where we were met by what can only be described as hordes… Awesome I thought, this must be the place to be… I should have known.

In our 90min there, I think I counted all of 2 tiny small puffers brought in by the crowd. What the hell were they all doing here?? We were getting plenty of nibbles, but I feel they were more crabs as I managed to pull one to the surface before he literally ‘saw the light’ and let go.

If this crew, who had all the gear, couldn't hook a fish, what was our chances? As Pop says:

"It's called fishing, not catching"

It was a little cool, but this fella couldn't have cared less

Still, it was great to have some one on one with Sam and we laughed, joked and enjoyed every minute of it.

It’s the small moments I feel I get the most reward out of.