Bornholm, Mutton Bird and Nanarup Beaches

Bornholm, Mutton Bird and Nanarup Beaches

March 5, 2021 Club Magazine 0

David & Cindy, Prado + camper trailer

Shane & Gary, Triton + 2 x tents

Ivo, L/C + tent

Penny & Spence, L/C + Camper trailer

Gary, Claire, Gabriel & Azriel, L/C + Camper trailer

Sean, Deb & Luke, Triton + Camper trailer

Lin, FJ + Tent

Don & Jane, Patrol + Camper trailer

Roger & Karen, L/C + Camper trailer

Fun trip facts:

9 x cars

18 x humans

1 x barks person (we have to be politically correct these days)

6 x camper trailers

4 x tents

2 x speeding tickets

2 x tyre blowouts

5 x balloons

1 x birthday cake

Approx 1200k round trip.

We set off early on Friday morning for a 6:30 am meet at the Hogs Breath Cafe in Kelmscott, from there, David, Cindy, Gary, Claire, the boys, Lin and Ivo set off for our journey South.

Our first stop was at Banister, after taking nature’s call, we caught a whiff of something delicious, it didn’t take long to lure everyone into the shop to buy freshly baked bread and pies.

Next stop was Kojonup, where we met Shane and Gary.

Karen and Roger had already arrived at the caravan park on Thursday and called to let us know that the caravan park was expecting over 200 vehicles to check in, so we decided to let the cars not towing go on ahead to get us a good spot. Unfortunately they went a bit too quick which resulted in red and blue flashing lights, some friendly conversation with the ‘popo’, and …… a fine and demerit points. Shhh!

Everyone arrived at the caravan park by midday, with Don & Jane and Deb & Sean arriving a little later. After shoo’ing some very relaxed kangaroos out of the way, we found our ‘spots’ and set up our ‘homes’ for the next few days.

David kept up our tradition of home made pizzas, he mixed and kneaded the pizza dough and set it aside to rise for the afternoon.

As always, the pizza ‘s were a real crowd pleaser. The two baby Q’s and mini pizza stones were in fine form, baking some delicious pizzas with some very creative toppings.

Day one was complete with full bellies, great conversation (and drinks) flowing.

Sat 27 Feb, Day two was started VERY early with the sounds of cackling laughter, chuckles and hoots from the Kookaburras. This was closely followed by the sound of tent zips opening and soon after the sizzle of bacon and eggs for breakfast – yum!

We headed out to Bornholm Beach. We were met with a rather steep decline of very soft sand, and we were all thinking the same thing “ this will be interesting coming back up”. The beach was gorgeous with soft white sand, turquoise water with some very large waves that even Penny said she wouldn’t venture into!

Shane and Gary were quick to get out the fishing rods and drop a few lines.

The rest of us took a quick drive to the end of the beach and back again, this is when we noticed how quickly the tide was coming in. Our fearless leader made the decision that we needed to get going as we did not know how long it would take to get back up the hill.

Gary went first as he was facing the right way, and he made it up half way, with a slight hesitation choosing which fork to take, he got a little bit bogged, but nothing he couldn’t handle, he set up some Max tracks to assist the rest of the convoy. With Gary positioned to direct everyone on the right path, and the Max Tracks carefully placed, we all made it up.

Lin was most pleased with herself and apparently had a Cheshire Cat grin all the way up.

The Prado being the last vehicle up, we stopped part way to pick up a very hot and breathless Gary, comments were made that maybe he would need Penny & Spences AED!

Unfortunately this is where the first tyre blowout occurred for Shane.

As the saying goes, ‘Many hands make light work’, and the tyre was changed so quickly, they would have put a F1 pit stop crew to shame.

With getting 8 cars back up that steep hill, it took a fair amount of time, so we made a decision to head back to camp for a late lunch. After lunch, some of the group went off to Elephants Rock and Greens pool for a swim, a fish and to fly the drone.

Being David’s birthday, some of us stayed back at camp to bake a birthday cake and set up some balloons and lights.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Sun 28th Feb, another early start thanks to the Kookaburras and Crows, we had breakfast and set off by 8:00am towards “Esperance”… well the signs all pointed that way. We went to Nanarup beach which was absolutely picture perfect. The weather was glorious, even with it being a bit on the cool side, thank goodness we were not tempted to swim, as the beach was riddled with Blue Bottles.

Even our fearless fisherman was trying to keep his feet out of the water.

We left Nanarup and made our way to Mutton Bird Beach which was also very picturesque, but very windy and more Blue Bottles. With some clever placement of the cars, we created wind breaks to boil the kettles for a much needed coffee and morning tea.

We couldn’t head out the way we originally planned as the track went on a 45 degree angle, so we turned around and went out the way we came in. This added a bit of extra time to our journey so we decided to head back to camp to chillax, and again, a decision well made, as this is where the second tyre blowout happened, but the pit crew were well prepared and we on the road again in no time.

Back at camp, we chilled out for a bit and chatted.

Shane and Gary went off fishing again and caught a few keepers.

Karen made a suggestion to head out to a local lookout for sun downers. This was a great suggestion as the view was spectacular, the company most enjoyable and we were even graced with four Pelicans gliding gracefully above us. We even witnessed a “full moon”!

What a great way to end a most enjoyable long weekend.

Certain that the Kookaburras would give us our morning wake up call ( and they did not disappoint) we got up and had everything packed up just in time for the rain to make an appearance.

With the good byes said, and wishes of safe travels given, we all headed off on our separate journeys home.

The ‘popo’ were back out in force and once again the red and blue lights lit up the horizon. But again, shh!

Thank you to all who came along, we had many laughs and have captured some wonderful memories.

Story by Cindy F

Click on the image to see the YouTube Vid of this trip.

 

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