We are on holiday!

Tuesday 6th September 2022

We said our sad goodbyes today – first to Tim, Tessa and Jack, then Soph, and finally Sheila. It was hard to leave such a comfortable time, especially when it’s pouring rain outside, it felt so wrong to go!

We left at 11, and made our way out of Perth and through a dramatic landscape of purple skies and bright yellow paddocks. Rain fell intermittently throughout the drive and we pushed straight on to Pingrup, to get there before the community centre closed at 4.

We arrived in Pingrup around 3:30. The caravan park is managed by the community centre, with great facilities and one two bedroom cabin that must be the fanciest house in Pingrup! Large rooms, two bathrooms, full size kitchen, laundry, two big TVs (that required linking to a device – unfortunately we couldn’t use them because as usual our phones had no reception – it seems Aldi phone is not a good choice for Western Australia!).

Once some rain had passed we went for a walk around town. There is a small museum in the old school house, detailing the life of the school itself, war involvement, local architecture over the years, and the process of removing all the Mallee from the area to create farming land – a process that is taught in ecology as one of Australia’s environmental disasters, as it has raised the water table and increased salinity. I guess this explains some of the extensive patches of dead vegetation we have seen travelling through the region.

Pingrup is a tiny town with a servo, a pub (I couldn’t tell if it was open), the community centre, and an excellent playground that doesn’t look like it gets much use – the sand was overgrown with weeds! Unfortunately Otis, continuing his streak of accidents, fell off the equipment, so their play was a short one. We carried Otis back to the cabin, nursing a large bump on his head. 😭

We settled in for an early dinner with a sad and sore Otis, and watched Arrietty on Richie’s phone. Tegan gave Bonnie ‘the Borrowers’ when they left Darwin and we had just finished reading it, so we were due for the movie. Otis perked up for custards for dessert, and went to bed feeling better.