Fowler's Bay

Tonight we’re treating ourselves to a caravan park at Fowler’s Bay, which is just before the Nullabor. We decided it was time for a clothes wash and shower, so this is it! It was also nice that it didn’t take us terribly long to get here either – helped by the fact that we set a trip record, and left this morning by 9.20am. So we arrived here at 3ish, which meant that there was time to have a look around before getting cooking etc, which made for a much more pleasant evening, rather than rushing to set up, rushing to cook and wash up in daylight etc. It’s a funny little town, I think it has a permanent population of 14, and is mainly here for fishing and whale watching tourism. It’s basically a couple of houses plonked right next to these huge sand dunes which come right to the edge of the town and right to the edge of the water. We went for a walk on them which was really fun (the running down part) and the kids loved it. Unfortunately we forgot to take the camera…. But I’m sure we’ll see more dunes as we go. There are also lots of people in the caravan park (staying in parks is much more sociable than bush camping!) and even a family with kids. Although their kids are too old for our guys it was still nice talking to the parents as they’re heading in the same direction as us, and they’ve come from the NSW/VIC border. They were even generous enough to offer us a fish that they had caught for our dinner, as they had caught more than they could eat – it was a monster salmon, freshly caught this afternoon from the beach in the surf, and was fantastic. We quickly ditched our pasta water which was cooking and just had the sauce with the salmon.

It’s also nice to be staying somewhere mice-free, although when I asked if they had a laundry, I forgot to check if they had a dryer, so now I’m hoping that our stuff will blow dry by the time we want to leave tomorrow. Luckily it’s windy and cloudy tonight so it probably won’t get too cold. We are trying to time it so that we have one more night’s fresh fruit and veggies before we get patted down on the WA border – apparently they’re quite strict and there’s a quarantine station that’s staffed 24 hours a day, so I may be there, yet again, trying to finish that last orange rather than throw it out. The kids are all cosy after a shower before bed (I’m saving mine for the morning) so it’s time for me to pack it in too.