Perth Recharge

One of the main reasons for heading to Perth, given we were passing through Kalgoorlie, and a day’s drive from here, was to check in with the Camprite boys in the factory where these little beauties are made.  We had a few tweaks we wanted done to the camper, as well as some questions and checks.  We had arranged to go and see them on Friday, so Thursdays was ours!

Our new ‘city’ surroundings were highlighted pretty early when we were laying in bed on the first morning.  Savannah asked “What’s that noise”.  “What noise?”  “That.... ‘errrrrrrrrrrrrrr’”.  Laughing at how poignant her question was, we had to tell her that it was traffic noise.  Goes to show how much time we’d spent in the bush, and how quiet life can be.  Glenn hates that noise too, so well spotted Savannah!                   

Glenn had somehow picked up a small cold, (probably those snotty Melbourne family members J), and was in recovery mode.  We were all generally pretty ‘travel weary’ after a long hall down to Perth.  It had been a good run, just lots of travelling.  It was good to ‘put out the anchor’ as Glenn’s dad would say.

We filled in the day pretty easily.  We had chosen another caravan park with our preferable entertainment devices, a pool, playground and a jumping pillow.  Our friend Gabby laughed at us, asking if we were ‘resort’ hopping.  We figure, if the kids are entertained, life is happy!!

On the Friday we packed up the camper and headed to Camprite.  Was great to see their factory, and chat to the guys.  Extremely professional and superior customer service.  Very very impressed.  We got our adjustments made and asked the 100 questions we had built up.  We also saw the new Camprite models they had just released....  ohhhhhhhh.. .arrrrr, but no, no trade-ins.

 

While we were waiting for the boys to do some work on the camper, we went and entertained ourselves at the markets around the corner.  Other than wandering around looking at not much, we spotted some kids with their faces painted.  We tracked down the lady doing the painting, just in time as she was about to pack up.  Amy asked the girls, “Do you want your faces painted?”  Without hesitating, (and probably not really knowing what it meant) Jess was straight in there with a “YES”.  Savannah, no, not so much.

Jess jumped up, and for her first face paint, went very well, allowing the lady to paint a butterfly on her face.  When she’d finished, we showed her herself via the iPhone, it was hilarious, she just sat there staring..... liking it, but found it weird!!!  Savannah did relax into it, and got a few flowers painted on her arm, which she absolutely loved.  They both had a ball.

First time butterfly

First time arm painting

When we had picked up the camper and returned back to camp, we did something unprecedented on this trip, we set up the awning AND the walls.  Whooooooooooooh, we have ourselves a little room, perhaps you could even call it a living room!!! (Funny the things you get excited about). 

We made friends with one of our caravan park neighbours, who were in the process of moving to Perth from Adelaide.  They were staying at the CP for the week, while waiting for their new house to become available.  So we all decided to go out for dinner on the Saturday night, with their 3 kids and ours. We went to the City Beach and checked out Clancy’s Fish Bar – very trendy, great food and atmosphere. And of course, great company.

The next few days were spent in go slow mode.  Small sleep ins (as much as the kids would allow), lots of playground and jumping pillow action, a little pool dipping, and sitting around having cuppa’s and kids riding their bikes and enjoying their new friends.

On the Sunday, we ventured out to Kings Park, a huge park very close to the city.  The views of the city and the water were as good as had been expected, all highlighted in the beautiful sunshine.  Everyone was out enjoying the day and the park’s green lawns and surrounding bush.  Glenn had been promising all trip to pull out a kite we’d bought for entertainment. This seemed like a great time for it.

Glorious Kings Park

Amazing how this Boab isn't sliding down the hill

We setup the kite and the girls were busting.  There wasn’t a heap of wind unfortunately, (a natural enemy to the kite), but we improvised by having a short line, and running around the park with it.  The girls were so excited and raced around looking at the flying butterfly behind them.  Well worth it.

Come back Dad! That's our kite!

 

It wasn’t all relaxing back at camp. Amy did have the usual 10 tonne of washing to get through. We squeezed in another huge grocery re-stock and Glenn had to track down an electrical short that had our break lights blowing regularly, not really what we want!  He eventually tracked it down to a set of wires rubbing against the back tank, shorting when they moved.  Given the difficult and inaccessible spot the wires were in, a bit of bush mechanics fixed the problem for now with a bit of foam stuffed up there, stopping them touching the tank.  Let’s see if that holds shall we!