triplog

On Saturday Jane and I left Perth and headed south again (Jane drove most of the way) to pick up the keys of our new (rental) house in Dunsborough. A real, live, honest to goodness house, with walls and doors that don’t zip up and real plumbing and hot water and power…

Anyway, so this is where we’re settling until at least well after the baby arrives - what d’you reckon? It’s a massive house, all on one level, surrounded by trees in the older part of Dunsborough - older, but more character than one of the soul-less new estates, where they cleared all the trees and the houses are built almost on top of each other. There’s terracotta tiled floors throughout (except in the bedrooms, which are carpeted), a big open kitchen (gas), a woodfire in the living room, 4 bedrooms plus a study plus 2 living rooms - and a shed out the back. The only downside so far is the colour of the blinds - they’re an off-pink (Jane insists they’re apricot, but I still reckon they’re pink).

Now we’re just waiting for all our stuff to arrive… lucky we’re fully equipped for (and dare I say it, kinda good at) camping.

The second day of the drive back towards WA went a bit smoother - maybe I’m getting into the long-haul zone. Could be the fact I’m wearing a filthy blue singlet, swearing at traffic a lot and living on Chiko rolls and roadhouse sustenance (Gray, you must have snuck a camera into the car).

I left Lake Benanee around 7am Sydney time, and managed to get as far as the rest area just east of Yalata Roadhouse, 300-odd kms short of the WA border - a total distance of 1260kms. Again, if you wanna have a closer look at the map and my route, try this link.

I’m writing this from the roadhouse at the WA/SA border village - I got up pre-dawn and have notched up another 3 hours/300kms. Here’s me at the border - I’m not grumpy, just squinting into the dawn:

Here’s a few more shots from the road:

Does it get any better?

… and I surfed in boardies. Sorry, Jane.

I ended up staying the night in Byron, but the pulse of swell from the afternoon before didn’t hang around until morning. So I started making my way south, stopping in to check first Tallows (nothing doing - still some size, but very messy) and then Broken Head - bingo! It looked pretty good when I first got there so I went out for a wave, but it rapidly deteriorated - mainly closeouts.

Organic doughnuts? They weren’t open at the time, but Jane has a thing for doughnuts, so I felt compelled to at least capture the sign. So there you go, Jane, this one’s for you.