Thursday 9^th February 2017

Distance driven   322 km   Total 4249 km

Alexandra Bridge – Margaret River – Binningup – Woodman Point

This morning we set off for the town of Margaret River, and then turned off towards the river mouth, the town itself being around 5 km inland. We wanted to get our first look at the Indian Ocean as we were now on the west coast of Australia.  We parked looking out over Surfers Point while we had breakfast.  It was a sunny morning with a strong wind blowing and the van was being buffeted by the gusts.  There were lots of surfers out.

View over Surfers Point.                                                                                                Looking towards the mouth of Margaret River.

Steve concentrating hard on his boiled eggs.

After breakfast we went round to see the point where the Margaret River meets the ocean, but it stopped somewhat short and seemed to end in a pool behind the beach.

The mouth of the Margaret River, with rather more sand than water.

Then we headed back towards town, passing some very nice houses along the way.  We did a turn around the town, where pretty much all of the action is along the main street which is also the state highway through the town, then attempted to stop for diesel, but a queue was building up behind a tanker making a delivery.  We decided not to wait and headed off, keeping fingers crossed we would have better luck not too far down the road.

Although windy, the weather was fine until we stopped a few hours later for lunch.  We turned off the main road which ran parallel to the coast but some way inland, and arrived at a seaside spot called Binningup.  Here the local council had built a good-sized car park with toilets, a children’s playground and a cafe (closed).  We imagined it might be busy at the weekend or during school holidays as it was just off the sandy beach, but today it was deserted except for a couple of mums pushing their pre-schoolers on the swings.

While we had our lunch, the heavens opened, and pretty much stayed that way for the rest of the day.  We returned to the main road north along the coast, and arrived at our stop for the night, Woodman Point Holiday Park, around 4 o’clock.  It was still teeming with rain, and we had to wade through puddles to get to Reception.  This campsite is just 30km from Perth, and we chose it because it is next to a nature reserve through which you can walk to the beach.  The intention was to have an evening stroll to the beach and enjoy our last night of camping before returning the van tomorrow.   The weather had other ideas though, and it rained, hard, all evening.

In the morning we would pack our stuff and clean the inside of the van ready for its return.  The nice lady in Reception had extended our check out time to 11 o’clock, giving us time to get it all spick and span.  Then we would drive to a car rental firm not far from the Apollo base and collect a car for the coming week which I would then drive to Apollo.  Steve would fill the camper van diesel tank on his way to return it.  Then we would transfer all our stuff into the hire car, bid the camper van farewell, and drive to the apartment we have booked for the next four nights in the Leederville area of Perth.

Google maps of today’s drive from Alexandra Bridge to Woodman Point.