ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Karens Country Cottage

View from Karens Front Verandah

Well, what a crabby, cranky and unpleasant Old Woman I sounded in that last blog!!! I must have really been peeved when I spewed that one out – sorry folks, I will try to make amends this time.


We are on the first of those Sanity Breaks I mentioned and it is just wonderful to be back on the road and in true caravan mode again. We have been away from over-heated Perth for 3 beautiful weeks and still have another couple to go. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I checked the calendar and discovered that we still had 2 weeks up our sleeves not just one as I had previously (in Seniors Mode?) thought. I have to tell you my moods had been deteriorating just thinking of having to go back, but now I have more ‘unwind’ time ahead.


I have just finished writing the blog and have realised that it is much too long to put into one issue, (I know, how unusual!) so I will break it into several separate blogs and that way I can give you more photos too. I suggest that you just read one blog at a time otherwise you will be cursing me. Steph.


Delightful Donnybrook


We left Caversham on the 9th March and headed southwards to Donnybrook where my younger son’s mother-in-law Karen has recently set up home. Karen recently purchased a few acres just outside the town and has had a small one bedroom transportable home erected there. She is in the process of adding on another 2 bedrooms and an additional bathroom to the existing dwelling. She has decorated the tiny home in very pretty ‘country style’ and her little front veranda overlooks a little brook which wends its way through both pasture and jarrah forest. It is all looking quite good, but we can see that she has a great deal of hard work ahead of her yet. We left there feeling somewhat concerned for her – she has done extraordinarily well to get as far as she has in creating her idyllic lifestyle, but we feel the biggest tests are yet to come. We wish her all the best in her endeavours and hope that it all works out as planned for her. One of the reasons she is having the additional bedrooms built is so that she can start fostering children. She is of course heading for sainthood and we, being terrible old sinners, just cannot imagine doing anything so altruistic and are somewhat in awe of her plans.


Karen insisted on having us for ‘tea’ and we were well and truly looked after and treated to a tasty BBQ before heading back to the caravan park. The Caravan Park there was a pleasant surprise, having only recently been established by the local shire. It consists of several simple drive-through sites on beautiful green grassy sites. The amenities are brand new and designed to be a sort of ‘shared’ en-suite style.


Donnybrook is only a couple of hours drive from Perth, and is largely a fruit growing community. Many of our apples come from this region, along with an abundance of other stone fruits. The area is pleasantly undulating and very easy on the eye. The little town there boasts pretty much anything you would need and when necessary it is only an easy drive of 35ks across to the major centre in Bunbury. The area also boasts some wonderful taste experiences (or so it says in my little book!) which include sundried fruits, wines, ciders and an absolute abundance of delights.