THE BIG DASH: Five months in

We now officially have Perth in our rear-view mirrors.

It was great to spend some time there, but as we’ve previously recounted, the speed and noise of the big smoke becomes wearing after a while.

A highlight was catching up with a bunch of old friends, and having our Melbourne friends Justin and Laura fly in for a few days to play tourist with us.

They are great people and great company and we had a ball.

But now it’s time to head south-west and then south-east as we check out Busselton, the Margaret River region and beyond.

There’s much to see and do down here and we’re keen to experience as much of it as we can.

25K and counting

A big moment this week as the odometer in Tas, our Kia Tasman X-Pro, ticked over 25,000km, so it seemed an appropriate time to go back through and crunch the numbers.

This week also marked five months on the road, our departure from Perth and the start of the final two months of our journey.

So, without further ado, here’s what we have come up with:

• Diesel consumed: 3193.56 litres
• Distance covered: 20,517km
• Diesel cost: $8471.76
• Average fuel consumption: 15.57L/100km
• Average distance per dollar: 2.42km/$
• Average fuel cost: $41.29 per 100km

All that time, all that distance, all that money! It feels like forever since we left our home in Somers, but also just yesterday.

Has it been worth it? Do I even have to answer that.

Splashing out in Perth

Travelling in remote regions doesn’t lend itself to fine dining.

Jane’s a great cook so we’ve always eaten well and we’ve had some nice surprises, like pizza at Nightcliff in Darwin and Spanish Mackerel at Cygnet Bay on the Dampier Peninsula.

But arriving in Perth really opened up the opportunities and we had some beaut meals and experiences at various places, including the Gage Road brewery in Fremantle and a delicious Indian meal in the Swan Valley.

But nothing matched the Corner Dairy in Scarborough. This is a very cool place and not necessarily one that Jane and I would find ourselves in on a trip like this.

But there’s a back story here.

Many years ago Jane and I were fortunate to spend a week summer holidaying on a boat owned by our friends Steve and Judy Lague in the harbour at Rottnest Island.

From what I remember we had a great time! I don’t think I remember everything because there was a fair amount of imbibing going on.

Anyway, two of the many people we met were Nick and Jane Hart, who are among Steve and Judy’s closest friends.

Years on we are back in Perth and it turns out Nick and Jane own a restaurant called The Corner Dairy. So that’s where the six of us caught up.

Lunch went for five hours. It was a bit of an epic.

The food was epic too. Original and attractive in its presentation and delicious to eat. Basically we ate and drank our way through the menu. A special shout-out to the hot chips, Nick and Jane reckon they are the best In Perth. They have an argument.

A great afternoon. So, if you’re in Perth, make sure you check out The Corner Dairy.

More mountain biking

Having travelled south from Perth to Busselton it was time to get the mountain bike out again, because south-west Western Australia is legendary for its many trails.

I’ve been joined riding this week by my mate Don, who has flown from the east coast with his wife Kirsty to spend some time with us.

Our first outing was a 25km old-school loop called Middle Earth. When I say old school, I mean it’s hand- rather than machine-built, so it’s narrow and the technical challenges are based on natural features.

So the rock gardens are pretty haphazard, there’s plenty of roll-overs built by stacking branches and soil over fallen trees and even some burnt-out v-trees to ride through.

You might not think 25km sounds far, but when it’s tight and twisty single track with 350m of climbing thrown in, it’s a challenge.

So after 20km we ran out of time basically and had to bush bash our way back to the car. Inevitably, we got lost and that meant we missed a chance to visit the very enticingly named Beer Farm on the way home. Bugger!

The second outing was at the Dunsborough Country Club, which as its name suggests is a golf club. The trails climb in the trees and rough between the fairways until the bushland is reached.

Then well-groomed trails run in all directions. Very different to Middle Earth, but no less enjoyable.

Rather than get lost, this time Don suffered a puncture we couldn’t repair, so that curtailed the fun.

Not missing the tent

The weather has changed as we head south from Perth. It’s cold, grey and wet and a far cry from those blue-sky days at Cable Beach that are receding into memory.

It’s a nice feeling to be warm in bed watching the TV as the rain hammers down on the roof.

I remember what it used to be like to tent in this stuff. No thanks!

The weather change does mean we’ve packed away our Alpine Annexes shade screen and replaced it with a Tiegear waterproof screen.

We find it invaluable to have the added room and usually put the awning and screen out unless we are staying somewhere only a single night.

Having mentioned the Englaon TV, I’ll give you an update from the review published a few months ago.

The remote control has turned into a bastard of a thing. It’s never been that co-operative, requiring firm pressure to respond.

We’ve changed batteries of course, but it hasn’t improved its behaviour.

I was reminded how poorly it behaves when I had the chance to use the remote control for another TV. Light, easy touches, instant response, every time.

The other TV drama is the HDMI cable connecting the soundbar to the TV has been shredded. I bought a replacement but so far no luck getting the soundbar to fire up. So we get tinny instead of lush audio.

More top parks

Just a shout-out to the Royal Automobile Club of WA, the RAC, for the quality of its caravan parks.

We’ve now stayed with them at Exmouth, Monkey Mia, Cervantes and Busselton and have found them to be consistently excellent.

The sites are big, access to them is at least acceptable and often generous, so you can do your manoeuvring without fear of hitting something solid.

I especially appreciate that because my reversing skills still need some fine tuning. I can get 80-90 per cent of the way to where I want to go and can then get a bit lost.

Tight sites don’t help with that.

The facilities at RAC parks are modern and usually clean. In Exmouth they struggled to keep up with the crush of school holidays, which is understandable.

The locations themselves are very agreeable, most notably Monkey Mia (Chapter 22).

Other chains like Discovery and Summerstar do a good job, but RAC is our number one right now.

I should declare at this point I do some writing for RAC, but this is not a suck-up. It’s just what we have experienced.

Anyway, we’ve arrived in Margaret River, now it’s time to explore!