We were pleased that New Year's Eve was relatively quiet because we had an invitation to go to Contos Beach Campground in Leewin Naturaliste National Park with Steve, Noelene and their girlfriend Annie so she could try out her new 4WD. As it turned out it was just the four of us who left way too early on Saturday morning and we were packed to the gunwales including Kimbo’s surfboard. The trip down was fabulous. We stopped at Busselton and it’s claim to fame is its beautiful jetty and stunning beach. We pushed on to the famous Margaret River township and it was jumping, people everywhere. We were armed with a map and off we went to find our camp spot.
We chose Contos and pitched our tents in amongst the beautiful tea trees and close to the beach.
The first thing we did was go for a drive through the sandhills and we almost got ourselves bogged as none of us had any 4WD experience at all. Thankfully all was well in the end. The boys were then dropped at the beach where Kimbo found a nice break and Steve did some body surfing while Noelene and I went back to Margaret River to let Annie know where we are. We had a quiet night away from the campfire that was packed with other campers who appeared to be scouts, so we sat around our camp and enjoyed the relative peace.

Next morning however we were awoken at 6.00am!!!!! by the sound of a rubbish bin lid being hit by a stick – it was the Venturer Scouts leader and we weren’t happy – it was Sunday morning after all. What it did was get us up and make the most of the day. We tried to find the scenic drive to the kauri forest, but every road appeared to be a scenic drive it is stunningly beautiful down here. We did eventually "find" the kauri forest and we were in awe of these amazing trees, of course there are no big trees in South Australia (apart from the river red gums) so these trees blew us away, all this after some inspirational navigating to find Caves Road. The greenery is just amazing.
After leaving Boranup National Park we found a maze and I was the only one who found the middle without cheating…….what does that say?
From there it was on to Hamelin Bay, another stunning beach. Then time for lunch of fish and chips at Augusta, the other three went for a swim but it wasn’t warm enough for me. On the way back we stopped at Blackwood River, another beautiful place, each turn just shows us another amazing sight. We know we’ll be back this way a lot during our time in WA. The jewel in the crown was Lake Cave, as the name suggests there was water in the cave, but not a lake but a stream and there was 300 steps that took us down……phew! By the time we got back to camp Annie was there so we all jumped in her car and took her 4WDing and she just loved it, because of course we’re professionals now. Enjoyed our time around the campfire as it was a simply glorious evening.

Much to our horror the gong went off again at 6.00am but it didn’t come as such a shock as yesterday. It was going to be a very hot day so we made the decision to get away early and make the trek back to Perth. We stopped first at Prevelly Park but the surf was a bit too big for Kimbo so we pushed on to Yallingup. Then Dunsborough was the spot for a swim – it was hot enough for me too. Busselton for burgers and chips at lunchtime and it was just glorious and then home we went. It was pretty cramped in the back of the Suzi and having the surfboard in there didn’t help so I was pleased to get home. I was surprised that every second car here seems to be a 4WD, I’ve never seen so many.