The drive from Margaret River to Collie wasn't too long at all, under two hours which was fantastic. We drove thru Collie town itself to fill up with water before heading out to the lake to set up camp for the Easter period. There's nothing much to the town, reminded me of a slightly bigger Stanhope really (the town l grew up as a kid back in Victoria). Had a sense of country to it and that nothing moved too quick here. Some nice old heritage style buildings lined the main drag. As we drove out to the Collie Lake, the kids were again buzzed with the unknown and what they could explore. We drove round the lake, which was a picturesque bright blue, until we found two awesome camp sites right on the lake shore. The lake itself if an old mining quarry that was flooded and resulted in becoming a lake. Legend has it that there is still old mining equipment left down the bottom and the lake itself if a diving hotspot for locals to explore. The girls were very excited to be so close to water again, the thought of swimming whenever they wanted was nearly too much for them. We set up and got ready to chill for the rest of the day. Was great to be at a cheap camp site, money is becoming an extinct entity at the moment.
The ten days we stayed at Collie were full of nothingness. Something that becomes accustomed to the traveling life. I never knew what relaxation was until this trip. Just wasting an afternoon on reading a book is ok, you do get to stop and not feel guilty of not achieving anything for the day. We had a good run of the cheap camp ending up a free camp for the first few days before the Easter crowd emerged, cramping our style. The ranger found us and we had to forgo some cash for services, which was a lake, sand, noisy drunk neighbours and a blocked flushing toilet most days. Total cost for this was $48, not too bad for the week really.
We arrived prior to Easter to beat the crowds and was glad as one day it was just us, then it seemed the whole of Collie brought their tents and power boats out to camp for Easter. For the rest of the week we had to listen to power boats with big sub-whoofers going round and round in this overcrowded lake. Amazingly, they all were pretty sensible and no collisions occurred. Our young next door neighbours even gave the kids a ride on their tube behind the boat, all the kids got a go and it absolutely made their day. The kids also enjoyed a snorkel, though not much was seen as the lake was pretty deep over the old quarry. They also loved going out in the kayak together with no adult. A novelty really, but they didn't go too far out and they had their life jackets on.
While at Collie we celebrated both Marty and Wil's birthdays. For Marty's we headed into Bunbury, which was only an hour away, and got a few little gifts, had Macca's for lunch then headed back to the van were l baked a cake for everyone to enjoy with him. Wil's birthday celebrations involved heading back into Bunbury to the Dolphin Exploration Centre which we had hoped to have some close encounters with wild dolphins, well after half an hour staring out at the ocean with no dolphins in site, we gave up. The aquarium was good though, they had passionate volunteers running it with educational talks. The kids loved the 3D movie and the touch aquarium, pretty cool really. After the morning went by, we headed to Macca's once again for a bday lunch before heading back to camp. In the arvo the kids enjoyed games of musical chairs, balloon races and pin the tail on the donkey. Doesn't matter where you are, whether in a house or caravan, you can make a party anywhere!! Wil even has some fun with me with his can of cream. He so wanted to fill my mouth up, so me being fun and all, took to lying down in the chair where he filled up my mouth so much with cream that l nearly cracked myself laughing and spraying it everywhere. Next it was my turn on Wil and l got him back just as much. Fun party thats for sure, great for the kids to still be able to celebrate with 'normal party' games.
Easter came and so did Easter Bunny!! The kids got so spoiled and totally enjoyed the Easter egg hunt. I don't think the kids ate anything other than Easter eggs for the whole day. I so love Easter!!! The worst thing is that it was quite a warm day so half the eggs melted a bit, not that they lasted that long!! The kids enjoyed kayaking whilst we enjoyed lounging in the chairs with our feet in the water. Was getting a little tired due to the party goers at night being a bit wild and crazy, loud music and yelling keeping me up at night. Pity the ranger wasn't staying to control the noise level, just arrived every morning to collect camp fee's and to inspect and unblock the toilet, which only last an hour before blocking again!! After the morning egg hunt, we headed off on a little drive to find Gnomesville. I remembered seeing this on Rove on tv one year. It all started with some couple leaving a few gnomes on the side of the road, and after many years of people stopping and adding a few more, it has now ended up being a little gnomes village, from travellers all over the world leaving their mark on Oz. When we arrived, the kids got out of the car in excitement and ran all over the place shouting "look at this one". Some people had gone to a lot of trouble with setting up a theme, there was an area where there were space gnomes, racing car gnomes, drug partying gnomes, ACDC gnomes, the seven dwarfs, etc. Was like a little magical land, quite fascinating. We strolled thru the area for at least an hour, with the bigger kids (Marty and Matt) having a blast as much as the other littler ones. There would have been thousands, and when we were leaving, there was another family bringing in their mark to leave in gnomesville.
Just after Easter, Ton and Cam turned up for a night on their way to heading to Perth. We had a nice night of catching up over some quiet beverages, when we had the Cronan's next door neighbour James come over and join us. Well that ended up being a wrong decision, sometimes doesn't pay to be nice and friendly. We spent the night listening to his life story of his cheating and violent wife. Now l have said in the past that you meet people and find out a lot about them very quickly but this was unbelievable. He was more than an open book and poor Ton and Cam got stuck handing out advice and listening to his worries. In the end he was so drunk he couldn't stand up and l felt no pity for him, just for his two young boys, who by the way were so lovely.
On the last few days of our stay we managed to arrange for Jacinta, Mike and little Trent to come out to the lake for a visit. We had met them on the first leg of our trip at the Goldcoast in QLD at a caravan park in Labrador. They were on holidays from NSW and since then they had relocated to Bunbury to live as Mikey got a job at Collie Aluminium Smelter. Was so great to see them, Trent had grown up so much and Jacinta and Mikey hadn't changed a bit. Such a lovely couple, so generous and down to earth. Mikey brought a big bag of Easter eggs out and the kids did another hunt together. They even brought out afternoon tea with platers and dips, l think they thought we lived in poverty, funny really.
Our time in Collie at the lake had wrapped up and we were all relaxed and ready for the last leg of our journey to Geraldton to find work. I had enjoyed my running in the bush, only getting a little lost once, and my distance had improved. We were also treated to some amazing sunsets, with pink skies that reflected off the water. It was time to split from the Cronan's once more as we had decided to head to Butler, a superb outside of Perth, to see our friends that we met in Bali and explore Perth for a few days.....

Bell Xxx