Esperance (5-8 Apr)
With the crash fresh on my mind, I decided not to brave towing the caravan on the Eyre Highway. Instead, I typed up my first aid course notes in the car so that I could have them printed and filed by topic. I would still panic and not know what to do in an emergency, but at least I have good notes.
As a side anecdote, Justin’s 4WD instructor cautioned not to swerve the car to prevent hitting an animal (apart from cows which could crush you) as the caravan would rollover. This means that we would inevitably hit a kangaroo that may happen to jump in our path. To avoid the traumatic expectation for us to put an injured kangaroo out of its misery (if the vehicle has not already killed it), as well as check a female’s pouch for a joey, we have a rule not to drive at dusk or dawn.
Upon arrival at Esperance, we stopped at a car wash to hose off the red dirt (the caravan did a remarkable job in keeping the dirt out) before checking into the RAC Holiday Park where we quickly unpacked and did three loads of laundry. Millie was keen to meet some new friends but we found the other families kept very much to themselves. We reasoned that most were on their Easter school break and suspected Millie would have a better chance of meeting longer-term travellers (or lappers) as we head up the West coast.
Days in Esperance were spent on the beautiful coastline with some boogie boarding at Twilight Beach. Under Millie’s persuasion, I donned my first ever wetsuit and Justin patiently helped me catch a wave. After being pulled down and spun around under water on a couple of occasions, I decided to call it a day. Our last night in Esperance was spent cooking and prepping to minimise our power usage over the next four nights when we would be without power.
With the constant need to plan ahead and the time and effort required for cooking, cleaning and maintaining a degree of order within a confined space, I’ve concluded this caravanning business is not all that cruisy after all. Justin tells me that we are running a household at the end of the day. I guess he’s right but I thought I’d signed up for a holiday! I’m also beginning to think I have been overly ambitious with my personal goals given we have yet to commence home-schooling.