Received a last minute invite to go down to Waroona Dam for the weekend. I ‘suspect’ it might have been because I was the chauffeur, but I prefer to think it’s because I’m such good company!
Departing Saturday morning was a slightly sorry affair. I attended the 20:20 cricket match at the WACA the night before and partook of some beverage tastings. May have also walked the better part of 11km’s as well. So I wandered into work to make sure the place wasn’t going to blow up (it didn’t), and then proceeded to pack the vehicle ready to go.
The plan was to arrive down there at Midday, but we were ready nice and early so off we went trying to behave. This lasted all of 20 minutes (which is actually pretty damn good for us!). It is quite amusing the reactions you get when you pull up next to someone on a freeway and wave to them. Something so simple, but bloody oath its funny.
Not quite so funny was Pilchy licking the windows (well he nearly was – that counts!!!).
So a bit further down the freeway we get when it suddenly dawns on Gus & I that we actually did something smart. There’s a fridge between mum & dad (Sam & Pilchy). Best damn inadvertent thing we’d ever done – well that was our consensus at the time 🙂
Finally after some gentle ribbing of our back seat occupants, we arrived at the fantastic bakery at Pinjarra (I think that’s the name of the joint). I availed myself to a chunky beef & mushroom pie, as well as a large cappuccino to make me feel better (I really wanted instant, but I thought I’d upset the coffee nose twats if I stirred them anymore!).
A quick logistical move to the supermarket meant some alcohol and last minute supply shopping was completed.
All done we continued down the road with Gus trying to change music. Mmmmmmmm, Gus about to walk. Thankfully his brain kicked in and everyone arrived safely at the dam – well nearly. Some bugger did a bloody deadly silent fart just before we got there. I even had to open my window it was that bad! Bloody impressive in some respects…..
Pilchy shouted the camping fees (cheers mate) and I had a quick phone call with my youngest fella. Proceeding on I came across a quite puzzling problem. Now by this time it was only and hour or so from lunch, so I actually could think.
The problem is they’ve given this joint a fancy name – that being Lake Navarino. Now what I came across was a DAM wall, and the road goes across this wall. So to me it should be called a dam, not a lake. Now I have no doubt that someone is going to give me a reasonable political excuse for this conundrum, but I reckon it should be called Waroona Dam because it makes sense in my head.
Mmmmm, been a lot of words so far – better put some pics in soon……
Anyway, back to the story. We’ve arrived early at our destination. Now my initial thoughts were to crack the bottle. But then I remembered its not midday, and I’m trying to set a good example – being the eldest and all.
So we went for a wander. And what we saw was good
Here come the pics!!!
By now there’s some grumbling in the back seat, something about being hungry. Mmmmm are they mum & dad, or are they the kids – the line gets blurred sometimes. On a side point – the front seat occupants weren’t hungry. They went to the BAKERY!!!
So we made dad cook his own…..
Thankfully by the end of this mother/father bonding experience the people that mattered arrived (they had the boat!). So they all started getting ready.
So off they wandered to go hurt themselves. Which left me with… well me. And I enjoyed it! 🙂
I went fishing:
Had no luck so went looking at the Dam (note – it’s not a lake):
Found a sign directing to a lookout. Only thing I found was this……
Saw a bird:
Found some wildlife
Found some fun:
And soaked under a mini-waterfall hidden away nicely:
By now it was starting to get a tad later into the afternoon – hell some folks might even call it evening! I figured now was a good time to head back to camp as the boat people were arriving in hordes.
First comment out of Pichy’s mouth – where’s dinner? Fixed that bugger – he didn’t complain 10 minutes later when it was shoved down his throat!!! 🙂
In the meantime something had happened to Gus. I don’t know what it was, but he was behaving like a kid – I mean really like a kid! With grave concerns as to how my trip was going to turn out with dad, mum & now a kid I watched with trepidation. Now Uncle Aaron mentioned he was going to the big shop with the 4WD and boat to fuel up. Well what would you know! Here’s Gus hanging out the front passenger window like a dog that hasn’t sniffed the air in a moving vehicle before. Mmmmmmm
1/2 hour later (or maybe that was an hour) he returns and politely enquiries about dinner. WTF? Politely? Now I’ve had a couple of beverages across the course of the afternoon (and a beautiful drop of select Bundy it was), but this just wasn’t right. Anyway I decided to play along and cook him up some dinner.
Then they went to bed – I mean it’s 9pm and they are in bed – all of them. I nearly fell of my chair! So I did what any self respecting BLOKE would do under those circumstances. I drank by myself 🙂
There ends our first day of adventures. There was a little extra-curriculum activity but the party responsible for flares, fireworks, music and generator abruptly stopped.
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Day 2 and the sun peaks over the beautiful scenery, bouncing of the sparkling water down below ON THE DAM!!! Yep, I’m still on about that!
I’d been worded up before bed last night that the plan was to get up nice and early and make sure we were ready to go out on the boat, as Uncle Aaron didn’t want to be waiting for us. So Gus and I got up at a decent time. But where was everyone else?
Eventually the dead arouse and a quick breakfast and pack-up was successfully navigated. With the lack of free medical and an interest in self-preservation, I decided to spend the day doing what I do best – nothing! Well actually I was listening to the cricket, fishing & sunbaking (not intentionally), but don’t tell the missus that as I have her convinced I can only do 1 thing at a time!
So instead I bring you pictures. The good first:
Then there was some sharing:
And finally the ones that (apparently) hurt – yep that’d be that splash of water!!!:
With all the fun and excitement out of the way, it was unfortunately goodbye to Uncle Aaron and Aunty Amanda. Big thanks for putting up with us all over the weekend – it was thoroughly enjoyed. We promise to train Gus better for the next trip! 🙂
Hitting the road I was picturing the normal East Coast freeway massacre, but it never eventuated. The worst we faced was the normal dickheads who don’t know how to get out of the right hand lane. We waved to a few people, but there wasn’t really the mood for it as we knew we had work to look forward too.
Arriving home and the normal pack-up, showers etc where thoroughly enjoyed – although I’m guessing you probably don’t want THAT much info in this story.
So there ends another trip and I’m already looking forward to the next one – now where to go this time……
This story (and attempted humour) proudly brought to you by a sober writer – the writing style may reflect the current state of affairs!!! 🙂
Cheers
Chris