Leaving for Western Australia .... at last

I haven't blogged for quote some time, but we are finally heading off on our big trip to Western Australia.  We have been planning this for the past 2 years, but have been locked out of WA due to Covid - this huge State has been closed to the rest of Australia, and indeed, overseas travellers for well over 2 years now, but the border finally opened in April 2022, so off we go!

We met up with our friends, Lorraine and Bill, and we set off on our next adventure.  We are travelling with caravans, and our first night was spent at a caravan park in Darlington Point, NSW.  We got all set up, then decided to walk down to the local pub for a meal, only to find it is closed on Mondays - there's not a lot at Darlington Point, but there is a pizza shop, which was open, so we ordered a couple and walked back to our vans to have dinner - they were good 😊

Next morning we headed into Victoria and had to comply with the fruit fly regulations - there are a number of fruits and vegetables we cannot take across this particular region to protect the agricultural industry, so we had to check our vehicles and dump any prohibited items into special bins, then go through an inspection station where a quarantine officer checked inside our cars and vans to make sure we had no prohibited fruit or vegetables.  

Our next stop was a free camp at Lake Benanee, Victoria - it's a really pretty lake which looked turquoise and pink at sunset.  We stayed here many years ago.  

We also had our first campfire of the trip - now we know we're on the road!

Next night was at Peterborough, where we camped at the back of The Junction Hotel.  They offered free camping, so we had dinner there (bearing in mind that a free camp at a hotel is never free, because we always ending up having dinner and drinks there, and perhaps a game of pool - which is exactly what happened.)  The food was excellent - some of us had the squid schnitzel with garlic prawns and and really good salad, and one of us had roast pork with lots of great vegetables.  Highly recommended.   We then had a couple of games of pool, and each couple won a game - a very enjoyable night. 

Next up was Peterborough to stock up at Woolies, then on to Woomera for the night.