A Great Adventure Part 2

The night was cold. It's 1 thing to be indoors with the walls as insulation when it's 5°c outside & another when there's only a thin layer of tent fabric between you & the 12°c temperature outside. I made the mistake of waiting till bed time to start layering up. 3 pairs of socks later, my feet remained frozen throughout the night. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well. Ton Ton didn't even protest when I threw the blanket over him completely & he hates having his face covered.

We woke up early, not by choice but becoz we went to bed at 8 pm the previous night. Unlike the others who brought their own electric grill or portable stove, we had cold canned food that tasted like combat ration. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we could have idled the evening away, slowly cooking our food. Hubs even daydreamed about having steamboat. The options are only limited to our imagination & car boot space.

Greenough Historic Settlement

After breakfast, we drove further north, another 200 km to Greenough. 1st stop was Greenough Historic Settlement. This is an open space, exploration on foot. There was nowhere to hide Ah Ton. I went up to the counter, with every intention to ask if there's a place I can leave him while we were in there. But the moment I said I have my dog with me, the staff told me I could go in through the front gate instead of through the cafe. Cool! Dogs are allowed! He didn't even remind me to pick up after my dog. Not that he would poo or pee since he had done both at the camp site.

1st thing we noticed when we stepped in were the 2 alpacas. The alpacas were human shy. They kept taking off when the other visitors approached them. For some reason, they took to Ah Ton. Instead of running off, they approached us. It wasn't long before we had a whole herd of them surrounding us. "All hail, our great white leader!" they seemed to say. Unfortunately, Ah Ton, being his timid self, kept hiding behind us or I think he might actually enjoy running in their midst. 

The windfarm was next on my itinerary. My photo taking skill does it no justice. Nothing like driving in the countryside. We went on forever without even seeing another car. I insisted on taking the wheels for the journey back to Cervantes. Hubs had been driving the entire day & it would get dark in an hour. I had my high beam on & the light frightened off rabbits on the road who took off into the bush. We didn't contribute to the roadkill statistics. But I can't say the same for all the bugs & moths that got slammed onto my windscreen. It was the next morning when I noticed my license plate got the worst of it. We got back to the campsite at 7.40 pm. After the previous night, I thought I would try something different. A hot shower later, I immediately wrapped myself in my jacket & 3 pairs of socks. I wasn't cold yet, but I thought if I could preserve my body heat, I wouldn't be so cold during the night. It definitely did help. My toes were cold but not frozen. 

Morning came & it was time to break camp. Check out time is 10 am but by 9 am, we had already dismantled the tent & loaded up the car. I got my $50 pet bond back & off we went the way we came. I must say, for someone who's adverse to camping, I really enjoyed myself. I'm already planning our next adventure. My life has been devoid of anticipation & excitement for the future for as long as I've been working. I came here to find better work life balance. I found more. I found my life back.

Initially there were 2.

Then there were 4.

Then, there were many.

1 of the restored churches in the historic settlement.

Windfarm.

At the rest stop on the way home.