Birthday celebrations at Wooramel River Retreat

| Chris Riley

176 kms on from Nerren Nerren is the Wooramel River Retreat. We’ve passed it many times before, this was the first time we’ve stopped in to take a look. It won’t be the last. There’s no potable water, and no power, but they have flush toilets, artesian water warm showers, and artesian water fed hot pools to soak in. They have a cafe, a bar, and a restaurant. I think there’s a few accommodation options, as well as grassed caravan/camping sites close to the restaurant area, or the more popular, large and roomy riverside sites a bit further away, each with it’s own fire pit. We chose one of the Riverside sites.

Give me a home amongst the Gum Trees any day. In this case, beautiful, white trunked River Gums, on the banks of the dry Wooramel river bed. This river is similar to several in the Gascoyne area, they flow upside down apparantly, only rarely having water flow on the top surface. This one hasn’t had any water above ground since August 2024, and if there was water in it at the moment, the whole area would no doubt have been flooded and we wouldn’t have been able to get into the retreat. We set up camp, had some lunch and visited the artesian pools for a bit of soak.

The pools don’t look wonderful, but they are gorgeous and warm , and in an outback place like Wooramel, they are a certainly worth taking advantage of.

It was my 71st birthday so treated ourselves to a bottle of bubbles on the restaurant lawn, a delicious lamb burger with roasted Mediterranean vegetables and a yogurt sauce. The marshmallows toasted over their communal fire.

Cheers

The next morning we rose early (as we always do), and sat outside under the gumtrees as we watched the day break. The sunrise was stunning.

There’s a 5 km riverside walk. No water in the River, but the walk was peaceful, with some amazing River Gums, so gnarled they look more like a sculpture than a tree.

So that was our two nights at Wooramel. What a pleasure! We loved it.

Distance between Nerren Nerren and Wooramel River Retreat 176kms

Re-fuel costs: 35 litres @$2.18 Total $76

Accommodation for 2 nights, $84

PS Please excuse any spelling or/and grammatical errors in this. WordPress is such a pain to use these days. It can take me 30 minutes to try and correct the errors made in 10 minutes of typing. I get so frustrated with the site sometimes……. After 30 minutes of frustration I give up and just publish it anyway. (Honest, I’m not completely illiterate, just technically challenged, especially so with WordPress these days.) I wonder if there’s anywhere I can actually leave a review of WordPress…..

Nerren, Nerren

| Chris Riley

We arrived early afternoon yesterday, opened the van and discovered the fridge had opened during our travels. The steaks were on the floor getting warm, the beetroot in a Tupperware container was on the floor but thankfully hadn’t come open, although it had leaked a little. And a full, unopened container of yogurt had hit the floor and cracked leaving a few blobs of yogurt here and there as it had rolled around, but thankfully it hadn’t burst completely. I think the fridge must have swung open, dispersed these three items, then swung shut and closed firmly again. It wasn’t a big clean-up, and will serve as a reminder that a back up closure is always wise on a fridge door when travelling. Paul fitted brackets at the side of the fridge in bigTravel Home a few years ago and we used ocky straps across the fridge as our second line of defence against the door swinging open during travel. He’s going to add Velcro tabs to this fridge.

With the mess cleaned up and the van popped up and set up for the night, it was time for a late lunch. With the steaks having been out of the fridge for a while, it seemed like a good idea to cook them. Steak and salad it was. There were a few flies around but that’s not unusual at this time of year. We didn’t fancy them having a share of our lunch though, so we ate inside the van.

Nerren Nerren is a large roadside campsite that would accommodate probably a hundred or more rigs. We’ve stayed here many times. We’ve never felt cramped in, the drop toilets are usually pleasantly clean, and apart from the distant noise of a road train passing on the highway occasionally, it’s usually quiet enough throughout the night. Last night there weren’t too many people staying here, so again we didn’t feel cramped in. However that’s all the good I can say about last night. The toilets had broken locks and were very smelly. We used them, but only once, feeling almost in need of a shower afterward. And there was a truck parked up near the highway who had some sort of very loud generator running all night. We’ll have to re-think this place on any future trips. But it was only for one night. Today we move on for Wooramal River Retreat.

Distance travelled between Dongara and Nerren Nerren: 256kms

The cost to re-fuel on the way $65 @ $2.17 per litre

Accommodation: free

Next Stop – Dongara/Port Denison

| Chris Riley

Our next two nights are at the Big 4 Dongara/Denison caravan Park. It’s on the coast, and I think every caravan site has a view out to the ocean, albeit only through the single row of cabins that have the premium ocean front views.

We set up some things on arrival, and had a late lunch. Then finished setting up, and had a drive into the small town of Dongara to get a gas bottle filled. The town may be small but the houses along the shoreline are not. The stature of the houses on the blocks of land with ocean views reflect that main enterprise of the town – Cray fishing. There’s a lot of money to be made from Crays. I think most of the Crays (or lobsters) caught are exported. I don’t mind that there aren’t a cheap supply for visitors, I’m not a great fan of crayfish.

After our short drive we took Tilz for a walk, and found a fish and chip shop. I rarely take a night off from cooking, mainly because I’m one of those control freaks that likes to know what’s in my food. That doesn’t mean I don’t eat my fair share of sugary treats and things like hamburgers or pizza, it just means we tend to make most of them ourselves so as we know what we’re eating. Last night though as the sun was heading down over the Indian Ocean, we thought it might be nice to sit and watch it set as we ate a parcel of fish and chips straight out of the paper. So that’s what we did.

The fish and chips were a bit ordinary, but ok. The view was very tranquil.

Tomorrow we leave for a free overnight camp. It’s been a bit windy here in Port Denison, but it’s pleasant enough.

Caravan park fees for 2 nights $99.50

Laundry – 1 load $5.00

After 4 nights of PTA (Privates, tips, and armpits wash down), the fresh water shower – priceless!

Kms from last camp site at Milligan Island 97km (no fuel needed yet)

Four nights at Milligan Island

| Chris Riley

Our first stop was at Milligan Island, just a couple of kms north of Green Head, and 325 kms from home.

There are several small rocky Islands off shore. The most intriguing though is one aptly named, Nature’s Window. Each night of our four night stay we wandered down to the shore as the sun was setting trying to get a snap of the setting sun through the window. No luck the first three nights, but we did manage to snap some lovely cloud formations with the setting sun highlighting their brilliance.

The sky was clear for our last night with very little cloud around to obstruct the view of the sun as she sank beneath the horizon. Consequently a half dozen or so people lined up trying to get prime position in front of the window. Two paddle boarders had a drone up in the sky, I guess trying to get a photo of themselves similar to the one I managed to snap in amongst several others I was happy with. Not knowing exactly where the sun would go down, and competing with the other photographers for the best position while trying not to obstruct anyone’s viewpoint was a bit of a feat. Success though this time.

Refuel cost $128 @ $2. 58 litre

Accommodation: $120 for 4 nights

The final day’s before departure.

| Chris Riley

A few hassles prior to leaving – firstly we took the car in for new tyres. Whilst it was there a stack of tyres fell on the front fender. The tyre company were very apologetic, and will of course, pay for the panel beating. However, as it was only a few days prior to us leaving, the repairs will have to wait until we return. It’s drivable, and isn’t that badly dented that we’d be embarrassed to be driving around in it. Next, three days before leaving, Paul plugged the caravan in. Internal lights, which run the twelve volt system, and the fridge in the caravan weren’t working. Paul tried a new fuse, but it just kept shorting out. Bad luck – I’m not so sure! Although it was a hassle, it was actually good luck to have happened prior to our departure. Imagine if that had happened in the middle of nowhere. And especially good luck, as not knowing any auto-electricians in our home area, we were soooo lucky to have found one that shifted things around and fitted our van in for repairs the day before we were due to leave. They started looking for the fault at 9am, were unable to find it, so concluded it must be somewhere in the wall cavity. Without removing walls they couldn’t find it, so they rewired it. It took about six hours in total. How lucky were we to have found them. A big, big thank you, and shout out to South Coast Auto Electrics in Mandurah. We can’t thank you enough, and will be eternally grateful.

That wasn’t all of the hassles in the lead up to departing. Paul took our (new to us) caravan in to get the wheel bearings done, and brakes checked. Not sure what the problem was but that turned into a bigger job, and much more expensive job than anticipated. All good now though. Then there were medical problems too prior to leaving. Paul developed some major pain and inflammation. I won’t bore you with the details, but doctor has concluded he has Poly Myalgia Rheumatica. He’s on a course of steroids, which won’t run out until at least we get home in four months time. They’ve certainly helped, however, being diabetic, he has to be extra careful with his diet and exercise to prevent the steroids from having a negative effect on his sugar level. Then there’s my dopomine agonist withdrawal. In the lead up to leaving I had an iron infusion to try and help as I continue my very slow reduction in mgs of Sifrol (Pramipexole). I used to take 2 X .25 mgs about 4pm. I’m now delaying the timing of my dose until around 6pm, and have managed to reduced the dose down to 1 1/2 x .25 mg tablets. I wouldn’t say it’s been that successful, as there are many evenings when I’m unable to sit, evenings that I walk the floor, stamp my feet, walk on the spot, dance to music in my head, anything that keeps my legs from jumping around and torturing the hell out of me. I’m getting sufficient sleep most nights, but sometimes I have a tortuous start to sleep upon getting to bed. I’m hoping the iron infusion will start to help, and if so, I’m hoping to start shaving a tiny bit more off the Pramipexole to reduce it further. All a bit more stressful living in a caravan that it is when in a house with another bedroom available if bed time becomes too torturous. There are nights when I wonder if I should continue, when it just seems too hard, but this is one prescribed drug that has done, and will continue to do, far more harm to me than it does good. The withdrawal though, well it’s tough going, and so far it’s not showing signs of getting any easier. For now I’ll persevere.

After we picked the van up on Tuesday, all has gone according to plan. We did our final shop for food stores and loaded what we could on Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning we were up bright and early (as we always are), and completed the loading, turned off the home fridge, TV etc, and the water, and were on our way to Milligan Island, near Greenhead. We’re determined to finally get into a more relaxed travel mode for this trip, and are pleased to say our first day of travel adhered to our slower travel plans. Mr Tilly had his usual morning walk before we departed home at around 9.30am. We had water, and some fresh fruit to eat and drink as we travelled along with our favourite travel play lists playing on the car radio. Rather than eating lunch as we travelled along, like we usually do, we took advantage of a nice roadside place to stop and eat our cold chicken and salad outside at a picnic table in the fresh air. A bit of a walk, stretch, and some exercises to help stop our aging joints from stiffening up, and we were on our way again. (In case you weren’t aware of it, that’s just one of the reasons oldies travel slower – old joints don’t take kindly to 8 hours of continuous car travel like they used to).

We arrived mid afternoon, set up, and enjoyed a lovely walk along the beach before dinner. It’s a lovely spot. We’re here for four nights, so plenty of time to get some photos to post.

Fuel used to get here:

49.44 litres.

Refuel cost: $2.59 per litre

Total cost $128

Distance travelled 378kms (that includes a short trip today needed to get a part for gas stove).

The Dream Road Trip for 2026

| Chris Riley
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We have our Dream Road trip planned for this year. We hope we’re not being too ambitious in light of the current fuel situation. Our son and daughter-in-law live in Darwin, and have just moved into their newly built home. We hope to get up there to visit them.

The plan is to travel slowly, and stay a little longer than usual at destinations as we move slowly north. We will remain flexible as we travel, as the future fuel situation remains uncertain thanks to Mr Trump. Our plans may have to change at a minutes notice, but that’s the beauty of travelling with your accomodation being towed along behind us, home can be wherever we stop and for as long as we stay there.

We’ll leave home with initial plans of getting to the Carnarvon area, around 1200 kms north. Then we’ll reassess, and if all is looking good to continue we’ll move towards Broome. If things aren’t looking to promising at any stage of the trip, then we’ll just stay put in the nicest place that’s within our reach until things settle down enough to allow us either to continue on, or to return home. It is currently looking promising though.

If luck is on our side, we’ll complete the full journey over approximately four months. We’ll travel over 11,000 kms and we’ll see some of the country that we haven’t seen before. The Red Centre, coming down to SA from Darwin will be new territory for us. As will both the Yorke, and the Eyre Peninsulas in SA.

We leave in three days time. I’ll try to bit more consistent with my posts for any of you who are following along…..

DAWS – Day 4 on slight reduction in Dopomine Agonists

| Chris Riley

All going well with fuel supplies (doubtful though that is at the moment with what’s going on in the Middle East), our planned year for 2026 is quite busy. We’re due to fly to Adelaide for a wedding in April. We’ll be leaving on the Tuesday after Easter, and will be in South Australia for eight nights. When we return, it’ll be a little over a month before we leave for our 3 1/2 month road trip up to Darwin to visit our son, and daughter in law.

I’m hoping to have a slightly reduced dose of Dopomine Agonist established, and to have adapted to it, prior to either of those trips.

I’ve been taking my iron pills as per the Doctors recommendations, and have delayed the timing of taking my Dopomine Agonist dose until somewhere between 6pm and 7 pm. When I was taking my dose at 4 pm, by 7pm I was almost always asleep on the sofa. It made me very drowsy. With the delayed dose the restlessness in my legs has started to act up before the medication gets a chance to make me drowsy. Consequently for a couple of hours in the evening, instead of sleeping I have been doing all manner of exercises in front of TV in order to try to alleviate, and to distract my mind from the restlessness in my legs. Whilst this is most likely a bit distracting for Paul, who is trying to happily relax for an hour or two before our 9pm bedtime, it is probably better for me than being zonked out for the 2 – 2 1/2 hours before our bedtime.

I’m due to have my blood tests at the end of April to test my ferritin levels. This will mean I won’t be able to schedule a Doctor’s visit to get the results until at least the end of the first week in May. That’s getting too close to our May departure date for our caravan trip to Darwin. My thoughts have been that if I try a slight reduction too close to our trip, and if I have an adverse reaction that lasts a while, sharing a small caravan is going to me out of the question. In my own home if I have an adverse reaction I can at least take myself off to another bedroom where I can kick, curse, and cry through the worst of it without disturbing Paul.

From everything I’ve read, I don’t have a lot of faith in any of the Medical Profession here in Western Australia to have the nous to know the ins and outs of withdrawing from Dopomine Agonists. Especially so, as they didn’t have the nous to prevent me from getting the stage of addiction that I find myself with. Admittedly they have a lot of things to deal with and to keep up with, and most likely this isn’t an issue at the top of their list. However, it is an issue at the top of my list!

So, I’m setting my own time line for withdrawing from this horrible drug, a timeline that is hopefully going to fit in with our plans for 2026. Accordingly I’ve reduced my dose of Sifrol from 2 x .25 mg pills, to 1 and 3/4 x .25 mg pills. That’s a 1/8 reduction. I had expected to barely feel this slight reduction. Not so. Last night was my fourth night with this slight reduction. I took myself off to another bedroom around midnight last night when I kicked, cursed, and cried for around 3 – 4 hours before finally falling into a near to consistent sleep. I normally wake around 5am and start my day. But today I was so exhausted after such an awful night that I stayed asleep until after 6.30am. That’s a very late morning for me.

I’m hoping I can settle to this slight reduction before we leave for South Australia in just over three weeks. In South Australia I won’t have the luxury of being able to take myself off to another room. It’s bad enough one of us suffering through bad nights, no need for two of us to suffer!

All going well, I’m hoping to be able to reduce down another 1/4 dose when I return from South Australia. If I can do this shortly after our return I’ll have enough time to settle into it before we leave for our caravan road trip, I hope. I wouldn’t contemplate any reduction, no matter how small without having another end of the house to retire to while I settle into it.

That’s providing I settle into the reduced doses. At the moment I’m not through a good time. My nights are tortuous. During the day I’m light headed with lowish blood pressure (around 100 over 55, sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a big lower). I have very little motivation to do much of anything, and am feeling a bit ‘flat’. So that’s how I am after my fourth night with a slight reduction in my Dopomine Agonist dose. Hopefully, I’ll start to settle soon.

(please excuse any errors in this. I have proof read it, but frikken WordPress is so difficult to use these days. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get an entry for my cursor in order to make any corrections. This site is so frustrating to use these days).

Full Circle

| Chris Riley

I think I started this blog around 13 years ago. Its purpose was to record our travels. The title of the website: lifeofrileyow.com standing for Life of Riley on wheels. When circumstances weren’t what we expected (by way of pesky puppy who didn’t comply with our idea that any dog of ours would love a life on the road’,)the road trips stopped. I then changed the OW to stand for ‘on whatever’, so as I could keep on recording our journey through life without the title of my website becoming meaningless.

WOW what a ride the past 13 years have been, more twists and turns than the average road trip, more forks in the road of life than the average person sees for sure, and more about turns and changes in direction than is good for anyone’s health, I think you’d agree.

But here we are 13 years or so on. We’ve moved from Busselton into a lovely little (but not too little) lock and leave duplex in Mandurah. Mandurah used to be primarily a holiday or retirement destination. It still is to some degree, but it’s also now well and truly linked to the metro area in Perth, so it’s become quite suburban. It was never a place we holidayed in often, I don’t know why. Anyway a few changes of circumstances caused us to move from Busselton, and somehow or other we landed in the Mandurah area. We ask ourselves daily, “How come we never holidayed here?”. If we had, perhaps we would have bought here instead of Busselton in the first place. However, ‘no regrets’, we met a lot of lovely people in Busselton, some of whom we will remain friends with for the rest of our lives I hope.

When life on the road stopped, we resigned ourselves to short overseas holidays leaving the ‘pesky puppy’ in the care of family or friends. The holidays were ok, but they weren’t the road trips we loved. Eventually we decided to give road trips another go, only we’d created a bit of problem. We’d downsized – we were living in a unit with very limited parking, and our diesel powered Prado had been changed for a Hybrid Yaris….. But ‘no problems, only solutions’ as the saying goes.

First a swag (loved it, but needed more space to carry it and the necessary camping gear to enable using it). The swag became a tiny camper trailer, then the tiny camper trailer became an A-liner camper trailer. The Yaris went, and was replaced with a Subaru Forester. The Forester and the A-liner were a really tight fit in our little unit. There definitely wasn’t room for any van even slightly bigger, nor a bigger car more suited to towing. So we started looking for somewhere more suitable to be living.

Long story short – we landed in Mandurah. We had intended to keep the A-liner, and the Forester for a year or two, but never-the-less we still browsed. And of course, if you browse long enough, you will get tempted….. The latest rig is a 2020 diesel powered Pajero Sports, and a 2012 Coromal Magnum pop top. I think this house, this car, and this van are all going to be our last, and yes I’ve said that before. But this time you can quote me on that. It’s time for us to settle down and stop moving around, even though that’s not strictly true. Moving around for part of the year is exactly what we intend to do, only from our lock’n’leave home, and in our Pajero Sports, and with our Coromal Magnum pop top hitched up behind us.

And that Pesky puppy who stopped us travelling on our road trips a few years ago – well he’s nine this year. When we purchased the small camper trailer, with a huge amount of trepidation, we went to the vet and got the equivalent of Prozac for him. The first trip in the camper trailer was so peaceful. He was one chilled out little dog, just laying and watching the world go by. The next trip we forgot to give him a pill, and guess what, he still lay down and watched the world go by. He’s grown out of his Pesky puppiness. One or two prozacs was all it took.

We’re currently at a campsite called Cosy Corner, right beside a beautiful beach near Albany WA for a week. Paul, not so pesky puppy, and me are all having a wonderful time, swimming, walking & relaxing.

The van is certainly no luxurious fifth wheeler like we had thirteen years ago, nor is it the New Age with toilet and shower on board. It’s just a humble little unpretentious pop top with single beds, and an on board porta loo tucked into a cupboard. It’s clean, comfortable, and much nicer to have trailing along behind you than a great big box that’s bigger than the tow vehicle. I was never overly comfortable with that.

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We’re only away for a week this time. But come May we’ll be heading off for 3 1/2 months, following the sun up to see our son and daughter-in-law in Darwin. I think I can sincerely end this little post with one of my favourite sayings for when life is just dandy (and we all know life isn’t always just dandy), but at the moment, I can definitely say, ‘what a pleasure’!