Life is too short: too short to wait for tomorrow!

| Chris Riley

We received bad news on our way into Broome this year. A friend had passed away on the week-end. Eileen was younger than us. Apparently she had been battling cancer for some time. We didn’t know. We had lost contact over the years, always promising ourself that we’d get in touch, ‘tomorrow’. But Eileens tomorrow’s are all used up. We left it too late. The news left us feeling gutted, and guilty, and just a little bit empty.

It has caused me to reflect on a few of my other relationships, both family relationships, and friendships. In some instances I’ve been letting grievances get in the way, with others I’ve just become complacent, thinking there will always be a ‘Tomorrow’. Life is too short to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow may never get a chance…..

I don’t know why, but it’s somehow made me think of my mum. Mum had her shortcomings. When she was alive I focused far too much on all of them. I always seemed to be hoping she would magically turn into an entirely different person. It was long after she died that I took some responsibility for having shut her out. She had a tough enough life without me acting like the entitled ‘bitch’ that I was. She gave me everything she possibly could, but I had wanted more. Not more things, I’d just wanted her to magically turn into someone else. She was the product of her own upbringing. She did the absolute best she could do. It was long after she died, that I finally understood her, that I finally loved her unconditionally, and loved her in way that she deserved to be loved. It was too late to tell her that!

They say what goes around, comes around. I think my children also hope sometimes that I’ll magically turn into someone entirely different. I’m sure at times in their lives they have wanted something different from me than what they got. The punishing silence still manifests itself from time to time, for what – I have no idea. They don’t tell me. And even if they did, I can’t wind back time. I can’t re-write the script of their childhood, or any other time in their lives. I can’t magically turn into someone different. I am what I am, I am who I am. But know this, my two children, I have never knowingly done anything that I thought was the wrong thing to do. Perhaps some parents, knowingly, do what they know to be wrong by their children, but I don’t know anyone who fits into that category. Every single parent I know has parented in the best possible way that they possibly could. Sometimes they have fallen short, but believe me when I say, they never did anything wrong by their children intentionally.

Everything I read lately is on ‘setting relationship boundaries’, and mostly this is in relation to adult children setting boundaries for their parents to live by. Often the relationship between grandparent and grandchildren is forbidden unless certain boundaries are met. None of the experts seem to focus on tolerance and acceptance. It makes me wonder just ‘WTF’ is going on in the world today. I’m not suggesting anyone tolerate abuse, when abuse is an issue, by all means set clear boundaries. But I’m not talking about abuse here, I’m talking about tolerance and acceptance of people for being less than perfect.

I didn’t mean to make this about me. I’ve cried enough tears over the years, and no doubt I’m not done yet. I wish I could say to my children, don’t wait until I’m dead and gone to realise that you love me. If you love me, then love me now. Love me as I am. Don’t keep hoping I’ll magically change – it ain’t gonna happen.

I started writing this about a friend who had died unexpectedly. But there was more that prompted this post than that. There was another story from another parent whom I know. Her adult child appears to have cut her off. I guess he wants her to be someone whom she isn’t. Sometimes she gets it wrong. So what…… Life is too short to wait for weeks, months, or years – and waiting for what anyway. For her to admit she was wrong – does it really matter! Life and relationships should be about tolerance, not setting boundaries. Grievances – well life is just too short, and death is way too long. Holding grudges, – well that’s just a waste of perfect happiness.

Life is too short to wait. Forgive your parents, accept their rough edges, or their overly refined edges, whatever the case may be. Just move on.

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Journey or Destination: discovering our style

| Chris Riley

We’ve done a lot of camping and caravanning trips over the years. From as little as three nights under the stars in a swag, to two and half years in a fifth wheeler doing the round trip of Oz twice.

Our current trip has seen us on the road for almost three calendar months, with another week or two before we leave for home. We’ve only just started to analyse why we thoroughly enjoy some trips and can’t wait for more, and why sometimes home is calling to us, and we leave a place sooner than we thought we would.

It’s rarely about the weather. Enjoying the weather is always our primary object when travelling. If it’s winter and we want a short trip away, we wait for clear skies and will go away a few days away to nice camp area in the forest. With a campfire lit, and a camp oven to cook in we really enjoy a few days of camping in cool, clear weather under the stars. Sometimes a hot chocolate with a dash of whiskey before going to bed really hits the spot.

We love those little forest get always. Now that we’re retired though, they’re better fitted in during the late spring, or early autumn. To spend the full winter in the cold of Mandurah is something we no longer have to endure. Broome, with its consistently warm, but not hot, temperatures is our ideal. However, whilst we’ve enjoyed Broome to some extent on this trip we’re now ready for home. We’re booked to stay in our caravan park for almost another two weeks yet though, booked and paid. We’ll probably leave a little early (there won’t be any refund). We’ve done that too many times, and keep promising ourselves we won’t do it any more. Now that we’re in the process of analysing just why it is that we keep doing this, we’re realising that it’s because for us, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey – a lightbulb moment!

For this trip we enjoyed our first couple of weeks travelling up the coast. Wooramel River Retreat was fantastic for three nights. We’d hoped to stay at both Gladstone and 14 mile at Warroora Station. Both places will be better enjoyed under clear skies, but the weather Gods didn’t favour us staying there on this trip. We bypassed both places, and headed into Onslow. It’s a place we’ve never stopped before, and we didn’t expect to like it. We booked for a week, and enjoyed it, so we booked a second week. That was a mistake. Three days into the second week and we were ready to move on. We didn’t, but it was a long four days. Then it was one night stops in free roadside places until we arrived into Broome Caravan Park. We stayed there for thirteen nights. Broome Caravan Park wasn’t what it used to be. It was dirty. We enjoyed Broome, but the caravan park was awful.

Next main stop was Katherine on the way to Darwin, with one night stops as we went along. We stayed in Katherine for three nights, then on to our son’s house in Darwin for three weeks. Whilst it was lovely to see our son and daughter-in-laws newly built home, and to catch up with them, three weeks in one place, especially suburbia, was a bit too long.

The return trip to home began. Somewhere along the road our planned trip to return home via the Red Centre had changed. With a dog on board we were going to be too restricted travelling down the middle. Darwin had re-enforced that we’d made the right decision. Darwin isn’t as dog friendly as is WA. That made it more difficult for us to fill our time there, and apparently the Red Centre is even less dog friendly than Darwin is. It’ll have to wait until Tilz has lived out his years.

We’ve currently been back in Broome for nearly three weeks now. We love Tarangau caravan park where we’re staying, but we don’t like the site we’re on. It’s against a road that gets a lot of traffic, and it’s quite a small site. We tried to transfer to one of their premium sites which are bigger, more grassed, and away from this busy road. None have become available. We’re booked and paid here up until the 28th August. I don’t think we’ll last that long.We have friends arriving into Broome in few days time. I suspect we’ll wait it out so as to catch up with them, and then we’ll be on our way.

It’s been quite enlightening to do an analysis of which we enjoy most, the journey or the destination. I think it’s the journey, with favourite places enjoyed as short stays along the way. It’s hard to travel freely now without booking some destinations long in advance. Broome is difficult, it’s usually booked out long in advance of the season. However, we enjoyed the space we had at Gateway Caravan Park, which is only 28 kilometres out of Broome. We also enjoyed the price, and the camp fires in the evening. That’s a place that doesn’t have to be booked, they have a big overflow area even if it does become fill. It’s a place we can arrive at whenever our journey gets us there. It’s on our minds for next year, but NOT WRITTEN INTO OUR CALENDAR. https://lifeofrileyow.com/2026/07/28/broomes-gateway-caravan-park/

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I think that’s going to be how we’ll travel from now on. Set off from home when we’re ready, and stop where and when the journey takes us. I think we’ve finally said goodbye to pre-booking a destination months in advance. A lot less scheduled, a lot more spontaneity, that’s what our trips are needing.

Broome though – we’ll always enjoy Broome, perhaps for three nights, perhaps for three weeks. It’ll depend on our mood, and what the sites available to us are like. We won’t be booking and paying for anything from now on anywhere long in advance, and never for longer than a week. We’ll extend for short periods subject to how we’re feeling, and according to availability. I’d rather miss out on a few more days becoming available, than forfeit money by having paid up for longer and finding we’re wanting to move on sooner. From now on Broome will be part of our journey, not our destination!

But first: Coffee

| Chris Riley

We don’t use a fancy coffee machine, nor do we use instant coffee. Paul is the Barista. He makes our first coffee of day at around 6.30am, and he makes it the old fashioned way, brewed in a percolator with freshly ground beans. He even weighs the ground coffee, exactly 27gms goes into the percolator for two cups. Our first cup is always black. Later in the morning we have our second cup, and that’s always with frothed, full cream milk. When we’re out and buy a coffee, I’m usually disappointed. Paul makes lovely coffee.

We tried instant when we were off grid. That just didn’t do it! Initially we were tentative about using our power station for running anything with a heating element. I don’t know why. We’d been mainly using it to keep our second fridge/freezer, a 52 litre portable Bushman fridge/freezer running. I’ll tell you a bit more about the Bushman later. Today’s post is all about the all important: Coffee! When travelling between places we usually park up for the night with sufficient sunlight left to put a lot of charge into the power station. Paul tried plugging the van directly into the power station. However, the caravan 3 way fridge found the electrical source, switched off gas, and onto the electrical, subsequently depleting all the power from the station. Then he tried not plugging the van into the power station, and instead used the milk frother and coffee grinder directly onto the station. Eureka! It hardly touched the power available, and now we have our morning coffees, brewed fresh and hot, just the way we like it, even when we’re in the middle of nowhere. All we need is a couple of hours of sun to charge our station. We use a 2000 watt power station, with 300 watts of portable solar panels.

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We hadn’t thought of unplugging the caravan 3 way fridge from its electrical source, forcing it to keep running on it’s gas source when off grid. When we leave for our return trip to home in a week or two we’ll try that. We think that having the van plugged directly into the station, without the 3 way fridge sucking up all the available power that everything we use inside the van including our all important, coffee making, stuff, will work as per normal. It won’t matter if it doesn’t work, but a bit more convenience if it does. We’ll see.

But now, my all important second cup of freshly brewed coffee, with it’s frothy milk sitting on top, is all hot and is calling to me. Ahhh, yes – But first coffee!!!!

What a pleasure!

Entrance Point, doggy paradise, and artist’s dream

| Chris Riley

Tilz was in seventh heaven this morning when we took him to Entrance Point for a wander. So many rocks to sniff, so many rocks to pee on, and Rock pools galore left by the outgoing tide to paddle in. Entrance point, with its turquoise waters against it’s red rocky shoreline is not only a dog’s paradise, it’s an artist’s or photographer’s dream. I’ll let the pictures do the talking…..

We’ve been to Entrance Point a few times over the years. Everytime there’s something different to discover. Today we found the most amazing cave with a window to the sky, and another looking out to the ocean. Talk about awesome…… This one was big, this one was gobsmacking!

Geez, I love Broome!

Finger Food Friday – at the beach

| Chris Riley

When we were still working (gosh that was a lot of years ago now), we always started our week-ends by having a Finger Food dinner on Friday nights. It was often the only night of the week that I had an alcoholic beverage, and when coupled with the Finger Food it seemed to jet propel us out of the working week, and into the relaxation of the week-end quickly. Our working days are long since behind us, but it’s a tradition we’ve continued on with. It keeps us in touch with what day of the week it is, and without a few little rituals kept for certain days we’d be sure to lose touch.

Friends are up here in Broome for a month staying in accommodation. We invited them to join us for our Finger Food Friday at Gantheaume Point. We could watch the sun go down together.

Not having brought my thermos server with us on this trip, I had to think what food would work and how to keep it hot. We were picking Jill and John up at 4.30 so timing was everything. Dip and crackers – no problems, they’d stay cool in a cool bag, only I forgot to put the crackers in. Luckily I’d also packed some celery and capsicum pieces. Dessert also was easy, 4 supermarket creme caramels, cream to dollop, and some fresh raspberries. A container of coleslaw made earlier in the day for our burgers also went into the cool bag. The cold food was easy. I didn’t know if my idea to keep our mains hot would work….

I don’t have an oven in the caravan, but I do have an air fryer. I put marinated chicken drumsticks into the air fryer at 3.30pm. I peeled the outside leaves back on four fresh corn cobs, removed the silk, replaced the leaves and wrapped each one individually in foil. (I’ve done this before and heated them in the coals of fire. Providing the silk is removed, and they’re wrapped up well, it works a treat. The silk will burn). These I placed in a dry frypan over the gas and kept turning them to get them hot through. I cooked mini burger patties in a second frypan, (just a flattened ball of minced beef – not extra lean, extra lean won’t stick together), and I wrapped small brioche hamburger rolls in foil. These I also heated in a dry frypan. Everything had to be turned often to prevent it from burning, and timed it all so as to come off the heat as close as we could get to 4.15pm. That’d give us time to get everything in the car, and be on time to pick up our guests. Whilst I dealt with the cooking, which took a bit of juggling, Paul packed chair’s, table, plates, music etc into the car. Jill and John were bringing the drinks.

I didn’t know if what I’d planned would keep things hot enough. Just before 4.15pm I tightly wrapped the cooked drumsticks in foil and then wrapped them in a towel. Same with the cooked burger patties. The corn cobs and small burger buns were already foil wrapped and were hot, these also got wrapped up in a towel, and everything then went into an insulated cooler bag. I made sure there were no gaps – (no cooler pack of course – it had to stay hot).

So – did it work, did it stay hot? We ate dinner to the dulcet tones of Rod Stewart’s Great American Song Book. Firstly our dip and celery, (minus the crackers). We didn’t linger too long before we put the hot food onto the table. I didn’t want to chance it cooling down to much. First the chicken and corn, then the burgers. The chicken was fine, still nice and warm and tender and juicy. The corn as still warm, but not piping hot. Dobs of butter dotted over it didn’t melt. The burgers followed. The rolls had burnt a little on the tops in the frypan, but they too were okay. I’m sure the wine that Jill and John brought helped everything else to be acceptable. The same food without any wine, and eaten around a normal dining table may have allowed the preparation flaws to show a little more….. Dessert followed. That was fine.

It was just after 4.30pm when we arrived at the beach. As the tide was on the way out, we parked with the boot of our car facing towards the water’s edge, and set up our table and chairs within about 2 meters of the shoreline. The photo below was taken about an hour later – the water’s edge was a a lot more than 2 meters away! That’s Broome, that’s the Broome tides.

Broome is towards the eastern side of WA, so the sun comes up a bit earlier in the day, and also sets a bit earlier than in does in the metropolitan area in Perth. This following photo was taken at 6.23pm. The sun had long gone. With such beautiful warm days, it’s alway a bit of surprise when you look at your watch here and realise it’s barely late afternoon and already pitch black. You’ll notice this following photo is also a little hazy. That’s from the night time dew which was making the air damp by this stage. It was still around 20 degrees though, so a lovely warm evening, despite the dew. The stars were plentiful and beautiful.

Eating dinner as we watch the day turn into night overlooking in the beach is one of our greatest pleasures in life. A simple pleasure, that’s priceless! I do hope Jill and John enjoyed it too.

Broome’s Dog Friendly – Zookeepers Cafe/Restaurant

| Chris Riley

We met up with a couple of friends this morning at Zookeeper’s, a well known Coffee Shop/Restaurant on the Main Street that leads down to stunning Cable Beach. It’s a fifteen minute leisurely stroll from Tarangau, our caravan park, and probably a five minture stroll from the Cable Beach Surf Club. There’s an amazing Boab tree directly outside, so you can’t miss it.


Whilst dogs naturally aren’t allowed in the indoor part of the restaurant, they do have a beautiful outdoor area where your canine companion is welcome to chill with you. The outdoor area is surrounded by lush tropical greenery, and has overhead fans to keep you cool when the temperature heats up. I think they have fairy lights lighting up the area at night, however I’ve never been there at night, so I can’t vouch for that (yet). You place your order inside, pay, and they give you a table number. The food is then brought to your table. The ambience inside is casual but also very tropical/almost Balinese style with its lovely big wooden beams and bamboo lined ceilings.

This is a particularly busy spot for breakfasts, and they do an all day breakfast for those of you who are late risers.They do the usual sorts of breakfasts, but I think they’re particularly famous in Broome for their freshly baked sourdough pastries. I’ll digress a little and tell you about our first experience with their delicious cinnamon scrolls.

We were at the beach the other day and it was close to high tide. We were parked right back away from the water’s edge with our beach umbrella up, sitting in our beach chairs and watching the incoming tide moving closer to us by the minute. A few vehicles were a few metres in front of us, one of which was the camper van belonging to a lovely young backpacker from France (by the name of Luna). Realising the water was going to reach her vehicle she moved, very apologetically, to one of the only spots left available, which was directly in front of us. She apologised profusely for blocking our view. We weren’t bothered in the least, it’s not our beach, and until the tide started to recede again, everyone had to share. That’s just the way it is. At low tide there’s heaps of space, at high tide we get up close and personal!

Turns out this lovely Luna works at Zookeepers, and is given leftover pastries when her shift ends. She presented us with our own personal tray of the most delicious cinnamon scrolls by way of an apology. As the tide came nearer forcing others to move in closer with each other to escape the rising tide, she took a big tray of the same cinnamon buns around to everyone nearby. Luna made a lot of friends that day I’m sure.

Oh, and that view she thought she was spoiling. Well Paul may be 71, but he’s not past admiring another ‘sort of view’. He certainly didn’t feel cheated. He joked that he ‘was falling in love again’. (I hope that’s not being insulting Luna – he’s really not a sleazy old man, I promise).

Luna told us Zookeeper’s has the best coffee in Broome, so we just had to try it. It certainly is good coffee. Plus we had one of their mouth watering cinnamon scrolls while there, and another pastry, both worth every calorie laden mouthful.

They also have Poke bowls, and freshly baked focaccias amongst other things. We’ll be back there soon I’m sure to try something a little more substantial for lunch. I really do enjoy a good Poke Bowl…. that’s if I can resist those delectable cinnamon scrolls, They’re up there with the best of sweet treats. My mouth’s watering just thinking about them…..

How big does a caravan need to be for a couple travelling with a dog?

| Chris Riley

You may be wondering just how big a Caravan set up is that would be suitable for a couple with a dog. If you’re considering setting up for caravan travel I guess the answer to that will depend on what the basics are that are necessary for you. Every rig is a compromise of some sort, and every couple has their own set of needs and wants to make living in a caravan enjoyable for them. A bigger rig gives more on board storage space, but it also needs more space to store your van when not in use. You’ll need a substantial vehicle to tow it with, and your fuel economy will be higher than if you can manage with a smaller rig.

A smaller rig is lighter to tow so you won’t need a heavy duty tow vehicle. There won’t be as many cupboards and drawers inside it either so you will have to be economical with what you pack to take away with you. When it’s not in use a smaller van is less cumbersome to store. If you don’t mind the canvas skirt around the top of a pop top caravan, one of these may even fit into your garage, or under your carport.

Think about whether you want an ensuite in your van. We’ve had two caravans with ensuites, and two caravans without. I used to think it was important. But now I’m happier without that extra size and weight behind us when travelling along. We do carry a porta-loo on board, and we manage between caravan parks by having a PTA shower (Privates, tips and armpits). Some people carry a portable shower with them that they set up in a separate shower tent.

Shall I tell you about our rig? Okay, get yourself a cup of coffee and settle yourself into a comfy chair, and I’ll tell you what we manage with now…..

We have a very modest, 15 year old, Coromal Magnum 457, pop top. It’s only 15 feet in length, has two single beds, and it doesn’t have an ensuite. The caravan has been well kept, and didn’t look to have had taking any sort of beating. We only paid $18,000 for it. At the time of purchase we thought our Subaru Forrester would be okay as a tow vehicle, it was legally able to manage the weight of the Magnum. However the 200km trip to bring it home told us how wrong in that assumption we were. The mileage was horrendous. The next week out went the Subaru and in come the vehicle we now tow with, a 2020 Pajero Sports.

Our caravan has air conditioning, but at the moment that’s not working. (The joys of buying an older van, things in it may getting towards the end of their use by date). However, our idea of caravanning isn’t so much to go to different places, but rather to be in perfect weather. (Hence Broome is repeatedly on our winter travel agenda). We’ve been a bit further this year. We went up to Darwin which is hotter, and more humid than Broome. Air conditioning would have been useful up there. However we have two fans, one for at the end of each bed, and the fans together with the great ventilation that a pop top has, meant the van cooled down quickly. When the outside temperature dropped the van cooled down quickly. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t unmanageable. Personally I think we’re all getting a little too reliant on things such as air conditioning and heating anyway. I wonder sometimes if we’re losing the ability for our bodies to self-regulate temperature. Never-the-less we will get the air con looked it to see if it can be fixed. If it’s past it’s use by date we’ll think hard before replacing it. I doubt it’s going to get much use, but as it’s housed inside a cabinet, the space it takes up could be better utilised for storage. There are some pretty damn good portable air conditioning units now too. They don’t take up much space, and could travel in the car to be brought out only when needed. Something for us to think about. If any of you reading this already have a caravan and if it has air conditioning, do you use it very much? I’d be interested to know, it may help us make our decision.

The fridge is a 90 litre built in 3 way fridge. It runs very well on gas, but can be temperamental on 240 or 12 volt. A lot of people seem to be replacing their 3 way caravan fridges now with two way compressor fridges. We’re considering doing the same. So, again if any of you reading this have a caravan we’d be interested to hear what type of fridge you have. If you have a compressor fridge do you regret not being able to run it on gas? We have a good battery pack and solar panels. We’ll need to look into it further yet, but we think the battery pack will be sufficient to run both our caravan with a compressor fridge, and our portable Bushman fridge. We’ve been looking at the Bushman 130 litre compressor fridge. Apparently this fridge should fit into the same space as our Dometic 90 litre fridge. That’s a lot more internal fridge space for the same amount of caravan space that the current fridge takes up. Do any of you have a Bushman Fridge? Are you happy with it?

We’re both in our 70s now and as we’ve grown older we find a good nights sleep has become harder to achieve. In a caravan the single beds help, plus they’re easier to make, the bedding is easier to launder, and single beds give a feeling of more space inside the van.

We have a wardrobe between our twin beds that has a cupboard underneath. That’s where we store our porta loo during the day. At night we pull it out and place up the other end of the van, and then we put the dogs bed on the floor between us in front of the wardrobe. At home he sleeps on our bed, but single beds just aren’t big enough. It took a few nights of perseverance to get him to accept the new sleeping arrangements, but he has no problems with it now. The wardrobe has shelves in it rather than hanging space. We use packing cubes, and between the shelves, the overhead cabinets, and the under bed storage we have tons of space for all of our clothes and other stuff.

We’ve also purchased a number of attractive cane baskets which sit on the shelf that goes all around the van above the cabinets. The baskets house our tea towels, bath and beach towels, games, dog grooming gear, and several other bits and pieces. When we’re travelling most of the baskets sit on the beds, with some in a crate on the floor between the beds. When we pull up for a night it takes less than 10 minutes to pop the roof up, unzip the top windows, and put the baskets on the top shelf.

Apart from the lower initial cost of our second hand pop top, and the fact that it fits into our available storage space at home, the thing we really love is how airy it is. It’s a caravan, but the canvas around the top (or the PVC or whatever it’s made of) gives it a bit of a feel of camping. We love that. In our fifth wheeler and full height New Age caravan it took much longer for the van to cool down and for the breeze to blow through taking all the stale air from travelling with it.

That’s basically it for our indoor set up. It’s a small set up, but it’s adequate. There’s plenty of room for two old codgers, all of their gear and their little Labradoodle. We’re comfortable. We do as much of our living outdoors as we can, so our outdoor set up is extensive. For now though this post is already almost long enough to be a book. I’d better tell you about our outdoor set up another day.

Oh – and for any of you interested in how my editing problems are coming along with WordPress. Their AI assistant escalated the issue to their ‘happiness engineers’. Eventually they acknowledged this is a known problem, and they sent me a link to a Jetpack editor. It seems to be working a treat. I do hope they fix the problem though soon. It’s been a problem for years….. Honestly – just how long does it take! I guess companies just never fix errors these days, they’re far too busy trying to move on to bigger and better things.

The costs involved in caravanning

| Chris Riley

In a recent post I mentioned some costs for caravan parks. One of the comments received on that post expressed surprise at the price, thinking that caravanning was a cheap holiday option. Consequently, I did a bit of research.

Firstly you’re going to need a caravan, a tow vehicle, and a few other bits and pieces to make life comfortable. For a small entry level van you’ll likely pay somewhere between $25, 000 & $50,000. A mid range caravan with a few more luxury’s such as air conditioning, standard solar panels, and a small ensuite will be a more expensive. You would expect to be paying somewhere between $50, 000 & $90,000 for one of those. However if you really want to add a bit more size, luxury, or be equipped with a heavy duty van for more self sufficiency, and hard off roading, you’ll need to fork out somewhere between $100,000 & $250,000.

Below (in no particular order) are some of the rigs we’ve had. This is only a few of them. We’ve upsized, and downsized many times over the years. We’ve had tents, camper trailers, caravans, and even a swag. We’ve had small second hand caravans, one new caravan (a New Age Manta Ray), and we’ve had a top of the wozzar second hand fifth wheeler. The fifth wheeler was brilliant, easy to tow, and very luxurious to be in. The swag was cool, absolutely perfect for a few nights camping under the stars, particularly on a dry winter’s day when you could have a fire. And I have to say I loved our first caravan, and I love the one we have now. Both are pop tops, so that canvas top makes them feel airy (almost like tenting, but much more comfortable and convenient), and both were no frills.

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You’ll also need to factor in a vehicle that’s up to job of towing whichever van you choose. Your existing vehicle may safely tow one of the smaller vans, but if you choose one of the extreme heavy duty models, or a big luxury caravan you’re going to need to consider something like the big American Rams to handle the weight, or at the very least a Landcruiser. Whatever you do, don’t tow anything above your vehicles towing recommendation. Should you come to grief, you most likely wouldn’t be covered by your insurance.

On top of the initial outlay for your van and vehicle, you’ll also need to set it all up. Towing mirrors, weight distribution systems and vehicle brake controllers will cost somewhere between$4000 & $9000. Your running costs will add a further $3000 – $8000 a year. That’s to cover registration, servicing and repairs, and the extra fuel needed to tow your caravan.

Then you’ll maybe also want outdoor chairs and tables, something to cook on outdoors, ground sheets, and possible even a gazebo.

Caravan park fees for a powered site can be anywhere from $25 – $125 a night. (Yes you read that correctly – if you want to stay in a much sort after area in peak holiday season, overlooking water, $125 a night would be the going rate). The $25 nightly fees are for out of the way places, usually inland, and not usually places that are on people’s holiday itinerary. Of course if you are set to be completely self sufficient, and you have a rig that’s capable of taking down some rugged roads, you may be lucky enough to find a lovely spot that costs you absolutely nothing, and you may be lucky enough to have it all to yourself. There are also lots of places that are organised camp grounds with either no, or very little facilities that have small nightly fees. (Some of these are now getting expensive to now. Expect to pay anywhere between $10 – $60 each night, depending on how popular the place has become).

We’re currently staying at a modest caravan park in Broome. I’ll show you around the park at a later stage. It’s a lovely park, not too big, and nice and shady. It doesn’t have a pool, nor a kids playground (advantage being, not many kids here belting around on their bikes, or throwing a tantrum because mum or dad wants them do something they don’t want to do). We’e here for full calander month, on a small powered site at a cost of $2418. We love the park, and of all the parks we’ve stayed in in Broome, this is the one we’ll be coming back to for sure. Again, I’ll tell you why in a later post.

If you were under the assumption that caravanning is a cheap holiday, I wonder if I’ve just disillusioned you. If you use your caravan often though, it does cover the costs of the initial outlay. If you then compare the costs of three months away per year in your caravan as opposed to three months away in paid accommodation, you would end up in front most likely in the caravan. I think most regular caravanners though would agree with me though when I say that caravanning isn’t about the costs (although that probably does enter into it). It’s a lifestyle choice. For us, it’s about sleeping in our own bed, not one that’s been slept in by 1000 other people. It’s about being outdoor under our annex, cooking our own food, having our own vehicle with us, and being able to holiday with our dog.

It’a about being in Broome for much of the winter, and being able to drive right up to the water’s edge on an outgoing tide in our own vehicle. It’s about having our drinks in that vehicle and maybe even dinner, having a long walk on the beach , and then sitting with a drink as we watch the sun set. It’s about being able to get to our happy place.

Mr Tilly hasn’t always taken to caravanning. But now he loves it. It’s such a pleasure to be in our happy place once again, and now with a pesky puppy who also seems to be enjoying it as much as we do.

Apologies for all the errors in this – I’ve tried everyone’s suggestions, and I’ve been onto the AI assistant that WordPress has. None of it works, and in fact it’s gone from bad to worse. Everytime I try to insert my cursor into text now for a revision the whole block highlights. If I carry on, it deletes the whole block. I’ve managed to save a couple of blocks but only just, by closing down before it has a chance to auto save. Some of the errors change the context of what I’m trying to say altogether. I have the choice of re-typing the whole thing or publishing as is. SO BLOODY FRUSTRATING. As this is a ‘known fault’ the AI assistant on WordPress has escalated the issue for human assistance. I have no idea how long the take to address the issue. Bearing in mind that I’ve contacted them myself long, long ago, and no doubt others have contacted them also many times, I’m not holding my breath for any help in the near future. I’m not going to re-type my whole blog, and I’m resenting the fact that I may have to learn how to deal with typing this all up in Pages first (as others seem to do to get around these editing issues). I want to stand up for what I think is my right – that is to be able to edit what I write in my WordPress draft. I pay for that right. I’m going to be WordPress’s squeaky wheel. I’m going to be pestering them daily, maybe even hourly…. They’re going to hate me!

Dog Friendly Cable Beach House

| Chris Riley

It was quite cool this morning, only around 10 degrees, so we lingered a bit before taking Tilz for a walk. A bit of scrolling while we had our first cup of coffee for the day. This time it wasn’t mindless scrolling, we had some research to do. Our three way fridge has stopped working on both 12 volt and on 240 volt. We didn’t want to try it on gas until we’d done a bit of research into possible causes, remedy’s, and to see if it was safe to try on gas. After a bit of research, both on the net, and by way of removing the vents to check for possibly ammonia leakage, we deemed it safe to light the gas. That was around 6 hours ago. Anyone who’s familiar with 3 way fridges will know they don’t cool down quickly, but it is slightly cooler than it was this morning, so fingers crossed. We contemplated trying to get someone out to take a look at it, but we’ve ruled that out. Being 15 years old, it’s probably nearly due for replacement. We’re still in the research stage, but it seems like it may be a good time to consider changing over to a more modern caravan compressor fridge. That’ll be an exercise best done at home, and if the worst comes to the worst in the meantime, that is the fridge is unable to be used even on gas, we do have a good sized Bushman portable fridge. We won’t be stuck.

Research completed, it was time for Tilz to be walked. It’s approximately 15 minutes walk from our caravan park (Tarangau) to the surf club at Cable Beach, a good distance for an early morning walk. A few people were out and about, and why not – it was about as perfect as a morning can be for a walk. What am I saying, of course it was a perfect morning for a walk. Every morning is perfect for a walk at this time of year in Broome. That’s why we come here.

We walked past Resorts and coffee shops and restaurants, even the occasional huge holiday home. The walk was well shaded, the gardens beautifully tropical. There were Boabs, colourful Bougainvillea, and stunning palms to walk past.

We didn’t walk down on the beach today. Instead we took a look at the work being done up near the surf life saving club. A few years ago Town Beach on the opposite side of Broome was all upgraded, and is now quite beautiful. Now it’s time for Cable Beach side. The work won’t be completed this season, but there’s definitely a lot going on. I can’t wait to see it all next year, that’s presuming it’ll be finished by then. The old Zanders Coffee shop is now Cable Beach House. We enquired if it was ‘dog friendly’ in the outside area, and were thrilled to find out it most certainly is. We decided to treat ourselves to breakfast.

The waitress brought us out a bottle of water, two glasses, and a bowl of water for Mr Tilly. We ordered a cappuccino each, and a smashed avocado on toasted sourdough to share. Fortunately we didn’t each order a breakfast, it was huge. Three small pieces of sour dough toasted and spread with smashed avocado. Then topped with a good amount of salad of baby spinach and rocket, crispy chick peas, roasted baby tomatoes, bocconcini, and a flavoursome garnish of a slightly sweet vinegar. The meal was delicious, and not too badly priced ($40 including the two coffees). And the view…… Well that was priceless!

Cable Beach House is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There’s both an inside and an outside area, and it’s licensed. Both areas overlook the turquoise waters of Cable Beach. Dogs are only allowed in the outside area, so if booking a table, (and I’d certainly recommend booking if you’re planning to go for dinner), be sure to stipulate that you have a dog with you so you require seating in the outside area. I was warned by our waitress to ask the person taking the booking to actually write on the booking that a dog will be with us. Apparently some of the staff neglect to specify this which ends up in an inside table being booked by mistake. As always during the busy season overseas backpackers make up a lot of the hospitality staff, so English is often a second language – so apparently there’s a need to be assertive when booking.

We had walked down to the same place yesterday evening, taking a beer and a light dinner with us, and we sat in the lawn area outside to watch the sunset. (That’s free, not actually part of the restaurant area). It was absolutely stunning as it always is. How much more magical this would be if had been sipping a cocktail and having a special dinner in one of the seats of Cable Beach House. We’re here for another month yet, so perhaps we’ll try it one evening and I’ll let you know what their dinners and cocktails are like.

For now though, I can certainly recommend breakfast. What a pleasure!