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

August 3, 2026August 3, 2026 | 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

August 1, 2026August 1, 2026 | 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.

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!

A change of name and trying to improve my WordPress experience

July 29, 2026 | Chris Riley

I’ve been having a lot of trouble using WordPress lately. I’ve always had a lot of trouble, but increasingly over the years it’s become so frustrating, that I almost gave up completely. I had cancelled my auto re-new for the site, and wasn’t going to renew it again. However, blogging does seem to give me motivation to get out and do things with my life. So I thought I’d give it one more go. I’ve paid for another year to see if I can get a bit better at this computer ‘stuff’.

I’m going back to the original purpose of my blog, which is to record our caravan travels, only this time it’s caravan travels with a dog. Lifeofrileyow.com originally stood for life of riley on wheels. Then while we were in the UK for six months we weren’t ’on wheels’, and I missed blogging. So I thought about what the ow part of my website name could mean, and came up with, ‘on whatever’. When we returned to house living and were only travelling part time in the caravan it seemed appropriate to use the blog to record our daily lives. One occurrence in our lives was the addition to our household, Mr Tilly (aka Tilz), our little Labradoodle. Tilz is now nine years old.

He was a nightmare to take away in the caravan, so much so that we sold our caravan, and with no caravan to store, we ended up downsizing everything. We had resigned ourselves to overseas trips. However, we missed our camping/caravanning. Long story short – we’re now back in a caravan, albeit a much smaller one, and we’re now living in a home that will accommodate the smaller van. Tilz comes along with us now, and at the ripe old age of nine now seems to be enjoying the travel experience almost as much as we do.

I’ve returned the theme of my blog to, life of riley on wheels, only I’ve added ‘with a dog’, and I’ve decided to try to use WordPress better. I think I’ve made some progress today. This morning I discovered what I think is an AI generated assistant. The assistant walked me through clearing the cache so as to enable easier editing. Editing has been a nightmare. I think it has worked. Time will tell….. If it has worked, then I’ll be just about dancing in the street for joy. I’m such a dinosaur with technology, but the AI assistant, was far more understanding and helpful than any human could possibly be. I’m living with hope….

If it has worked, this AI assistant is about to become my new ‘Best Friend’. I suspect I’ll be talking to him/her more than I talk to almost anyone else. That doesn’t mean I don’t talk a lot to others, I do. It just means I years and years behind in trying to grasp technology. I have lots of things to discuss with my newly discovered ‘Best Friend!.

(Footnote: it didn’t work – I tried to insert my curser in the paragraph above to correct I to I’m in front of years and years behind. But the curser wouldn’t go in. It’a a pain in the arse. I’m going to have to give this assistant a name, perhaps ‘PA’ for personal assistant will do, and I’m going to have to pester PA again.

Broomes Gateway Caravan Park

July 28, 2026 | Chris Riley

I don’t know why we make travel plans, we never stick to them. We did get up to Darwin to see our son and Daughter-in-law, but we stayed three weeks rather than the planned five. Also we had planned to return home via the Red Centre, but instead have back tracked and are now back in Broome again.

We had a caravan park booked in town as from 28th, which at the time of writing this, is today. Arriving three days earlier than that we decided we’d give the Broome Gateway Caravan park a go. It’s nearly 30 kms out from town, and they don’t have powered sites. However, it’s around half the price of any of the sites in town, and it gets great reviews so we thought we’d give it a go.

The sites, as promised, are really spacious. There’s plenty of shady trees on most of the sites, and plenty of sunny space left for charging solar panels. Having plenty of solar panels and a power pack, we don’t need to have a powered site as long as we can get our panels in the sun for most of the day. We had our caravan set up, the annex partially set up beside it, and beside that a 2.4 x 2.4 shade house. There was a small grove of trees at the side of our shade house, probably around 3 metres in width with about 5 trees, and there would have been a similar amount of space on the other side of our caravan. For anyone used to caravan parks you may think I’m exaggerating. I’m not, I wish I’d taken more photos to prove it. The sites are amazingly big.

The ablution blocks are equally as spacious. Each toilet, shower, and hand basin is in its own very large, separate room. The rooms have painted concrete floors, and the walls are concrete block and tin. The showers are hot, and whilst the toilets and hand basins are stained an outback sort of orange colour, it’s still clear that they are spotlessly clean.

During the three nights we were there, there were two ‘fire watch’ alerts issued for an area that included the caravan park. Fortunately the fire was to the west of us, and the wind was blowing in a Westerly direction, so the fire was travelling in the opposite direction of the caravan park. If the wind had reversed, it may have turned nasty, but all was good. We couldn’t even smell the smoke, despite the fire looking alarmingly close.

We wondered if it would feel too far away from Cable Beach. However, none of the caravan parks in town are right on the beach, so even when staying in town, we usually take our car and drive onto the beach at Gantheame Point. The extra 25 – 30kms seemed to make very little difference really in the scheme of things.

At around 5pm they light a big fire in the communal fire pit at Gateway. The travellers bring along a drink and sit around the fire sharing travel stories and getting to know each other. On the first night we met three other couples who come from the same suburb in Mandurah that we live in. We’d never met them before, amazing!

Today we moved into the caravan park that we booked in town. As I type this I can hear every word my next neighbour says as she talks on the phone, and the noise of traffic going past on the adjoining street has me thinking that Gateway may just end up being our preferred caravan parks for future years. It was so peaceful there comparatively, although the noise of the trucks on the highway at night did carry on the wind from time to time.

To be fair we’ll give it a couple of weeks here before we make any firm decisions for future years. One thing that we certainly can’t ignore though is the cost. If we had stayed for the entire 5 weeks at Gateway the cost would have been a total of $1320. For the same amount of time in town, this particular caravan park, albeit on a powered site, will cost us $2695. That’s less than half the price. Even factoring in a couple of extra tanks of fuel, it’s still at least $1000 less. Most of the caravan parks in town are even more expensive than that. We’re actually in one of the cheaper, no frills parks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice park, with lots of shade, and very clean toilets. There’s no pool though, nor children’s play equipment (we don’t want either of those things anyway). Compared to the space allocated at Gateway, these sites are small. The phrase that comes to mind is ‘crammed in like sardines’. But I guess the owners have to make a living, and there are always a lot of tourists in Broome during the winter months, so there’s a need for caravan parks to fit as many caravaners in as they can. Whether or not we decide to stay at Gateway again in future years, we really did enjoy the space and the serenity there this year, even though it was only for three nights. It had a campground feel to it rather than a structured caravan park full of rules and regulations. Oh – and I haven’t yet mentioned they seem to take great pride in being extremely dog friendly (to friendly dogs). They even have a fenced dog paddock for pooches to run around in off lead. Typing this up, ya know what – and I think you’ll agree with me, I think it’s going to be a no brainer as to where we stay next time we bring the caravan up to Broome! What do you think?

De Grey – A favourite overnight camp

June 18, 2026 | Chris Riley

Our plan was to fuel up at Fortescue Road house after departing Onslow, before stopping at Miaree Pool for lunch (just before Karratha), then continuing on to Peawah, a free overnight camp. Our stop at Miaree Pool, a place we love, would have allowed for a leisurely lunch, and would get us into Peawah around mid afternoon. The plan was in keeping with our commitment to a more leisurely paced trip. However, we arrived at Fortescue Road house only to discover it’s now closed down. Mmmm! Would our fuel hold out till we reached Karratha – we weren’t sure!

We thought it would, but as we watched the fuel gauge needle dropping we started to have our doubts. Miaree Pool came nearer but it would have meant an extra couple of kms to pull into the place, and the extra fuel needed when re-starting the car to continue on our journey. We carried on by. Karratha was getting closer, but the needle on the fuel gauge was dropping lower, as was our speed. With the fuel warning light flashing we limped into a fuel station on the highway at around 60kmh, with the realisation that we either need to consider fitting a long range fuel tank, or travelling with not one, but two Jerry cans of additional diesel in the future. A small hiccup like a closed down road house can spell disaster when travelling in outback Australia if you’re not prepared.

Rather than stopping to make our salad for lunch, we instead bought our first pie of our trip. Our commitment to more leisurely paced travel includes a plan for taking the time to stop and make a healthy lunch rather than eating overpriced junk food purchased from road houses on the way. Never mind, ‘the best laid plans of mice and men’. We continued on to Peawah.

I can’t remember what time we arrived, but it was earlier than planned. We’ve never stayed at Peawah roadside camp before, but we have friends that often stay there. We found a place to park up for the night, popped the roof on the van, and put our outside chairs in the shade. We had quite a bit of open area behind our van for Tilz to be able to wander around in the red dirt without fear of getting in the way of fellow travellers. Five minutes later, Tilz was limping. Investigation showed a multitude of double gee prickles lodged between his paw pads, in his tail, in fact, everywhere. Mmmm – one of those down his ear was something we definitely didn’t want to risk. With our earlier arrival, we had a rethink. A couple more hours of travel would get us to the cleaner and tidier De Grey overnight camp, a favourite stopover place we’ve used many times in the past. We re-packed the chairs, pulled the roof top down, removed all the double gees from Tilz, and settled in for a longer day in the car.

De Grey is a huge camp site with room for hundreds of rigs. Most times we’ve found the long drop toilets there to be clean, (once they let us down), but this time they were spotless. We had a wander around, had dinner (cold roast beef and salad), a few games of cards, and hit the sack early. The next morning we awoke to a pleasantly warm, but very misty morning. It was just gorgeous.

We went for long walk around the area with Tilz, watching the sun come up breaking through the mist. Mist covered cobwebs dotted the areas of scrub reminding me of a wind farm, there were so many of them. It had been very worthwhile having the longer day that took us on as far as De Grey, it was quite beautiful.

Distance travelled: 600kms

Fuel per litre: $2.26

Total fuel including re-filling our one and only Jerry can $185

Dog Friendly, Flinder’s Bay Caravan Park at Augusta

March 29, 2025March 30, 2025 | Chris Riley

For our first trip away in our little Avan, Georgie Girl, we decided we’d go again to Flinder’s Bay Caravan Park at Augusta. We stayed here only a few weeks ago in our previous Erde Camper trailer, and it was after that trip that we realised that ‘caravanning/camping’ really does put us in our ‘happy place’. That trip inspired us to go back to something that wasn’t canvas, it inspired us to get our little Georgie Girl. (Not that we don’t like canvas, in fact we do, it’s just that canvas is a little harder for two old codgers nearing their 70th birthdays). As you can see from the images below the caravan park is full of beautiful shady trees, with many of the sites having trees around three sides providing both shade and a feeling of privacy.

There’s three caravan parks in town, but during the main season Flinder’s Bay caravan park is the only one that takes dogs. I think during the off season it closes, and then dogs are allowed at Turner’s Caravan Park. I think both parks are council owned.

The park is right on the southern ocean, so the crashing waves provide wonderful background music. Several tracks lead out of the park directly to the ocean for a lovely walk down the rocky foreshore, or for a cooling dip for those brave enough to venture into the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. (Not me – if it’s not 40 in the shade, not much more than my big toes gets near the water). Dogs aren’t allowed on all of the coastline down here, but there is a dog friendly area of the beach at the eastern end of the caravan park. However, currently there are dozens (possibly even hundreds) of toxic Sea Hares washed up on shores of the ocean, and the banks of the river. These creatures are absolutely deadly to dogs, so it’s not wise to let a dog off the lead at the moment anywhere near water in Augusta. If you’ve never seen a Sea Hare, below is an image of 4 together on the banks of the river. Each would be around 20cms in length, and around 10cms across. They look like a huge piece of liver.

A little mobile Ice Cream van that makes delicious real fruit Ice creams is often at Flinder’s Bay. Our first encounter with said Ice Cream van was accidental on our first night here when we walked down the path that led to the beach. Of course, we tried one. Yum! Today’s encounter was much more deliberate.

There are two ablution blocks in the park. Both are more than adequate, and are kept perfectly clean. With Seniors discount the cost for three nights is $145. It’s a lovely park, not pristine, and there’s no jumping pillows, no swimming pools, and no kids adventure playgrounds. It’s a park that feels close, (and is close) to nature. As I type this, our Mr Tilly is lying out under the trees, and there’s lots of little birds flitting all around, the waves are crashing in the background, and I can smell the eucalypt. Tills is happy, we’re happy, and in fact there are a lot of dogs here, and they all seem happy, as do their owners.

The park is about a twenty minute walk to the river. We have walked it, but we prefer to drive into the river picnic area and then walk down the river to the river mouth and back again to our car. It gives us about an hours walk and there’s so much to see on the river. Today we saw pelicans, dolphins, wind surfers, kite surfers, kayakers, swimmers, paddle boarders, and water craft of all types. As we meandered down the shady trees that line the river back we saw huge trees, Hampton’s style grand houses, little old river cottages, and of course, those ugly, deadly Sea Hares.

Augusta is a lovely little coastal town located at the south west corner of Western Australia. It’s where two rivers meet and run out into the ocean, and it’s also where two oceans meet, the Indian, and the Southern Oceans. You can read more about the town here https://lifeofrileyow.com/2019/05/14/augusta-the-small-town-where-two-big-oceans-meet/ It’s only just over an hour’s drive from Busselton where we live, but it’s a very different sort of coastal town. Busselton is a place with calm pristine waters and beaches. Augusta is place with a rugged coastline, and crashing waves. As far as coastal towns go, Busselton and Augusta are both gorgeous places, but they are as different from each other as night is from day.

We go home tomorrow after our three night ‘shake down’ trip. It’s been wonderful. A real pleasure, and we will be back this way again for sure. It’s a lovely caravan park, in an even more wonderful unpretentious little coastal town.

2024 draws to a close

December 16, 2024December 16, 2024 | Chris Riley

As 2024 draws towards its end I can’t help but feel relieved. What a year, not one I hope to repeat anytime soon that’s for sure. As anyone who knows me well, I’m very adaptable to change (with the exception of changes to technology). 2024 though has seen more changes than even I can adapt to easily.

First we sold our home of 2 1/2 years in Nova Village. Thank goodness we moved into ‘one of those places’ whilst we were still young enough to recover from both the experience, and the financial loss. That’s not to say those places aren’t well suited to some people, it just didn’t suit us. At the time we sold the real estate market was at the peak of the biggest real estate boom I’ve ever seen. Finding a house, any house at all wasn’t easy. Fortunately we found a place to rent on a periodical lease whilst we looked for a place to buy. We knew the rental propert was going to be short term so we needed to pounce on anything remotely suitable. Houses were going under offer before they were even listed. It was manic!

We did find a place that suited both us, and our budget, and moved in on Paul’s birthday, the 8th of May. We’ve done a few things to it since, but at a much slower pace than is usual for us. We’ve both been tired from the two moves, not to mentioned our strapped finances after our estimated loss from the move out of the retirement village in excess of $300,000.

Our enthusiasm for home renovations has been unusually slow, but is recovering now though I’m pleased to say. We’re making plans for how we can really put our own stamp on this little villa to make it our own. I’m sure I’ll have a few changes to show you in 2025, but let’s just see the back of this God-damned awful year first.

Above is one change we’ve made so far. The kitchen needs a bit of makeover, it’s been designed poorly, but for now Paul has built a small half wall across the end of the kitchen so as to give us a place to put our microwave, and we’ve painted the dark drawers white. (I only do white kitchens).

Below is an image of one of the planned changes to come. A double Velux roof window into the kitchen – with one window opening. It will provide ventilation and light, as well as giving a sense of space by adding some height to the low ceilings.

We did manage to fit in a couple of little holidays this year. I went to Bali for a week with a small group of ladies from my walking group. Then Paul and I flew up to Darwin for two week break from the winter.

We bought a swag, tried that out in the forest, and loved it. Carting it along with enough camping gear in our little Toyota Hybrid though wasn’t easy. We had a tow ball fitted to the car, and looked for a light weight trailer. The most suitable one we found happened to be camper trailer – which created another dilemma for us. Anyway long story short – the camper trailer won out. Out with the swag, in with the small camper trailer, which we tried out with Mr Tilly as soon as the weather permitted.

What a nightmare that was. We’ve since decided no more mobile homes for us until Mr Tilly goes. He’s such a stress freak when away from home. He’s only 7 1/2, so that’s a good few years away I should imagine. We have still kept the camper trailer, but have removed the tent section. The trailer is very useful for our little home hobby business.

Ah – now there’s another little snippet of news for you. You may remember Paul has upcycled a lot of furniture in the past. It’s become somewhat of a hobby now. Much of our own furniture is old pine furniture that’s been saved from land-fill with an up-cycle, and we’ve done quite a bit for friends as well. We decided a couple of months ago to try to put our spare time to good use, and try doing some up for sale. We hate the throw away mentality of the world today, so prefer to re-cycle and up-cycle for ourselves wherever possible. This has evolved from that.

We look for furniture pieces that are around 15 – 30 years old. You know the old dark stained rubber wood or pine pieces that were popular, the pieces that are now being discarded, often to land fill, as the owners replace them with the latest furniture trend. After many, many hours of sanding, filling, repairing and painting we move them on via the local face book market place. It’s become a bit of a labour of love, with enough profit to allow keep us investing in a few more pieces that we can save from the scrap heap. It gives us a sense of purpose, and we both love seeing the old transformed into something new.

That’s not all though – you may remember a good few years ago I wrote a post on the Bunbury Farmers Market. It’s a place we love to shop at, and a place I worked at for a short time. It was a fabulous place to work, and a job I enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately the travelling distance did prove to be to great, so I didn’t stay long. When I left though, I said, “if ever you open a place in Busselton, I’ll be back”. Guess what – a new Bunbury Farmer’s Market opened in Vasse, a suburb of Busselton, this month. And guess what else – yes, I’m back there working as Food Presenter once again. I’m in my element!

Bunbury Farmer’s Market

I’m thoroughly enjoying it again. It’s a wonderful, business, and quite unique for Australia. It’s grown to be quite big, so much so that I believe it attracted the attention of Gina Rhinehart, who has now invested into its future growth. I hope it doesn’t grow in way that changes what makes it so special. At the moment there are of course quite a few teething problems, but on the whole it’s running fairly smoothly. I’m a bit torn. I love working there, but I also find breathing new life into an old piece of furniture very rewarding. The furniture – well that’s really a two person job, and one which Paul and I love working on together. As we move towards the start of another new year, I’m sure my way forward will become clear. Let’s see where 2025 takes me…..

camping life – should we go full circle

July 7, 2024July 7, 2024 | Chris Riley

Paul and I went on our first camping trip in June of 1980. Friends had a Combi and invited us to come away with them to the Stirling Ranges (probably one of the coldest places you could go in Western Australia in June). We purchased two little nylon pup tents from Kmart, packed our two kids, aged 7 and 4, our bedding, food and our two little tents into our little Mazda Capella sedan and headed south for three nights. We didn’t have air mattresses, and couldn’t fit another thing in the car anyway. Our friends with the combi stowed a normal foam single mattress in their combi and brought that down for us. The intention was that Paul and I would be okay just on the floor of the tent with the ample bedding we had brought down with us, the kids should have the mattress. However, by the time our mattress arrived it was late at night and the kids were already sound asleep in their little tent. We treated ourselves to the mattress for the first night, and ended up keeping it for the three nights as the kids assured us they had slept wonderfully well without it.

Similar to the bright orange ones we had

We had a ball, and those tents had several more outings before being replaced, albeit with the addition of air mattresses, chairs and several other bits of camping gear. Paul was a whiz at managing to pack everything into the car, but eventually we wanted a better set up…..

The kids grew up and we became busier, eventually going into business. We had one day off a week only, and the idea of getting into the great outdoors for that one day and night appealed as a way to re-charge our batteries. Our next camping purchase was a heavy canvas, cabin style tent.

We didn’t use it that often as life was too busy to allow many getaways, and although cumbersome to erect and dismantle, it was a very snug and cosy tent. We loved it. That is, loved it until we decided it’d be a good idea to weather proof it even more with a tarp over the top, then we added a table and dining bench seats, lay back comfy chairs, a cooking station, and a multitude of ‘other stuff’. If you’ve ever tried to drag a tarp over a stand up sized tent on a windy day, you’ll relate when I tell you that camping went from being a relaxing pleasure to being very near to the stuff that divorces are based on. Thinking back to that tent, if we had kept it simple it would have been close to perfect, but having purchased all the creature comforts, it didn’t enter our silly heads to back-track at the time.

Next came a nylon dome tent. Very light and small when packed up, and very easy to erect – but oh, so cold. Next an old 1980s pop top caravan – ok, but we missed our tents in the great outdoors. Next came an Oz Tent (easy to erect, and warm, but I didn’t like it much at all. I don’t know why). Then Paul built the most amazing camper trailer to use with our Oz tent. We had personalised number plates fitted with KOW embossed in the number. KOW stood for Kitchen on Wheels. It was a fantastic trailer, with a slide out sink unit, stainless steel storage drawers and a slide out camp stove. We still didn’t use it much though. Mmmm, what to do to encourage us to get away more. “I know, let’s get rid of the tent and put a roof top tent on the trailer”. So we did. But we still weren’t using it. Eventually we realised we were just to tired from work to find camping week-ends of any description could do anything to help re-charge our batteries. We stopped camping altogether for the next few years.

Tired from work, and disgruntled with changes made to the superannuation we decided to pull the pin on work early. In 2013 we purchased a Travelhome fifth wheeler, left work in 2014, four years earlier than planned, and we set off around Australia. We sold almost everything at the time, our house, most of our worldly possessions, and off we went on our big adventure, an adventure we’d planned on living for at least the next seven years. This blog was created at the time to record that adventure. Alas, unanticipated family commitments put an end to that little escapade.

We became ratepayers again in 2016 so as to have a base from which to make anticipated return trips to the UK to see Paul’s dad who was going down hill fast. The fifth wheeler was still going to be our winter accommodation in the North of the country when Busselton became cold and miserable. However, the fifth wheel, towed by a Hi-lux had weight issues, plus we weren’t living in it full time so really had no need of such a big rig any more. We replaced the Hi-lux with a Prado, and the fifth wheeler with a smaller, New Age Manta Ray 16E.

It was certainly good enough for our winter trips to Broome or Darwin. In the meantime in 2017 our pooch, Mr Tilly entered our lives. We did our homework before committing to a pup, and although we realised there’d be a few restrictions on us when travelling with a dog, we felt the benefits of dog ownership would outweigh any of those restrictions. What we hadn’t factored in was Mr Tilly’s adverse reaction to travel. He’s an anxious little boy, the vet calls him, ‘hyper-vigilent’. We hoped he would grow out of it, but he never has. He’s now on anxiety medication, and he doesn’t take well to changes in environment. We felt it wasn’t worth keeping the caravan for the amount of use it was going to get. We decided we’d give camping a miss, we’d get a house sitter and go overseas instead once or twice a year for 2- 3 weeks for our holidays instead.

However we both really prefer to holiday in our adopted and beloved country, Australia. So now at the ripe old age of 69 we’re wondering if we should go ‘full circle’ on the camping thingie. We much prefer holidaying in Broome during our winter months to going overseas. Where-ever we go, we know Mr Tilly won’t be coming with us, he’s much less anxious with a housesitter in his own home than he is either going to someone else’s home, or coming with us on the road. Accommodation is frightfully priced in Broome, and anyway, we prefer our own bed, even if that bed is just a mattress in a swag, to a bed that has been slept in by hundreds of other people. A big money investment isn’t justifiable for just the few weeks in a year that we’d feel okay about leaving Mr Tilly in someone else’s care. Which has us thinking about the circle of life, or in this case, the circle of camping…..

We’ve perused all the options, and this is what we’re considering:

The reasons for considering this option are listed below:

We loved the canvas cabin tent the best of everything we’ve owned, that is until we complicated things by adding too much gear.

We only have a Yaris cross hatchback car now, so providing we keep to just the basics these two accommodation items will fit into our little car with enough space left for the basic necessities and just a few creature comforts. (Note to ourselves – Keep it simple).

The Outback swag is heavy canvas and quite roomy inside. Definitely not the size of the canvas cabin tent, but it definitely has the coziness of canvas. The biggest problem we anticipate with it is the nocturnal loo visits that come with advancing years. We’ve sussed out a few options to get around that though – more about that if we decide to go ahead with this next hare brained scheme.

The gazebo alongside will give us a dressing room and shelter from the elements if we want to be indoors. It can be closed up against the elements with the additional walls, or the walls can be opened up making it an open sun shelter. We’re thinking the two items of accommodation together will be a bit like a cross between our first little pup tent and our bigger, cumbersome, but oh so comfortable cabin tent.

Now the big question we have to ask ourselves:

Are we too old to go full circle, too old to start using a swag? Paul is still very agile, but have I lost too much of my agility to be able to cope with this? I’m definitely a lot less agile than I was in 1980 when we bought our first pup tent, but I don’t think I’m much less agile than I was just 20 years ago. 20 years ago at 49 I certainly wouldn’t have been wondering if I was too old to start ‘swagging it’. But if this idea progresses we’ll both be 70 when we take our first road trip in a swag…… Pleasure, or pain – that is the question?