Gracetown Caravan Park

Gracetown Caravan Park, Margaret River, WA http://www.gracetowncaravanpark.com.au/

We stayed here for 3 nights from Boxing Day 2007 and have booked to go back on Christmas Eve, for 5 nights, this year.

We have yet to brave bush camping, but this site is probably as close as you can get, but with all the modern facilities that other sites offer. It is set in bushland and offers powered and un-powered campsites and also chalet accommodation.

The sites are grass covered, but when we went in December, this was fairly crispy and sandy! All sites are level and are separated by trees and bush tracks. There is a huge proliferation of wildlife, kangaroos, possums and birds. The kangaroos come right through the sites – so you have to watch your footing for Roo poo!

Our friend who was staying at the site with us now tells a story about how he was knocked from one side of the airbed to the other when a large Roo struck the side of the tent with its tail! The possums will also eat apple offered to them.

There is a covered camp kitchen with BBQs and tables etc. The ablutions were older but were in a good state of repair and clean, there was loads of hot water. The park also has a play area, tennis court, basketball, volleyball and small shop in reception.
The drinking water is all filtered rain water.

The park is close to Gracetown (2.5kms) and its beach, which is sheltered and is great for swimming, snorkelling and kayaking. Of course the Margaret River Region is renowned for it’s world-class surf breaks and wine. It is only 10 minutes from Margaret River and it’s restaurants and shops.

This is a great site, that offers bush camping with the convenience of power, water and clean showers/toilets. The atmosphere of the park is relaxed and friendly, this is helped by the large sites, the trees and tracks. The site does have a no noise after 10pm rule, which is enforced by the owners.

As I have said at the beginning we are going back for Christmas this year – cant wait!

Bunbury Glade Caravan Park

Bunbury Glade Caravan Park, Bunbury, WA http://www.glade.com.au/

We went to this site a few times last year and always had a really good time, then we kind of lost touch with it until about 2 weeks a go.

It is great but on a couple of occasions it did take 10 minutes to get to the toilet/showers – as everybody is so friendly you just keep stopping to chat!The site I well maintained, there are residential vans, but all are well maintained and seem to take pride in the park.

The powered tent and van sites are grass, which is obviously well watered and looked after. The roads are gravel. Some of the powered sites are drive through. There is a swimming pool, which is landscaped with rocks and palms. A new fenced of kids play area (we kept trying to lock our kids in but they kept escaping!).

There isn’t a camp kitchen but there are 3 or 4 BBQ areas with picnic tables and sinks with very hot water. All the BBQs we used were clean and did get hot.The toilets and showers are older, but all very well maintained and clean. There were some problems with the sinks blocking in the ladies but once reported these were soon fixed. The laundries are attached to the ablution blocks. There are also plenty of lines.

The park is very friendly, well maintained and a great place to stay to visit the region it is close to a shopping centre and bottle shop! It is also opposite the Bunbury Race Track (horses), which on our last visit had races and live music until about 11pm which we could here. Otherwise the park is very quiet and peaceful.We will definitely be going back.

Peppermint Park Eco Village

Peppermint Park Eco Village, Busselton, WA http://www.peppermintpark.com.au/

This is a great place to stay; it is about 4 hours South of Perth, between Busselton and Dunsborough on the edge of the Margaret River wine region.It gets its name from all the peppermint gums scattered around the park. These provide a home for possums, which you can see in the trees as it goes dark (just watch out for their personal reticulation), and also you can see Bandicoots running around.

The park is immaculately kept, and provides beautifully grassed tent sites, en suite sites and cabins. There are no residential vans. There are gas BBQs and picnic tables all around the park and the camp kitchen is clean, spacious and very well appointed. There is also a games room and kids play area.The park has 2 swimming pools, which were new at the end of last year.

The showers and toilet blocks are all modern, well maintained and most importantly clean. There are laundry facilities attached.The Owners/Managers walk around, chat and just make sure everybody is happy and that things are good. One time when it was very windy we got back to find that he had made sure the tent was secure and nothing was blowing away – now that’s what I call good.

The roads are paved and make a good cycle track for the kids, helmets must be warn, there are drive through sites for vans.The park also goes quiet by about 9.30-10pm, even when there have been groups, everybody seems to have respect for each other as well as the environment, yet it still retains a relaxed, welcoming and friendly feel.Overall I would highly recommend this park, the biggest downside is that it is a bit to far to go for the weekend.

Myalup Beach Caravan Park

We live ½ an hour south of Perth and when we go away for a couple of nights at a weekend we usually head south to Bunbury or Busselton and have a few Caravan Parks that we like. We haven’t been brave enough to go bush, yet! Waiting to get a camper trailer and somebody to go with.

One weekend we decided to try a park that we had seen signs from the road for but never looked at (1st mistake), we checked it out on the internet and it looked a good place to try, close to the beach (which has 4WD access), shop play area, BBQs, clean showers and toilets http://www.myalupbeachcaravanpark.com.au/

So we arrive on the Friday evening, after a long week of work, we just want to get the tent up and have a couple of nice cold stubbies. The office is shut with a note to go to the managers van. The manager wanders down back on to the road tells us to turn around and pitch the tent behind the bus shelter on a well worn bit of grass and sand.At this point we should have jumped back in the car and headed to one of our well-loved sites! But by know we thought this will be an experience and I am sure it is not going to be as bad as it looked! (2nd Mistake).

This site has lots of residential vans, in various states of repair! And only a few, as far as we could see, sites for tents and vans and these were all by the road side – the others were already full, by what we later found out was a big group.Also being so close to a beach with 4WD was a big draw to people who like to fish, and some of those liked to take quad bikes on to the beach – more about this later.

The showers and toilets needed knocking down and re-building! I’m sure if the cobwebs were cleaned up they would have probably fallen down on there own, I’m sure they were an integral part of the structure!The sinks were chipped, in the gents they had various different types of hair in and around them (I’m not going to say anymore). The showers were even more disturbing. So I will leave it to your imagination what the toilets were like!

We had brought food for the first night, which was lucky as the BBQ’s described on the website were wood BBQ’s and there was a total fire ban (it was January). Washing up in the camp kitchen was hindered by the total lack of hot water and a filthy sink.

That night the fun really started, I like parks that have a quiet after 10pm rule, there is a reason for this I need my beauty sleep! There was a group at one of the resi vans (young guys and girls) that were drinking and revving quad bikes until the early hours. Then there was the groups in the tents near us – Ok there was the usual muffled voices with occasional bursts of laughter (which I don’t mind), but the really annoying thing was the kids that they had put in the tent behind ours who were obviously playing on a Nintendo WII (I thought the idea of camping was to get away from TV, computer games etc) then occasionally an adult would come a long (about every ½ hour) and scream and shout at them to turn it down! Which they promptly did for about 5 minutes! This all went on ‘til about 2.30 in the morning, then they were all awake cooking breakfast by 7 – how do they do it? ‘cause I cant! But then they probably got woken up the same way we did…

The joy about being right next to a road to a beach, opposite a shop, is the delivery truck at 4am, followed by the steady stream of fishermen heading down to the beach, stopping at the shop to buy bait, ciggies, newspaper etc!

Ok in the cold light of day after a couple of cups of coffee and breaky - a wash in cold water (I wasn’t brave enough to shower!) things didn’t seem as bad. We had a full day planned, 4WD through some forest tracks – the highlight of which (for my 6 year old daughter) was seeing a dead cow, bloated and not yet smelling, on the side of a track. For the rest of the day it was “can we go back and see the cow?”

The highlight for my wife and I was an excellent lunch of Ribs (made with coke) and wedges at the Old Coast Road Brewery http://www.ocrb.com.au/ , which we found completely by mistake and turned up at covered in dust!

We arrived back at the site about 3.30pm, the group next door were already well lubricated, I headed to the loo, and while sat there thinking (as you do!) spotted a cockroach on the floor lying on his back covered in bits of fluff and hair. I thought that is disgusting it must have been there for ages to be covered in so much fluff and dust! Then it moved! So did I!

After a very brief shall we stay or shall we go, we had everything packed up in the trailer within ½ hour (a record for us) and headed to my Mum and Dads in Pinjarra and their swimming pool!