Day 166 Manjimup, (Fonty's Pool), WA

We woke to another rainy day at Busselton but thankfully the further East we travelled this morning the sunnier it became.  I would like to think it will stay that way for our time at Manjimup but it is looking unlikely.

Today's drive took us through many state forests and I will have to ask someone how many state forests there are in the South West.  Dozens I think.  But it wasn't until we neared Manjimup that we came upon the majestic Karri Forests.  The area around Manjimup has some of the most fertile soils in Australia so a lot of the forests have been turned into a thriving fruit and vegetable industry.  We passed a sign pointing to Truffle farming, another Manjimup speciality, but it is the wrong time of the year for truffles so we won't be hunting them.

I was a little hesitant about booking a site at Fonty's Pool Caravan Park for seven nights as it is kind of in the middle of nowhere between Manjimup (10 kms) and Pemberton (37 kms) but as soon as we turned off the road and drove into Fonty's all my worries disappeared.  I don't care now that it is in the middle of nowhere because it is a really lovely park - somewhere very special.  

As Philip backed onto our site I must admit I was only half watching (well done Philip - another perfect back-up without my assistance 😜) because I was completely enthralled by the sheep that were in the paddock directly behind us.  I have never seen so many sets of twin lambs.  I would think 80% of these ewes has twins......

It was after 1pm by the time we had set up camp so I made us an omelette for lunch.  I packed it full of vegetables (zucchini, carrot, tomato, capsicum, onion) so we would get our five serves and just before popping it under the grill I topped it with grated cheese and the remainder of my Celery Leaf Pesto.  It was pretty darn tasty even if I do say so myself.....

After lunch I went for a walk around this beautiful van park.  It is set over many acres with lots of room between vanst hat we are very grateful for. But the most wonderful thing about this place is Fonty's Pool (or pond as we call it in Queensland).  One end of it has been dammed off to create a lovely swimming oasis that would be fantastic in summer.  I watched a couple of kids splashing around in it on my walk and even they found it cold.  Brrrrrr. The gardens are beautiful and well maintained. The owners have certainly given it a whole lot of love.

Yes, we really lucked out here.  It is colder here than it is on the coast so we will have to rug up but we have lots of things on our "to do" list for this area and I would think we should not have to drive anymore than 50kms in any direction to do it all.  We are still trying to decide where to head for the beginning of school holidays on Friday and we are going to have to make a decision very soon as most places are either full or filling up rapidly.