A very hot morning, even with the shady site, determined that we would spend the day at nearby Preston Beach.
We love the fact that in Western Australia you are allowed to drive onto the beach, giving easy access to shade from the car and cool drinks from the Waeco fridge in the back. It’s so convenient and saves lugging everything from the car park as we always have to do in Victoria. The only thing is, your 4WD wheels have to be deflated to about 30 each time and then inflated again. We have done this quite often and now we jump out of the car and take responsibility for the wheel closest to where each of us sits. The beach was beautiful but hot. We broke out the 30+ sunscreen and made a makeshift shelter for shade. It worked a treat. The waves were real dumpers and Caleb had had enough when his swimmers started to fill with huge handfuls of sand. It was a great way to keep cool though and as we returned to the van we saw that it was 42 degrees. After cold showers all around, we charged up the esky again with food and cold drinks and headed back to Mandurah for our New Years Eve celebration on the foreshore. We decided to get there early, have fish and chips and that way we would get a parking spot. We had heard that the whole of Mandurah turn out on the foreshore so we didn’t want to miss out.
We secured a good spot and with Russell and Noelene who are next to us in the caravan park, we settled in for the night. The foreshore was a hive of activity and we enjoyed the fireworks which went off twice (9pm and midnight). We celebrated the New Year at 9pm because with the time difference it was midnight in Melbourne. Good enough for us!