Hopetoun, WA

 Next we decided at the last minute to detour down to Hopetoun and it was the best little spontaneous decision we ever made. It is a small little town near a mining area and has a good jetty for fishing and the most amazing playground. 


For the first night we stayed at the free camp next to the beach but it was also right next to the road so a little bit dangerous and also the home of millions of vicious mosquitoes. Saul rode his bike down to the jetty in the evening and caught some squid and meet some of the local young boys who were fishing after school.

Our second day, which was also Saul's birthday, we moved to the caravan park just down the road. We started the day with special birthday pancakes and then packed up camp and drove to the jetty. We spent the morning fishing with some local young boys. They were very friendly and very enthusiastic about their fishing. One boy caught a cuttlefish and was keen to show the Zebbies how it changed colours when he killed it.

We could see lots of little fish eating all our bait but had trouble hooking them up and bringing them to the jetty. We caught a few different types of little fish eventually, including leatherjacket, garfish and rock cod. Nothing was big enough to keep except one that we gave to the young boys and they used it for bait.




After lunch we spent a few hours at the playground on the jumping pillow and the cool little obstacle course, and of course spent a lot of time on the swings at the carvan park.

Saul requested fish and chips for his birthday dinner but the town doesn't have a fish and chip shop so instead we went to the local pub and ordered take away fish and chips. And we finished the day with singing Happy Birthday and a cake - a home made cheese cake that we sneakily made the day before when Saul went fishing.



On the way out of town we drove past the Farm Gate Art Trail.




En route to our next stop we stopped through a town called Ravensthorpe and found a GIANT Lollipop. Naturally we stopped and had a look and discovered it was a lolly shop.




Our next little lunch stop was at a tiny farming town called Jerramungup, but again it had the BEST playground. Next to the playground was a little town hall that was having a church function and after lunch a group of kids came over and played and Elsie made a new friend. They bonded over climbing super high on the ropes.




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