Currently, Gigi is travelling WA, as it has been since the beginning of March..

Getting here and crossing the Nullarbor it is always an exciting adventure as it does remind you of how little and insignificant we really are in the scheme of things in life.. The roads are a definitely a bit more frequented that they were the last time I crossed it with Alex. Plenty of caravans and motorhomes can now be seen with both old and young people taking the road with ease, thanks to all the technology we have available today..

Better vehicles, better caravan construction materials combined with GPS, Satellite Phones and every other gadget you can think of it under the sun, and you quickly realise that Australia has become a lot easier to explore.. You can think of it either as a good or bad thing. To me, while I’m always happy to see old and young family taking the road and experiencing the nomadic life, I feel like we lost something very important along the way..

The spirit of the adventure, it is just not the same as it used to be, or at least that’s how it feels.. I found myself spending more time planning the next move on GPS and Google Map, than actually exploring and learning my surroundings..

But thanks to Australia landscape and Telstra monopoly, things are about to change.. The first three weeks without Internet, I thought I was going crazy, but I then quickly realised that it was just a bad habit. Sure you need Internet for few important things for which we no longer have a choice of form of payment, like: paying bills, emails, and.. and.. and… well, that’s it for me..

I’m going to try to detox myself from Internet, and see if I can go back to use these “commodity tools” only for when I really need it.. As far as the blog it will get update when the network is available..

A quick fun fact. Do you know that Telstra charge about 20 times more for data and accessing Internet than any other company on the planet.. Not my opinion! Check it out:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-relative-cost-of-bandwidth-around-the-world/

I had originally planned to have this section of the blog mentioning people experiences more than locations, but I now don’t think it will be the case..

So far, after nearly two months, I haven’t met new people or had the chance to learn new stories.. I mean, I met some new people, but not the kind that you would sit around a campfire and share life’s experiences.. Let’s just leave it at that..

Currently located about 200km North of Perth, we have experienced an extremely beautiful weather. Below 30° in the day, followed by a very comfortable 20° at night.. Some rain, but nothing major, that did allowed us to park in areas away from the roads, and providing at an amazing view of the sky at night..

One thing that I’m please to mention, is how easy it has become to have a good night sleep, without interruptions.. I needed this so badly, that I now found myself with more energy than ever before.. That’s what you get from a five stars accommodation parked in the bush!

I can honestly say that if when you travel, you always pick the populated area to rest at night, for whatever reason it may be, from safety in number to convenience, you are letting one of the best aspect of travelling, getting away from you..

It always amazed me that when some caravan or campervan comes into the area where we are setup, and they inevitably pick the closest spot near us even if the area is completely empty and with much better spots of where we are..

Not sure what they are afraid of, but if I had to guess, they must have seen The movie Wolf Creek.. I would suggest them to watch The adventure of Priscilla Queen of the Desert instead, as it does get much closer to reality..

I must congratulate WA (and all the relative councils) for having installed so many dump points and fresh water taps.. You can see the benefits of this as people are no longer dumping on the side of the road, and water costs are recovered by the money people are spending locally..

There are still several areas where unfortunately greed has taken over and the council has implemented rules specifically designed to punish travellers unless you use the local caravan park.. It is however not working, as more and more people avoid now those areas like the plague..

Unfortunately two things are happening as a consequence of this: Firstly, the local economy misses out on thousands of dollars per week from traveller that need fuel, food, breakfast or coffee, mechanical repairs, hardware stores, restaurants, souvenirs, art and museums…

Secondly, once the location has been given the bad reputation from people travelling, that rumour does spread really fast and with all the media available it makes it nearly impossible to recover from that..

However once the damage is done, you start to see some little town trying twice as hard as they can to restore the situation, by actually helping and inviting traveller to stop by offering proper facility, shady areas, parking facilities, a playground and even road sign. I saw one a few weeks back, where it said: “This is a friendly RV town. We welcome and we need You”..

I have seen plenty of time the RV friendly sign before but never specific as the one at the entrance of Badgingarra.. We did stop at the dump point and also fill up with water, then proceeded to the local general store where between bread and milk plus breakfast we left there $52 dollars..

Before I forget, Badgingarra also has a free Miniature Golf course right near the rest area.. In Brookton we spend three days there on a beautiful spot on the river. Did food shopping and I also bought $600 of rubber to replace two of my tyres.. They were not an emergency, but it proves that if you are made to feel welcome, you behave accordingly..

And these are just a little example to prove that the system is working where common sense does prevail!

Everybody in town can and will benefit if you welcome people. But the councils need to understand that not all nomad/travellers need a caravan park to travel and that, if all the money has to be spent to pay for the greedy and often unrealistic accommodation fees, the rest of the local business in town get Nothing, Nada, Zilch, Niente!

Winter is coming, so we’ll keep moving North and taking in as much as possible of this wonderful country..

It is always an amazing feeling when you know that you are in the right place at the right time..

Before I forget, Happy Easter to everyone.. Drive safe and enjoy this wonderful country of ours. Think how lucky we are not to have a president like Trump.. What an Idiot!!!

See you on the road..