Manchos Gap Year

Manchos Gap Year Brendon and Lynice are on our "Gap year " , traveling around Australia with our Dog " Murphy "

03/06/2026

đź“ŤBusselton Jetty - Western Australia




01/06/2026

Feeding the Stings Rays

Augusta - Western Australia


📍Yallingup Sometimes you get lucky…This storm was classed as a once-in-five-year event.We were pretty confident we were ...
01/06/2026

đź“ŤYallingup

Sometimes you get lucky…

This storm was classed as a once-in-five-year event.

We were pretty confident we were ready for it. Tucked away in the back corner of a caravan park, sheltered and out of the way.

We’ve camped in some wild conditions before, but I reckon this one tops the lot.

Things were going well until about 10:30 Sunday night. Plenty of wind, plenty of rain, but no real issues.

Then a tree came down. That sound is something you will never forget

Not somewhere else in the park. Not across the road.

Arms length from our van.

In a split second, what was just another storm became a reminder of how quickly things can change.

We dodged a bullet on this adventure.

A very close call, a story to tell, and a good reminder that sometimes luck is the best item in your camping kit.

We’re grateful, we’re still rolling, and the adventure continues.

đź“ŤAugusta đź“ŤYallingup Our caravan park was an absolute cracker, right on the water where the stingrays come in for a feed ...
01/06/2026

đź“ŤAugusta
đź“ŤYallingup

Our caravan park was an absolute cracker, right on the water where the stingrays come in for a feed every day.

Some of them were huge.I reckon one of them looked at me like I owed him money.

The Augusta region is full of caves. Apparently there are heaps of them, but we settled on two

Lake Cave and Jewel Cave.

Both are estimated to be around 1 million years old. Very impressive

Lake Cave is the only cave in the southwest with a permanent lake inside.

Jewel Cave had the remains of a Tasmanian tiger found in it. How it got all the way over here is beyond me. Must’ve missed the last ferry

We also ventured out on the high seas for a whale tour.

The whales put on a great show.
Which was nice because if I’d paid all that money and only seen water I wouldn’t of been that impressed

Then it was on to Margaret River., a lot of people
Call it a Wine region , we did camp on a winery

We managed:
3 breweries
1 chocolate factory
1 coffee factory

A well-balanced diet according to absolutely nobody.

The chocolate factory was great, The breweries were better

Meanwhile, something else was brewing in the background…

The weather.

We were heading to Yallingup for the weekend and so was a decent storm

The forecast started at 100 km /h winds.

By Saturday night it had upgraded to 120km/h winds.

It was that windy, it’d blow a seagull backwards ( I’ve got more )

Nothing like lying in bed listening to the caravan creak and wondering if you’ll wake up in Geraldton.

We’ve camped in at Swim Cart in Tasmania
Lost 2 awnings over our time , so we weren’t too worried.

The weather bureau called it a one-in-five-year storm.

The caravan park called it a character-building
( or what we thought , more to come )

Everyone else was checking weather apps.

I was checking if the esky was still there

The waves were unbelievable.

Honestly the biggest waves I’ve seen in a very long time. It was a very angry sea

All in all, another fantastic week.

Fed stingrays.
Explored million-year-old caves.
Saw whales.
Sampled local breweries.
Ate chocolate.
Drank coffee.
Survived a storm.

And most importantly…

The caravan is still upright



24/05/2026

đź“ŤThe Gap - Albany Western Australia

📍Albany 📍Granite Sky Walk 📍Denmark This week was jam packed Albany welcome to the big smoke… biggest town we’ve been to ...
24/05/2026

đź“ŤAlbany
đź“ŤGranite Sky Walk
đź“ŤDenmark

This week was jam packed
Albany welcome to the big smoke… biggest town we’ve been to for a while
If you are thinking of visiting Albany . Do it , so
Much to do
We stayed at Panorama Caravan Park

The Gap, Natural Bridge, Cable Beach where the dolphins put on a show for us, Brilliant
blow holes (steady on), Salmon Holes and Misery Beach… which sounds like where you end up after a 14km Hike (hold that thought )
Hit up the Squid Shack… No I didn’t supply the squid but I did catch a nice squid off the rocks one evening much to Lynice’s disgust, I’m fighting back in the Manchos gap year squid championships

Dropped into Wilson’s Brewery and Limeburners Whisky Distillery.
Yep… two breweries We’re basically doing a very committed pub crawl around Australia at this point.

Murphy scored himself an orthopedic bed because apparently he has “sore hips.” Defiantly not from all the jetties he’s been walking , Anyways he hates it !!

Then came the highlight of the Albany section … the Bald Head Hike, if your into Hiking with postcard views do it
We woke up and thought “yeah let’s smash out a 14km hike.”
6km in I definitely wasn’t thinking that anymore

At that point it became less “nature adventure” and more “survival documentary.”

But the views were next level.

We finished it feeling pretty proud of ourselves… our legs felt otherwise.
That last section was brutal — genuinely thought we were gonna die
when finished we sat on the bench near our car and basically didn’t talk just looked at each other and nodded , quiet weirdly satisfying

Next stop — Granite Skywalk.
Now anyone who knows me personally knows I HATE heights.
I get nervous standing on a curb sometimes.
Granite Skywalk is 2.2km basically straight uphill, then you climb through rocks and up a cage onto an elevated platform hanging over unreal views.

Nothing says “relaxing holiday” like voluntarily climbing into a metal cage over a cliff.

Denmark and stayed at Monkey Rock Winery ( Hipcamp stay)
Just us and the cows, goats, kangaroos, ducks and geese., a winery that sells ciders, not sure how many times we said “ how’s the serenity “
Visited Three chocolate factories and Two breweries.
Boston Brewery, Cannabis Botanical Distillery… didn’t try the free choc chip cookies on the way in (not sure what that was all about.)

Even the goats were smiling

Checked out all the cool spots in the area too
— Elephant Rocks, Greens Pool and Waterfall Beach.

Unfortunately got them on a bit of an average weather day, but that’s travelling… gotta take the good with the bad.

Now we head out of the bottom south-west and towards the corner of Australia — the Margaret River region.






17/05/2026

đź“ŤBack Beach - Western Australia

📍Cheynes Beach 📍Betty’s Beach We rolled into Cheynes Beach — which still sounds like “Shane with a CH” and I refuse to s...
17/05/2026

đź“ŤCheynes Beach
📍Betty’s Beach

We rolled into Cheynes Beach — which still sounds like “Shane with a CH” and I refuse to say it properly.

May. 25 degrees. No wind. How good.

Fishing report?
We tried every major point.
Spoke to the neighbours.
The caravan owner.
The bloke on the rocks.
The dog.
And the lady down the road who stares out the window like she’s personally offended by tourists.

Verdict:
No fish. Not even one with low self-esteem.

Even the locals said, “Nah, there’s no fish here.”
So we moved on.

Beautiful place though — and we did spot a few whales cruising past, which made up for the fish giving us the silent treatment.

Next stop: Betty’s Beach Camp, about 35km down the road.
Social media reckons it’s one of the best free camps in WA.

Only six to eight spots available so it’s pot luck what ya get

Judge for yourself
Unreal views.
Good fishing.
Dolphins swimming past like they pay site fees.

East Bay Camp is probably even better… but good luck squeezing a decent-sized van in there unless you can reverse like you’re auditioning for Bathurst.

Fishing turned around big time — landed my biggest black-back salmon and some silver trevally.

Lynice on the other hand played the support role

Fishing was so good I finally stopped blaming the tide, the moon, the wind direction
Brilliant

Who’s Betty ?

* Betty’s Beach – Possibly just someone who picked the best view and said “mine.”
That’s my view anyways

We loved our 3 days at Betty’s beach , possibly one of the best free camps we have come across

Even Murphy approved

Now we’re Albany-bound for four days.
Time to restock
Apparently they have some very interesting stuff to see and it’s been a while since we have been to a bigger town , Lynice also keen for some retail therapy






📍Alexander Bay 📍Duke of Orleans Alexander Bay — 80km east of Esperance…We are heading East?I thought we were heading wes...
10/05/2026

đź“ŤAlexander Bay
đź“ŤDuke of Orleans

Alexander Bay — 80km east of Esperance…

We are heading East?
I thought we were heading west., are we heading back to Tassie , not yet !!

Magic stop. These beaches… wow.
To our Tassie Friends — imagine Bay of Fires, but copy and paste and then copy and paste

The road in?
Let’s just say the caravan suspension got a full workout.
Butt cheeks were tighter than the wheel nuts.

Caught squid.
Lynice nailed a silver trevally.
I mostly supervised., no comment

Took a quick trip to the Conduip tavern and caught up with our friends Red Dust Oz - living the life

The Reef and beef was a must

Duke of Orleans Caravan Park

Rolled in and caught up with Jared our son and Rebecca his girlfriend , and little Ruben ( they live in Kalgoorlie )

Jared’s suggestion to camp here , we were impressed

Jared in the camper trailer — how good is the smell of canvas in the morning?
Nothing says “luxury accommodation” like damp fabric and Canvas

I broke out the Coffin Bay oysters and fresh squid , that “ Lynice caught “
We are camping right ?

We did some of the 4WD tracks down this way
Wow.

Wharton Beach — top 3 beach in the world.”apparently “

Big call? But I gotta say it was up there , that sand is so white and squeaks , I dunno it just does when ya walk on it

If beaches had a leaderboard, this one would already have its acceptance speech ready.

Dropped the tyre pressures to a juicy 16psi. and let her rip

Beach driving rule #1:
If you say “She’ll be right”… she’ll be right.
Beach driving rule #2:
If you say “I’ll just send it”… you’re now content for someone else’s recovery video.

Duke of Orleans — 10/10.
Would camp again.
The kind of place where you sit back, stare at the scenery around you and say,
“Yep “ while nodding ya head of approval

380km later we pulled into Fitzgerald — old school campsite
With a small stop over at a candy shop is Ravensthorpe

We ended up the day grass , how good is grass to camp on

After weeks of sand, setting up on grass felt illegal.

WA is ridiculous good
At this point I’m considering writing it a thank-you card.

Next week we are pushing to Albany






!

08/05/2026

đź“ŤWharton Beach -Western Australia



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