Wicked Campervans and Perth Squalls

The sky was blue when we woke without a hint of fluffy clouds anywhere after a night of torrential downpours on and off. A bit of breaky and we were off to do some errands. The bikes needed some lovin’ so we dropped them by a local shop for servicing and then made our way to the Wicked Camper outlet for Morfar and Mormor to collect their campervan. For those who don’t know, Wicked Campervans are usually these older Mitsubishi vans which have been converted into campervans with a small kitchen at the back and a double bed. Both the insides and outsides are painted in Graffiti style and all have some sort of lyric or saying on the back ranging from “Friends don’t let friends drink VB” to more lurid ones like the Billy Idol van which has “ in the midnight hour she cried more, more, more.” The reason I mention the latter is that Cole read it and mentioned to his ‘Mormor’ that this would be the perfect van owing to the saying on the back! So beautifully naïve – wish I could keep him this innocent forever! The vans are usually rented by your average penny-pinching backpacker wishing a cheap way to travel around Oz. The in-laws had chosen it as it was the only company that permitted a drop off in Exmouth. The initial choice of vans was showcased and looked like it had been rolled a few times and left out on the beach somewhere. Dents textured all visible areas of its exterior and the windshield wipers appeared quite rusted …possibly to the front of the vehicle, so a replacement was requested. The second actually appeared reasonable with only 40,000 odd kms on it and a non-offensive quotation to the back so as not to embarrass the grey nomads we’ve recruited on our venture up to Exmouth.

A couple errands and pee-breaks later we were in the city and doing our best to avoid the occasional squall coming through, throwing sheets of rain at any poor pedestrian stuck out in the elements. Perth now has a Ferris wheel with gondola enclosures which sits down on the foreshore of the river adjacent the large Bell Clock Tower. Given the inclement weather and the opportunity to get some reasonable views of the surrounds, we hopped on. Whilst riding, another squall came through and whistled around us as we lightly jerked around on the Ferris Wheel loop. It was actually quite exciting with this added touch of wild weather. Once ousted from the protected confines of the gondola compartment we trekked back into town to the information centre and sorted out some rough plans for the next few days. Things are looking up for the weather by Friday, so we should be able to get across to Rottnest for a pedal and look-see. Tomorrow – to Penguin Island and the Fremantle Prison.