Annya Forest camp

When we arrived in the Annya forest camp there was only one or two other people here but then ANZAC day long weekend happened. Aver 24 hours the place filled, first it was the horse people, horse floats and fifth wheelers started pulling up, unloading horses and setting up camp. Then there was the local chapter of the CMCA (Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia) with their assortment of converted coaster buses and camper vans. And of course then there’s the families and other assorted campers getting away for the long weekend, by Saturday afternoon the camp site was pretty full.

Having so many people certainly changed the atmosphere of the camp and the horse people made a lovely change, you don’t expect to see old horse drawn buggies while you’re out camping.

 

They had an assortment of buggies and horses, large work horses and old buggies, and some quite small ones.

And then on Saturday a car club of some sort arrived for a picnic lunch.

 

They had a wide variety of cars from very old through to more modern Torana’s and Kingswoods, an interesting interlude for the camp ground watching them drive in and out. It’s great to see facilities like this park being well used, and well respected, everyone left the place very clean.

The forest surrounding the camp was supposed to be filled with leeches, Cloudy saw one in the first couple of days and the lady camped next to us got one on her leg, and I heard some local visitors warning people of them. But of course I couldn’t find one to photograph. There were some interesting mosses and lichens, especially in the damp areas down around the nearby swamp/lake. You can walk around the swamp on a well sign posted track that’s probably about 2km long, and half way around the track there’s a brand new bird hide looking out over the water.

 

We spent a week camped here enjoying the changes around the camp site and having a nice relaxing break. Cooking became a bit of a “thing” while we were here and I made a nice strawberry oat slice, then one evening we cooked up some amazing pizzas. They were rather lavish and we each had made our own recipe, Cloudy’s was mushroom and feta, with cheddar cheese on top while I made one with dried tomato, onion, olives and Parmesan and cheddar cheese. They were probably a foot long by 8 inches wide and the toppings were layered on really thickly and they were absolute treat. In fact they were so good that we ate both pizzas between us and then we suffered for the next few days from having such excess.

A couple camped behind us has mentioned that the Grampian ranges a little further north in Victoria were well worth a visit. Annya was meant to be our final camp together but Cloudy decided to follow along just one more time to the Grampians for a few more days, as it was only a couple of hours away, perhaps there we would finally part company.

Lastly, I have to have a bit of a moan about roads. South Australia and Victoria, whats going on? I’ve had some absolute shockers of roads, incredibly bumpy and in really poor condition. So much so, that managed to bend my tow bar while doing 30km an hour down a main city street in Port Lincoln. But it’s not just the smaller streets, the main highways have some shocking sections where they just erect permanent signs on the side of the road saying “Rough surface” and recommend a lower speed. Many times on the good sections of highway I found myself travelling at 70 or 80 rather than the 90-100 I’d normally do on a good road towing the van, and when they recommended an 80 limit for a rough section I’d be closer to 60. On the highway from Annya up to the Grampians, there were 8 separate “Rough surface” signs in a stretch of road perhaps only 100km long, and these are permanent signs, not just temporary. I’ve never experienced such poor roads during my travel in Western Australia.