Although we try to watch our budget while travelling, there are times when we need to spend a little more on caravan parks. The following is a 'mixed bag', but all are places we would recommend to anyone travelling in this part of the country.
Manjimup: Warren Way CP, a very pleasant park (about 1 km north of the town) where we had a very friendly welcome from Geoff and Marisa, including scones with jam & cream! (Discounted to $22/night for CMCA members.) This is an excellent base for touring the forests and rivers in the area.
Cranbrook: A small town in wheat & sheep country, a bit dry and dusty but a good base for touring the Stirling ranges. There's a very well stocked general store (also sells fuel) and a small supermarket, a cafe/take-away, a large Op Shop, a good hotel, and even an Internet cafe -- and some lovely people! The park sites are scattered between scrubby trees -- but plenty of room even for our rig -- the ablutions block is almost new, with laundry and a paved area, there's a huge camp kitchen, a grassed area, and few other campers (mostly shearers when we were there). At $90/week ($18/night) it was great value.
Frankland: Another very small town in the Cranbrook shire, with eight powered sites behind the Community Centre. It's a VERY quiet town, but it does have a good general store/post office/liquor store/fuel outlet. Cost is only $14/night.
Albany: OK, not really a budget site but about the cheapest in Albany at $28/night, the Kalgan River Chalets and Caravan Park is also worth a mention. Owners Doug and Joanne are very helpful, and the surroundings are lovely -- lots of kangaroos around the perimeters, and what seems like hundreds of the beautiful Splendid blue wrens. They also have a nine-hole golf course, as well as a boat ramp.
That's our contribution for now; we're pulling out of Albany next Monday and heading towards Esperance then across the Nullarbor, and will be looking for a lot more freecamps for a while. Will let you know what we find on the way.
Cheers --
Andrea
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Free-ranging, in a Southern Cross 5th wheeler, in between property-minding (to save money!).
Cosy Corner - about midway between Albany and Denmark on the Lower Denmark Road. Just one long drop toilet, so good if you are self sufficient.
Shannon Park - south of Pemberton. It is a DEC site with Toilets and has Hot Water in the Showers (photo is of the Toilet/Shower block)! A very large area and there are about 30 sites amongst the trees. Cost is the standard DEC camping fees.
With Cosy Corner there are better toilets at the day area at West Cosy corner, also an outside beach type shower attached to the toilet block (flushing toilets), not that far to walk along the beachfront. Also a fresh water stream near the camping area on the beach at the west end.
I haven't been to the Shannon Park DEC camp Treecrest, thanks for that, I have been to the DEC camp further north off the highway towards Manjimup which is similar. Also the camp just north of Pemberton near the Aboretum which has long drops but no showers/water etc.
