The 2022 Roller Coaster Ride Begins, hang on tight !

Feature Photo: It’s 5pm on Boxing Day and still 38C, time for a swim at Silver Sands beach, Mandurah, Western Australia.

31/12/2021, By Will.

“Hi Charlie welcome to the world.”

*Late December 2021, Granddad and Nanna with our 1 day old grandson, Charlie*. ❤️

G’day Crew, it’s been awhile, sorry about that but after the Aus Pandemic Tour we sunk into a bit of despair. Don’t panic we will recover because one of our primary mottos is to “never give up, ever” !

Life continues, we came home, eventually both of us got double juiced up, though with hindsight I personally have my doubts as to the effectiveness but we decided to take it for Team Australia.

Federal/State Governments you had better come through on your promise, at the moment the world thinks the Aussie population are a bunch of gutless sheeple but if the build up of protests through the second half of 2021 is anything to go by then 2022 will be absolute mayhem if you spin us all BS and give us a repeat of 2020/21.

*Photo from the ABC News, 20/11/21, freedom protestors (called anti vaxxers by the media) at Forrest Chase, Perth CBD.*

Enough about the slightly scary bug that barely kills anyone it infects. Lots has happened to team wiljen since our return from our 91 day vehicle/camper tour back in September. To keep this post short and concise I’ll give you the quick version of the last quarter of 2021. The Travel Home Base (THB) was in good condition upon our return but the gardens and lawn were struggling. Jenny and I got stuck into the yard and it was back to normal with the veggie garden coming on stream and lawn looking lush within 6 weeks.

Since June the 2002, 105 Series Landcruiser has been quietly waiting for its new owners, Hayden & Kirsty to get their cash together and pick her up for another 20 years of awesome travel adventures. We are barely home a week from our Aus. Pandemic Tour and the deal is done.

*Final photo of old and new Landcruiser wagons together, 23rd of September.*

Team wiljen end up with an unregistered 2006 Ford Focus that we once owned in our distant past working life. I get to work on making repairs, fix some minor rust, get brake lights working, some cheap new tyres, give it a bit of a tidy up and a week later the Focus is inspected, registered and back on the road. “For Sale, $4000”. 🤣

*Jenny gets stuck into the garden at the THB, Will sorts out the lawn, Rodgie dog watches on.*

*Lots of walking Rodgie Dog around various Mandurah locations.* 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🐕

*Heaps of helping out family, busy bee at Jake, Olivia and Annelise’s house, ferrying my Dad around for his cataract surgery.*

*Not very much motorbike action, just a couple of day trips. I did get some new rubber put on the Yamaha Super Tenere in preparation for riding out to Wagin for the grain harvest.*

Once again I had signed up for the annual grain harvest. This was going to become the mother of all harvests with nearly double yields per hectare and 70% more selling price on the grain. For example in 2020 canola was selling for $600aud per tonne and this year it was $1000 per tonne. Wheat was hitting $450aud per tonne this year, to say the farmers are happy is an understatement. (Don’t forget inflation is hitting and next years inputs will be double the normal cost).

Home for Will for the next 2 months ? (Don’t ever think it’s physically or mentally easy. I tell people it’s simple but it is not. The young guys & gals are the tough ones, I’m super impressed with the next generation, there is hope).

Scotty the boss is smart, he quickly discovered that I have a Loader ticket and some ancient front end loader experience from my younger days working in the gold mines. my skill level quickly gets up to 75% of Scotty’s and Tyron’s skills….good enough to load out canola unsupervised. Lincoln and Will become load out team C due to how busy it is.

*Often i had to unload 2 roadtrains of grain at a time with no help (ok Scotty, Liam and Tyron I know that is BS, but it did happen occasionally). 😳*

*There was a couple of sneaky 2 night trips home to catch up with my bestie Jenny, love you for ever…❤️*

*The all time record for CBH Wagin has been reached….140K tonne headed for 160000t most likely will not happen again in my lifetime. This is most of the 2021 crew, Will is on the far right.*

*After work informal Bin Party, happy birthday there Tyron.*

*Yeah I did ride the Bike out there during 2021. 😃🏍*

*And for the first time in 3 years I was beaten at pool down the local pub, well done Liam ! This is the game after I was defeated. From memory Linc’s lost against Liam.*

*5am and still 30kms from Wagin Town. Quick pee stop and 2 weeks of work to go. Am I the oldest casual RPO with CBH this year ? What a crazy work life I’ve lived…What will happen next ?*

*22nd of December, 4.30pm, nice to be home.*

Overall I did 6 and a half weeks on the harvest at Wagin this year. My final day being the 22nd of December, a nice little earn. Half the crew were there from last year but lots of new people for me to meet including new site bosses, Scotty the new RPO IC and Tyron the RPO 2IC. I did a combination of driving the old family bunky Ford Focus (2006) across to Wagin a 2.5 hour drive, about 220kms. During the middle section when I had a couple of days off I rode the big Yamaha Super Tenere 1200 out there and back. The main reason for taking the Ford Focus was to carry more (cheaper) food and extra equipment for comfort.

Now that I mentioned the 2006 Ford Focus it has had a checkered 15 year history, Jenny and I bought it new from Lane Ford Mandurah where Jenny was working as an office assistant at the cost of $20000 drive away. It became my commuter work vehicle up to Kwinana and return for a few years (a daily 2 hour commute in heavy traffic). Then all 3 of our kids learned to drive in it and often borrowed it during their final high school year as “P Platers”. With the exception of Olivia who finished High School in year 11. Olivia bought it off us cheap and it was in her possession for about 7 years. Then it was on sold to her brother at family rates, Hayden and partner Kirsty had it for about a year but accidentally allowed the registration to lapse.

When we sold the “wiljen” 105 series Landcruiser to Hayden he left the Focus with us. This was the second time I had to get it re-registered in 2 years. The first time it cost me $1250 to get it back on the road for Olivia and this time it set us back $950. After a few other repairs like broken engine mount, 2 new tyres, repair air conditioner and a service it owed Jenny and I about $3500. We had planned to sell the Focus but doubt anyone would be willing to part with up to $4000 for a high mileage (260000kms) dinged up 4 cylinder, hatch back. For now it’s the team wiljen town runabout, shopping trolley, beach buggy, dog taxi and anything else required of it like sitting in the blazing sun & grain dust at CBH Wagin.

While I’m out at Wagin Jenny initiated the renting of our Air BnB near Fremantle. She made it live and payed the price. It went off immediately, so lots of managing and cleaning up after guests. Jenny has a past life as a “housemaid” (that term is so un PC these days) at five star resorts like The Cable Beach Club Broome and Diamond Beach Casino Darwin. Jenny knows how to clean and present a place, she also has a Cert IV with computers so getting it to all come together goes quite smoothly.

*Prepping, cleaning and getting the Freo Air BnB Unit ready for action !*

We rent the small 2 bedroom unit out for $100 per night plus a one off $50 cleaning fee, minimum stay is 2 nights. It is all legitimate as we have a short term rental license from the Fremantle City Council. So if you’re interested in a place to stay when visiting Fremantle and Perth send us a message.

*Wiljen’s air bnb, White Gum Valley near Fremantle. If you know us then contact Jenny or Will directly and we will work out a mates rates deal. Only for the crew !*

The big news for the end of 2021 is that between Christmas and New Year we have once again become grandparents, yippee ! Olivia and Jake have been busy becoming a family and we now have a grandson called Charlie. Welcome to the world little Charlie, “Nanna” Jenny and I are looking forward to watching you grow and learn all about it.

*Welcome to the world little Charlie we all have so much love and hope for you. Great effort Olivia and Jake, now the real family work begins. Just remeber we do have your back, ❤️*

So if you’re reading this you have survived 2021, I have no idea what 2022 has installed for us but no doubt it will be a roller coaster ride. Just do your best to be kind to each other, remain sceptical of what the Government and Media report to you. Don’t allow yourself to get sucked into their hysteria and try hard to not judge people that you don’t know and have never met for decisions they may or may not have made. It’s easier to control us Australian’s if they can keep us in the dark and keep us divided. Being “safe and healthy” isn’t of much use when you have no freedoms left.

Make your own informed decisions in 2022. That’s what Jenny and Will are planning to do, thanks for reading and we will see you on the road.

😎👌🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🐕…