So… after ten days at Linga Longa and a memorable New Year’s Eve we caught up again with the Seagulls at True Blue Caravan Park in Northampton. True Blue Caravan Park is fair dinkum Aussie van park run by a dinki-di couple who, unfortunately, were on holidays whilst we were there. Their son was standing in as the manager and juggling it with also being a local paramedic.

We learnt when we arrived that his services were nearly required after Gary Seagull suffered a very nasty bout of indigestion on the day that we both all met back up at Horrocks. Thankfully he was OK and good for happy hour by the time were arrived. The owners being away meant that we also missed out on free pancakes for breakfast on the Sunday we left but… them’s the breaks!

The caravan park itself was small and well kept. It had an old railway carriage for the reception office, an old mine windlass tower and plenty of old equipment quietly rusting away and giving character.

Northampton is one of those quiet little country towns. Big enough to support three pubs, although one was closed due to cyclone damage a couple of years ago. The main street has a number of shops that are doing well, a cafe and a bakery, which boasted award winning vanilla slices (‘snot blocks‘). As Rob and both Seagulls are connoisseurs of the Aussie snot block they were completely dismayed to learn that the bakery was closed for renovations and didn’t re-open until a couple of days after we left. As our next port of call was Geraldton, only 40km away, we resolved to return on opening day to test their claims. As it turned out we did return and tasted their wares. Luckily Jo rang ahead and reserved four snot blocks otherwise they would have run out.

The snot blocks were very good but they were the vanilla pastry cream style not the jelly style custard that we were all expecting and preferred. Still, it was worth the trip and we had a good chat with the owner who was quite interesting and overwhelmed by the volume of trade for re-opening day.

The ‘top Pub’ has nine life-size cutouts of the nine Northampton locals who played in the AFL over the years. Each player has a placard with the clubs they played for, their game stats and their heights, etc… It’s quite impressive that such a small country town has produced so many notable AFL players and the town is quite rightly proud of them.

We were browsing the Op Shop behind the hairdresser when Jo decided on a whim to get her hair trimmed. The hairdresser who also runs the Op Shop offered to do it for $30 dollars and stated that nobody give a trim like she does and she was as good as her word. During the cut Jo had to spread her arms out (crucifix style) to check the length, shake her head about to see how it fell and a few other hair callisthenics. She also offered a wash for $9, which involved a period of having her head poked and prodded in a series of rapid kneading movements that are best demonstrated than described. It truly was a unique and interesting experience.

Pub Night was at the ‘middle pub’, which was a standout ont two fronts… They had a surprisingly low stock of drinkable wine but their bourbon glazed ribs were absolutely sensational. So much so that when the cook came out Rob asked if he had a recipe. Surprisingly, the cook was more than happy to share his secrets and came back with very old food stained sheet of paper with hand-written instructions on it. The cook was more than happy for us to take a photo of it Rob then set about translating it into a recipe. Probably won’t attempt it while on the road but definitely one to try when we get home…