Let me tell you something, I never intended to come to York that day.
I’ve always been like this; whenever I plan something, I only work on it for 40%-50% and the rest of it will be improvisation. Good thing I traveled alone again yesterday and I could drive anywhere I wanted. My original plan was trekking to Lesmurdie Falls National Park, visiting Mundaring Weir, Perth Hills, Perth Observatory, staying in Kalamunda overnight, and visited a few National Parks nearby. I even rented the car late but have checked almost half of the list already by 3PM. I thought where I should go next and somehow York appeared in my mind.
Accompanied by Spotify, I drove all the way to York which is located 86 kilometers away from Perth CBD. Some of my friends have visited York and actually I knew the vibe would be similar as Meekathara, Mt. Magnet, and a few more towns that my friends and I passed by when we were on road trip; I knew York would be that BEAUTIFUL. As I entered Shire of York, nature gave me my favourite scenery in Australia: vast hills and valleys. In a certain part of road, you will see trees lining up on your left and right side and I wondered what it would look like when Autumn comes…must be so pretty <3. I really like the Town Centre because it feels so nostalgic to me. The town is taken care beautifully: the architectures, the design of land use, environment, etc. In this millennial age, this town attracts people by standing tall with its own identity; it doesn’t care about modernization or stupid attractions.
I watched the sunset at Mt. Brown lookout. At first, I stopped at a small area which I thought it was the lookout but something made me so scared: a graveyard behind me. And I was alone LOL. Actually once I came to Australia, my parno thinking has reduced so much. There’s no way I would see Kuntilanak, Pocong, or I have to feel scared every malam jumat. But still, I’m not much different from my old self. Then I realized it wasn’t the right lookout spot from the map lol. I drove a bit further then and I found this:
I did nothing but enjoying everything (and being online on Instagram). Beautiful. Mother Earth is so beautiful :’( I could see people’s houses from above and the Town Hall looked so tiny. In the east, a vast land was visible and I contemplated that this country (as well as a continent) must have been fighting so hard to get water and to plant variation of crops. I grew up on the island with plenteous natural resources such as water and fertile soil, I feel so blessed. Many parts of Indonesia, even though they are not as developed as certain big cities in Indonesia, we can’t argue more, they are so blessed in this matter. But anyway, I won’t talk much about this now (I will do it in the next post).
Back to York, I googled a caravan park and yep, this is the place I’m going to sleep at tonight, as I said to myself. Seriously, I never thought I would be brave to sleep alone at caravan park. Whenever I slept at caravan park, I was always with Cia and she would always accompany me to go to the toilet. And I’m so beser T^T but she always got up whenever I woke her up. This time I was alone and I had no other option but to face my fear.
Tony Smith was the one who welcomed me and concerned so much about me. He’s a charismatic ranger who has been doing this job for 20 years. He found out I traveled alone and I was only with my car. At first, he pointed me to park the car at unpowered site (I’m so used to it) and asked if I bring my blanket and kept saying: lock your car, open the windows a bit. I only had to pay $15 (y so cheap T^T). Later, he changed his mind. He wanted me to stay inside the unused caravan with electricity which was wayyy more proper for me to sleep and I didn’t have to pay extra. So blessed!
The caravan was so cozy tho. It has a queen-sized bed but too scared to sleep there. I chose a couch in a smaller room instead. The night was cold, I was too scared to turn off the lamp and this annoying bladder always made me go to the toilet. I couldn’t sleep and got migraine until around 10.30 pm the last time I was awake. Suddenly around 12 am, a loud noise was heard! It was windy that night and the branch above the caravan would always make noise but this one wasn’t because of the wind. I was pretty sure! I kept silent and started analyzing: the door. Not long after that a voice was heard, ”Are you alright in there?”. Yeaaa, I replied and he apologized and said stuff about the light. I only replied okay and thank you. Damn, I couldn’t sleep again xD.
I stood up and checked the door. The door has lock latch and I could tell the door was pulled from outside (thank you lock!). I guessed if he was Tony but why Tony had to open the door instead of knocking. Worst part: I HAD TO PEE! I’m sorry Tony or whoever else, I was so scared that I had to contain my urine and poured it in the sink (I washed everything with soap right away!). I went back to sleep like a baby surprisingly after that.
In the morning, I confirmed everything with Tony and he was shocked. He asked me about the impression about the voice; letting me judge from the accent. All I could tell was it was a voice of old white guy. He was kinda angry tho. I’ll do my best to repeat his words.
“There’s no way I would open your door. You have my number and as long as you don’t call me, I knew everything was okay with you.”
“Thank you for telling this. Tonight I will hold a meeting with everyone who lives here. Whatever the reason was, it was not right to do that. They have nothing to do with you.”
“This really makes me angry.”
“Good thing that you had the door locked!”
Wah Tony, I really adore you as a ranger. Thank you so much for helping this random girl who traveled alone. And actually, I don’t think it was a bad person tho, he was asking if I was alright lol but yeah, knocking was more appropriate than trying to open the door. I still give 5 stars for this caravan park. Good service, clean toilet and shower area, good kitchen and laundry room too, and cheap T^T.
“Drive safe! Come here anytime you feel like want to get away from city life.” Nice advice! Thanks Tony.
