Erin, Jake and Hamish left today, so the morning was all about the pack up and getting them off safely and on time. Colin and I had planned to spend the afternoon packing up camp and then head off to Denmark tomorrow. The day did not go as planned, to say the least.
The Cunnninghams did get packed up in time and headed off to the airport. We had confirmation that the drive went well and they throroughly enjoyed a long hot shower in the Qantas lounge after the short bush showers for the week in Jarrahdene. Amazing how you appreciate the luxury of the little things that you usually take for granted. Haim did really well on the drive and the flight and they made it home safely, so that was great.
Col and I started the pack up at camp. After a while Col let me know that he couldn’t find the Annex which is kept in a silver bag about 1m x 80cm. It holds the Caravan Annex sides which we had custom made in preparation for this journey and cost over $4,000 to have made as we wanted it. It was only a few months old and we loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So we both went into search the camp mode for the Annex, but slowly came to the realisation that it was not there. We then went over the steps of when we saw it last etc to try and work out what had happened. To the best of our knowledge, this is how it played out.
We arrived at Jarrahdene on Monday 5th March and met the Cunninghams at camp. Erin, Jake, Haim and I took the Cunningham car into Margaret River to do some shopping while Col stayed back at camp to set up the tent. On top of Col’s car is the Fish Cleaning table with the Annex on top of it and the tent on top of that. Col got the tent down and set it up for the Cunninghams. The ground was too hard to hammer or drill in tent pegs, so he decided not to put up the Annex as he couldn’t peg it down. The following day we had a full day of driving to Hamelin Bay, Augusta and 4WD tracks along Cave Road. This was the day that the fish cleaning table flew off the top of the car. We now realise that the Annex would have been sitting on top of it. So at some point that day, the 6th March, the Annex flew off the top of the car.
Col and I jumped in the car and retraced our steps from the 6th March. We drove until it got dark but with no luck. The Annex was nowhere to be seen.
We are feeling devastated about it. We seriously love this Annex and have spent alot of money and time to get the exact custom made one that we wanted. We called the police and raised a Police Report but nothing has been turned in yet. We are going to stay another day in Jarrahdene tomorrow to drive around and see if we can find it. So stressful 
Glad to hear you had such a fantastic time with Erin, Jake and Haim. Looked amazing. So bummed for you about the annex.
Fingers crossed that you drive around and find it today. Can a drone fly around and spot something like that?? Xx
It really was a wonderful week Son and we loved having them here so much.
We are gutted about the Annex, but trying to have a positive attitude. We are both ok and we can continue the trip, so things could be much worse. It is disappointing but life throws some curve-balls sometimes and that’s just how it is I guess.
It is a great idea about the drone, but it only has 10 minutes flying time and we covered hundreds of kilometres that day, so it isn’t really practical. There are also a lot of trees as we were in the Karri Forest, so I don’t think it would work for those reasons. Great idea if you were just in one spot. x
Oh Kris & Col devo news about annex. Can you put out sos via the Grey Nomad site and camp managers at your previous campsites. See if anyone seen or picked it up. Great suggestion from Sonya re the drone x
Yes we are gutted that is for sure. That is a good idea about the Grey Nomad site, I will suggest it to Col.
The drone was also a great idea, but we covered huge distances that day so I don’t think it will work.
We did contact the previous camp sites just in case, but nothing has been handed in to date. So disappointing x