Exploring Avon Valley - Britz

One night and 236 kilometres in a loop from Perth in a campervan, inland through the Avon Valley, which makes it about the shortest trip in the Britz range.

Mundaring comes first in the hills above the city, then John Forrest National Park, the first national park declared in Western Australia, with an old railway formation running through it that is now a walking and cycling trail with a tunnel on it.

York follows, the oldest inland town in the state, founded in 1831 and with most of its colonial main street intact, then Northam on the Avon and Toodyay, another well-preserved nineteenth-century town. New Norcia closes the loop, and it is the only monastic town in Australia: a Benedictine community founded in 1847 that still operates, still bakes bread and sells it, with Spanish mission architecture standing in the middle of the wheat.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Two days and a couple of hundred kilometres makes this a weekend rather than a holiday, and it suits a traveller collecting a camper in Perth who wants a short shakedown run before committing to something longer. Spring is the time to do it, when the Wheatbelt wildflowers are out and the valley is green rather than straw-coloured. For a family with young children it also works as a first night in a camper without a long drive attached to it.