We walked over to where Eversley is staying in the evening for a shared meal. The accommodation was lovely, a bedroom, bathroom, laundry and reasonably spacious living room and kitchen. We enjoyed the evening talking, watching some TV, and having leftover and very tasty food. Shortly after we got back here there was a spatter of rain, however the storm did not really start until later.

Being just a sand dune from the sea we have a very strong sound of waves, which makes the storm sound worse than it really is as the sound fills in the gaps between gusts of wind. We read for a while, then had showers in our very nice ensuite and had a lovely night snugly in bed, at times waking up to the sound and feel of the wind and rain. It tends to reinforce just how warm and secure we feel inside the van.

Apart from the vents at the the top on the kitchen side and the vent in the door, we had our top zippered windows slightly open on both sides. Which sounds a bit mad when it is windy and cold outside, but part of the delight of the van and the contrast with the stuffiness of our bedroom at home, is that it is easy to have lots of fresh air flowing when we are sleeping. With three doonas and each other’s warmth, we don’t feel cold. In the morning we put either the air conditioner or the small fan heater on and we are warm even  out of bed. I’ve put the fan heater in the bathroom as there is no heating, not even overhead heat lamps, so we are using the air conditioner here in the van. It is pretty powerful (in terms of noise and making the van shake when the compressor switches on and off),  which is why we often just use the fan heater, but the warmth is more evenly spread throughout the van from the under the top shelf vent than when we have the fan heater on the floor.

Today we have a full day in Albany before heading towards Perth tomorrow. As it is wet we will probably go to the new Anzac Centre so that we can be entertained inside. Still, I am looking forward to the views over the bay and seeing the storm in action from that perspective.