Stephen suggested we check to see if we could camp at Stokes Inlet for tonight and when we got to the entrance there was no ‘campsite full’ sign, so we ventured in. The gravel road was pretty rough, deep corrugations, which made it quite a bumpy and noisy ride for the 7kms. We had been planning to do some shopping, fill up with water and empty our toilet in Ravy, so I felt a bit unprepared for this, but the day was extremely hot and being close to the ocean seemed a good idea. It was hot at our campsite, so we went down to the day picnic area and sat as close to the water as we could,

The reason it was so hot was that there was a gale coming later in the day. By about 5:00 pm the wind was getting quite strong and the temperature went down to low 20s. We went for a short walk down to a boat launch site near our camp.

The camping is well set out with a little sheltered bay for each RV or tent. There are drop toilets of the best kind which are mostly smell free and a couple of campers kitchens with BBQs and slow running water from tanks, not drinking water, but useful for washing up. I used a tap to wash my hair and just had to be patient with the rinsing as it took quite a while.

We were out of bread, so I made some damper to go with our meal. It was a bit hard, but very tasty and we ate most of the little loaf.

By now, 8:40 pm, there are some very strong gusts of wind that are making the Winnie rock. We chose to be in one of the most sheltered parts of the camp, which was clearly a good decision. We feel fairly safe, there are no large trees, just bushes that are higher than the van, but look like they bend with strong winds.