Yesterday we packed up in the morning. Stephen posted Mum’s letters and picked up medication. We left home at about 10.30 a.m. We didn’t hurry to get ready, but there isn’t that much to do when we are going to be staying at a caravan park for three nights. We last stayed at Coogee Beach nearly two years ago when we were still quite new to the Winnie.

Our first destination after the long ride on Leach Highway was Coogee Port shopping centre, which is just north of the caravan park. We had a few necessary things to get, and also got some unnecessary things to enhance our cold meat and salad lunch. The bakery, called Crusty Knob, doesn’t actually sell bread, just everything else. Fortunately, Woollies has a good bakery and we bought rolls and sliced bread.

We were at the caravan park at about 12.00 and fortunately were allowed in. We had been assigned a spot, but it had not been vacated, so we were given a different one. It has some shade, but as the afternoon wore on it was more and more sunny on the ‘patio’ side. We didn’t put out the awning as we felt a bit tired and wind was forecast. It was warmish in the van, 32 degrees, but there was an intermittent cool breeze, plus we had the fan. We rested and read our books after lunch.

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk down to the jetty. There were lots of teenagers there, having a very good time. No one of our age at all. At this stage the wind was strong and we decided to have another walk around sunset. So, back to the van and more resting.

We brought two cooked meals with us for the evenings, thinking we might by one meal on Saturday or Sunday night when the troops arrive – Marie, Geoff and Glenn. We had an early tea, watched a bit of TV, then went out for our walk. We missed the best of the light, but the wind had died and it was really pleasant out.

We can’t get TV reception here, but ABC iview now livestreams TV over the internet, this is new and very welcome for us as we are more likely to have 3g or 4g than TV reception when we are travelling. Watching TV in real time (WA time at that) is great. We don’t really watch TV a lot, but its good to know it is there if we want it.

At about 8.30 there was a huge wind, a front coming through. We had a little rain, and there was a storm in the distance, we could see lightning but not hear thunder. There doesn’t seem to be any damage from the wind. It only lasted about 15 minutes, and the effect was probably enhanced because we have trees around.

We’ve had a good night’s sleep and are making a slow start this morning. I’ve had coffee and a slice of toast and vegemite and plan on having my shower when Stephen gets back and starts making his elaborate breakfast.

According to Google, the Coogee Beach Cafe stays open until 9.00 p.m. Friday to Sunday nights. However, when we went on our walk at about 7.30 p.m. it was already closed. We will have to check the closing time if we plan to buy an evening meal there.

The shark proof fencing is still in place although the trial was supposed to end in 2017. I wonder if it really does work. I’ve heard of a shark being able to get past the nets.