It’s not a good idea to park the van in the shade for a day. We simply didn’t get enough solar power. I ran the engine for half an hour in the late afternoon so that we could watch TV in the evening. The battery appeared to be adequately charged, but as we settled down to sleep last night I noticed that there was a light flashing on our console, the battery was in severe distress. Running the engine for half an hour brought the battery up enough to keep the fridge running overnight.

This morning we moved the van into a sunny spot. We had enough shade on one side of the van to sit outside for breakfast. We’d had a lovely swim in the almost completely calm water beforehand. The solar power was over 100w and the battery was happy, but it was a bit warm in the van.

The sea breeze came in just after 10.00 am.

We sat and read/listened to podcasts until about 12.00, then drove down to City Beach to find some semi shade for the afternoon. It was 10 degrees cooler here at the beach than in Perth, and we opened one of the rear barn doors to let the breeze through.

I like the idea of spending our going home day at the beach, then having a bit shorter drive home at the end of the day. We still have food, but are thinking of fish and chips for tea instead of raiding our fridge.

I missed most of the sunset last night, just caught this glimpse. We’ve had high, hazy cloud the last couple of days which makes for good sunset photos.

Of course, our semi shaded park up here at Floreat hasn’t been good for getting solar power, but we don’t need it to last as long tonight.