But before that we left our camping place after filling up with fresh water. We dumped our toilet cassette for $5 at Turners Caravan Park and met up with Marie and Geoff at Colourpatch. Not only has it been upgraded to a restaurant and bar, but the prices are normal restaurant prices. We shared a main course and desert, but separate hot drinks. The serving sizes were a bit mingy for sharing though we each had a side dish to share.

What was great was catching up with Marie and Geoff, which we hadn’t expected to do this trip. The setting is stunning and Geoff was able to point of dolphins and a sting ray, which we wouldn’t have seen but for his far sightedness.

When we eventually parted, they returned to Busselton and we set out for Conto campground. We have stayed there before and as with all our national park cam-grounds it is well set up with good sized sites, each with a fire pit and picnic tables. There is a campers kitchen with non drinking water and gas bbqs and clean, well maintained long drop toilets.

But, on a warm and humid evening the sheltered location was very unpleasant. In the evening we had a plague of mozzies, which meant having to use the insect screens, which made us even more uncomfortable. I took Marie’s advice and set up our little battery fan on the kitchen bench and it really helped with moving air around.

In the morning it was quite cool and the mozzies had departed. We took a walk along a nearby park and were able to get a great view of the sea. It is the wrong time,of year for walking, but we could walk to the sea if we had an hour or two.

We drove long Caves Road to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory where we had morning tea. The cafe wasn’t quite as nice as we had hoped, but being able to view chocolates being made was good. We had a rather nice slice with lots of nuts. I bought some chocolate for us and some mousse mix for Matt.

Meelup Beach was our next destination, for lunch, a rest and a swim. We had a cup of tea afterwards. The van is on a sideways slope, but we have a lovely view, especially later when the sun was out fully.

In Augusta yesterday morning we called in at the bakery hoping to be able to buy some interesting bread. This is the picture in the window.

Basically, none of that is sold and they only make rye bread on Tuesdays, or something. We got a small loaf of whole meal bread, nothing special.

Whilst having our cup of tea we rang the RAC caravan park and Amblin CP to check on prices. For the two nights Amblin is $13 cheaper, plus is on the ocean side of the road and has a heated, enclosed swimming pool. When we gave them our name our details were in their system. We have never stayed there in the Winnie, but stayed there often in tents and smaller RVs. The sites are quite tight, good for our little van.

I want power tonight in order to be able to cook outside using the induction hot plate and my big pan. We’ll also get to experience being in this van with 240v power, so far we have always relied completely on 12v. I wonder how it will work out.

Something has broken, the handle for closing off the grey water tank. We should be able to get it fixed under warranty.