So, why Katanning? We set off at 11.00 am after a couple of hours of loading up the van with all of our stuff. Yesterday was very hot and I couldn’t bear the thought of all our gear sitting overnight in the van. Even this morning was hot and only the fact that we had the air conditioning going made it bearable.

There were two reasons to push on to Katanning even though staying in the tiny village of Highbury was tempting. But, the forecast for Katanning is for 15 degrees minimum and a cooler day for tomorrow. We are staying in the free town overnight camping spot and it should be fairly comfortable, especially as it is breezy here.

The other reason is the short walk to the Dome Cafe where we had a particularly wonderful breakfast a couple of years ago. We’ve come here for a drink before dinner to check to see if it is open for breakfast tomorrow, and it is. So we pay nothing for accommodation, but spend money at the Dome. Seems fair.

New Year’s Day: breakfast at the Dome was as lovely as we remembered. A shared ‘big breakfast’ has left us wondering how anyone could eat a whole one themselves, we feel as though we may never eat again!

It was, as we hoped, cool overnight. The breeze kept the air moving. There were quite a few vans overnight, including one which came in after dark. We didn’t have much noise and felt safer for having other people there as my concern about spending New Year’s Eve in a town was that we night be harassed by yahoos. Perhaps this town isn’t like that anyway.

Lake Ewlyamartup is about 19 kms away and our plan is to stay overnight there tonight. No hurry, we will enjoy being here for a couple of hours. There is drinking water and a dump point where we are staying here and we can take advantage of that before we leave.

Our first 24 hours has gone well and we are relaxing into the nice feeling of freedom.