• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Useful tip: if you are wanting to stay cool whilst taking a lunch stop, sit in the front seats with engine and air conditioning, make tuna sandwiches with frozen bread and eat them sitting in the cool. Perfect! That’s what we did on Tuesday.

Marie rang me after the Hospice care meeting for Mum. Apparently she slept through it. Mum is now on the road, allowed to do whatever she wishes, eat and drink if she wishes, but no forcing, and they will try another medication to help her with overnight agitation. At the moment she sleeps during the day, but can be agitated and restless at night. It’s all reassuring, but still emotional. I’ve let the family know.

We stayed Tuesday night at the De Grey Rest Area, arriving late in the day when it was cooler. The bird life is amazing, with little flocks of budgies going all over the place. The night was pleasantly cool.

On arriving here in Port Hedland, we checked in at the hospital and I was reassured that a funny dent in my right thigh wasn’t a blood clot, then went to Macdonalds where there was deep shade. We were planning to look for a nice cafe, but it was closed, so we ended up at the McCafe. Good coffee and very cheap. Stephen went off to a nearby gallery whilst I read a book, then we went shopping. Afterwards it was easiest to go to MacDonalds for lunch where we had a boring and healthy lunch.

Pretty Pool was a good destination for the rest of the afternoon. We had been there with Frederick and Sherine, so knew it was a good spot. There we met a pilot (or pirate?), living in a van. He told us we could stay the night there without problems. So, we did. He left early to take up his piloting duties (or heading off to his pirate ship), but we had a station wagon and small van still there. In the station wagon were a couple of young people camping.

It was possibly the worst night we’ve had, humid and still. I took charge of the fan and insisted that we keep it on using 12volt power when it ran out of battery. Of course, it didn’t affect the battery levels at all!

This morning was lovely, with the tide in and showing us what they meant by calling it a pool.

We used the tap near the toilets to put water into our tank last night using our big water container and a funnel. Four containers brought the level up to 75%, easy. It was the first time we used our plumbers key as well. if we hadn’t we would have had to go to the designated free camping area which we call ‘the compound’ because it is near the official free water tap.

When we filled up this morning we went back to the race track water source, not wanting to abuse the system. There is a dump point there as well. We have fresh fruit and salads, a nearly full fuel tank, and 30 litres of drinking water. We are ready for the journey to the Peawah Rest Area about 100kms on the road to Karratha.

Oh, I forgot, we stopped at the nearby shopping area and I did a load of washing. Some of it is hung around the van, the rest we can put out on the clothes airer when we reach Peawah RA.