• 

• 

We had a pleasant night at Nanutarra, with power and water hook up. As the water is non-potable we noticed that other people didn’t hook up to water. On the drive to the Beasley Rest Area (which is on the road to Tom Price and Karrijini) we noticed that we were losing water from our water hook up device. It is a pressure limiter and appears to have been damaged during our stay at Nanutarra. We were losing the water from our tank. Now, this does seem a bit strange as we are not sure of the connection between our water tank and this connector for outside water. However, it is possible that once we use the water pump and have water circulating in the system it can leak out.

A temporary solution, which got us to our overnight spot, was to use blu tac. We don’t appear to have anything on board that would otherwise block it. Of course, once we arrived here the water was seeping through. First we hooked up the hose and captured the water in a 5 litre bottle, which we then poured back into the tank. Then we thought of a different plan, to actually hook the hose between the two water points so that any leaking water would go straight into the water tank. Hence our new recirculating system.

Solutions are to get to a hardware store (at Tom Price?) and find some sort of stopper for the inlet point. Then wait until we hit a large town (Carnarvon) and look for someone to repair/replace the point for us. The other solution would be to bypass the water tank altogether and just use water containers for all of our water. We already carry drinking water, but would need a couple more 10 litre containers.

We shall see.

We used ant sand around the van as we could see little ants coming in for the water. Stephen hooked the hose up away from the ground as a precaution.

Otherwise, we enjoyed Nanutarra especially as you can walk over to the bridge and take photos underneath and from the footbridge at sunset. There was someone flying a drone there and he managed to fly it under the two bridges, quite skillful. He showed us what it looked like from above.

We stopped at Caitie and Adrian’s Rest Area for morning tea yesterday -the House River Rest Area. We enjoyed walking around after our coffee. The views on this drive are quite wonderful and we stopped further on so that I could attempt to get a good photo.

Then we arrived at this Rest Area, the Beasley. It has been very peaceful. Not many vans overnight and we found a nice spot on gravel away from the main area. We were the first to arrive and were grateful that no one else wanted to park near to us.

We booked an overnight and evening meal at Cheela Downs Station Stay, which is very close to here. They advertise coffee and cake at their café as well. Checkin is 2.00 p.m. and our plan is to stay here until the café opens, we assume at about 10.00 a.m. We can then hang around until they let us go to our camping spot. We have opted for power and water (and the water is potable) as reviews of this place said that the unpowered spots don’t have any shade or nice views. This is a special place and although it is now the day after Stephen’s birthday, this is the way he chooses to celebrate turning 78.

Mind you, it’s getting cooler and having shade is not such an issue. It’s also been partly cloudy for the last couple of days.

10.30 a.m. We arrived at Cheela Downs Station Stay and were able to go directly to our campsite. There is no shade on our site, but we do have a grassed area at the rear. Stephen raised our water problem at Reception and she suggested that we talk with the station mechanic as it may need a new O ring or something, which he could fix. She said she will ask the mechanic if he will come to our site when he has time.