Last Friday I suggested to Stephen that we have an overnight at Pinaroo Point on Saturday. Much to my surprise he agreed right away. Usually it takes a bit more time and persuasion because of the effort involved. We had half unpacked the Sherwood in preparation for going in on Wednesday and getting ready really did involve more effort than usual.

I made a big bowl of salad and we bought the ready cooked roast chicken. We packed fruit and breakfast things and our swimming gear.

As we usually do, we left it until late afternoon on Saturday to drive to Pinaroo Point. Arriving after most people had gone means we had more choice of where to park. The parking area has been upgraded and the configuration changed, meaning our usual parking next to a paved walking area wasn’t available. We decided to park along the back fence, with our living area looking over the little bushland, rather than trying to have it facing the sea. There is only a glimpse from the car park anyway and that maximised our privacy.

There is some building works going on next to the carpark and it isn’t clear what is happening there. But, changes are afoot and we don’t know what it will be like when it’s finished.

The first thing Stephen always does when we arrive is check to see if there are any ‘no camping’ signs. All was good, so we set up and relaxed for awhile before our evening walk. In fact, I felt a great wave of relaxation as we settled in, not due to alcohol as we didn’t bring any with us, just being in the Sherwood at the beach for a relaxing evening.

It was very windy on the beach so we walked northwards with the sand being blown to our backs. Then went along the path for the return journey. There was no cloud and there seems to be a lot of smoke in the air at the moment, which dimmed and diffused the light. Rather odd and not particularly interesting. But the wind was slackening off, which we appreciated.

I had bought some electronic candles on Amazon and used them to light our evening meal. We still had some daylight as well. We listened to a podcast interview and read our books before going to bed.

I imagined that it would be very busy and noisy in the morning. I also thought the sun would wake us up early. However, the carpark didn’t begin to fill up until about 9.30 a.m. when we went for our dip. There was a tent on the beach and going on the number of blue and white cabanas I theorised that they were renting them out to beachgoers. However, I didn’t check and it might be that blue and white cabanas are the only ones sold in K-Mart and other places. Nice that they all matched.

We had shade on the Sherwood until about 10.00 a.m. from the bush behind us. This is still a popular place for people to stay overnight and I think there were about 11 small vans and rooftop tents as neighbours. Many arrived after sunset. They clustered along the back fence in a line with us. We had a bit of overhang area for the rear of the Sherwood which meant that we definitely qualified as small/short.

We dropped off the Sherwood at Ken Peachey Caravans on Wednesday morning. Jason had our long list of tasks and it turned out it was so long that he forgot the first one which is putting the new storage box on the rear! He was a bit surprised, but then able to find it. They will need it for a little while as their electricans are very busy, and I said we don’t actually need it back until the 12th March, when the Hilux is booked in for a service.

We will need to do an overnight ‘shakedown’ in the Sherwood before we leave for South Australia and it could be that we will have another overnight at the beach this summer or in early autumn. I want to check that everything is working, especially our electrics. It’s quite a complex system.

Major preparations:

Repairs and updates on the Sherwood hab with Ken Peachey Caravan Repairs: I’ve sent them a long list of tasks including putting our new storage box on the back and reconnecting our second leisure battery and inverter.

Service of the Toyota Hilux at New Town Toyota: The vehicle has done less than 40,000kms, but as it is now about 5 years old we’ve opted for the 40,000 service as we want to make sure it is in top condition for the trip. We will also ask about updating the display to have one that includes Apple Carplay and incorporating a reversing camera with guidelines. We could also do to get a new rear view camera and display as the present one is almost useless.

4WD course with Western Wilderness: this half day course should give us confidence that we can drive in sandy conditions and safely deflate and reinflate the tyres. There will be only be four vehicles and we can hopefully have a course that suits our needs.

We will be pretty busy in the next few weeks with musical and social events, as well as preparing for this trip.

The Plan

We will cross the Nullabour to Port Augusta, then head up to Innamincka, then out to the Burke and Wills Expedition Dig Tree. More about the expedition when we get there.

On the way, we will drive the gravel road from Hyden to Norseman, something we could not do with any other vehicle/caravan/motorhome combination we have had. It is only 300 kms of gravel, and should be in good condition as it is a mining road, but we will be prepared for it to be difficult in some parts. Plus we may want to go off the main road for overnight camping and sight seeing.

After the Dig Tree we will head south to explore the Flinders Ranges, then southwards again to Adelaide to enjoy a Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. We have already booked into several events.

Then, it will be back across the Nullabour to arrive home in early June. Eversley has booked ‘our’ cottage at Rottnest for a few days in mid June.

In the second part of the year we will have shorter trips, fitting in some of our at home interests. I’m working on a holiday to Kalbarri for Matt in July after the school holidays.