3rd January, 2024 Tendenup to Albany
Yesterday morning we had a few showers whilst we were getting up and preparing to leave. Rain was pouring off the roof onto the ground next to the driver’s side door, which I took as a good sign that there was enough rain to do some cleaning of the solar panels. Later, as we were driving to Albany there were some heavy showers, with the added benefit that we were travelling, making the rain even harder. The upshot was that when we parked up in the IGA carpark and had our 200w panel facing the afternoon sun and the two 120w panels getting some sun we ended up with a maximum yield of 431w. The solar charger reported going into float, which almost never happens when we are using a lot of power.
As we are planning to camp for three nights on the beach it feels good to know we have clean solar panels. The days will be partly cloudy and I’m not sure how much charging will happen each day when we aren’t driving.
We had a plan to go to listen to the Albany Shantymen, but it turned out they perform on every second Tuesday night. I had confused the dates. When we enquired it turns out that you have to book and most people get in early to make sure they get a place. So, we’ve missed out for this trip, but perhaps they will go to the Fairbridge Festival in April, where we have already booked.
We arrived at lunch time and bought a bagette from the IGA to have with ham, etc. I managed to drop our salad onto the floor, and as it contained beetroot (not much juice, but still messy), so we just had the beetroot part to have with ham and cheese.
After a rest we took a walk up to the historic Albany Hotel for coffee, etc. Most of the cafes were closed by that time, but pubs are open and the coffee was good. We were close to the town hall and Stephen went off to see the exhibition of art whilst I was reading.
The pub advertised skimpy barmaids from 4.00 p.m. My tribute to art was to check this out, pretending I was going to the toilet. I was very impressed by the woman in ‘skimpy’, she looked pretty baddass with tattoos, piercings and interesting makeup. I’m sure the men would be too much in awe of her to give her any nonsense. The clientele were a bit rough, as far as we could judge, so there is another pub, the one that has the Shantymen performing, that seems more our style. It has a very nice outdoor area.
A Chinese meal beckoned, there is a small restaurant in the next street where we have bought takeaway in the past. It seemed nicer to eat in, so we went early hoping it wouldn’t be crowded, and it wasn’t. They leave the door open, which made it almost chilly, but I appreciated the good ventillation. It seems to be a very popular place, with lots of people coming in for takeaway. We ordered a meat meal and it came with lots of vegetables, always much appreciated.
Overnight there are occasional freight trains and I woke up twice, usually only once. But we still slept well. We had watched the end of our movie and it was all downhill as the conductor’s past came back to bite her. Even in the lowliest job of conducting an orchestra playing the music for a film (WASO has done this, with WASO chorus as well), they showed her being dedicated to the music and spending time working on the score. The film was Monster Hunter with the audience in costume. One review suggests that this ending may have been a hallucination. There had been other suggestions that she was having hallucinations.
Anyway, Cate Blanchette, playing this complex, mad and bad woman, was amazing. The character was allowed one redeeming feature, her love for her adopted daughter. In the end, her partner does not allow her to see the child, which possibly led to a complete breakdown.
I set up the projector for the movie and it really was so much better than trying to watch it on the Macbook Air.
This morning we have shopping to do before heading off to Cosy Corner for a few days. I wonder if we will get a camping spot. It can’t be booked. There is another option, Shelley Beach. Anyway, fingers crossed we will find some camping by the beach.
