Friday 14th February, 2025
It’s time to confess! When I was in the IGA on Wednesday I bought some instant coffee. It can be a bit messy to use the French Press in the van and if we are trying to conserve water we hate wasting on the clean up. It’s a very nice instant coffee with intense flavour and I must admit I cannot tell the difference between it and coffee made in the French Press. Expresso coffee is different, of course. So, I’m climbing down from my high horse about having ‘real’ coffee rather than instant.
We punctuated our trip south with a stop in Woodanilling to dump our toilet. There is a free camp at the recreation centre, so it was an opportunity to check it out. We realised that we have not been to this tiny village before, though have often passed through. It’s quite sweet and does have it’s own school.
Next up was Katanning, where we fuelled up the Hilux, then went to the Dome Café for lunch. We shared a breakfast, not our usual full breakfast, but one of their specials with spicy baked beans, bubble and squeak and eggs, with a slice of sourdough toast on the side and our usual hot drinks.
On the way to Kendenup we took a side road hoping for a good view of the Stirling Ranges. Nothing showed up, but we were able to do a circuit to get back onto Albany Highway.
We have our usual spot at the Kendenup Caravan Park, unpowered for $20 per night, with 24hrs, rather than 20 as you get in a conventional caravan park. It’s only $5 more to be on power, but we like this spot with views over bush and farmland.
I set up the Starlink on a tripod as we have trees to the south and the roof of the Sherwood wasn’t a good spot for it. It was quite a faff, but it was interesting to see how it works. The tripod provides quite a stable stand for the Starlink and I looped the cord around the side mirror and under the step. We have a hole to put the cord through from inside. I was using a new power source, a little Cowfish step up converter with an on/off switch. The step up converter is needed for using the 15m cord. When we put the Starlink on the roof we are using a much shorter cord and it works to just plug it into the Anderson plug.
This morning we are taking our time doing tasks as we can’t access our caravan site until 2.00 p.m. We will do some shopping in Mt Barker on the way. We are going to stay at a caravan park so that Stephen can have a shower on Saturday morning as he is performing that night. And also because we are joining the rest of the choir for dinner in Albany tonight.