Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th June,

It rained quite a lot overnight at Karalee. Fortunately where we were parked was sandy soil that drained well. We had a walk to the dam and the channel which brought the rain water from the huge rock to the dam. Stephen actually walked out on the rock. There is a trail marked so long ago that the metal markers are hard to read. I was worried that the rock would be slippery after so much rain, so didn’t venture out.

We left at about 10.30 a.m. It began to drizzle as we left and rained most of the time the whole day. We made a couple of short stops, but didn’t fancy being in muddy conditions, and waited until we arrived in Kalgoorlie to have lunch.

Kalgoorlie has a 72hr free camping area with potable water, flushing toilets and a dump point. The local council has confirmed that allowing travellers to camp for free means that we tend to support local businesses.

On arrival we wondered about a section of the campground that had caravans and campers in rows. It looked like a caravan park. Driving around we realised that most of the area was very muddy with large puddles and the section that was so orderly was paved. That’s why people were there, and we decided it was the best spot. We’ve been fortunate to have the same spot twice, after driving off for the day we were able to stay in the same spot tonight. Just luck.

We certainly did our bit to help local businesses today, doing shopping and going to a Chinese restaurant that we went to four years ago, almost to the day. I also went to the Dome for a coffee. The cafe I went to four years ago had closed and a fish restaurant opened in the same space. I don’t think the Dome Cafe was there when we came here last.

Kalgoorlie has some beautiful old buildings and is surprisingly attractive for an old mining town. I realise that I haven’t taken any photos as we took so many last time we were here.

This evening we had a light meal of tuna and salad. We had a FaceTime conversation with Matt at about 6.00 p.m. And then a quiet evening watching the news and readi

Yesterday we did something that’s very unusual for us. We decided to stay in Westonia for two nights, giving us a full day to do the Westonia Woodlands Walk. As you can guess, this trip is about the journey and exploring places as we go, rather than being committed to getting to particular destination. The Great Central Road may be affected by this rain as well, but our plan is still to go to Laverton, get advice, and make a decision.

I spent ages yesterday morning setting up my new clip for my smaller Sony camera so that I could carry it on the strap of a backpack. It was quite a learning curve as I initially put the clip upside down. It’s easy to accidentally hit the release button and the camera predictably fell down, but I was able to catch it. I then spent more time getting the clip set up the right way.

On the walk it took time to be able to reliably unclip and clip the camera on the strap, but by the time we arrived back in the town it was getting easier to manage.

Fortunately whilst I was messsing around with the clip Stephen was also taking time to get ready. He made us cheese and pickle sandwiches to take for lunch, a good idea as it was after 11.00 a.m. before we left. The day had started out very misty and when the mist cleared it was still cool and cloudy, ideal for the walk.

The path was well marked with arrows and some explanatory signs. As well, there were bench seats and we found it useful when we had our lunch. The seat was a bit damp from all the rain, but I didn’t mind getting my bottom damp and Stephen used the map of the walk to cover his spot. He did offer it to me but I’d already sat down and felt as I was already damp it was better if he used it.

On the walk we were able to see all of the different colours of the salmon gums and gimlet trees. The walk also goes through the town cemetary, with some lovely old gravestones.

By the time we arrived at the finishing point in the town the sun was out. So, we not only felt good about the walk, but the town was lit up and more cheerful looking. We felt we deserved coffee and cake. The gallery cafe had closed, but the little general store is also a cafe and we enjoyed a rest as well as our refreshments. The walk is only 4kms long, but we spent a couple of hours on it because of reading the signage and looking at trees and plants.

This morning we left at about 10.30 a.m. after filling up with water and dumping black and grey water tanks. We also made sure we had extra drinking water as our present camping spot has no facilities, or at least, no usable facilities. It is apparently run by the National Trust and they haven’t organised to clean the toilets and fix the dump point, despite being told.

On the way here we spent about 1.5 hours in Southern Cross, shopping for fresh bread and other stuff, then making our lunch in the van, having a rest, and Stephen checked out the Museum. I found a cafe open and bought a coffee which we shared.

We had our tyres checked and the attendant noticed that one of our valves was a bit open, the one we had been using to test out our compressor. Stephen purchased a tool for fixing the problem in case it happens again.

We then filled up with fuel, we are needing the deisel heater at the moment as it’s cold at night.

When we arrived we had a cup of tea and planned a walk afterwards, but it began to rain and eventually the rain was pretty heavy. The road in had been graded and we are hoping the rain doesn’t affect it too much. We’ve been here before in the Winnie, so didn’t really need 4WD, but used it just in case it got slippery.

There are about four other campers here, one arriving as it was getting dark and in the heavy rain. It’s good to know that other people don’t think it’s too dangerous to come here in wet weather. We’ve parked on a mound and don’t expect to wake up in a shallow lake.

Day 1 – Tuesday 11th June, 2024

In the morning on Tuesday we spent a lot of time finalising what food to take and loading it in the Sherwood. Stephen had taken charge, but consulted me about things. He feels that I just pack anything and everything in case we need it and wanted to carefully curate the food.

In the end it was a good compromise and we were away by about 12.15 p.m. We hadn’t been on the road very long before he realised that he hadn’t locked his filing cabinet. We were on Great Eastern Highway and were able to do a U turn and go back to the house. I checked things again as well. It added 18 kms to the journey.

We had thought we might stay at the free camp in Wundowie, but despite the late start I was feeling well and after a stop in Mundaring to visit the other bakery/cafe (the one near Woolworths) we drove the rest of the way to Meckering, arriving at about 4.30 p.m.

This may have been a bad decision as Stephen had a headache by then, and ended up taking two lots of Panadol, one when we arrived and another about 6 hours later. Even I felt a headache coming on by bedtime and went to bed at about 9.30 p.m. I haven’t been sleeping very well at home, but despite the early night I slept well.

Day 2 – Wednesday 12th June, 2024

It takes two or three days to acclimatise to our camper after being at home. We didn’t hurry this morning and dodged showers when doing outside chores. Meckering is a donation site and of course we made a small donation. It was noisy overnight as the Roadhouse is a well used truck stop, especially at night, plus there is a train line nearby.

Given that Stephen needs a bit of recovery time we have only driven about 180 kms today, about the same as yesterday, but spread over a longer time. In Merriden we shopped at the IGA, bought some RAT tests at the pharmacy, had lunch in the camper, then went to the Mitre 10 for a mouse trap. The mouse trap is just in case and is a ‘catch and release’ type of mouse trap. This is not just that it’s more humane than the ones that kill, but also means we don’t have to deal with a dead mouse.

Stephen said that the toilets at the Mitre 10 are very special with cloth hand towels to use after washing your hands.

In Westonia we are staying at the free camp near the church. For the first time since we’ve been coming here there are other campers as well. In town there are is a caravan park and a separate overflow area, so there are actually three options.

The town is very cute, with lots of the old shopfronts maintained to give a sense of what it was like here in the early days. There is still a gold mine operating, but you can no longer get accommodation and meals for 1/6 or 5 shillings a week. We took a stroll down the Main Street just after sunset.

The little grocery store is also a cafe and only a short walk away. There are also public toilets, a potable water tap, and as you go out of town there is a dump point.

Photos from our evening walk at Westonia.

We’ve had a lot on in the past few weeks, but are also doing some planning for our winter trip. We’ve set aside 2-3 months from Tuesday 11th June. Travelling to Uluru via the GRC is the challenge for this trip, but it’s not certain that we will be able to travel on it as conditions change depending on rainfall. The distance is about 1,100kms from Laverton on mostly gravel and if there has been significant rain it may be closed. There has been rainfall in the past few days, but fairly light and people are still reporting that the road is doable. We are finding the Facebook Great Central Road group very valuable in keeping us in touch with current conditions.

Marie and Geoff came to lunch yestereday and after we had eaten we put the map on the dining table and went through our options with them. This was very useful for us in getting some clarity. If the GRC is closed we plan to divert back to the Great Northern Highway and head for Mt Augustus. This is a monolith that is even larger than Uluru, but not well known outside of WA. Getting there involves travelling on gravel roads, and the weather may impact our ability to go there as well.

Marie suggested that we take the Sherwood to a weighbridge before we pack up to get an idea of the weight before we load our clothes, food and other stuff. We will then have a clearer idea of how much we can take. In the past we have always gone to the weighbridge when fully loaded. We are usually just under the maximum. Our weigh-in is planned for Wednesday this week.

We’ve been going to the Concert Hall and WAPPA to listen to music and also went to Luna Leederville to see a National Theatre Live film. We’ve been catching up with friends and family. This has been enjoyable, but I’ve been ready to leave for several weeks and am finding the waiting around (Stephen is singing in the Last Night of the Proms this weekend which keeps us here) is rather stressful. I need my fix of being in nature for a few weeks to reset.

I’ve taken on being Secretary of Working Voices again as the last person was finding it too stressful. We had a committee meeting Thursday afternoon and I should really be typing up the minutes, but am procrastinating. Stephen and I are not really committed to Working Voices as a choir, but we like it for keeping us in touch with a circle of friends that we have known for a very long time.

Stephen has long since given up providing musical leadership at our monthly rehearsals as he has a second choir rehearsal on Thursday evenings and found he lost concentration when he tried to lead last year. He just lost it. He finds he needs to save energy and preparation time for that choir as it’s pretty demanding. Fortunately, the WVC consists of many strong women who are actually committed and we can leave all decisions and initiatives up to them and just float in sometimes to enjoy it when we can.

We have a newish choir member, Jeff, who plays the guitar. Although he’s very unassuming he is really helping with the guitar accompaniment and a strong, baritone voice. Rob also attends, about half the time, and when we have all three men it makes a really good sound. Most of the time it is just the said strong women keeping things going as we are away. The full paid membership is now 16 as many who had previously left have rejoined. The annual fee is low as we don’t have to pay a choir director, and that combined with meeting only once a month helps to make it attractive.

Stephen now has only one more rehearsal for the Last Night of the Proms concert, plus the three performances and this is not going to be quite as tiring as other shows he has been in. The music is pretty standard and the choir and orchestra have been doing it for the past few years so they don’t need much preparation. Eversley and I are going to the matinee on Saturday and meeting with members of her choir for lunch beforehand.

Reverting back to our trip, we had a practice run of letting the Sherwood tyres down and then using the air compressor to pump up again. We did this as part of a 4WD course last year, but hadn’t done it since. Although it took us a little while to work things out we now feel confident that we can do it on our own. We will let the tyres down for the GCR to help with the corrugations and make it easier on us, the car and the motorhome. We have a book written for Suncamper 4WD motorhomes which gives us suggested tyre pressures for different environments, as well as the car manual, which gives information on the various settings for optimum off road use.

UPDATE: Tuesday 4th June, 2024

The road is closed to all but 4WD vehicles and must be under 4 tonnes. This is due to the recent rain. Our vehicle is 3.45, but other users are reporting that the road is slippery.

Our plan is still to head to Laverton when we leave next Tuesday, watching the situation as we go. We can always divert to the northern route and Mt Augustus, perhaps taking the Great Central Road after spending time in northern Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

We began our Rottnest adventure by catching the ferry at Barrack Street Jetty. We caught an Uber to the Jetty, leaving home at 7.30 a.m. On the cruise down the river we had commentry, which I found irritating at first, then very interesting. Looking at the changing views from the ferry I was reminded again of how well the early settlers chose the location for the city. Apart from Kings Park there are several areas of bushland along the river. As well as millionaires’ homes.

The ferry was only about 1/3 full when we left Perth and in Fremantle we seemed to have lots of people waiting, but only some of those came on board, the rest were for other ferries. We had a fairly smooth half hour ride to Rottnest, there was a swell, but it was fairly comfortable.

Tuesday was sunny and mild, ideal weather for being on the island. We walked up to the lighthouse for the sunset, but as there was no cloud it wasn’t very interesting. Still, we enjoyed a drink at Pinky’s bar.

Yesterday we woke to another sunny day, with the light streaming into the front bedroom where Stephen and I sleep. Not complaining, we have a blind to shut it out if we wish. It was ideal for going out on the hop on hop off bus around the island. We got off to see the seals and walk along the boardwalk to enjoy the views. There is a coffee van at West Bay and a row of toilets, high end drop toilets with water to flush. They’ve added shade shelters and seating since last year and it makes a good place to go to focus on sightseeing.

Then Stephen went for a walk to the next bus stop. Eversley stopped off at Geordie Bay and I went home for a nap. All happy to be doing what we wanted.

In the evening we went along the foreshore looking at restaurant menues. We settled on Lantana and ordered what we hoped would be enough food. The salad turned out to be very mingy and we had two dumplings each. Fortunately we still had plenty of frozen sticky date pudding at home, which we had with yogurt. We were back in time to watch the news and the 7.30 report.

Thursday morning I woke up with the alarm to quite a striking pre dawn scene. Eversley and I went out to take photos. Then we went back to bed for a while. Eversley and I had coffee at Frankies before taking the shuttle to Geordie Bay for lunch. Stephen went off for another walk and joined us later for lunch. We shared a good sized salad and a burger between three. Stephen then walked back along the path to our cottage, about thre kilometres.

In the evening we had Annette and Stuart over for drinks and spent the time sitting outside with the gate open. A little quokka joined us. One of the nice things about our cottage this year was that although we have a little fenced off patio area out the front our actual front door isn’t fenced off. We had a pregnant quokka visiting us quite often, looking as if she wanted to come inside.

Friday morning was the busy morning as we got up early, dressed, washed and packed our bags so that they could be picked up at 8.00. There was a possible storm forecast and we had a bit of thunder and rain, but fortunately it wasn’t raining when we put out of bags and they were picked up almost immediately.

We decided not to hang around until 9.00 a.m., the normal exit time, so E and I went off to the Dome for a farewell coffee. Stephen stayed a bit later, but left due to the cleaners arriving a bit early.

Stephen and I went off to walk the Bickley Battery trail near the Kingston Barracks. It was humid and there were small flies, but apart from the history, there were lovely views and a pleasant breeze when we were in the open overlooking the sea.

We went back to the Dome for a light lunch, a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, rather than our usual ‘Big’ breakfast. Stephen went off to the museum for a while before we gathered up our things to head down to catch our 2.30 ferry.

We had stored some of our gear in a locker near the Visitor Centre and this made going for a walk much easier than it would otherwise have been. The lockers are paid for on card, so that was easy. Note: we picked up our stuff from the locker before going back to the Dome.

The journey back was actually not a rough ride, a possible storm had been forecast, but it was sunny on our walk and there was no rain for the rest of the day. We could have been unlucky as there was a small tornado in Bunbury in the afternoon, that would have been awful to encounter on a ferry.

On arriving at Fremantle I repacked my suitcase with some of the heavier gear from my backpack and the train and bus journey home wasn’t difficult. It just takes time. For the last little bit we walked our suitcases on four wheels from the bus stop to home, and I’ve decided not to retire my suitcase just yet, it’s wheels work well for four wheel driving and that’s very positive for travel.

I used a wheeled backpack for carrying electronics and a small bag for my phone, cards, etc. The wheeled backpack is quite heavy even before you put things in it, so not really that suitable. But handy when you have to surrender your suitcase and keep all of your valuables with you. The wheels have begun to break apart and I wasn’t sure it would last the whole Rottnest trip, but it has.

I didn’t get a quokka selfie with a live quokka, but the knitted quokka sat just as we posed him, so was very easy to photograph.

Pros and cons of the different cottage we had at Rottnest this time:

It is a two bedroomed unit with an external bathroom and extra external toilet. As mentioned above, quokkas can come right up to the front door, and they do. The size of the unit worked for us, especially as we spent most of the time trekking around and eating out. Having an extra toilet was a bonus with three people, especially as it was separate from the main bathroom.

A con is that it is part of a larger house and we had a big group of people staying next door. They did not appear to realise that their voices carried so much into our part of the house and we didn’t want to potentially antagonise them by pointing this out. I seriously thought about it, but we often had to pass them on our way in and out, and it would have been uncomfortable. The group were older women by the way, if young people I might have risked it.

Eversley was in the back bedroom which had no power points for charging her phone or using a standard fan. As it is unusually warm this year we were using a standard fan in our room, which had enough power points for charging, one lamp and the fan. She also had to put up with us walking past her window to get to the toilet at night. Although we tried to be quiet we must have disturbed her a bit even though she was using earplugs. Fortunately she had spares and I used them to shut out the noise of the women next door.

Stephen is having a think about parking at Hillarys and travelling to Rottnest from there next year. That’s because it would maked it easy to bring some cooked food with us. We don’t feel like cooking whilst we were away and eating out so much was a bit expensive. E brings a cooler bag with food as her car is parked at Hillarys.

Tuesday 30th April, 2024

Just yesterday the Great Central Road from Laverton to Ularu opened again. It had been heavily damaged by rain and closed for the past couple of months. That means that we have the option of travelling there when we leave in the 2nd week of June.

We brought up a map of the whole of Australia on my ipad and put it on the TV screen to consider our options. Later, Stephen found a paper map which will be better for planning.

There is a type of filter that is under recall for the Hilux and we are hoping that the part comes in before we leave. Otherwise, she is all ready to go.

Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th March, 2024

We went to our first Fremantle Songfest last weekend. It is held at St Paul’s Anglican Church, South Fremantle and we have been to the church before a couple of times. It has a beautiful amphitheatre and a very useful hall where choirs can meet to practice, plus lovely gardens.

The parking for the event was reserved, but they had negotiated for attendees to park in an Education Department carpark about a block away. We found this particularly useful as the Sherwood is a bit larger than a car.

We stayed at the Fremantle Village Caravan Park Friday and Saturday nights, driving a few kilometres to the church for the Friday night concert, and for the daily events Saturday and Sunday. Actually, both days we didn’t go there until the afternoon concerts were due to start. Stephen was singing with The Real Sing both afternoons and wanted to be rested and well prepared.

On Friday afternoon we arrived at about at the caravan park at about 4.00 p.m. in time to get settled in, have tea, then head to St Paul’s. Unfortunately Stephen had a fall near the kitchen and damaged his knee. We had a small First Aid Kit from which I managed to bandage him up. He didn’t hurt the knee structually, but took off quite a lot of skin.

On the way to the concert we stopped off to get some more patches, bandages and some Betadine. At that stage we weren’t sure how bad it was, but he went to see his doctor on Monday and had a patch taped on the wound and today when we changed that dressing the wound has still not healed although there was a bit more scabbing. According a a nurse that we consulted at the Songfest (friend, not official nurse) he might have taken off enough layers to get through to the fat underneath. From her description I would say that was the case.

And then we were free to enjoy the evening concert. Stephen hasn’t reported having any pain. If it becomes painful at any stage it is a sign that there is infection and he will go back to the doctor.

As to the concert, we found it a bit stuffy in the church, so went to enjoy the outdoor seating before the second half of the evening. Working Voices (us) sang one song as part of the ‘taster’ concert.

They were serving lunch on Saturday, but Stephen wanted to concentrate on his music, so we had lunch at the caravan park. It was hot in the Sherwood and we used the air conditioning on a low setting. There is very little shade provided in the van section of the caravan park.

The Real Sing were performing in the amphitheatre and I enjoyed the rest of the concert there, whilst Stephen went to a concert in the church. It was quite hot where we were sitting, but I still preferred being outside.

After the concert we tried to find parking down at South Beach to watch the sunset, but as so many other people had the same idea that we only found a parking spot after the sun had set. Still, we were able to enjoy some lovely colour on the clouds.

We then drove back to the parking area and had tea. In the evening on Saturday Bernard Carney sang some songs, then we had a singalong, with live music and the words available on our mobile phones through a technical process that is still quite mysterious to us.

On Sunday morning we left the caravan park at about 9.00 a.m. to find a park up for the morning. We ended up in a new looking parking area at Coogee. It was another sunny day, but with the ocean around us the breeze was cool and it was lovely.

We chatted with another motorhome owner for a bit, and Stephen made a visit to the shopping area where he bought some fresh rolls for lunch.

We had liaised with E, who was coming for the afternoon, and caught up with her when we arrived for the afternoon concert. The start time was later in the day, and I had made sure we had seats in the shade, so it was more enjoyable than Saturday. Stephen had a second concert with The Real Sing, and we both performed with Working Voices in the garden courtyard.

There was an evening service in the amphitheatre. We had discussed whether it would be a religious service and thought it wouldn’t be. However, the church minister is quite traditional, despite being a young woman with a few tattoos. But, it was a lovely feeling, with lots of singing and the special peace songs that people had spent the mornings learning.

We had energy for the drive home and managed to park perfectly in the carport the first time of trying. I say ‘we’ not ‘me’ as it is a joint effort, paricularly as our carport is quite a tight space. I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own.

Last time we arrived home was on an afternoon with our neighbour watching and we had a bad time backing and filling and not really ending up in the best position. Unfortunately we will be driving out again on Monday to have the Hilux serviced and can only hope that we are able to park it nicely again when we get home.

We feel that overall the weekend went rather well, apart from Stephen’s fall.

Tuesday 16th, 2024

Having neglected to write for a few days I now have to remember what we did. Fortunately we have lots of photos.

We stayed two nights in the Donnybrook Caravan Park. On our second day we went to a lookout recommended by someone at the Visitor Centre. It was a little out of town, and very windy indeed, but had a good outlook over a valley.

We took advantage of the solar to cook a meal, which gave us leftovers for the evening as well. I took photos of the view. It was too windy to go for a walk.

The next day we moved to the free RV stay area in the town. We wanted to visit the jigsaw gallery and check out some more of the cafes and managed to fill in the day with wanderings and eating. After our evening walk down to the river we had tea at a Vietnamese cafe. The food was fresh looking and quite tasty, not great, but not awful either.

Yesterday morning I was able to go down to a cafe to pick up coffee and a breakfast wrap to share, one of the advantages of being in the town. Stephen went later to pick up a loaf of bread from the tiny bakery we had seen the day before. He chatted with the baker who is fairly new here from Germany, but has already started this business of baking bread and making preserves to sell. He gathers fallen fruit from the orchards and sources the flour locally.

It was his view that the surrounding area is rather like his part of Germany, but the distances between villages is much greater. His mother lives here, which was the incentive to come to Bridgetown.

The TV stay area is next to a larger carpark, and this filled up with a vintage car show. I wandered around taking photos on my phone.

Then it was time to start moving north. We ended up at Brunswick Junction, which lived up to it’s name with lots of trains and noise, including overnight. Most of the the little towns have an RV stay place, not a caravan park, but cheaper or free. We checked out the Donnybrook one, but for some reason we couldn’t book it and the toilet, shower, laundry block, which looks new, was fenced off. We take it as temporary as other people have stayed here.

Brunswick Junction has three bays at it’s showgrounds, very tricky to find, but some locals were helpful. It is free at this stage, and provides 24hr toilets, water and a dump point. The electricity outlets weren’t locked, but you would have to be a bit mean to take advantage given that we weren’t paying anything.

And yesterday we made our way to Jarrahdale. It’s close to home and has meant we have been able to have one more night in the Sherwood, but will get to choir rehearsal this evening. It’s very busy compared with our first visit here many years ago in the Winnebago. That time, as this, we opted for staying on the concrete hard stand, one of the few places where it’s possible to be level. There were two other RVs on the stand, but they had opted for either edge and we are able to fit in the middle without crowding them.

We had to sit outside after lunch as the sun was making the Sherwood very warm. It was quite cool and pleasant outside. The last vew days we’ve been having meals of cold meat and salad, which saves cooking and is fairly easy to prepare. We’ve had the lovely bread from the bakery to go with the meal.

Before tea we walked out and found the bike trail, which made for a pleasant evening walk. We watched the news, which was making a big deal of the terrible knife attack in Sydney and fairly little of the attack on Israel by Iran.

We’ved booked Friday and Saturday nights at Fremantle Village because we are singing at the Fremantle Songfest on the weekend and don’t want to drive home each evening. We will have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night at home (but with rehearsals every night for Stephen and two nights for me), plus fitting in a visit from Matt on Wednesday night. He seemed delighted when we spoke with him about it. As we are going away this coming weekend it’s our only chance to catch up in person.

Despite how busy it is here at Jarrahdale we had a peaceful night and I love the smell of being in the bush. Of course, it’s very dry, with little or no rain in the past few months, but the air is moist and I think it helps to make the bush smell good. We had a bit of a nasty smell a little while ago as it was the day for emptying the dump point, but all good now.

A few photos from this morning.

Yesterday we had a leisurely morning before packing up to travel further south to Bridgetown. We booked into the caravan park in an unpowered site for Thursday and Friday nights. We could have had a powered site for Thursday night, but having to change sites in the morning didn’t appeal. Even though we plan to drive out today we can leave our mat and chairs to mark our spot.

We arrived in Bridgetown at around 11.00 a.m. and went to the IGA for some groceries, then across to a cafe for lunch. We shared a dish, but even so it cost $30 with drinks, a bit expensive, though it’s a nice cafe with good service and food.

The caravan park is south of the town on the river bank, with walks along either side. We settled in and rested for the afternoon before taking a walk in the evening.

Stephen cooked tea, a rare event, beef ravioli with a jar of sauce poured over it, and fresh lettuce on top. Very nice and very filling. We followed up with some nougart. The IGA has a fruit, vegetable and deli section that features Italian food and treats.

Our spot in the caravan park is on the edge near a public park. Although we have one caravan next door it feels a little unsafe. The owner said people free camp in the public carpark and walk though our area to the showers and toilets, very annoying. It makes me feel a little worried about leaving our camping gear outside.

I bought the Starlink inside overnight and put it out again in the morning, just to feel a bit more secure. Because it reconnects quickly when set up, unlike our Gen 2 Starlink, I don’t mind switching it off to save power, and bringing it inside if we are not here to keep and eye on it.

Some photos from our evening walk. The light was going and some processing and cropping in Lightroom was needed.