Sunday 5th March

A day of rest, so nothing too exciting – a few pottering jobs around the van and the truck.   Leisurely lunch, the Times cryptic, afternoon tea, send up a few zzzzs, walk on the beach………and the morning and the evening were the fifth day!

Monday 6th March

A busy morning, the generator needed to be run because the hairdryer was needed and we can’t run that off the inverter, also gave the caravan batteries needed a bit of a boost even though they  looked OK, takes a couple of hours so took the opportunity to charge the computers and phones, whilst the AC was available.   Also because we’re leaving tomorrow and heading for Stokes Inlet , via Esperance, where we have to stop off and vote in the State elections so, pumped the tyres up again, we don’t have far to run on the dirt and they’re quite good roads.   This was the first test for my new set up.   I have installed and air tank, which is bolted to the side of the genny box, complete with pressure gauge, relief valve and blowdown valve. 

  

This is connected to the compressor and the charging hose reaches from the tank to all eight wheels.    The beauty of the tank is that whilst I’m putting the dust cap back on and moving to the next wheel the compressor is filling the tank, normally it would switch off as soon as it felt the backpressure from the charging valve but by the time I’m at the next wheel there is a volume of air ready to go.   I’m very pleased with how it works, it takes less than 10 mins to inflate eight 265 x 75 R16s from 30 up to 40 psi.

Went for walk along the beautiful white sandy beach. There was a good breeze which someone was taking advantage of with his land yacht – looked like fun.  Decided to go along the river to catch some bream but after a while it became obvious they didn’t like the bait – very annoying as there was plenty going on in the river.

Tuesday 7th March

Got to Esperance, having placed all our rubbish in big bins at Condinup, and went to dump point and on to the Information centre to fill up with potable water (there is a potable water tap with a hose at the dump point but apparently some people don’t know what the difference is!). Having got the chores done we decided to cast our votes early and made our way to the local court house – an appropriate venue we thought since most of our politicians seem to be crooks one way or another!    Having negotiated the ‘can we give you handfuls of paper brigade’ outside we had to find our way to appropriate place………

  ……….I think we found it!!!!

Nice lunch, a bit of shopping and it’s off to Stokes Inlet, an hours drive west of Esperance.

The drive into Stokes is normally 2WD but on the way there was “Water over the road”  as the sign said – a  large puddle about 300 deep according to the marker post, but that didn’t slow us down.    The sign at the turn to Roger’s favourite fishing spot says that the track is closed, hmmm!

The Campground is still managed by volunteers at this time of year and they are usually very helpful and friendly people.   Bob and Sylvia are no exception and are full of news of the Park, including that the sand bar has been flushed out so that the inlet is temporarily tidal.    I laughingly suggest that we have our favourite bay (it’s one of the easiest to to get the BT into) and sure enough Site No 5 is available.    We get invited to a happy hour and having set up and had a cup of tea we amble over to the happy hour, together with a bottle and a bowl of nibbles.    There are about ten people there, all from different parts of the country, so the conversation is interesting.    All too soon the bottle is empty and it’s time to find our way home for dinner.

Wednesday 8th March

A grey and overcast day for the early part but pleasantly cool to do some minor mods to the towing hitch on the caravan.    Also, we think the fridge is making the rattling noise in the back of the troopie, so today I took the fridge out and went for a drive without it, sure enough the rattle has gone.   I took the fridge apart as far as I could but there seems to be something loose in one of the sealed units.    It sounds like a new fridge my be on the cards – we use this as an extra freezer.

This afternoon we thought we’d go and look at Skippy Rock camp ground, it’s only 11ks as the crow flies but about 50 by the access tracks.    The track in is a bit soft in places, we could get the BT in there but it’s really be designed for camper trailers and tents.    It is a nice spot and we think it would be very popular at Christmas.

      

Whilst we were out this way we went and had a look at Torradup Inlet, this would be a great place to put your canoe in the water and do some exploring.

   On the way back more suicidal roos…….