Day 140 Perth to Busselton

 The whole Perth area was really nice and place we will come back to one day but it was time to move on.

I realised I had actually made a mistake in our bookings at Busselton and we were not booked in until the following day. We either stay in Perth an extra night or we move on and stay in Busselton a day earlier. We chose to move on.

The drive down to Busselton was quite nice and uneventful. We arrived at our Caravan Park and we loved it. A stark contrast from the perth caravan park that was concrete, crowded and typical of an inner city caravan park. This one was green grass, spacious and we were surrounded by bush with birds and wildlife, much more to our liking.

We liked it so much we straight away booked a 4th night. After we set up we did the usual thing and drove into the township for a look.

We saw the very long jetty that we plan on walking and did some groceries.

Back at camp it was now quite late so we did tea and went to bed.

Day 139 Fremantle Markets

 Up nice and early again and drove all the way down to Fremantle to go the markets.

The markets are very vibrant and full of the typical stores you find at this type of market. We really enjoyed looking at all the vendors and the food choices were plentiful.

We purchased an eye photo from a vendor where they take a photo of your iris and put them together as a couple photos and print it out. It was really nice but being photo people ourselves we are sure we could have done a better job!

We spent hours in the markets and even had a walk around the malls in Fremantle itself.

After the markets we went back to the very large shopping centre that we visited on day one. Karen decided she wants a ring so we visited every jewelry shop in the place but in true Karen style she looked at thousands of them and didn't buy one. I did notice she was trying them on her wedding finger so perhaps this was a test haha

By this time we were well and truly tired from walking all day so back to camp for tea and bed.

Day 138 Perth Zoo

 We got up nice and early and headed straight into the city to Perth Zoo.

The zoo is in a beautiful location but as far as Zoo's go it did not live up to any of the other major zoo's we have been to. The animal displays are very sparse. Usually just one animal of each kind if youre lucky enough to find them. So I say they are not doing any breeding.

But we still managed to spend a good 3-4 hours there walking around the place.

After the Zoo I wanted to have a look at a machinery shop so we drove over to it and had a walk around. Of course I could spend all day in it but only 10 minutes this time as Karens bottom lip was nearly touching the floor haha

We then went back to camp, had tea and went to bed.

Day 137 Perth and Fremantle

 Today Karen had booked herself into a hairdresser to get her hair coloured at around 12, so we went into the city for a look.

It was a bit rushed because by the time we got a park and went for a walk down around the waters edge it was time to head back! Cities are so busy and it takes time to get around them, although Perths road system is very good.

I dropped Karen off and was told it would take 4 hours!! So I decided to go into Fremantle as I had an order at Specsavers waiting for me that I prearranged a few weeks prior when I broke my reading glasses.

The drive down to Fremantle was easy and didn't take long. I grabbed my glasses and visited a few different shopping centres trying to find one that I could get a hair cut and have some lunch.

After a couple of false starts due to the shopping centres being less than desirable I found one and did get my hair cut and had some lunch!

I also wanted to grab a spring I broke on one of our caravans vents so I drove around a couple of caravan parts suppliers and got one of those but by the time I had done all this Karen was finished early so I had to rush back to grab her.

By the time I got back she had decided to go and get her nails done haha I just bite mine!

It was now late in the afternoon so by the time we got back it was time for tea and bed.

Day 136 Perth Suburbs

 It was still a bit of a wet day forecast today but its going to be better as the week goes on so we decided to again spend a day in the shops!

This time I had nicer clothes on so I didn't feel too far out of place and this time we chose a smaller shopping centre that had shops like Kmart in it so it was little more our price range hahaha

We had a nice lunch and Karen got her hair cut. She wanted to get it coloured but at $400 it was a little too pricey! We later booked her into another hairdresser for the next day that was 'only' $190.

We did some shopping, did a large grocery shop and by the time we got back to camp and packed the groceries away it was again raining quite hard.

We cooked another meal indoors and went to bed.

Day 135 Sandy Cape Camp to Perth

 The weather typically broke and it wasnt looking terrible the day we leave haha But we packed up and headed out to go down to Perth or just outside of Perth into a caravan park that we have booked for 5 days.

We popped into the little coastal town of Cervantes for a drive through look and it also looked like a really nice little location.

But for the most part it was a leisurely drive down the coast road through patches of rain and wind all the way into the Karrinyup Water Resort Caravan Park. The drive into the city was really straight forward and easy which is always nice when towing a caravan.

The caravan park was packed and very tight to get into. But luckily our little van reversed into the site easy enough with a few millimetres to spare from all the other cars and vans around us!!

Once we set up we drove around to a huge shopping centre that was nearby. I felt really out of place because I am dressed like a homeless person in my camping gear that gets rather dirty at times and this shopping centre has really posh shops with people walking around it to match.

But to be honest just the fact that we are now around a lot of people with all the noise and activity was quite something after living a very simple life for so long on our own. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

We went back to camp and it was raining quite hard at this stage so we cooked tea inside and went to bed.

Day 134 Sandy Cape Wet and Wild Camp

 Another very wet and wild day so we really do not have a lot to say other than we enjoyed a day sitting inside relaxing!!

We did go down to Jurien Bay again for another look around and to visit some shops to break up the monotony of sitting inside.

But for the most part that was the extent of our day, we haven't had many like it so I wasn't complaining.

We cooked tea indoors and went to bed.

Day 133 Sandy Cape Camp

 Oh my goodness it rained and blew a gale all night and still was this morning. It was a very wet and wild night.

However this water system issue was still bothering me and lets face it we need water so I had to work it out. I tried a few different things to just go through the process of elimination and eventually got the system primed and working.

I cant be 100% certain what was happening but I think a combination of all the gunk in the solenoids possibly from the farms pump having issues or I also found a solenoid failed so perhaps it was allowing air in but either way we are back up and running on our tank water.

The weather just did not let up, it was very high winds and the rain was coming in sideways so we pretty much had a whole day inside the van. 

It did break up ever so slightly in the afternoon so we popped down to Jurien Bay for a quick look and grab a couple of items at the supermarket.

But we just had to sit in the van really. We are warm, dry and comfortable with all the mod cons you need in life so we cant complain as we have had beautiful weather for the last 5 months.

We watched the footy and went to bed.

Day 132 Kalbarri to Sandy Cape Camp

 Up early as we had around a 400 kilometre drive down to Sandy Cape, which is only about 15 kilometres from Jurien Bay.

We hit the road and stopped at Geraldton to pick up the pre-purchased water pump from Bunnings. We also couldn't resist the opportunity to grab some KFC while we were in a big city. It is a shame to drive through Geraldton as it looked like it had a bit to offer but we cant see everything.

It took around 4-5 hours to arrive at Sandy Cape camp at around 2:30pm. It is a lovely camp ground with very large and private campsites.

We set up and I proceeded to swap the water pump over to only find out the same issue was still happening! So clearly the water pump was not the issue, so I took the new one back out and packed it away so we can return back to Bunnings and put the old one back in.

I then spent until dark trying to diagnose our issue. I pretty much pulled the entire water pump and solenoid system apart and found a lot of gunk in the system which may have been an issue.

It was now too late and too many mozzies attacking me to work keep working on the system so Ill have to try and figure it out tmorrow.

We had tea and went to bed.

Day 131 Kalbarri National Park

 Today we got up reasonably early and drove up to the National Park. They have a several walks, the very spectacular sky walk and the natures window look out.

First up we went to the sky walk which is a man made structure that has two very large walk ways extending out over the gorge for over 20 metres with a walkway that is see through. I am terrible at heights and this was a very anxious feeling for me to be out on these platforms!

We then did the walk down into the natures window which is a hole in the rock formations that gives a great view out over the gorge. It is a very beautiful location. It is also where people get photos of themselves that look like they are hanging off the cliff edge haha Of course we got one of Karen doing just that.

After that we drove down to what they call the Z bend, which is a walk down to a bend in the gorge shaped like a Z. Again it is a very spectacular location.

We then went back to Kalbarri and had some local fish and chips. Very expensive at $50 for the two of us.

Then we had a look around a lot of the shops which for the most part are touristy but as usual Karen bought stuff haha

Karen wanted to try and see some more whales so we spent quite a bit of time back up on the cliffs watching them while I tried to capture them on the drone.

Then we went back to camp to discover that our water pump was not working as it should. It is a very long story but the place we are staying at was having pump problems himself so at some point his water had stopped they repaired the farm pump. But we naturally thought we had burnt out our pump so I ordered a new one from Bunnings to pick up tomorrow on the way through Geraldon.

We cooked tea and went to bed.

Day 130 Kalbarri area

 We got up reasonably early to a nice sunny day and went straight back up the coast to pop into all the little points of interest on the way back.

There are at least 10 different points of interest that are all showing different landscapes along the cliffs that run down the coast around Kalbarri.

We called into all of them to get photos of the landscape, watch the whales and look at the silly goats hanging out right on the cliff edges! It is a stunning landscape.

After the sight seeing we went down to the jetty for a quick fish and as usual only caught a heap of little fish. 

We had to rush off though because we wanted to catch the sunset along the cliffs, which we did and it was very nice.

We went back to camp, had tea and went to bed.

Day 129 Lucky Bay Campground to Big River Ranch Kalbarri

 It rained all night and it was still raining this morning so we decided to get ourselves a better camp site closer to Kalbarri because we are getting flooded in where we are.

As usual most places are fully booked but we did get a spot on a farm stay right near town so we packed up and got out before we couldn't get out.

The road out was flooded and the holes of water we had to drive through were getting to the point where we made the right decision. In facted when we got back out to the caretakers the ranger was there closing the campground and was evacuating anyone that was left anyway so we were about to get kicked out!

It is only a short drive up to Kalbarri which is a really nice coastal town that has good mix of nic beaches and dramatic cliffs along its coast.

We got to our farm stay at the Big River Ranch and it was quite a nice spot. Set up with people either side of us beggars can't be chooses.

We then went for a little look around town once the rain settled a bit.

We had left overs for tea and went to bed.

Day 128 Shark Bay to Lucky Bay Campground

 The drive from Denham down to Lucky Bay Campground is around 400 klms which is more than I like to do in a day but we packed up early enough, actually we slept in a little but did our chores and away we went.

Karen wanted to pop back into shell beach on the way back as it was a nice sunny day so we did that.

But for the most part besides fuelling up we drove for a large part of the day. We arrived at Lucky Bay Camp around 3pm and the camp hosts told us the track in was all but inaccessible to caravans.

This was quite disappointing because i called the day before to make sure we were ok to drive all the way into the place. It was a good 50-60 klms off the main road to get in there.

Anyway we went in and had a look and yes there were a lot of holes and a real bad track that required 4wd to get in. There was rain forecast so we didnt go through the last big hole, instead we set up camp short of the camp ground up behind the sand dunes.

It was actually a really nice and private spot but the weather did come in and it rained quite heavy all night.

I still managed to cook our meatloaf but did it in the caravan oven.

We went to bed with the sound of the rain on the roof.

Day 127 Monkey Mia and Shark Bay

 We had to be up early today because we had to be at the Dolphin experience at Monkey Mia by 7:30am and it was quite a drive to get there.

The whole monkey mia area is very touristy and they charge $15 each to see the dolphins but no guarantees they will be there of course.

So along with 100's of other tourists we all line up and wait for the dolphins to come in, which 2 or 3 did for us. They gave them a little feed of course and after about an hour the show finished.

You then have to leave the beach for a while a so the dolphins know the first feed is over and we all go back again about an hour later to do it all again! This time we had a turtle join us well.

We then had a look at the touristy shops where Karen of course spent a lot of money hahaha

We went back to Denham and grabbed some fish and chips which we ate back at camp and they were very good.

Then we went to what they call little lagoon which is a blue water and white sand lagoon but it has an inlet that has the red sand meeting the white sand and blue water. So of course we spent quite a bit of time droning and capturing this.

After that we drove all the way out to Big Lagoon, which is of course is a similar thing but a lot larger. We also spent quite a while capturing this. It is more like a large bay really but it also has the red sand cliffs meeting the water.

We went back to camp and Karen decided some of the clothes she bought earlier in the day didn't fit so we had to drive all the way back out to Monkey Mia to exchange these!! 

By the time we got back it was too late to cook the meatloaf I was going to make so we went to the supermarket and I grabbed some marinated chicken ribs to cook instead.

We had tea and went to bed.

Day 126 Gladstone Bay Campground to Shark Bay Caravan Park

 We didn't have a lot of packing up to do as we were still hitched up from the day before but we got on the road early enough. Emptied our loo at the dump point provided and hit the road to Shark Bay or the township of Denham.

We stopped at a look out for some photos and then we called into Shell Beach for a look at the billions of tiny shells that are the beach.  A truly beautiful place, white shells and blue water.

We arrived at the caravan park around 1pm and set up in a nice enough spot. Always nice when you have a heap of spectators to watch how you work as a team getting your van reversed into the site and we just back it straight in no problems at all. Its a favourite past time at caravan parks and I admit we get a laugh watching some people as well!

We then popped into the township of Denham to have a look around. We did a little bit of shopping and decided we would lash out and go out for tea.

We went back to camp and got ready to go to the local bistro. The bistro was one of the local pubs, albeit a bit upmarket. 

We both had parmi's for tea which were nice enough.

Back at camp and time for bed.

Day 125 Quobba Blowholes to Gladstone Bay Camp

 We packed up reasonably early as we had a little bit of a drive down the coast. 

We had another last look for some whales on the way out and did some drone footage of the area before we left.

But around 200 kays down the road we pulled into a camp called Gladstone Bay campground. We got a spot right on the beach. It was low tide when we got there so the water was a long way out along these sandy mud type flats but the high tide line was only metres from our van.

There wasn't a lot to do and it was only an overnight stop on our way to Monkey Mia but wow what an awesome location for a camp site.

We went for a longish walk out to the old wrecked jetty.

Then we made pizzas for tea and watched collingwood lose yet another game before heading to bed.

Day 124 Quobba Blow holes

 Today was a really windy day so we went for a drive up to Quobba station for a look and to be honest the rough roads in the area are a put off to what isn't very appealing anyway.

We did our best to find whales but they werent around today for some reason.

Karen had another snorkel at the aquarium while I watched and she loved it as usual. She got to see some more sharks but they are hard to film because they are very scared of humans.

We then spent a bit more time whale watching before going back to camp to have another fish. But again it was very windy so the only fish caught were all too small really.

Neither of us were feeling great so we had a pretty early night. I think being in the wind all day wasnt great for us.

Day 123 Quobba Blowholes

 Today we did it all. We spent a big part of the day whale watching which was amazing.

We then watched the blowhole for a while before popping down to the aquarium for a snorkel.

The fish in the aquarium was in the 1000's.  It truly was a magical place to snorkel. Karen got to see a reef a shark and soon climbed out of the water haha

We then spent more time just looking around the rocks and exploring this beautiful area.

I was keen to try fishing later in the day at a lower tide so we went back to camp where I made some rigs for fishing then late in the arvo we had a serious attempt at catching a feed.

And finally we did catch some decent sized fish. I cant tell you exactly what they were but they were big enough to cut a fillet off them so we kept them.

I also caught a reasonably sized shark. Well over 1 metre long but as I landed him on the beach the line snapped off and he got away! But it was great fun fishting with him to get him in.

We took the fish back to camp where I processed them and we actually had a decent bag of fillets.

We had left over steak and snags and salad for tea and went to bed.

Day 122 Quobba Blowholes

 We have 4 days at this camp so we didn't do a lot today other than look around the area and check out some fishing spots.

It is a really nice area with a lot of whales going past so Karen loves sitting there taking photos of them.

It has what they call the aquarium where you can snorkel on the roof and of course it has the blow holes.

Fishing off the rocks looks like itll be dangerous but we will check it out at low tide.

We did have a fish off the beach in front of camp but without a lot of success as it was in the middle of the day and the tide was right in.

We cooked steaks on the weber and had salad for tea and went to bed.

Day 121 Stans Camp to Quobba Blowholes Camp

 We had a big day today to get to our next camp because we had to pop into Carnarvon to get water and supplies.

It was the typical drive day around 300 klms or so to Carnarvon where we empied our loo, filled up with water, went shopping, and even grabbed some fishing gear and local knowledge to make a serious attempt at catching some fish haha Oh and we grabbed some diesel.

After doing our resupply we went back up into Quobba Blowholes campground and set up in our squeezy site jammed up next to another caravan.

It was late in the day so all we really got to do was have a look at the beach as we are camped really only a 10-20 metres from it.

We watched some telly and went to bed.

Day 120 Stans Camp and 14 Mile Beach.

 We woke up to a nice sunny day so went back up to 14 mile beach and tried our luck at fishing again.

Of course we had no luck! We do not know what we are doing wrong, but no one else seems to be catching anything in this area either.

We went back to camp and spent the rest of day messing around at or near our camp. 

I did a few chores and karen took photos of whales.

So it was a pretty lazy day in the end.

Day 119 Stans Camp and 14 Mile Beach

 Today we got all our fishing gear organized and headed up the coast a little to 14 mile beach under very dark and threatening skies.

And sure enough as soon as we put our lines in the rain started haha.

So we packed up and headed back to camp. We had no choice but to spend the majority of the day in the van and it was a miserable drizzly and windy day.

It didn't bother me too much because the car racing was on so I enjoyed the luxury of being about to lounge around and watch it.

Very late in the day the rain stopped and the skies got a little brighter but it was too late to head outside and do anything. 

We had tea and went to bed.

Day 118 Bruboodjoo Campground to Stans Camp

 We packed up this morning and headed down to Stans Camp which is about an hours drive down the road.

Once we got back out to the highway we aired our tyres back up to highway pressures and our larger fuse seems to have worked on our compressor issue.

It was actually only a short drive down the highway and we had to turn back onto the rough coastal tracks so we had to air our tyres back down again!

We bounced and rattled our way into our camp site and set up in what looked like we had the whole place to ourselves.

We are set up right on the coast over looking the ocean. Karen spent the best part of the day sitting on the edge of the rocky out crop photographing the whales.

We had a look up the coast a little to the next camp which is sandy beach. 

Karen again had a little fish off the rocks but snagged herself and gave up haha.

We ran into a couple that we have been running into on our trip since way back at Kakadu and had a bit of chat.

We had left overs for tea, watched the footy and went to bed.

Day 117 Bruboodjoo Campground and Coral Bay

 Today we decided to pop down to Coral Bay for a look. It is only about 30 minutes from camp back out the rough road and down the highway a little.
Coral Bay is a beautiful location known for its very picturesque bay that is great for snorkelling and swimming.

But goodness it is a very very touristy. The town is packed with caravans and tourists and I mean jammed packed. We had a good look around town, popped into a couple of shops and had a walk around the bay. We also grabbed some fuel.

Then we went back to camp and decided to give our inflatable kayak a go. It was great fun until our paddles both broke! They were too long in one piece to fit anywhere so I made them to come apart but for some reason I only screwed one side of them together! I am not sure if I just forgot or what happened but I should be able to screw them together with the tools I have with me before we need to use them again. But we can see that the kayak will be fun in the right conditions.

Karen tried her luck at some fishing but no luck this time. It was actually quite an overcast day again, so our solar input for the last two days hasn't been great.

We cooked a big roast pork on the weber for tea and grumbled that we now had neighbours either side of us who parked very close. They had kids and dogs too and generators, so not our favourite type of neighbours.

We had our roast pork for tea and went to bed after the footy.

Day 116 Bruboodjoo Campground and Ningaloo Reef

 We decided to have a day driving up the coast road to see what all the camp grounds that everyone books out 12 months in advance are about.

Oh my goodness the road from Bruboodjoo Campground up to Lefroy had some really bad sections. And to be honest we are almost done with these really rough roads, we feel like we are wrecking our 4wd.

So by the time we got up to Lefroy we were not only over the constant shaking but the road turns to really soft sand to get into the camp grounds and our compressor is in the caravan, we don't carry a portable compressor in the ute. To drive on the really soft sand you need to lower your tyres pressures a lot lower than we have them to go on the rough rocky roads so we decided to not go any further.

Maybe next time we are in the area we will be better prepared. 

We did pop into Janes Bay and managed to drive onto the beach no problems as the sand was quite compact there. We had a fish but as usual no luck haha It seems no one is catching fish from the shore in this area.

We then went back to camp on the very rough inland track. It was now quite late in the day so we had left overs for tea and we watched Collingwood loose yet another game before heading to bed.

Day 115 Osprey Bay to Bruboodjoo Campground

Today we packed up and headed back up towards Esperance. 

On the way we stopped in at a turtle hatchery place that had no turtles that we could see but we were treated with seeing a heap of whales heading north. 

Of course we stayed there for a long time as karen photographed them jumping up out of the water. It was amazing to see these huge creatures do their thing. 

We then popped into Esperance to empty our loo and we grabbed some fishing gear. Down the road a little we fuelled up and also grabbed some water at the servo as they allow you to do that. 

It wasn't too long and we got to our turn off into our camp ground, which followed a rough track towards the coast. 

Bruboodjoo Campground is a large area that allows you to go and choose your own spot, so we found a really nice position right near the beach. 

The rest of the day we relaxed, spent a bit of time at the beach and I cooked some kebab things on the weber.

Day 114 Osprey Bay and Yardie Creek

 Today was a bit windy so we decided it was a good time to drive down to Yardie Creek. This is the infamous crossing where everyone gets bogged heading down the coastal road.

While we was there a guy in van got himself badly bogged but there is also a better crossing, so you dont need to go into the really soft sand to get across but apparently thats the cool thing to do!

We did a walk up along the creek to look at the gorge which was really nice and there were a heap of bats in the tree's so Karen spent some time photographing them.

There are a lot of camp sites and beach access points as you drive back up along the Ningaloo Reef. 

Once back at Osprey Bay we did some more snorkelling and Karen got to swim with 4 turtles this time!! I have the attention span of an ant so I only stay in the water for around 30 minutes at a time at best. Karen will stay in it for hours......plus in my mind, the more you're in it the better the chance to get eaten by shark haha

I spent a little bit of time later that day packing up some of our gear as we had to leave the next morning.

We had left overs for tea and went to bed.

Day 113 Road Side Free Camp to Osprey Bay Campground on the Ningaloo Reef

 There is very little pack up required from a free camp because we do not unhitch so we were on the road quite early, around 8am.

We have about another 350 kays or so again to get to camp so we headed down the road and not too long into our trip we turned off to go up to Exmouth.

It is a bit of a weird place because it is a peninsular that goes back up, but you have to drive down to the bottom to access it. And Australia being such a large place it is over 100 klms wasted by the time you go in and out again.
When we got to Exmouth we went to the visitor centre to ask about the roads to get to our camp sites and they suggested I ask the national parks as they know better. So I gave them a call and they suggested it is not recommended to take caravans down the coastal roads, which means we do in fact have to go back up to Exmouth on the way back out and drive back down the highway to access the next camping sites instead of driving down the coast side.

So we decided not to waste too much time in Exmouth today, we will do the touristy thing when we come back. We did pop into a auto parts store to grab some larger fuses for the compressor, at $10 a packet they are around 3 times dearer than any where else!

Once at Exmouth, you then drive around the top of the peninsular and head back down the other side. We arrived at our campground which is Osprey Bay. It is a prime location right on the Ningaloo Reef that is known for its great snorkelling.

As expected Karen was so keen to go snorkelling we jumped straight into it haha It was a beautiful warm water and yes the snorkelling was very good. Lots of fish on the reef to look at.

I only had around 30 minutes or so in me snorkelling today and I had a roast lamb to cook so I left Karen on the reef with all the other people at her request.

I could keep an eye on her for the most part but eventually continued on with my cooking.

She came back around an hour later all smiles and excited as we reviewed the footage she got on our little gopro camera of her swimming with the Turtles, a stingray and all the other colourful tropical fish.
It was a life long ambition for her to swim with turtles so she was very happy.

We had our little roast for tea and went to bed. During the night the wind got up a lot higher than expected so at some silly hour in the morning we got up and packed our awning up!

Day 112 Karratha to Road Side Free Camp

 Today was just a drive day. We packed up around 9, dumped our rubbish and went and filled with water.

We popped up to Dampier Peninsula to look at the Red Dog statue and have a look around the port area. The large ships get loaded with all the material from the very long trains.

We then popped down the highway to head south. Along the way we fueled up and managed to find a dump point to empty our loo, which was disgusting because there was no water to rinse the dump point so everyone's poop was all over the place. 

Later in the day when we got sick of driving we found a free camp on the wikicamps app and it was actually quite nice. The free camps are always the best ones. Plenty of space so we feel like we are the only ones there but there were other people spread around so safety in numbers and it had a nice rock formation for a back drop.

I used the opportunity to pop a rubber spring helper back into our caravan coil spring that I had removed way back when we had our little suspension issue on the Gibb. In doing so I had to let the tyre down very low to get the clearance I needed to pop it in.

When I pumped the tyre back up the on board compressor blew a fuse. No problems it has done that before, mainly because I use light rated fuses as Id much prefer to blow a fuse than melt a wire. But on this occasion it continued to blow fuses as soon as it really got a big load, which it does putting the high pressures into the caravan, which was odd.

A quick google search for the spec on this particular compressor would suggest the fuse I use is in fact way too light. It is only a 20 amp fuse and the ARB compressor will draw over 20 amps when it is under a heavy load. Of course I do not have anything larger than 20 amp fuses in my kit so we will have to get some at the next servo. I managed to get enough into the tyre during the fuse blowing exercise.

We had snags, mash, onion and gravy for tea and it was so yum haha.

We watched the logies on telly and went to bed.

Day 111 Karratha

 Today didn't start very well. We jumped in our 4wd and as soon as we turned out of the overflow camp ground we both said whats that noise, it sounded like something flapping and i felt like it was a flat tyre, so we pulled over and sure enough it was a flat tyre!

I cant understand how I walked past it to get into the ute and didnt see it. Anyway we changed to the spare and went back to camp to put air in the tyre and found the hole. I was going to plug it myself as it was easily repaired but I decided to drop it off to a tyre shop and get them to plug it from the inside properly.

They rang us not long after we dropped it off and said the tyres no good and needs to be replaced. Said we drove too far on it and we had chewed it up on the inside. We thought that was really weird considering we literally drove 50 mtrs or so. Ive driven on flat tyres for kilometres in the past and not damaged them.

So I went straight back and asked to look at the tyre. It looked to me like they had used their little tyre grinder they use for patches and chewed a spot out on the inside. They were insistent on replacing our brand new tyre with another brand new tyre and said they will only charge us $20 to dispose of our 'wrecked' tyre. $430 later we put a new tyre on the back but I kept the near new tyre they took off because I am convinced it I can run a tube in it and get our $400 worth out of that tyre. Our front tyres are getting low so will need replacing when we get home.

The receptionist swore like a truck driver and bloke running the place was as shonky as they come, we really left the place with a sour taste in our mouth.

But the show must go on so we did in fact go to a Festival they hold once a year at Karratha. It was quite large, almost like agfest. It had food stalls, all sorts of other shops and a sideshow alley. Even had a couple of stages with singers, it was a really good day. Very hot and sunny for us but still a great day.

We then went to the shops to stock up on a few small items and of course Karen bought another bag full of clothes haha

Back at camp we had left over KFC for tea and watched Collingwood lose again before heading to bed.

Day 110 Karijini to Karratha

 We packed up and went down the road to Tom Price, which is only really around 40 kilometers down the road.

Our first stop was a dump point for our loo and to fill up with water. Which we did but not until the selfish people in front of us used the town drinking water supply to wash their car, caravan and bloody dog. This is why places like this given for free get shut down.

Anyway we then went to the visitor centre to get a permit to drive on the Rio Tinto access road. We had to watch a safety video to get our free permit. The access road is a road that runs along side the private railway line. It is your typical rough gravel mining road. 

It was actually quite interesting, there was a lot of activity along the track. We got to see several of the very large trains carting the iron ore. And by large I mean the largest trains in the world. These are 2.5 kilometres long. You really need to see them to believe it, simply amazing.

After the 350 or so kilometre drive we arrived at Karratha visitor centre and they allowed us to set up camp in a make shift over flow camp at an oval. 100's of other vans here but it was good enough for us while we are having a look around town.

Karratha has a KFC so after a few months without it we went straight to KFC and bought more chicken that Id like to admit hahah

We then relaxed, watched footy and went to bed.