Kununurra - 9th August 2022

Catch up on the last 3 nights, the 1st we stayed at Mary Pool, a very large area which already had quite a few other campers set up. We found a great spot with plenty of space, we went for a walk and saw plenty of bird life closer to the river.The next night it was just a road side stop, we had a large covered gazebo next to us and we were joined by another caravan for the late afternoon / evening.That brings us to where we are now. Ivanhoe caravan park for 3 nights. Dave’s car had an issue with charging the auxiliary battery and luckily it was an easy fix with a blown 50 amp fuse. The park has a pool so it was refreshing to cool off as the temps were around 35 degrees C. That night we went to the Hotel to celebrate Dave’s birthday, the meals were large but basic and not a big choice on the menu.Today we went for a drive to the Rum Hoochery, Sandalwood shop, and a few camping stores in town. Quite a few businesses have closed I’m told due to lack of employees. This afternoon we went on a sunset BBQ cruise, something Vickie and I have done a few years back and enjoyed it. It was a very pleasant evening and the meal was good, my only complaint was it was 1st in gets the best seats and a few had arrived knowing that so were there waiting.

Willare - 5th August 2022

A few more photos. We stayed at Willare Roadhouse with power and water for the night ($38) and enjoyed a very cold swimming pool which was awesome as the day time temperature was heating up, we also had a great meal of Mexican food (all you can eat) ($25pp) 

Our next two nights we stayed at Ellendale Lake, a great free camp 120k North of Willare. We saw plenty of water birds and smaller species and also had the company of a very friendly cow. Dave and I fitted the clothes line to our awning, Thanks Scott’s! 

Great sunsets and our evening meals were cooked on the Kimble Pot. 

We left the lake this morning and stopped at another great camp place Ngunbam Cliff for morning tea and now stopped for the night at Mary Pool.

4th August 2022 - On the road, 1st night Payne’s Find

1st night I suggested we stop at Paynes Find and camp out the back of the pub and enjoy a pub meal to ‘celebrate’ being on the road with our new van.Wish I hadn’t bothered. Prices were over the top for meals like steak, lamb chops etc etc so we chose the Burger option, seriously they were barely average at $24 & $17 … probably the least enjoyed burger I have had. We live & learn. Plus $10pp to park behind the pub, never again. Our next few nights we bush camped and way nicer. We camped a night around 150k south of Port Hedland on the Great Northern Highway and the rain came pouring down, visibility was literally 100 metres and with dozens of road trains going both ways it made for an ‘interesting’ drive .. it was rain and overcast for most of the trip until we were approximately 150k south of Broome. With the new van having a Lithium battery system it was excellent to be able to use the electric toaster, microwave  and coffee machine but with very little solar and the DC2DC charger not set up initially to accept a charge from the vehicle our batteries got to 66% .. nothing to be alarmed about but we were relived to see the sun shining in Broome. A phone call to Masterpiece and soon I was talking to Remon the owner who sent me some information on setting up the DC2DC App so our car will charge the batteries whilst driving. Hopefully I’ve done it correctly, if not it’s another call. With no vacancies at all in Broome we decided to continue on and caught up with our relly’s The Billy’s at Willare Roadhouse & Park Ground. Connected to power and water, the batteries were soon back to 100%, we used the washing machine and AC .. we also indulged in a great meal of Mexican Tacos, all you can eat for $25pp.. it made Paynes Find look like the rip off that it was. So now the 4 of us are moving on tomorrow to a camp beside a river for a few days. It will be good to start moving slowly and not be filling up the diesel tank every two days at around $500 a time