Just to explain the silence for the last couple of weeks, we are back in Perth staying on the boat. A couple of issues arose that were best dealt with by us being in Perth, so here we are. Those issues including some van repairs and some dental work for Elaine are proceeding nicely and we should be back on the road in just over a week.

We are really missing the warm weather and look forward to heading off.

One more day on the road home, even if it is only for a short visit. After leaving our camp we stopped at Dongara Bakery who make very nice pies and purchased lunch. However we didn't wait until lunchtime to eat and started just a few kms down the road and finished a bit further on! The countryside in this part of the world is rather picturesque, rolling farmland which is at this time of the year mainly green with a few cattle and sheep dotted around. It is some time since we have driven down the Brand Highway, as opposed to the coast road, and we had forgotten how nice the scenery is on the highway.

We have stopped at a place called Drummonds Reserve which is quite nice but other than being flat, level and having a road in, has no facilities. The view from our van is rather nice over rolling bushland. It shows in the Camps 7 book, the so called bible for campers, as a day stop and in Wiki Camps, a more extensive list as a website, as an overnighter with good comments. It is only 5 kms off the main road and on the road to Cervantes. So we are rather surprised that the only company that we have here is a lady sleeping in her car.

Today we left our nice overnight camp, but before leaving we helped a couple of backpackers trying to get their little van ready for a license inspection. It appears that the papers that they posted to the appropriate place were misplaced by Aussie Post and now they have to put it over the pits, which is a bit of an issue!

So after a bit of shopping in Geraldton we drove south. The stretch of road between Dongara and Geraldton has lots and lots of heritage buildings, very nice to see. Our gps took us off the main road on our way to tonight's camp and we were lucky enough to pass some more lovely buildings. For anyone who likes old buildings, churches, houses, etc, this is a must do drive.

Tonights camp is at 7 Mile Beach just 10 kms North of Dongara and is another nice spot. We have 4 neighbours and shared the sunset with 2 of them. There is room here for a few more vehicles but the rules are self contained only and for that reason there only facility here is a rubbish bin!

A nice drive today from last nights camp down about 100 kms of very scenic road. All the way it was a winding road with nice green fields surrounding the road. There was quite a bit of traffic too as we got closer the Geraldton. We finished up at a very nice rest area called Fig Tree Crossing which is about 15 kms off the main road from a turn off only about 10 kms from Geraldton. This spot has fairly new facilities and a small charge by the local council. When we got here there was one other van and it stayed that way until just before dinner when we were joined by a 2 or 3 other travellers.

We are camped tonight on the southern side of the Murchison River near Galena Bridge. And therein lies a bit of a story. As we were leaving Gladstone the camp host, Roger, told us about this spot. On the other, Northern, side of the bridge is a 24 hour rest stop known as Galena Bridge Rest Area. It is very popular and most nights is fairly crowded. This spot however is the other side, southern, of the bridge and of the river and is not marked as an official rest area. But it is a nice spot and we are actually parked on a concrete pad, he also said that other people come in here and that there would be a few other RVs here by nightfall. We were all alone until just after dark another motorhome came in and parked for the night. So we have this nice camp without large numbers of neighbours which is good in terms of privacy and bad in that we don't meet new people.

This afternoon after we settled in I went for a walk. Near our van is this huge pond with deep sides and what looks to be deep water, it doesn't appear to be flowing so I guess that it isn't connected to the river. Behind that is a large, apparently man made, hill not very high bu quite large. According to the old, almost unreadable story board this used to be a lead mine a long long time ago and the hill and pond are I imagine something to do with the mine. Walking down from the hill I came across further evidence of activity in an old structure that looked like some sort of conveyor belt, a broken water tank and concrete pads for buildings. Then on my way back to the van another deep pit this one  had what looked to be a man made cave at the bottom of it, I presume that this was the mine! All very interesting and a bonus for our campsite.

Just one more thing, after a dinner of steak and chops cooked on our fire Elaine served up chocolate coated cheese cake (Karen's recipe), not bad for 'camp' fare!!!!

Another day at Gladstone Bay, which is the proper name for this place. If it wasn't for the flies, they are horrendous, we would stay longer, as it is we intend heading out tomorrow. Not a lot to see here but it is a nice spot and apparently good fishing judging by the people with their boats and fishing gear. We walked out into the bay on the low tide this morning and witnessed a major bird feeding frenzy with hundreds of  pelicans and cormorants. As usual Elaine cooked a great dinner over the open fire, we do very well in the food department thanks to my wife's good cooking under not so perfect conditions.

We must have done something right to have the pleasure of enjoying days like these!

The day has been spent sleeping in, walking along the beach and relaxing. We are still at Gladstone and will stay again tomorrow and were lucky enough to get a present of some very nice mullet fillets from the camp host and have just finished a lovely dinner based on them.

Once again we had a campfire and were joined by some of the other people here, this is becoming a very enjoyable habit. All up there are a lot of vans here, maybe about 50 spread along about 3 kms of beach with some just a little bit away from the beach. One of the people here is an 85yo man who has been coming here for 50 years. He has set himself up very well including having built a stone barbecue and pizza oven at the site that he usually occupies and spends some of his days finding odd jobs to do on the station, such as reconditioning water pumps.

Today was very interesting. Last night we met a couple with a plantation just outside Carnarvon who some years ago switched from bananas to sweet corn and who invited us out to have a look. So we took them up on their offer and saw just how they do what they do. As we have already been shown over a banana plantation this was doubly interesting. Then over morning tea we were shown the photo album of his huge collection including medals, fob watches, rifles, pistols, swords and daggers. They were from all over the world and of varying ages, old ages! Really an amazing collection that I would like to see again with a bit more time to study the photos. They also had quite a collection of books. We have been invited back, to stay overnight if we wish, which we will probably do on our way back north.

After a bit of shopping, fuelling and dumping we left Carnarvon around midday heading south to the Gladstone Camp. Unfortunately the Tom Tom would not give us proper directions so I had to fudge things, but we did find the turn off and after 6 kms of unsealed, but not too bad, road reached the camp. This is a nice spot on the beach at the eastern side of Shark Bay and is set up with lots of sites spread along the beach on what is station property. There is a camp host and he welcomed us in and told us to park anywhere, so we chose a spot a little way away from the road in but fairly close to the old jetty.

Now the jetty is another story. The transport up and down WA in the early days was by sea and there are old jettys all along the coast that were used for this trade. The story in Shark Bay is that cargo boat used to anchor at the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island and smaller boats, called lighters, would transfer the cargo ashore all over the bay and of course pick up cargo, in this case cattle, to take back to the ship. The old jetty is still here.

Well here we are at Carnarvon after a pleasant drive down from Minilya. We have spent a very pleasant day with our friend Frank at his boat and will spend some time tonight with our friends, the DeBoni's on their plantation.

A nice cruise down the Northwest Coastal Highway today from our camp at Barradale to Minilya River and another nice rest stop. As we arrived today a man was installing new fire pits so we christened one of them tonight, as usual inviting some of our neighbours to join us. One of those neighbours was a young German couple travelling in a small van to see Australia. They turned out to be a nice, university educated couple but they have already had a bad experience with an overbearing, expecting too much boss. We explained that most bosses are nice people and that they should keep trying to get a job to help pay for their trip.

Back to the road south, there was a lot of roadworks today which is a good thing indicating improvements. I keep harping on this theme and it is pleasing to see the efforts being made to attract tourists to WA. The improved roads are one sign the other is the rest stops and we saw another example today. This was a shelter at a small rest stop near the turnoff to Exmouth, it had well presented and detailed story boards promoting the benefits of visiting North West Cape - well done but it is getting to the stage of needing a bit of TLC. I suspect that free camping grey nomads are not the major spenders in any region but the combination of travellers by all modes of transport are, in today's world important to the survival of large parts of this wonderful country of ours. All travellers are involved as they talk to other travellers and extoll the virtues of the places that they have visited or, horror, complain about those places. It doesn't matter what means of travel the word spreads and we all need that word to be positive. For those who don't realise it there is a wonderful variety of things to see particularly if you are prepared to look off the main road.

So finishes another nice day sitting around the campfire chatting with our new friends. Unfortunately we will go our separate ways in the morning but it is always nice meeting new people.

As usual we were the last vehicle to depart last nights camp which as I have already said was very nice. On the road we travelled past Nanutarra without fuelling up as they were expensive and we are hopeful that Manilyu will be better, although we can't go past there without topping up our fuel tank. Then we stopped and cut some wood for tonight's fire before reaching tonights camp which is the Barradale Rest Area, another of the Pilbara Regional Councils great camp sites. This is bigger than last nights camp and we have more than 50 vehicles here. There is a river alongside which seems to be standard for the rest areas, but the river is sadly lacking water. There is a little water but walking over the river bed it is a big river when it is running! Maybe it will be better on our way back.

Still at Robe River having overstayed our 24 hours by just a little bit, we will be heading off in the morning. I forgot to note last night that these rest stops are a project of the Pilbara Regional Council (aboriginal groups) to, amongst other things, help attract tourists to the area and is funded by Royalties for Regions.

I walked along the river today firstly disturbing an eagle with a corella that he was feasting on then as far as I could before running out of track. It is a rather pretty river with a fair bit of water in it, although it might only be a pool because I had difficulty seeing where the water came in and where it went out! Using river water we then cleaned the last few days mud off the van and got it looking almost respectable again.

Tonight Elaine had the usual fire and attracted quite a nice crowd to share a sundowner with us. Last night the area was fairly full, with about 20 vans in, then they all left this morning so that at lunchtime we were the only people here. Now there is once again 15-20 vans here.