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.