Grass Site

SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019

We had packed up quite a lot of stuff last night so it was a matter of filling the water tanks, bringing down the roof and we were ready and on the road by 8am.  A quick stop at Caltex Broome for fuel but there was no way we could get the van close enough to the air to harden up the caravan tyres so we drove out to Roebuck Plains roadhouse and did it there.  A very big Sunland Patriot in the fuel stop – googled it on the way  south and probably worth about $150,000.  They are very heavy though so we would have to get a new car/truck to go with the new van!  We have pretty much decided over the course of the last couple of weeks that the Jayco just isn’t big enough for these long haul trips and quite a bit of search activity for a new van has occurred recently.  Just a question of whether we hold out for the retirement van or else trade the Jayco in for a slightly bigger second hand version for the time being. Stay tuned...

Drove and drove south today with only stops to swap drivers and at Sandfire for fuel and our customary roadhouse hot chips.  They took forever to cook because once again, the roadhouse had failed to realise that lunchtimes and school holidays = people wanting to buy food.  Grrr!!

Made it to the Pardoo Station turnoff and were soon regretting that we hadn’t stopped to put the reverse pressure fan on as there was a fair bit of dust (although it must be said that the gravel road was well graded and probably one of the best we have been on).  We made the office at about 2pm and checked in.  Whether by accident or because we had booked so long ago we were given a powered site for the cost of an unpowered site so that was a bonus.  The site is also really well grassed and that is nice too plus we are surrounded by nice people including next to another Jayco Journey whose owners were happy to swap tips and gave us a good idea for the shower door even cutting off a bit of fuel line pipe from his own supply for us.

It was quite windy so we gave up the idea of fishing at the beach and stayed under the awning instead reading our books, keeping track of footy scores and chatting to our neighbours including the nice couple with a Retreat van who raved about it so much we started googling second hand ones of those!

Steak and chips for tea and then we retired indoors as the wind had shown no sign of abating and actually didn’t let up all night leading to one of the worst sleeps we have had.