The need to Accessorise

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DAY 199


The morning sunshine broke in through the mosquito net windows, and you could just tell that after the bit of rain yesterday it was going to be a scorcher we could already feel the warmth.

As usual I was first up, with my best friend sitting on the stove always obedient and always ready to give me a whistle when he is ready.

The mains power supply unit for the PC has died and gone to heaven (typical Dell!), so we are charging it from the truck, and at the moment as the fridge is out of the truck so there is enough power in the Dual batteries.

As we have been having problems with fridge on 12 volt, and with the aide of Andrew and his multimeter had narrowed it down to the secondary car battery had lost a cell, and is not delivering the voltage needed to power the fridge once the truck is switched off, so again this is something that has to be fixed, or else we will have no fresh food, and god forbid, no milk for our tea.

The big fella next door Stuart, who looks like a cross between Hulk Hogan and Paul Tuttle Senior, let us have his copy of the Broome yellow pages, as we are looking for someone to supply a new car battery. We want to go for a deep cycle unit, as they can deliver a smaller constant output over a greater duration, the only downside is, and yes you have guessed it they are more expensive! Still our motto has always been, get the best we can afford and don’t spend money unwisely.

We jump in the truck, Caroline reading the directions where we are going, from the Yellow pages and the tourist map, Broome has a fair share of industry but is spread over a big area.

We arrive at a specialist company who do nothing but batteries, 12 volt set ups and solar solutions, we explain what symptoms we are having and one of the guys grabs some test equipment and asks me to pop the bonnet, he confirms that one of the cells has gone, and as we get back in the shop advises us of the options we have, in true fella’s fashion we discuss the pro’s and con’s of deep cycle verses (Caroline is half asleep by now!) normal batteries and Dan advises us that deep cycle is best without doubt for our application and so the decision is made and the bank account gets another severe bashing.

As we intend to fit it ourselves they hand it over the counter, he tells me to be careful as it weighs 40 Kilo’s, so we walk out to the truck and put it in the back. Caroline cannot even lift it.

Happy one of our problems is being sorted we drive, heading towards Derby, out of town looking for the refuse tip, following on from a suggestion made my Stuart and thinking about this, my dad always said to me about simple things are often the best, and therefore I have always tried to follow his advice.

We have blogged about our love for our camp oven, it’s a big cast Iron pot, that you can put directly on an open fire and cook a great meal in, such as stew’s, lamp roast, etc, which is a treat when you have only 3 small burners or a camp kitchen to use.

Many people had spoken of how brilliant camp ovens are, so when we were camping back at Cape Leschenault (before we got to Perth) we purchased our camp oven from Bunbury, on Anzac Day 26 April, so you can look up that blog day if you would like to see the pictures.

Anyway, in a lot of states and National Parks fire is a no-no for obvious reasons, and the fella next door, Stuart showed us how he uses a “Safe” fire for his camp oven:

1 Go to refuse tip and get an old gas bottle.
2. Take the Brass valve off.
3. ½ Fill with water and de gas.
4, Mark line denoting where you want it cut.
5. Get disk cutter and cut along line.
6. Drill holes in bottom,

Then hey presto you can put heat beads in then sit the camp oven directly on it and you have a very safe fire, with the camp oven and great meals to boot.

I was seriously knocked out with such a simple option that could be made out of an old gas bottle.

We came back from the tip with four gas bottles, two each of two sizes, two for Ken (the Truman family) and two for us. All we need now is a disc cutter.

In the meantime we see a caravan pull onto a site in the next road, someone waves and we see that it is Carol and Carl that we met in Barn Hill Station) the Trumans had already met them in Coral Bay.

We all go for a swim in the lovely swimming pool, which was just as cold as yesterday. Caroline takes her book around and after a swim sits in the sunshine reading for a short while. One of the staff from the Park walks past and comments on the book she is reading, which is Diamonds and Dust by Sheryl McCorry. He says that her husband runs the Cable Beach Caravan Park, which is where Andrew and Kirsty are staying.

Andrew and Kirsty are coming over this evening, Kirsty is cooking Chow Mein at their campsite and is bringing it over to ours and will then heat it up. Kirsty promised us this a while ago when we were at Karijini, however she did not have all the ingredients.

We were supposed to have a game of mini golf this afternoon, however time ran away with us all and the golf once again was shelved until the morning, Josh was quite disappointed, and he is desperate for a game. Andy had a Skype call booked for 4.00 as he needed to speak to his Mum, it is her (don’t tell anyone I told you, so please keep a secret) 80th birthday tomorrow and she is having a little party at my Sister in laws house. So Andy wanted to speak with her and wish her happy birthday and we were both sorry that we could not be with her on her special day.

Andy has offered to make a bread and butter pudding but made with croissants instead of bread, so we bought the ingredients earlier in town and Kahlia popped over to help Andy make it. Although the Trumans are not joining us all for the main course, they will pop over later for the pudding. The only drawback with our cooking facilities is that we cannot cook it so have to rely on the good nature of the Trueys and use their oven.

Andrew and Kirsty arrive and while the Chow Mein is heating up we sit around and chat about each of our days and what equipment we would both like on our Nissan Patrols. The Trumans have a roof rack and Andrew has a roof rack and we don’t, but we are thinking of getting one. The swag takes up so much room in the trailer, we are thinking about buying one so that we can put the swag and the spare wheel on it. Andrew jokes that “you need to accessorize”. Funny really I cannot image the Patrol with earrings, a matching handbag and shoes. Most 4x4s we have seen in Australia have roof racks for an abundance of items, from canoes, fishing rods, tents (roof top variety), swags, spare wheels etc.

The only problem is that we would lose some kilometres per litre, but we would gain a lot of space in the trailer and have that working more efficiently for our needs.

We all agree that the Chow Mein is delicious, and very easy to make, Andy and I will try this one night, especially useful if you have vegetables that need to be eaten up, the only addition is minced beef and some white cabbage.

We sit around chatting and the Trumans join us for pudding. Andy is disappointed as it has been overcooked, he forgot to say how long it needed to be in and we had forgotten to check on it once it had been put in the oven, it was only rescued when Kahlia went into the caravan and smelt it cooking.

I think Andy was being a bit too hard on himself; it was delicious, especially with a drop of Devondale Cream.

All of this socialising is making the blog suffer, we were behind when we arrived as we had been socialising at Karijini and then with the lack of internet blah blah blah, excuses I know, we have been busy enjoying ourselves and now we are still behind. You have to appreciate that especially being in a place like Broome, it is fairly hot here and there is a bit of a holiday atmosphere, so you feel relaxed and want to enjoy the surroundings. We both promise to get it together soon, however while we are in Broome there may not be much to write about.

Cable Beach here is one of the top 5 beaches in the world, I did a google search on Cable Beach and this is what it says:

With 22 kilometres of sun-kissed white sand and turquoise water, Broome's Cable Beach is justifiably world famous and the ideal place to go swimming and watch the sunset into the Indian Ocean on a balmy, tropical night. Even though it's one of the world's best beaches, it's still possible to find your own secluded slice of sand to enjoy. (Taken from Western Australia Tourism)

We promise that you will have some photos of the most spectacular sunsets.

We go to bed exhausted, again, and yet another warm balmy night ahead of us.

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