Day 16

Day 16 Exmouth

Sorry about the delay, we had problems with the blog site last night and could not post, but here it is. Well, as you can see from lack of pictures, today was a rest day, well not really, but it certainly was not an out and about the tourist spots. We dropped Trude off at the doctors/mechanic and got on the Beast (my Gopher) and Mate (Maureen’s bike) and rode into town. The expectation was that we would get Trude back after lunch and maybe do a drive to the cape after we did a bit of shopping.

Flowers in Karijini

Everything started fine with a quick stop at the boys candy shop (local hardware) where I was able to pick up a 10m retractable power cord. Now I know you will be asking why I need one given that I already have 4 in or around the van, but this one rolls up into itself and has 4 outlets. The others all tangle and every time I roll them out they try and trip me up and with my dodgy balance there have been a few close calls and I expect it will only be a matter of time, also it was on special! 

Then following this I let Maureen have her head and spoilt her by letting her go shopping! Before I spoilt her too much by letting her do some grocery shopping, we stopped at the local Brumbies Bakery and Café where they advertised coffee and a sweet scroll for $5.95 – bargain, another special.

Flowers at Karijini

So in she went to order 2 but they said we had the option of scroll, carrot cake or lamington. Well I said scroll and Maureen wanted carrot cake but in the 1 minute it took to decide they decided we could only have lamington as the sign had just changed outside! Not happy Jan. We decided to go through with it but decided to protest about it – we decided on a silent protest. They decided to ignore us, not sure why! We clogged up one of their tables way after we had finished our coffees and pretended to drink from the now and again so those watching would not know, but we knew and so we one! Left the café I triumph and went to camping shop.

Our masks are on the way up from Mandurah as we left them home – naturally. Tia posted them

Our camp site at Karijini

express and was told they would be here Tuesday or Wednesday latest, problem is, they didn’t say which week, still waiting – Grrrr, I feel another protest coming on!!! So with our masks on their way, we needed fins and snorkels. The great guys at the shop helped us into a set and even went out the back to see if there was a pink set for me, I mean Maureen. On leaving, they decided that they wuld give us a mesh bag to put them in and we could leave the plastic bags for them to dispose of. Exmouth is a plastic free town, no shops give out plastic bags – truly amazing.

So now it was Maureen’s turn to be spoilt and I let her go and do the grocery shopping. I got a call from the doctor, Trude was not well. It seems that the O-ring was not the whole cause of the problem, the metal tube it seals was corroded at the O-ring location, of course it was, and he needs to keep her in overnight whilst he gets a new artery for her, so no Trude until tomorrow night. We raced over to the auto electrician to rebook her pacemaker implant (temperature Gauge that works!) for Friday morning, and went home to Girt for lunch. 

Sitting around we got to playing with my new toy, the retractable power cord. It is great, it takes up no room at all. Got to thinking, the power cord for the mains power is also a pain as it takes up room in the van’s boot and gets caught up on everything, maybe they might have a bigger one. Back to the hardware shop! Guess what, not only did they have a longer one (also on special), but they also had an expanding hose (also on special)! This has got to be my lucky day. The hose is 15m long but scrunched down to 5m that rolls up in the palm of 2 hands, no more rolls of hose in the boot and catching on everything! Bought some brass fitting for the hose and a few plug ends for the cords and we set off, I had some toys to potter with! We went back to town and bought tea – chicken to roast! Maureen is still getting used to buying just for 2, such as 1 potato, and two noodles for when we do get to the beach.

Back at base I let Maureen run free and look after the laundry, don’t tell me I do not spoil that girl! I decided to potter with my new toys. Replaced the hose ends from the tap to the filter with the brass ones and then tried the new hose. It is a wrinkly little thing, but when you turn on the tap, stand back, up it goes!! Unfortunately my tools are with Trude so I could not do my extension cords as I wanted to, but more fun tomorrow. I have included a few pictures of flowers that Maureen took to fill in the gaps as we did nothing of photographic worthiness. Tomorrow we will lounge around again, or we may see what else we can manage without a car.