Day 59 29/10 (Fri) – Karratha and Point Sampson

Arrived Karratha unseemly hour of 7.30 am to drop off the car then walked the long way round to the local shopping mall, mostly still closed. Breakfast at Jamaica Blue (yes civilization all the way up here) then shopping for me and catching up with work in the cafe for Chris (plus a barber shop stop). Quite successful shopping trip although best place turned out to be the House of Target. Acquired some snorkelling gear at the local camping / diving shop on the way back to pick up the car then headed back to the van for lunch and some general housekeeping. Late afternoon trip into town again for a bit of wood to replace the bit we left behind in Onslow (forgot to pick it up from where it was usefully levelling the van wheels) and a decent level. Level required for fridge, as apparently it needs to be extremely level to maintain its cooling ability (info from useful phone call to dometic dealer in Exmouth). Also need to empty fridge tonight and allow it to equalise with ambient temperature in hopes that bumpy ride to Exmouth will correct problem. Otherwise next step is to remove fridge from housing and turn it upside down and then right way up every 15 minutes for an hour or so! Will also need a little 12V fan to help cool the motor (obtainable from the knowledgeable guy in Exmouth and still need to fix the panelling that fell off the front of the fridge after beiing bumped over the corrugations in Karajini. anyway, that’s for later. Now on to Point Samposn (57 km and set off ~ 3.30 pm). Pretty little town and nice looking caravan park but lots of flies! Had a beer at the tavern (which I promptly knocked all over me – guess my drinking problem isn’t getting any better) then great fish and chips at Moby’s kitchen downstairs (red emperor). Back home to finish packing up ready to move on to Exmouth in the morning (including emptying fridge – thank god for waeco car fridge!).