The days are getting light so early now. I like to sleep with blinds open (where possible) so this morning I was wide awake from 5. It wasn’t a bad thing as by the time I’d read the news etc we were up and packed and on the road by 8. Pretty good for us. Downside of the morning activities was that after a long shower (we were connecting to water today so conserving the tanks wasn’t required) the water pump died. Lucky there were only two cups and a bowl waiting to get washed up.

Thankfully (or not), we had already had a pump failure before leaving on the trip – apparently it’s quite common but it was our first in 25 years of vanning. So we bought a replacement and a spare before leaving, just to be sure. So our stress was low, knowing we were heading to a town, with town water and a spare pump to install at our leisure.

We arrived at Hopetoun by 9 and met Karen and Kieran there. On exiting the car we discovered the dirt road we’d driven out of Starvation Bay on had largely deposited itself all over the car and van after the intermittent rain over the last couple of days. Oh well – nowhere near the mudding disaster of 40 mile beach back in August.

We had intended to complete the heritage trail along the historical rail line. However, after talking with the visitor info centre it turned out to be a much bigger hike than any of us were looking for – and largely overgrown. So we abandoned that plan and the Scott’s went out to do some kayaking and we had a foot tour around town before hitting a car wash to give the car and van a spruce up.

Once we’d checked in to the van park and got washing of smoky clothes underway we decided today was a ‘lunch out’ day. The lady in the office at the park gave her recommendation so off we went. The locals always know where to go. Bob’s call is that it was the best steak sandwich of the trip! While there we also picked up Tani’s birthday present – now to get it home undamaged 🙂 .

Then it was back to the van to do the maintenance work. Bob got the replacement pump out while I disconnected water and power from the mounting and then extracted the mounting from under the lounge. From there the pump was removed, the new one mounted, all connections reestablished (including new crimped lugs) before the mounting was threaded back under the lounge for a test run. Well, it was a complete disaster! The silly thing sputtered air and no water, couldn’t prime even though it was self priming and was a complete write-off. So then we disconnected the pressure switch from it, mounted it on the failed pump, rigged up a test power source and confirmed the old pump would run on a new pressure switch. We undid all the previous work, remounted the original pump and confirmed we are good to have showers and wash dishes off mains again. Painful! Job when we get home is to purchase a few spare pressure switches….

After that debacle we decided to head out to do some photography at the local beaches in the Fitzgerald River National Park. This is the park that we accessed from the west a few days ago (and I failed to complete the climb). There are a number of points of interest at the eastern end of the park which we are well positioned to see from here. At our first stop we wandered to the beach and saw a massive southern right whale just off the breakers. Bob kindly ran back to the car and got the drone for me. It went up and I was amazed to see the newest little baby calf with its mum. See how wrinkled the baby is – it needs lots of milk to build up fat stores. All the shots of the calf on mum are her lifting it up to make sure it learns how to breathe. So amazing! Photos are on camera zoom and then cropped to maintain stress free distances from these beauties.

We moved on and finally found the spot I wanted to do photography at, but with fading light I just enjoyed rock hopping and taking some phone photos. Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow, maybe I won’t. Will see how the day pans out.

Then back to the van again for a lovely fire (thanks to the previous people for leaving us a stash of wood at the fire pit) which I’m still sitting at while writing this.

The Scott’s enjoyed their day out, starting with kayaking. Karen has given some commentary of their day:

We enjoyed the 3 hours of kayaking and lunching on the Phillips River canoe trail. There were cliffs of tilted schist and veins of quartz that looked great. The return trip from Hopetoun to Starvation Bay had detours into every available beach or camp access. So many miles of beach! 2 mile, 5 mile, 12 mile. Many had reefs and interesting rock or sand formations. Sitting at the fire now with the full moon creeping up the sky.

Tomorrow we head back into the national park and I’m planning to attempt a more challenging hike than the other day with shoes rather than crocs 🙂 . Slow and steady is the order of the day. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow.