Dec 9 (Day 313) - Geraldton to Galena Bridge

 Wednesday 9 December

We were woken quite early this morning by numerous fishing enthusiast coming to the boat ramp to drop off the boat and park at around 4.30am and continued even while we were leaving around 6.30am.  So we decided to pack up and move closer into Geraldton to have breakfast and where we needed to get a few bits and pieces for the van.

Because we had been woken quite early no shops were open so we found a lovely spot on Marine terrace at a park near the beach where we had some bbq's, playground & amenities. Perfect spot for a nice cooked breakfast. Unfortunately none of the bbq's worked so we got out our own equipment and it worked a treat.

While we were eating breakfast a horse arrived in a horse float. The owner rode it bare-back down to the ocean and took it through the water about half way up its body, much to Bek's delight! We walked over to say hello and have a pat if we could and then the lovely man allowed her to have a bare back ride. First time like that and she loved it. It was a lovely horse.

Once we'd washed up and packed up it was a more reasonable hour for shops to be open and we were able to get the things we needed from Jaycar. Some of the wires from the car to the caravan had gotten munched when we'd accidentally gone over a bit bigger culvert. Greg got his bits and pieces he needed from Jaycar and sat in the carpark and repaired the wires.

Once we'd finished at Jaycar a visit to an op-shop was a must. :) I found quite a few things to be able to replace other items of clothing that were now either too small, torn or just something we liked. Overall it was a good shopping trip. 

We drove on from Geraldton to Northampton where we found a lovely shady park for lunch.

From here we drove onto a free camp just north of the turn off to Kalbarri near the Murchison river.

 

The back of one of the solar blanket panels.
The upper half of one of these failed
so was able to be bypassed to bring it back to life.

While we were here Greg pulled the old solar blanket apart to see if he could find what was wrong with it. This was the unit which failed up in Mataranka in October, the replacement for which we collected in Alice Springs later in October. He worked it out eventually (here is Greg's explanation) - one half of one panel had died, acting like a broken wire so no electricity could get through. He bypassed that and it worked again! So we now have two solar blankets, the old one working on 11 out of 12 half panels!

-- Mim