Hot all day.
John watched TV Olympics all day.
I printed some more copies of my Kimberley letter and sent same off to a number of my friends.
I drove to the shops and went shopping for some special foods for John’s birthday feasts, which I am trying to make really special with his favourites.
There was a bag of mail from home – but it contained little of note.
For tea I cooked fries with some flake I bought – it was really tough and not nice.
There was some morning mist. It was very light, but pleasant because it suggested coolness. Then it got hot again.
We drove to the shops for food for tea. John bought himself a new Lemmings computer game for his birthday.
More Olympic TV watching.
We were running the air-con in the van all the time, during the days, and even on into the nights. We had no near neighbours for much of the time, to disturb. Those we did have were doing the same thing, anyway. At night, when we did turn off the air-con, set up the electric bench top fan to keep air circulating. It was a relief each night, when the outside air cooled off enough for us to feel there was a bit of a breeze through the open windows.
Tea was steak and mushrooms and salad.
There was some cloud cover for much of the day, but it still reached about 35 degrees.
Watched Olympics. I sewed and read.
John drove to the Post Office, to pick up the computer inks he’d ordered.
Later in the day, we went for a walk on the salt flats near the park, to a sort of beach, on a curved bay. Wandered about here for a little while. It was not really scenic.
The sea near Karratha – with heat haze
John was not in a good mood and told me he is getting bored now, with travel, and would really prefer to go home. I didn’t know how much he really meant this or how much was just bad temper talking. But it upset me because I was assuming we would still have another couple of years of this – as we’d initially planned. To me, it is a wonderful lifestyle. It would appear that our perceptions are diverging rather radically. I had wished that John could find some sort of hobby or interest, around the van, apart from having his nose in a computer or TV screen all the time. I’d hoped he might take up intricate hand wood carving of smaller objects – like walking sticks – something equivalent to my sewing.
Tea was soup, and French toast, for something different. The heat combined with little activity, is reducing our appetite.
About 37 degrees today.
The tourists that are still in these parts are disappearing rapidly!
Drove to the shops, briefly, for some foodstuffs.
Watched Olympics, sewed, read.
I walked several laps of the caravan park, for exercise.
Later in the day there was some cloud came over.
Tea was hamburgers.
Today got to about 38 degrees.
Watched Olympics for some of the time. I did some sewing and some reading.
Later in the afternoon, persuaded John to go for a walk around some of the nearby streets, for some exercise. That was not particularly interesting, but got me out of the caravan park!
Tea was soup and some salads.
Very hot day. It reached about 36 degrees!
John rigged up a shadecloth shelter across the worst sun angle, at the back of the van, to try to keep it a bit cooler.
Our Karratha camp, with shadecloth shelter
Watched some Olympics on TV.
After lunch, we went for a drive to the nearby town of Dampier. This was built in the 1960’s to be an export port for iron ore from the Pilbara Hamersley Mines, further inland. Because of the landforms, there was not room to expand Dampier, when subsequent development began to occur, which was why Karratha was then built.
We travelled past salt lakes and salt works, which occupied much of the approach to Dampier.
The causeway to Dampier, and distant salt works
There were a number of islands close inshore. The port area was large.
We found a small “beach” and walked along it.
I did not find Dampier a very attractive town, although its location by the sea did make it seem nicer than Karratha.
After that little beach walk, and driving about having a look, we went back to the van.
Tea was soup, cold pork and salad.
Later in the evening, John complained of bad chest pains – the anxiety attack that he gets sometimes? Or maybe indigestion from the pork? Anyway, he did not want to do anything about it, except stay quiet and wait for it to pass.
It was a hot day.
John watched the Olympic events on TV. I watched for some of the time. It was really only swimming and equestrian events that interested me, of all the sports that would feature, so there was a lot on that I really was not keen on seeing.
I cooked minestrone soup – in the electric frypan, outside. It was too hot to use the gas stove in the van.
Later in the day I went for a walk – a few laps of the caravan park. That is really about the only walking option around here!
Tea was some of the soup, cold pork, mashed potato.
R phoned and John had a chat with her.
Hot again.
Drove to the Post Office again, because we thought more mail would have just arrived. It had. There were several letters and cards from friends – always good to receive.
I mailed my Kimberley letter to family members, after earlier printing a photo page to go with it. It took John ages to set that up to print properly for me, and he was very patient.
I cooked roast pork and vegies for tea.
We watched the Olympic Games opening ceremony on TV. It was wonderful, spectacular, engrossing. Really encapsulated Australia, with some really typically quirky touches. It was interesting that there were images of Wandjina heads used in part of it.
We did not do a great deal this day.
Drove to the shops and bought some groceries.
I investigated the Library and was able to borrow books – excellent!
I went to a craft shop that had some bead supplies to try to buy some little silver pieces for a bracelet I was making for S. I was able to order some to come in.
Collected photos that I’d put into the shop on Tuesday. Bought some more photo albums at K Mart. I am now up to Album 11! Most of them are at home of course, not being carted around in the van.
It is getting very hot in the afternoons.
The people with the Trakmaster, that we’d talked with at Broome, were in here for the night. I envied them, moving on tomorrow!
Tea was steak and mushrooms and salad.
We discovered that the caravan park had a loud, sputtering, automatic watering system that came on about 4am! It was loud enough to wake us up.
Later, when we surfaced properly, it was a hot day.
I did washing.
We drove to the shops. Got a paper, bread and a card for John’s nephew-in-law. John did banking. Collected mail at the Post office. I received a couple of great letters from friends, and also the embroidery fabric that I’d ordered by phone, some time ago, from the shop in Cairns. It cost $158 and will be made into a set of placemats.
We drove around to the bowls club for John to check it out. The President – P – was there, and we got talking. His might be a typical Pilbara story: retrenched as a mine rationalized, but committed to his house here, that he cannot get a decent price for. Seven kids and now unemployed.
He told us that the cost of living was really high up here – power, water, shire rates. He estimated that power alone cost him about $10 per day.
John went back to the club after lunch and spent the afternoon practising bowls with P.
I read the paper, sewed, and tried to stay out of the heat.
John enjoyed the bowls and got some more interesting insights into the life up here.
For tea, I reheated the leftover pizzas in the electric frypan – it worked well and they were good.
This Adventurous Age 