Van parked at our mates place in Yallingup, and vehicle in Perth  whilst on holidays in Thailand. 

 Frank came to grief with a pick-up truck on one of his rides - we (Owen my bike riding mate in Thailand) and I had meet Frank on several occasions hitting the local trails. Frank suffered horrific injuries and a miracle he survived. Three left leg amputations later they finally got the infection under control. 

 Now this is the way to get your tires changed! There are 4 hydraulic platforms. Sure saves time and mucking around with jack trolleys!

No sooner than we had time to turn around in Thailand, along with a local tour to Cambodia and Vietnam, we are back in Australia. 

 On our way to visit friends in Subiaco we dropped by the sculpture display on the Cottesloe Beach - some neat stuff!

 This sculpture won the exhibition. Truck cut out of closed cell foam

 

 These three, are live sculptures improving their respective 
Tan's & Skin cancer

 

Monks -  circle of nine  - at least they are in the shade!
  

 Rustic- classic EH Holden panel Van 

Next we are 350k's south at Jim & Carols place, where our Van is parked. Jim's 80 birthday is approaching fast - alas Jim becomes seriously ill and transferred to Bunbury Hospital - diagnosis perforated duodenal ulcer.

Venue and friends all booked and ready to party - thus the party went ahead, with us all think about Jim and a speedy recovery. Alas Jim ended up in Royal Perth intensive care, more operations and 2 months in hospital he's no recovering at home!

 Sue feeding the Blue Wrens - dessicated coconut, but their favourite is grated CHEESE!

Carol went to Perth for 10 day's to keep an eye on Jim, so we stayed and house sat for the duration. Great for us, time to slow down and cruise around the local environment. A few maintenance  jobs around Jim & Carols place.

No sooner and we are at my brothers place in Geraldton and house sitting again. Dog's and birds to look after. Linden & family off to Perth for a week school holidays and to check out their new house under construction - JR Homes - transportable.

Helping chook wire the existing fence to keep the dogs in and rubbish from blowing in from next door.

Relocating an unwanted bird cage from one of the other birdies in town. Linden can never say no to a freebie!

On schedule 0730 hrs - next stop Lucky Bay - just south of Kalbarri

We have the beach to ourselves for a few days at least

Mod's to my home made BBQ - now complete with temp gauge and it works - temp gauge salvaged from Mitre 11, King Ash Bay

Our camp in full set-up mode

Easter weekend and here they come! Estimated to be over a 1,000 folks camped at Lucky bay and immediate local's

Brother and his family visiting over Easter

BJ and Mathew

Beach combing treasures

More treasure - what are the odds to actually find a 'PAIR' of thongs about 25 meters apart in a sea weed bank, and a wine glass / plastic!

Sue learning to KNIT - fast mind you - 3rd or 4th beanie. Yep! it's a tad warm hence the fan

Our resident homing pigeon

We were camped near a recluse / hermit - SADAMA - Hari Chrisna - Yes! it is a piano on the back of his truck. He drives the 5 k's to the main road twice a week to meet the courier with his supplies. Plus 2 weeks of news papers - who cares if it's two weeks old new's. Plenty of x-words and Suduko's, along with his meditations and walking, he has little time for any thing else. Sleeps on the front seat of his - ex-fire truck, with the steering wheel removed.

Sadama off to get his supplies, the mast from one of his projects was not tied on properly, so he pulled up in front of our camp. I dated the tires for him - 29th week of 1989.

Sue's modeling one of her BEANIES!

This is HENRY - more later! 

We have intermittent fridge problems - as Linden and Family are off to Perth again for a few days. We decide to house sit again and get the fridge problem sorted out. Needless to say after the initial - won't go mode, which corrected it's self with a gentle tap of the thermostat controller it would not fault. 

 

With back-up fridge and freezer, I pulled the fridge out (remove the front holding screws) and pull the fridge out of the cabinet 30cm (12 inches) Then you can get at and remove the plastic housing.

 Now we are at the nerve center - Wow! the dust, checked all terminals and cleaned up contacts etc. Found the fan not working, 12volt computer fan fixed that. Fridge still not faulting. 

The rear of the fridge plastic shroud has two screens for mounting fans depending on which side the compressor motor is installed on. A screw holding the screen had been scraping the gas line.

This is the offending screw and screen - worth checking out to correct if required.

Road Trains - yes they sure create wind pressure - hence over tightening the tension bolt resulted in a sheared off bolt. No way to repair, complete new mirror assembly required - $386 - thanks

We preserved with three bolt threads and a spring washer and some cord held every thing in place for 8,000k's

This is what we had been waiting for - ClearView MIRRORS, designed for the Troopy - good money well spent. Only thing we would do different would be to order the BLACK ones, the chrome looks fantastic, but have so many reflective surfaces the sun glare is distracting, even with sun glasses on. 

I have since interviewed several other ClearView mirror owners and all state the same thing, money well spent, and those with chrome have the same sun issues.

Cleaning the solar panels found this. Dead center of the panel - still working okay. Covered all the other panels and still pushing out the correct voltage. Just put a dab of silicone on the impact spot to hold it all together and stop water ingress.

Tree branch lodged between the panels, now a perch in one of Linden's bird cages. Fully imported from Far West Coast, Eyre Peninsular - HOB Mullaway fishing .

Vintage field day just a few K's out of Geraldton

Yet another BEANIE - This was Mathews colour request.

Look closely - ya! gotta be good to catch them this small! 
- Sand / Yellow Fin Whiting

Now that little whiting was used to entice this fellow to swallow it.

The changing of the weather, 1st hand in the Great Outdoors 

Batten down the hatches - max wind gust was 57.9kph. No rain gauge installed - what for, it never rains! Kalbarri reported 48mm from this lot.

More treasures - the green cloth below the wood plank is a gazebo cover left behind in the sand dune's from a bogged vehicle extraction effort. I had heard a vehicle late the previous day over revving and suspected a bogging.

BJ's, BEANIE colour - Fluro Green & Black 

My 1/2 hour morning fishing effort, just loaded the beach with more 'WEED' at 0657hrs - Sue advised to stay in bed! UHF Channel 12!

The larger fish = lunch! Thai noodles.  Small = Bait!

Evening fish the same as the early AM - called it a day! 

The breeze was up / read gale, some blokes camped in the sand dunes for the night, they managed to get out behind the reef when they 1st arrived. Landed this fellow, and hacked it up, and left this. I advised Sadama and he took it home for his dogs.

Our hands free BURY phone system installed without any inline fuses - 4 x 4 installers should not try and be Auto Electricians. Installing mini inline fuses 3 amp's .

Inclement weather - Sue won, yet again! 

Even with my 33 point last word score 'VAIN'

Approx - 70 liters of rain water collected and 

topped up our non-pot water tank

Linden's birds will not run short of chewing bone's
- Cuttle fish back bones

High tide nearly got us!

To windy to fish - the kite preformed well, 

and the bowls even better!

Road Kill - relatively fresh when we found it. The 'TAIL' to good to throw away, so lopped it off, and will soon adored Linden's vintage car he's restoring - FX-Holden 1948

Found Sadama's water well under the trees close to his camp

Sue's post office $20 electronic Suduko machine,
only lasted three weeks, faulty screen - junked!

Sadama's kitchen - he went to town Northamton for the day and would be back late, he asked me to feed his dogs

Yes! I had a HOT COFFEE delivered when Sue came down around 0815hrs - still no 'FISH!

'HENRY' and his owner - Bob has been visiting Lucky Bay for 14 years and this he claims is the worse year ever for FISH.We have to agree it's been line to mouth' - nothing for the freezer.

Sue's been busy - BEANIE collection, plus a cosy for her Soduko machine

40 - 45kph head winds heading back  into Geraldton

The BLOCK - waiting for the house to arrive - next trip! We are off to Perth and Thailand for a few weeks.

Ten minutes down the road here come's the house on 4 trailers - call up the escort vehicle and lead them to the block. Had them short side the round about to get onto Dorset drive. All worked out okay.


Alas it's been raining ever since the house arrived, thus no ground work has been done for three weeks. The house is all buttoned together, sealed and locked up. Plumbing, and septic tanks and power to be connected. 


BUT IT'S TO WET!!