A long day driving

Our plan to do a short drive and camp at Nanaturra Roadhouse was thwarted by an issue with our car not charging the caravan battery while we are driving. After lots of phone chats with Kyran, he suggested we go on to Onslow as he has a friend who could check out our rig for the problem. We were happy to do that, but Onslow had no camping areas available because of the damage done by the cyclone. Kyran has friends in every town so he told us to keep going to Karratha where he has another friend who could help us out. So, our plan to drive no more than 400 kms a day was stymied on day four!

It was a long but pleasant drive. Yesterday we passed into the Tropic of Capricorn and it is certainly a warmer autumn here – 41 degrees. We very nearly missed our turn off due to the mangled and fallen signposts Cyclone Narelle pushed over. Luckily John was on the ball and stopped to check a right hand turn with no obvious signpost. (It was was lying on the ground out of sight!)

Today we drove through the Pilbara. There were a few signs of the Cyclone but not many. What surprised me were the number of dust storms and Willy Willies we passed, considering the area was soaked just recently. Lunch, such as it was, was at Nanaturra Roadhouse, a quick stop and then it was back on the road. We left Coral Bay around 9am and arrived at Karratha around 4pm. A long day of driving (mostly by John) and knitting (all by me).

We camped at a 2 star caravan park on the edge of Karratha that I remembered staying at before. Not one I would particularly recommend but it is just for one night. Funnily enough, we arrived with caravan power on full so not sure if that was the solar or the car. Maybe there is nothing wrong after all. Or maybe between Kyran and @lets_be_adventurers_australia fixed it at Wooramel. I guess we will find out.