The sunrise over Bathers Paradise was vivid as Matt and Sharon prepared to head off earlier than us to get to Albany with the aim of getting their faulty earth leakage switch replaced at the Jayco outlet there.

We were all on the road after a few minor checks and headed in the direction of Ravensthorpe, our first stop of the day.

Rose had managed to get onto (?) Violet from BMPro who promised to call them at 1000hrs to step them through (again) the BMPro system in the hope of rebooting it and sorting the Bluetooth issue. The timing was impeccable as we were in Ravensthorpe for morning tea.

The view from the Ravensthorpe Roadhouse back over the valley we had driven through was impressive.

The town of Ravensthorpe is small but has a great looking pub,

a very interesting hakea sculpture outside the police station,

and some great silo art that we stopped and got a pic of on our way out.

The ongoing  “Bluetoothgate” mini-series starring Rose ( quick draw on the mobile phone) and Dave (hands on the BMPro system) played out it’s final episode on the roadside at Ravensthorpe… Dave had been stepped through the reboot and reinstallation of the app on his phone and the system was now “GO”…

Thanks to all the following cast and crew who made the series possible:

Branch (lead Gaffer and tech support)

Tina from Chapmans – Director

Gary/ Graham – assistant director

Violet from BMPro (or was that Virginia? or Vicki?) – technical advice

Dominic/ Damian/ Daryl/ Dometic or whatever his name was for conflicting advice

Staff at various caravan shops and outlets  – more advice

For those who enjoyed the short lived series we recommend movies in the same genre – “The Truman Show” and “Stranger than Fiction”…

At the next quick stop at Jerramungup however there was a hint of a sequel with Rose confiding in Kerry and I that when Dave screwed back on the “thing” the “orange light” went off – prompting a quick callback to Violet who gave some advice – the light came back on and so we wait with bated breathe to see what eventuates… could there be a sequel to the saga?

There was a great wall art mural at Jerramungup commemorating the returned Aussie soldiers…

…and some beautiful flowering hakeas!

We drove on through rural farm areas on our way to Albany passing numerous different vehicles including a very unique New Zealand couple travelling along in a motorbike/sidecar affair – slow and not that protected seeing we could see storm clouds looming on the horizon.

After some discussion over the CB we decided to stop at a rest stop close to Manypeaks to eat lunch in the vans…. Rose at this stage let us know they planned to go into Albany to get the van rear camera fixed (seems the saga may be continued as there was still some uncertainty around the “orange light” which was also going off at intervals….) so would meet up with us at Camp Kennedy – our destination for the next 2 days.

As we entered Albany we heard from Matt that they had just finished getting the Wren’s earth leakage switch replaced and were also on their way to Camp Kennedy. We filled up with fuel at a diesel depot on the outskirts of Albany….

and the last 3 vans standing (Weiss/Hunter/ Loveday) went on to Camp Kennedy and checked in. The camp hosts were very friendly and helpful…. as was the cute camp dog…

We found our sites and after a bit of manoeuvring we were all insitu just as Dave and Rose arrived….seems that Graham/Gary/Greg from Cameron’s Caravans solution for their rear camera was not the solution after all…. Next instalment TBA….

The campsite is situated on Perkins Beach and so while the guys were positioning the vans I went for a quick look – the beach was beautiful – and stretched for ages in each direction with small rocky headlands that were easy to walk around – looks like a great area to explore!

On the way back down the track I spotted a small marsupial hopping across the track – it looked like a bandicoot but it disappeared quickly into the bushes before I could get close enough for a good pic…

We watched the sunset from the small lookout and the colours and reflections on the approaching storm clouds over the sea were vibrant to say the least.

Returning from the beach we found Gordie had started the campfire so we all grabbed our drinks and nibbles for happy hour – which had to relocate under the Loveday awning when the rain started…

Everyone cooked their own dinner, and while Trev and I sat outside eating, the small marsupial appeared under Klaus and Beryl’s van drinking out of their wastewater.

It was a bandicoot, and it was not too perturbed by our presence as it let me get close to take a pic. I let Klaus know and he came out to grab some pics as well….

The bandicoot was loving the Weiss Waste Water – which has remnants of spag bol in it…. It then decided to hop over to our van and checked out Trev’s feet before moving on into the bush. It was not long before it appeared again, and then we realised there were 2 others moving around our campsite – not particularly afraid of us – it was really amazing watching them foraging for food and cleaning themselves…

After a coffee around the fire we all went into our respective vans for some shut eye… and the bandicoots could still be heard outside rummaging around….