We wake to a lovely, sunny, if rather chilly, morning; not a cloud in the sky. Our self-imposed task today is to sort all our gear with the objective of reducing the weight of our backpacks and making life easier for the next leg of the trip. We plan to jettison what we no longer want and send home anything we won’t need in Indonesia and India . In all we identify 15 kilos of stuff a third of which is straight in the bin. We box up the rest intending to post it home. But get a bit of shock when we discover that it will cost over $100 dollars to send it surface mail; probably more than the contents, mainly clothes, are worth. A radical rethink is required. The parcel home is much reduced in size and the remainder is donated to the local charity shop. A more acceptable cost of $45 is the end result. The lady in the post office couldn’t be more helpful and understanding, taking our change of heart all in her stride as though it was quite normal for people to come in with two huge parcels, changing their minds and coming back a few hours later with one of much reduced proportions. Our backpacks should hopefully now be much lighter as a result – although snorkelling and fishing gear as well as swimming shoes and one or two items of clothes acquired along the way will have to be accommodated.
The promised email from Amex has not materialised. So we are no further forward on that front. Another call to them will have to wait until we reach Perth on Monday.
Tonight’s stop is Eneabba Bush Camp, a huge area of bush set well back from the road which we have all to ourselves. There are no facilities whatsoever here – this is rough camping at its most basic – but at least there is plenty of fire wood. This looks like an area that sees flash flooding; a thin layer of white sand covers the reddy-brown earth beneath. Noise from the occasional car drifts from the highway to compete with unseen frogs croaking in a small gully a few yards from the van.