Our priority today is to get our Indian visa applications into the post. It takes ten working days to process an application and we want to be able to pick the visas up in Perth before we take the van back on 10th June. Submitting the applications with a few extra days to spare will hopefully ensure we get our passports back before we leave for Bali on 13th June!
The camp ground at Quobba Point is in a gorgeous stop, but the wind makes the sea rather inhospitable. Huge waves, probably the largest we have seen, are breaking a long way off the beach and rolling in making swimming impossible. We pack up intending to go into the Carnarvon chemist before the computer ‘whizz’ goes for his lunch at 11.30, but we get chatting to an Aussie parked next to us and then to an English woman and here Australian travelling companion and before we know it an hour has passed and we still haven’t washed or packed anything away! On the way we stop at a sheltered lagoon at the other end of the camping area (which stretches for at least a kilometre along the coastal sand dunes) for a walk along the beach. This is a perfect spot for snorkelling and sunbathing; a sheltered sandy beach protected from the huge waves breaking only a couple of hundred yards out to sea by an island reef. We stop again at the blow holes to watch another fascinating display of nature’s power and bump into the English woman again who, it turns out is from High Wycombe, and another half-an-hour conversation ensues.
Eventually we manage to tear ourselves away and head to town arriving around 2pm The man in the chemist turns out to be unbelievably helpful; spending at least half-an-hour working through our photo requirements, consulting the Indian website, taking our photos and manipulating the size and finally trimming the photos to the required dimensions. For customer service he ranks up there with our experience in the opticians on Koh Samui. It’s impossible to imagine anyone going to such lenghts in the UK – and only charging £3.80 (£2)!
After a late lunch, we compete the visa forms and head to the Post Office. By this time it’s 4.45 and the post office closes at 5. We need a money order for the fees, a registered envelope and some glue to affix the pictures. In addition, we must find the telephone number of Andy’s sister in Bomaderry to add to the form as our referee. It’s becoming a bit of a close call, and no-one in the Post Office seems sure of the number for directory enquiries. At 5pm Andy’s still in the call box over the road phoning directory enquiries while I’m in the Post Office, pen poised to add the phone number. The post is collected 10 minutes after the Post Office closes and the counter clerk waiting to lock up. At last we have the number and hastily complete the form, collate all the various items into the envelope just in time for the post! Imagine that happening in the UK? Not a chance!! I’ve been turned away /from the Post Office on the stroke of closing even when they are still serving customers inside.
We spend the night at New Beach about 30km kilometres south of Carnarvon; another bit of desolate coastline, flat and scrubby with the sea several hundred yards out from the camp ground. We arrive in the dark and find that most of the pitches are too sandy to drive onto safely. There are a few other campers spread across this huge site and we finally park up next to another 2wd who probably aren’t best pleased to have such close neighbours..
We have become quite adept at setting up kitchen. There are no cooking facilities in the van itself and the only equipment provided by Wicked is a single ring gas burner, a cool box, some grubby plastic crockery, knives and forks, a pan and and frying pan you wouldn’t cook the dog’s dinner in. At the outset we invested in another camping stove, a frying pan and other bits and pieces as well as storage boxes for food. But our kitchen table is improvised using a couple of folding camp stools as legs and one of the boards from bed base in the back of the van. It works surprisingly well and
tonight all is set up and I’ve just started to cook when suddenly the wind changes direction and it starts to rain. We quickly pack everything away and scramble in the van before it starts to pour. This is our first wash-out and puts paid to any possibility of cooking an meal tonight. Instead we huddle round our little internal table and make do with sandwiches followed by peaches and yoghurt!! Ah, the joys of camping!