We awoke to the scene of carnage in the living area. Because we'd had the windows open to get some breeze in but had the lights off, our very beautiful but impractical screened windows had allowed millions of gnats to fly in and then die on the floor (due to me trying to exterminate them!) and also get squashed in the roll of the blinds. I don’t think I’ll ever come to grips with this…. such beautiful windows that effectively cannot be opened in a breeze. Oh well I vacuumed them up and then got on with the day.

We were gone by 10.00am and this time there was no decision to be made about which road to take, we only had one option and that was the A1 or Highway # 1. We were hit by a howling north westerly wind which during the day turned south westerly, just as we turned south westerly at Poochera!   We just couldn’t escape it but were very grateful to have all those extra horses under our control and no changing of gears required. We were surprised just how many motorhomes and caravans were on the road. Clearly it’s been way too long since we’ve been a part of this amazing mobile community.

Unexpectedly we drove through some really heavy showers, and given it was a chilly day – only reaching 19 degrees we felt like we’d made a wrong turn and gone back to winter.

This is the first time I’ve had a digital camera as we’ve come this way and took the opportunity to just take photos of anything I saw, even if the windscreen was dirty, we passed Iron k*** and Kimba and made good time.

Kimbo had heard Peter Goers talking about cold collations last night on the radio and when he was asked what he’d like for lunch he replied "a cold collation" not expecting to get one….well he did. I am the consummate domestic goddess no matter where we are even in Wudinna J.

Kimbo rang Chris in Manjimup to let him know we’d be there Monday and he’d be ready to hit the ground running, he was happy with that.

We thought Streaky Bay might be our destination but decided we’d keep going a bit further.  I rang Kat as we saw the turnoff, knowing a piece of her heart sits on a block there. The bit further ended up being near Smoky Bay. We found a nice spot protected from the wind (not near the water) but sadly there weren’t too many overnight spots that we’d be able to fit on further along the coast so this was it at about 3.30pm. I donned my shoes and IPod and went for a walk along the sand track, I was conscious of snakes as it looked like the perfect conditions and eventually spooked myself enough to turn around and walk back along the road. Only one car passed me, so we expect to have a very quiet night.

I cheated by doing last night’s, today’s lunch and tonight’s dishes in the dishwasher – well I say if you have the technology use it. I do spoil this man creating another delicious dinner of honey lemon chicken. Mind you without him I certainly wouldn’t be moving in our beautiful “magic bus”.

We both listened to Peter Goers who always makes me laugh realising we won’t be able to listen to him soon; I hope the ABC in WA has a great evening announcer.