South of Carnarvon is the Shark Bay area, comprising Denham and Monkey Mia. We had done this area in some detail last time, so decided to skip it. Further south is Kalbarri, with various gorges and rock formations including Nature's Window, as well as some spectacular cliffs. Further down the coast from here is Port Gregory, famous for its pink lake. We had done Kalbarri previously, and had briefly stopped at the pink lake, but I was keen to see it again and check out Port Gregory in more detail.

However, the morning we left Carnarvon we discovered that the door of the van was broken. Early in our trip the outside handle had broken, but George had bogged it with some super glue etc, and it was limping along. By the time we got to Alice Springs the inner handle had gone too, and we could not separate the wire door from the solid door. We really needed to fix that as we were heading north into the heat. We found one caravan place, and he replaced the whole door handle assembly. We could now separate the doors, but it was a bit clunky.

The morning we left Carnarvon, the door handle gave up the ghost completely, spinning freely on its axle. George took the whole thing apart and found that it had deteriorated into bits of plastic shrapnel. And the whole thing was only just over a month old.

Since Kalbarri was not large, and Port Gregory was even smaller, we decided to bypass them both and head straight for Geraldton. This was a drive of about 500 kms, but that was nothing new to us. Pulled into Geraldton about 3 pm and went straight to the tourist centre. Yes, there were two caravan repair places in town. The first one shut at 3. The second was open, but very busy, so asked us to come in the morning.

So we settled for the night and relaxed. Geraldton is an RV friendly town, and had set up 24 hour free camping spots in the middle of town, on the foreshore, for self-contained vehicles. Walked around and enjoyed the views, then went out for dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant as we had had such a long day of driving.

Early the next morning we drove to the caravan place, bought the part, and George replaced it. By 9 am we were as good as new. Now the door separated easily and smoothly, not clunky as it had after Alice Springs. I think he had sold us a dodgy part from the start, and charged us about four times as much as these guys.

We now had the day free, so checked out a few touristy bits - the old jail which had been turned into an art and craft exhibition, the HMS Sydney 2 memorial commemorating the ship that was sunk by the Germans during the war, and the museum which told the story of the Batavia, a Dutch ship which had sunk on the reefs in the 16th Century. By mid-morning we had ticked all the boxes.

We were told the whole west coast gets windy in the summer months, not just Carnarvon, and there certainly was some wind. But the wind was warm and nowhere near as strong as Carnarvon. By now it was getting quite warm, so we decided to give those glorious looking beaches a trial. The water was calm and clear and very refreshing.

Our next port of call was Dongara, only 60 kms down the coast, but on the way we stopped at Greenough, a small village which had a group of old restored buildings you could wander through.

Dongara had also set up free camping for self-contained vehicles, a few minutes' walk from the middle of town. Town was a single street lined by Moreton Bay figs, so very shady and picturesque. Dongara's sister town was Port Denison, on the other side of the river, and it had a lovely foreshore and marina. It was very well equipped with BBQs, picnic tables, and even washing up facilities - better than most camp kitchens at caravan parks. So we settled in, cooked our burgers, and got some chips from the Fish and Chips shop across the road. Dinner, watching the sunset over the calm waters and the boats bobbing about in their harbour. Lovely.

The next morning broke warm and sunny, so we went back to the marina and had a swim. Gorgeous. There were beach showers here, so we could have a bit of a wash off, but we had been freewheeling for two nights now.

The next stops on our way were Leeman and Green Head, both very small towns, then Jurien Bay and Cervantes, which appeared somewhat bigger. These also advertised free camping for self-contained vehicles. Hence we thought we need one night in a caravan park, to have a decent shower, charge up all the electrics, and generally catch up. Leeman was closer, and cheaper, so we stopped here.

It is a very small town with a long beach and a jetty down one end, and not much more. We went for a long walk and George even tried fishing, but lost all his tackle in the seaweed.

GeorgeY's Bit

Carnarvon was a good spot to explore, cycle, stock-up on fresh produce, but not great as a service town. Our camper door could not be opened from the inside locking us in unless you duck through the cabin and exit from there. Geraldton had a Camec dealer who claimed to be the largest caravan superstore north of Perth. Having struggled with the grumpy repairer in Alice Springs and his shonky fitment I decided to replace the part myself, and was rewarded with the smoothest operation of the problem door we ever had since this saga started. Geraldton is developing its foreshore beautifully, changing its original image of a mining exporting port facility to this new fun and funky beach town. Even the toilet blocks were Rubic's cubes on the white sandy beach. Well done Geraldton.

All interesting places are worth seeing at least once. So we skipped Kalbarri knowing that we covered it well last visit. We stopped at Greenough, a historic town with llamas and preserved buildings, then Dongara sounded unusual till we drove there and I could swear I have been there before. Some more research by Eva and it was confirmed with an entry found in our last trip blog. On the oval, I found a quiet shady area tucked away next to a water tank so I parked the van and got ready for a restful night. At 2:00am the biggest and noisiest pump kicks in to run the sprinklers on the oval. Got out with a torch and explored the place and spotted another quiet area to park the van in. Not too bad for a free camp.