8 August 2021

A warm evening yesterday, and no moon, so again the night sky was amazing. We looked for satellites but none appeared. We only seem to notice them in the sky when there’s a moon, maybe there needs to be some moonlight to show them up. No shooting stars either! Oh well, maybe tonight.

We sat outside playing cards by the light of a battery lamp. Being warm there were plenty of insects but the lamplight had their attention, so they seemed to leave us alone. We knew we couldn’t have a light on in the caravan to read by as those pesky little night flyers find their way around the best of insect screens to a light source. It was around 8pm when we’d had enough of card games, and starry skies – almost a late night!

There were a lot of trucks on the road throughout the night, so not a really sound deep, but being in bed for 9 hours it didn’t seem to matter. We both awoke reasonably refreshed around 5am. A cuppa in bed, and I finished my book. It was a good read, I’d recommend it – ‘Water for Elephants’. A good insight into how much progress we’ve made into preventing animal cruelty, particularly in the circus world. Also a good insight into the grimness of life during the Great Depression in America.

We were on the road again at 7.45am, Paul and I eager for the next, and second to last leg on our journey to Broome, Mr Tilly not so eager. Tills definitely showed his reluctance to get into the car. As I write this his back is turned firmly away from us as he sits in the back seat. He even refused a piece of sausage saved from last nights dinner especially to bribe him with. He’s clearly not going to be bribed.

Whilst the countryside just north of Newman is up there with my favourites, the countryside between Port Hedland and Broome is about my least favourite. It’s mainly flat and scrubby, with a few bleak looking shrubs, and barely even ant hills to add a bit of interest.

Another escort vehicle came towards us waving us for the road. Holy, moly – this one was BIG! We were right off the road, but still there was barely a metre between us and the load as it hurtled past. Certainly broke the monotony of the scenery, it was the biggest load we’ve encountered yet. That white line is the one usually on our left.

We arrived at Stanley about 2.45pm, and shared a large gazebo with a trio also travelling towards Broome. Two of the trio came from Tassie, and their place of work uses a catering company in Tassie owned by a good friend of ours. The third member of the trio lives just around the road from where we lived when we were in Perth. It’s a small world!

Entertainment for the evening was again compliments of a brilliantly clear night sky. Two definite satellites spotted, one definite aeroplane (thought to be a satellite at first), and a fourth moving light which could have been a satellite, or could have been a plane. Again, too many night fliers to have a light on indoors to read by, so lights were out by 8.15pm. Zzzzz