Sunset on Robe River

Sunset on Robe River, originally uploaded by gypsy woman1.

Camp grounds in WA are very expensive and so to help the budget when we can we stay in the free over night rest areas. This one was a beauty on the banks of the Robe River. Most of the rivers we passed over where bone dry but this one had a beautiful billabong still left. During the wet season it would be a raging torrent.

Now it was a paradise for birds and large flocks of Correllas and ducks came to it. We sat and watched many other birds including Herons, Kites and others we didn’t know the names of, fly in as the sun set.

After seeing our friend John cook bread in a camp oven at Ravenshoe and another couple, Judy and Allen using the camp oven to whip up a delicious curry I have thought of getting one… Well we saw one in Target at Karratha and it has sat all clean and shiny waiting for the right camp ground and this was to be its début…

It was obvious that many other happy campers had used stones to build fire places and had camp fires as there was very little wood to be found. But undeterred, we went for a walk along the river bank in search of fuel. It was an interesting walk, we found another billabong approx 2 km along, also found lots of dead trees that we hauled back to camp.

Camping along this stretch was Rhineheart.He did not like to stay in commercial camp grounds, calling them “concentration camps” too many rules, he liked his own space. He had travelled and lived in his Mitsubishi van for 15 years and was a wealth of knowledge about the free camps in the area.

One match Jack retained his unblemished record and by 4pm had a roaring fire going. We had to wait for it to burn down to embers before I could start. I had decided to cook damper and had looked up a recipe on google. The recipe called for 20 minutes tp cook. I looked after 15 mins, Oh dear I think I had been too impatient and not waited for the fire to burn down, I should also pull some of the embers away from the main fire and use those. But when we peeled off the burnt outer layer the inside was delicious…. Oh well, first try, practice will make perfect, can’t wait to have another try. After the damper I cooked a chicken curry. It was fantastic, cooked to perfection. Tony and Lyn from Perth came over to join us when they saw the fire going and just in time to try a taste of the curry, they had already had their dinner so only had a mouthful and said it was very tasty. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of my successful curry…

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