We were faced with another miserable morning today. The rain was falling torrentially, and judging by the amount of water pooling on the ground, it had been for the majority of the night. As much as I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed, I had no choice but to attire myself in a full complement of wet weather gear and immerse myself in the downpour to get everything ready for travel. There was the awning to roll up, hoses and cables to coil as well as hitching the van up. All the while, a stinging, cold rain continued to fall heavily, making even the simplest of tasks an effort as my frozen hands refused to grip and grasp things. Not since the day we left Sydney can I remember a downpour of such intensity.

What should have taken me no more than an hour, robbed us of nearly two hours as Bec quickly completed all of her packing up tasks inside the van, before sitting down to while away the minutes as I struggled to get things happening outside. Eventually, we were ready to move even if it was to be no further than the other side of the park where we still had to fill up with water. The taps servicing the camping sites are all bore water, and the only town water available is from the ablutions block. So we had to maneuver the van about the park to get us close enough to one of these faucets for our hose to reach our tank filling inlet.

As I drove, Bec and the dogs got an exciting ride inside the van, in an effort to keep everyone and everything as dry as possible. That may well have been the best part of Becs day. Another 15 minutes were wasted, as the tanks were filled to capacity, to allow us to free camp for a few nights without having to worry about running out of water.

It was 10:30AM by the time we finally rolled out onto the main road, a full ½ an hour later than we had hoped for. Not that time would matter today, as we have nowhere to be and nothing to see. Not that the weather was conducive to sight seeing. Hell, it was difficult enough to see the road more than a hundred feet in front of the nose of ‘The Beast’ let alone see anything else. So, it was a rather disappointing visit to Busselton for us, and had we not been here before in better weather, we would have been left thinking that it was a bit of a miserable place in general.

On our way out of Busselton, we made one quick stop at the cheese factory again, where we stocked up on some more of their fabulous cheddars. While Bec was making the purchases, I ran back to the van to check things out. I had a sneaky suspicion that with the force of the rain that I would find water inside the van. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, but sure enough, along with a few drips falling from the vent above the bed, one of the bedroom windows seems to be leaking quite profusely, a puddle of water welling up on the floor beneath it. We wiped up and ensured that the windows were properly shut, but only time will tell if we can keep the water where it belongs, on the outside.

It was then decision time. Do we stick to our original itinerary and head south to Albany or do we venture in a northeasterly direction, heading inland and trying to escape the worst of the deluge?

We had actually considered it at length last night, and working on the theory that we have previously toured the area around Albany, but not seen much of the interior of Western Australia, that we would take the hopefully drier and warmer inland route.

Not that our decision seemed to be vindicated today, as the rain continued unrelentingly as we wove a supposedly scenic path from Busselton through pretty country towns and green pastures that stretched for as far as the eye could see. I’m sure it really is scenic, but with the foul weather, we were in no mood to enjoy it today. Even stopping in Collie to go to the bathroom saw us getting drenched, as well as confirming our suspicions that the caravan is no more watertight than an upturned colander. Not that there is anything we can do about it at the moment other than pray that we can skirt the rain bands as much as possible until we get home and have it looked at.

The detrimental effects of the weather came to the fore as we edged slowly towards our chosen camp for the night, our tempers frayed. By the time we pulled into the muddy little roadside rest area, we’d been on the road for about 4 ½ hours, despite covering a miserly 300Km. It was exhausting piloting ‘The Beast’ today, over bumpy, twisty backwoods roads, contending with the extra strain that the rain brings about. We haven’t had such an ordinary day on the road since the day we drove into Rockhampton. Actually, apart from the absence of the high visibility orange cones designating road works zones, there was very little difference to our day.

The most exciting thing to happen all day was to find that the camp sight was level, making parking the van a much easier task than it otherwise could have been. That, and the rain had finally ceased, but for how long is anyones guess.

Despite the cessation of the barrage of falling droplets, it was still freezing cold. Too dismal to do anything else, all four of us contributed our body heat to each other, as we drifted off into an easy afternoon nap.

By the time we awoke, it was dark outside and the temperature had dropped a few more notches. Blissfully, at least the rain has held off. With the generator humming a mechanical tune outside, we fired up the heater to take the edge off of the cold, while we cooked dinner and made the most of our evening.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.