Lake Grace

Leaving Bremer Bay, we started the drive back home and decided to work our way through the wheatbelt, with the plan to have an overnight stop in Pingrup. Used the satnav to tell us where to go, and that worked well.
Had some drama with the car, when as we were heading up the road, on a steady incline (everything seems to be uphill when you are towing a caravan!) the car flashed a warning sign on the dash to refer to the manual, and then just gradually lost all power, even though the engine remained running. Managed to pull over, without toppling the rig into the bush off the side of the road, and switched everything off.
Now what do we do. Could not see anything in the manual.
Anyway, we think that due to the warm day (34 degrees) and having the aircon on and with the engine working quite hard getting up a long incline, there must have been a safety cutoff when something mechanically gets too warm.
We switched on again, and gradually pulled away again, and an easy pace with windows down and aircon off. Everything was fine and we did not have a reoccurence of the problem. When back in Perth, I think I am going to have to have a very serious talk to Ford about the incident.
Anyway, we progressed through the wheatbelt area, driving through various dorps that were not even worth stopping at, although we did stop, to give the car a breather.
Entered Pingrup and exited shortly after - not a good place to stay.
We ended up making Lake Grace, which looked at least habitable, with a decent main street, IGA and a tourist office.
The tourist office were very friendly, and would not stop talking to us (I think we were their only customers for the day).
Popped in to the caravan park. Nobody in attendance, but a sign said that we should pick a site anyway, and they will get back to us at some stage. Fairly laid back.
Found a fairly good site, after nearly using the caravan to chop off a tree branch (note to self - we really must start using the walkie talkie radios some time soon!)
The park was quite rough, ablutions not too bad, but some ferals floating around. One couple were immediately on hand and delighted to watch me almost mow down the tree when reversing, but straight afterwards were very shifty and would not even talk to us. Thought we had upset them, and maybe we did, since the tree was left intact.
Anyway, it was a hot day, so we relaxed for a while in the van with the aircon running, which was very efficient, even if a bit noisy.
Walked to town for pizza at the cafe, after using the tourist office wifi. The wifi was good, and we sat outside the closed tourist office on a bench seat, talking to Kirsty on Whatsapp. The pizza was good, apart from we were expecting to eat it at the cafe at one of the numerous tables and chairs, but it ended up coming to us in a takeaway box. Perhaps they thought we were dodgy, and wanted rid of us. Anyway, we enjoyed it back at the van.
Lake Grace summary - better than a lot of other places in the wheatbelt, but rough and strange. Czytaj więcej