Seaside Towns beside Pink Seas

Yep, a pink sea lagoon, caused by the naturally occurring beta-carotene bacteria, harvested to produce vitamin A and as a food colouring.

A lovely lunch stop at another seaside town. None of the beaches north of Perth seem particularly nice. Most are infested with seaweed or the water is hyper-saline.

I met some lovely people this week, from the three stranded backpackers with a broken- down van to a Dutch family who did know how to drive a 4WD vehicle. The backpackers I met at Greenough, I just had to ask why they were camping here, were they crazy? The locals wouldn't like them camping here in the park adjacent a museum town (for there is no current town, just a ghost town of sorts). Ah, their van had broken down, it was a long weekend in WA and yes, the shop keeper across the road was quite happy for the stranded backpackers to camp here. They asked me if I had any tools, yeah, one or two I said. I had done a quick trip to Bunnings to pick up some cheap tools I thought might be handy. I helped them replace a headlight assembly which they had been unable to do. Their serious oil leak though, that would need a mechanic. I camped with them, since the shop and museum town were closed for the day. Two Frenchies and an Italian, they had been on the road together for just three days, having met online in Perth.

Another group of backpackers I camped with had only met that morning, two of them placing an ad on Gumtree and when the third rang to enquire about their trip they replied they were leaving that day! That night they sliced some oranges and placed them into a pan with red goon and heated it until almost boiling point. Gotta say, gross wine, but not a bad way to have it.

The Dutch I came across - let's call them the Screaming Dutchies for reasons that became apparent later that night (oh my goodness - they have two small children in their tent!) - on a four-wheel-drive track, driving perilously slow. Trying to dodge the main ruts, it was clear they neither knew how to drive a 4WD nor how much to lower their tyre pressure. Talking with them they were running their tyre pressure for sand driving at higher than I run my tyre pressure for bitumen road driving! They had lowered their pressure to 35psi from 45psi. My tyres, at least, have a warning written on them in fine print that says "Do not exceed 40psi, risk of tyre blowout." A mere 20psi is often recommended for sand driving, and they can be dropped to 10psi to get you unbogged. No wonder they were having such trouble negotiating the track. Their car is also an old-model Pajero, the fully loaded tyre pressure ratings are 35psi at the rear and 29psi at the front - never a whopping 45psi.