After Carnarvon our next major stop would be Denham about 325km away. We decided to break the drive up by freecamping at Hamelin Pool, a roadhouse about 200km from Carnarvon. The Seagulls had left a few days before us and messaged us to say that they had stayed overnight at Hamelin Pool and it was an excellent fee camp and the roadhouse did great bacon & eggs for breakfast… so why not?

We hadn’t really done any freecamping to this point because we still hadn’t been able to get our recalled Swift Cooker checked out. It wasn’t an issue because we were still able to use two of the gas burners so cooking that night wasn’t a problem (and there was always the roadhouse).

The roadhouse offered power and water hookups but we decided that we could do without those for the night and finally use the batteries and water tanks onboard the van. We pulled into a large flat red earth area about 300m across the road from the roadhouse and settled in for a quiet and restful afternoon. Rob put the drone up to get a few high shots and a little bit of pilot practice. Another van pulled in about 50m away from us but they kept to themselves as did we. A hatchback rental car also pulled up in the bushes about 50m on the other side of us, which was a little disconcerting but they also kept to themselves.

As the evening closed in we were treated to what looked like a scene from an ‘apocolypse’ movie as the sky turned flaming orange and then a deep dark purple. It was truly ominous and accentuated by the clouds.

As the evening went on the sky became deeper and darker. It was truly magnificent and one of those gifts that nature occasionally presents you for free. We enjoyed a comfortable and cool night and woke to another stunning blue sky day in the morning.

Rob was a little disconcerted to note that the hatchback had moved slightly closer during the night and saw the driver, who had slept in the car, get out wearing a full-face balaclava before getting back in the car and driving off. Not something you want to see in a free-camp but I suspect that it was probably quite cold sleeping in the hatchback and that was how they kept their face warm. There didn’t appear to be any suspicious activity otherwise.

We packed up and relocated over to the roadhouse where, like the Seagulls, we had a very enjoyable breakfast of bacon & eggs before resuming the drive to Denham. A successful first overnight freecamp… complete with apocolyptic skies, a mystery camper and a good night’s sleep.