A Windy Waffle or Camping and exhibiting in windy conditions.

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Photos  above of  baby Jahley having his bath in the plastic storage crate in the annex of an expertly anchored tent and the Indian Ocean sunset, viewed from her Cleaverville Beach, Western Australia, camp site on the cliff top.

Jahley’s parents gave me permission to take his photo to share here in this travel blog, and they told me with obvious pride, that Jahley, means, ‘great one,' in Swahili. They appear to be experienced campers, the use of the storage crate as the baby’s bath, appealed to my traveling philosophy that everything I pack needs to multi task, or I don’t consider it worth bringing on a trip. 

I loved seeing that their tent, was set up on the coast line to be able to appreciate the fill view of the Indian ocean and the islands of the Dampier Archipelago,  but they had taken care to protect the camp as well as you could, from high winds.  As you can see in one of the photos above, the tent is anchored with strong, professional standard, tent pegs. The open annex was turned away from the prevailing wind, and a clump of shrubbery partly protected the side of the tent facing into the wind.  

The winds at night, here on the Western Australian coastline, have been strong enough to rock our caravan but Jayley and her family’s tent was still soundly anchored this morning.

Of all the weather conditions, that can become a problem to campers and exhibitors, I think the wind has to be the worst.

I once exhibited under a marquee at a field days at Warrnambool Victoria, where the wind was so ferocious, I needed to close all four walls of the marquees, even though the show was still open. The sky went black from dust in the air and visibility was zero and the wind even inside the closed marquee,  blow my stock for sale off my display tables and out under the walls of the marquee.  

I spent the following morning retrieving hand finished teddy bears from where they were attached to barbed wire fences, in the surrounding farms, in the hope that I could recycle some parts of them. 

You can’t be a traveler and cry over the weather, nor a touring gypsy trader and stress over loss weeks, you have to stay active and strive to pick the best time of year to be in each location and accept nature as she comes and plan around the weather as best you can. I do however use the 20/80 time management rule, and I’ve decided that outdoor exhibitions in places well known for strong wind gusts, were in the 80% of things I will not do again.  

Traveling around Australia, occasionally stopping to exhibit under canvas, I have seen many an exhibitors’ marquee (including mine), being pulled out of the ground in a gust of wind and blown upside down.  Setting up marquees and anchoring them solidly into the ground with sufficient strength to withstand a strong wind gale, takes strength beyond what Reg and I want to expend. 

We have left the marquees at home this year, traveling lighter, with a lighter, fast to pack away exhibition and we will be exhibiting only in fine weather under the pull out awnings attached to both our caravan and four wheel drive, Toyota, Land Cruiser, Troop Carrier. This will make those exhibitions in good weather, easier for us, but will mean we close during bad weather conditions and so far this decision to simplify our set up, has worked for us.

This year I have most of my stock in sealed plastic boxes with an illustration of the contents on the top of the box. This plan is to prevent all my items being picked and blown away in one strong gust of wind, something I have seen happen previously, to some exhibitors. This system worked well at Kununurra and customers seemed happy that they were able to buy the item in the box that had not been pre-handled, so protecting the stock from wind, plus moisture and shop-soiling worked to both our and the customers advantage.

When I saw baby Jahley taking a bath in a plastic storage container, in the annex of the family’s expertly anchored tent, in front of the superb coast line view, I was eager to share that charming picture with you in this my ‘windy waffle’.

Camp at Cleaverville Beach, on the Central Pilbara Coast

Reg and I have set up camp at Cleaverville Beach, on the Central Pilbara Coast. We and plan to stay here until Thursday morning and given that we are self sufficient with a shower and toilet, able to bring in our own water and power, we are considering this as an ideal place to come for an extended stay next year.  We have camped on  a point of land jutting out from the coast line so we have views of the Indian Ocean to the right, front and to our left and massive sand dunes behind us that have clumps of brilliant red and black Sturt Desert Pea.

The area is easy to find, Site no 508 in the Western Australian, camp sites in our copy of Camps Australia Wide, book 5 edition and the turn off from the Great Northern Road, is 26 kilometres north west of Roebourne, and  33 kilometres NE of Karratha.  Access is via a 13 kilometer gravel road that is wide enough for two cars to pass corrugated in sections and the last 3 kilometres is very scenic as your driving along the cost with vies of the tidal flats.

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