Answering some of your questions...

Woke up at the normal hour of 6:30am Wednesday morning, and looked outside to see drizzle in the air again. Decided that another hour in bed wouldn't hurt! By the time we got up, there was some sunshine breaking through.

One of our readers had asked if there are other campers around. And another reader had asked how we find these free campsites.

In answer to the first question... yes, there are some other campers around. But not many! June through August is winter in Australia and most people who are RV'ing right now are doing so in the northern part of the country where it is a little warmer.

But, we do see quite a few campers (mostly travel trailers, or "caravans" as they are called here) on the roads. We think that most of them must be staying in full service RV Parks where they have access to electricity.

Last night, we had some company though...

This was our free camping spot last night.

Notice that the sun did show up for a little while this morning!

The building on the left is the washrooms. Then, there was a couple of young women staying in the vehicle in the center of the photo. Doesn't look very comfortable, but I guess when you're young anything will do! The white van showed up after dark and we never did see the people it belongs to. Then, hidden by Joyce is another 4x4 SUV style vehicle driven by a young couple from Italy. We spoke to them for a while. They are sleeping in the vehicle and living under tarps etc. They seem happy though.

And we thought our accommodations were a little cramped! After seeing these people, we are quite satisfied with our lot in life!

We headed off to see what there is to see.

Scenery along the way.

We pulled into the town of Robe. Yes, pronounced exactly like the second word in the phrase "bath robe"!

It's a seaside tourist town, except now in the off season, there aren't many tourists around. We weren't alone... but it was very quiet.

They have some beautiful walking/cycling paths along the rough shoreline.

Black-faced cormorants.

The red and white obelisk was built before the lighthouse became common.

Built in 1852, it is visible 20 kms (12 miles) out to sea. 

It is a beautiful rocky shoreline.

The actual lighthouse is quite modern!

We walked all the way through to this totally empty beach.

Ruth and the shoreline.

Me, out exploring the rocks!

A nankeen kestrel.

We are always on the hunt for birds. Our camera (Nikon P900) continues to amaze us. We were standing on the street, and this bird was at the top of a tree behind a house on the street. Impressive optical zoom!

The marina at Robe.

Australia had it's own gold rush back in the mid 1800's!

The Chinese gold rush memorial.

Robe is a pretty spot.

The original Customs House.

The Caledonian Inn, serving food and drink since 1858!

A masked lapwing.

We did about 10 kms (6.2 miles) of walking in Robe. Bought a few grocery items and had lunch back in the parking area at the old Gaol. Again, we could have overnighted there without a problem, but wanted to put on at least a few miles!

We continued south to the oddball attraction at Woakwine Cutting. (Thanks Glen!)

Back in the 1950's, a landowner decided that he would like to drain a swamp. Doing so would open up some prime farm land. He decided to do it the job with just him, his mate,  and some basic Caterpillar Equipment. It took 5,000 hours and three years!

He cut this huge gorge into the earth to drain the swamp!

Not a natural gorge!

Unbelievable.

And this is the fertile farmland he exposed when he drained the swamp.

We had thought of spending the night at the parking lot for the Woakwine Cutting, but it was not even close to level.

We continued on to the seaside town of Beachport. It was getting on to 4:00pm by now, and it gets dark by 5:30pm. We saw lots of signs saying that "unauthorized camping" was not permitted within the township, so we were a little concerned that we might have to move on. But we stopped at the tourist info office that didn't close until 5:00pm and explained our situation to the friendly person there. She said, "well, all I can do is to tell you about places that I have seen people camping, although keep in mind that I'm not telling you that you can camp there". Wink, wink.

Besides which, it is slow season.

We found this spot, and it will do.

In answer to the second question above... "how do you find these free camping spots"?...

In Australia we are using the wiki camps Australia app, for which we paid around $7.00. The problem with that app is that it's very popular, so it's rare that you would be on your own. And, as in North America, many other campers like generator noise... and we don't.

We also use iOverlander, but for some reason it hasn't taken off in Australia the way it has in other parts of the world. So the choices are limited, however there are still some listed that are not on wiki camps Australia.

We also use the maps.me app and simply input "campsites" into the search engine. There are quite a few that show up here that are not listed on the other two options.

And, we just use our own common sense. We seem to have a knack for being able to sniff out a suitable overnight spot that others have never used. And, I don't always advertise them on wiki camps or iOverlander because that might ruin it for the next person. Sometimes, it's okay for one or two random campers to overnight, but if campers started showing up regularly it would be shut down.

Stay tuned... more exploring tomorrow!

Wednesday's drive, 98 kms (60 miles).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great deal if you want to try solar panels on your RV... 100 Watt Solar Panel Starter Kit, with everything you need to get set up with RV Solar.

And in Canada...

Check out the deals at Amazon.ca