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On the night of our arrival (Christmas Eve Eve or Dec 23), we were treated to a magnificent lightning display and the associated thunder storm continued all night. No leaks in the pod this time and just a few small pools of water inside our shade tent.

Next day, we awoke early to a glorious clear day and spent a couple of hours getting our blog words up to date and chatting with our neighbour and ‘old timer’ Russell and his border collie Tuppence.

Mid-morning we set off in the car to the first lookout about 13km east of the camp site where Miranda sat on one of the rocks and worked on a water colour of the eastern view along the great Australian bight. I took some photos and collected some shells, yes, sea shells about 100m above sea level, as mementos of the day.

The day was warming up considerably so after cooking up some jaffles filled with left over stew from last night, we cooled off in the caravan park pool, which was wonderfully refreshing. I tried out the go pro lookalike in the pool and, thankfully, it remained water tight.

We retired to the bar for a few drinks with the Border Village staff, played a couple of games of pin ball on the ‘rolling stones’ machine, put on some tunes on the juke box before wandering back to the pod to cook mushroom burgers for dinner.

After dinner we sat outside and watched the magnificent sunset before retiring for the night.

Next morning, after saying ‘Merry Xmas’ to each other and chomping down some breakfast we jumped in the car and drove back to Eucla to check out the old telegraph station and Eyre’s memorial.

Back at camp, Miranda did a bit more work on the water colour from yesterday so it was ready to present as a gift to Geoff and staff (to hang in the road house bar) as they had been so supportive and generous to us – from waiving our camping fees to gifting us various food items, shouting us drinks and inviting us to the staff Christmas party.

We enjoyed a fantastic Christmas lunch with everyone and then spent the afternoon  chatting with staff Geoff, Gary, Travis, Zac and Amanda in the bar as well as fellow travellers Marie and Bridget.

As we had imbibed a fair bit of champagne and other Christmas fare, we had another early night with some panettone in bed to finish the day.  We did however catch sight of the full moon as it peeped out from the clouds – a fantastic note to finish off a unique Christmas Day, really in the middle of nowhere!

And now for another Podcast: The bed/living quarters

The interior of the pod is we grant you, rather small. When we purchased it from a fellow at Rockingham, an old chap of 80+ who had planned on using it for weekends away, but then broke his back (!?! – we did not see evidence of this), it was furnished with a foam mattress that fitted perfectly.We decided though that we would like a firmer bed so bought a camping futon – not sure what makes it a ‘camping’ futon, except for some straps incorporated for rolling it up, in a double bed size. It is slightly too big for the width of the van so the sides curve up which actually makes it quite comfy. Fortunately we are not too big ourselves, and we are rather fond of each other as it is a cosy space for two!

The bedhead end is where the doors are, as the other end incorporates the back of the stepped shelves of the kitchen. We have two rather small cupboards at the top, enough to keep our toiletries, spare sheets and small gas bottles for the stoves. There is also a small shelf on which the many and varied cords for our numerous devices live (2 x computers, 2 x phones, 1 x iPad, 2 x Garmins, 1 x GoPro et etc – there is more but I’m getting bored now) in addition to a miniature fan which we rarely use and a double power point. Under that there is just room for our feet.

To increase our storage space we bought two ‘tent organisers’ that have numerous pockets to hold useful bits and pieces. Between and just above our heads is a fold-up shelf where reading books reside, with another double power point underneath – yes, we bang our heads a fair bit! As you can see from the photo, it isn’t just a bedroom, but an office as well, and many of these blogs come to you from the interior of the pod.

When the weather is inclement, we want to get out of the sun or just escape the caravan park clientele (it is pretty crowded in some during the summer holidays) we shut ourselves away to read, listen to music or just hang out with each other. If we are staying a few days we also put up the shade tent for a bit of extra space to hang out in, but usually we don’t as we don’t want to be bothered with putting it up and down when we are moving on the next day. For lighting we have a few battery operated lights both attached and unattached and a solar operated vent in the ceiling.

We have been pleasantly surprised by how cool the pod stays even on the hottest days – and when we need extra oomph we use wet sarongs in the windows to provide evaporative cooling along with a water spray bottle kept close in said tent organiser. When we are on the road the pod doubles as a trailer for transporting our table, chairs and a few bags to limit what fills up the car. We just roll up the mattress, shove the pillows and sleeping bag under the shelves and voila, plenty of space to place our extra gear. We love it!