May 15 - Week 5 - 6

Hello Fam & Friends,

One bit of excitement I forgot to mention at Kalgoolie, whilst in the supermarket, I experienced an earthquake.  Everything jumped on the shelves and customers all stood still for a moment trying to decide if it was a blast at the mine or not….but No, a 3.4 on the scale earthquake...so that was a first.

Myth #3— Victorian roads are good—compared to WA our roads are appalling!  What more can I say, even their dirt roads a better than Chapel Hill Road out to the farm.

Leaving Leinster, May 9, we headed west towards Sandstone and FC the night at Dennys Lookout.  A beautiful spot, had a campfire and watched the sun set.  We never seem to grow tired of the colours in this country.  Although the red dust penetrates just about everything, the Respa dust pressuriser that Noel installed into the van has worked perfectly and we have not had to seal up any vents, although I do cover the larger one in the door, more for keeping the cold out at night than for the dust. The weather is getting warmer by a degree or so at last, and now a pleasant 27 degrees although the nights are still a little cool, but the doona has been replaced by a light blanket now.

Dennys Lookout

We stopped at Sandstone for a REAL coffee and a walk around.  Some beautiful buildings, a terrific Info Centre and an amazing little butcher shop run by a couple who make all their own sausages and had excellent meat, so we shopped up as a way of supporting this local business.  Oh, and another Tiger’s supporter!  After our walk we headed out to London Bridge.                                                                            

     

Sandstone

Butcher shop

London Bridge

We overnighted May 10 at Mount Magnet CP.  I don’t think I have ever heard so many truck movements all night anywhere else than here!!  I just popped my earplugs in!  The town’s claim to fame is that it is one of the first gold mining towns in the Mid West, and the longest surviving gold mining settlement in WA.  Interest in the old mines has reignited due to the current price of gold.

We travelled north onto Cue and spent the day walking around the town.  A fantastic Info Centre in the original Cue Post Office, with the Police Station and Courthouse adjoining.  Wandered into the pub for lunch and had an excellent platter - that was unexpected and delicious.

Cue shops, all closed/derelict

Plenty of trucks here at the roadhouse.  The Great Northern Highway we turned onto at Mount Magnet is the main northern inland link between Perth and Port Headland.  The roadtrains are king of the road, 60metres in length and move along at about 95-100km/h, so we need a good bit of clear road to overtake.  Our car and van is about 13metres.

We FC the night of the 11^th at Peace Gorge, just outside of Meekatharra.  What fun that turned out to be as we have met some new travelling buddies, Hazel and Murray, originally from Perth, but travelling with NFA (no fixed address) like ourselves.  Oh, and not to forget Brandy, their little dog.

I had bought a drone weeks before as we travelled through Adelaide but had just not mastered it, much to my own annoyance.  Murray to the rescue!!  We wined and dined together, shared our stories and had lots of laughs.  I have attached my first drone clip…..be patient with me, I do get better, LOL.

Next morning, we drove into Meekatharra to fill our water tanks and pick up a few things at the supermarket.  They had a street van selling excellent coffee, yeh!  I must say I was underwhelmed by the town as I imagined it a bit more ‘exciting’, whatever that may mean in my mind.  Anyway, another bucket list item ticked off.

We travelled on with Hazel and Murray to our next FC spot - Bilyuin Pool.  Stunning.  Lots of water meant lots of bird life, green edges and beautiful scenery.  I would point out that most of the FC spots are well off the main road, and we are so pleased with the van in being able to access these places.  We don’t have any off-road features, so we just drive her steady and check the way ahead carefully.  So far so good.

 

We stayed 2 nights here and could have stayed much longer.  I set up my camera on the tripod and for 5 hours watched 3 spoonbills go through their daily routine and I managed to capture some amazing photos.  I’m going to do a separate blog on wildflowers and critters, so will upload some the shots then.  As you can see, I’m also getting better at the drone and it has enabled us to see some beautiful landscapes.

We set off, leaving H&M to stay another night at the Pool.  We stopped for lunch on the banks of the Gascoyne River just south of Kumarina Roadhouse, where we fueled up and continued north.

Friday May 14, we arrived at Newman for the night and camped in the carpark of the Info Centre - there is currently no caravan park in Newman, hopefully there will be one by July.

Pretty nice town based solely on mining, nice coffee shop, hardware and supermarket.

Well, I’ll leave you for now as tomorrow we arrive in Tom Price for a week, so lots to see and do.

Hope this episode finds you all well and not tooooo envious of our journey - all been surprisingly good to date, but plenty of planning has paid dividends.

Love to all Maz and Noel