AWOL Around Australia...

Rufant

Well-known member
Signs of attempts to ‘colonise’ were abundant though. Crows/ravens particularly like these covered over water tanks for some reason.

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The modern world still has a use for this road. No phone service across the Nullarbor yet, but it's coming.

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However, the old Eyre Highway did serve up one treat for us. A wild Dingo, the first we had seen in the bush. White like the rock around him, I could only get so close the standard issue zoom lens on our little Sony mirrorless. Anyway, I don’t claim to be any sort of photographer, that ******** takes time and dedication, we were just happy to have a record of seeing this fine beast.

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Rufant

Well-known member
Just before the border we head back to the main highway, and find a clifftop campsite. Not quite as clifftop as we would like, as there was no getting a peg in on the cliff itself. A bit further back I got a few in, and the hardy coastal shrubbery provided sturdy tie downs otherwise.

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Yes!

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No.

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Sorry Bertha...

Just as well because the wind came that night. Not all night luckily, and I slept heavily after managing to stay up for the movie this time.
 

Rufant

Well-known member
Beach Bums.

South east, Western Australia.

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Being this far west was doing our body clock in, relative to the time of day. The sun wasn’t setting till 8.30/9ish at night, and wasn’t rising till 0730. Anyway, sunrise over camp.

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Mister Rollo patiently waiting for his breakfast.

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At the border you have to hand over any fresh fruit, etc. We’d consumed everything we had last night, in fact the fridge was looking about as bare as it had for some time.

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Looking down from the cliffs I could see the tracks that you can follow nearer the sea. I had elected not to join these just yet, but to make some mileage today. Fortuitous as it turns out.

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SA/WA border control.

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Nothing to see here, just a man running across the Nullarbor. Beep beep!

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So a bit light on supplies, and water also getting lower than normal it made sense to pound some bitumen today. Plus the fact we had been on dirt almost everyday since we left home. No matter how much you love that ********, and we do, a break is always good. Handily it was overcast for most of the day. So set the cruise to 90 and put some tunes on.

So we did about 500km that day. To get us to Balladonia Roadhouse, at 5pm ‘our time’ but 2pm local time, weird. Going to be a silly early bed tonight...

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Food was getting pretty simple by now!

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Our overnight stop and refuel before taking our last offroad detour, down to Israelite Bay, then along the coast to the town of Esperance. Where such modern wonders as internet, fresh produce and washing machines awaited...

...

Coffee made, and bacon and egg rolls procured from the servo (after 6 days without resupply for food or water, we would save what we had for the last dirt section).

Whilst waiting for breakfast I had a mooch around the frankly excellent museum in the roadhouse, Amazing how some of these servos are just little gems in the country.

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Back in the late 1970's Balladonia was thrust into the international spotlight. In July, the world was captivated by the plight of a wayward NASA space station called Skylab. For weeks there was a lot of speculation about where it would come crashing to earth. NASA scientists predicted South Africa but in the early morning of July 13, 1979 they were proved wrong. On the centenary of Balladonia's settlement, fiery pieces of Skylab landed around the grounds of our hotel prompting a call by then president Jimmy Carter to apologise for the mess!​
http://www.balladoniahotelmotel.com.au/balladonial-history.php

We headed out. The track we needed to take was just across from the roadhouse, and that was as far as we got.

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There were a couple of likely lads with a 70 series, tinny on the roof and a ATV on a trailer at the end of the track on the UHF. No doubt trying to determine if the track was still closed and the bushfire still an issue. As where these tracks lead (Israelite Bay) was still closed 4 days later (as we approached that area now from the west), I would guess they got the very firm Ba Bow, to going round that sign.

So nothing for us to do but pound bitumen again, so and easy but boring drive to Norseman then due south down to Esperance on the coast.

Spectacular Red Gums along the way.

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Always makes me hum this tune.
 

Rufant

Well-known member
So two days in a caravan park in Esperance. After camping on various forms of dirt for the best part of two and a half weeks, a couple of nights on grass, in the shade with showers and stuff to hand, made a whole lot of sense.

Esperance is a cool town, a mix of tourist seaside (but good tourist seaside) and various industries, helped keep it real.

...

So rest day stuff done, we restocked the food and water and headed back out. Back in the caravan park we had struck up a couple of good and useful conversations with other travellers, about this area and where we were eventually heading (the North). It never pays to judge a book by its cover, most grey nomads look the same but some are significantly more adventurous than others.

One of those included a beach drive not far from Esperance. So we would do that today and then check out a campsite further down the coast.

Now south WA is known for being a 4x4 Mecca, as the proliferation of YouTubers from this region will attest. With good reason. When we did our first big road trip around this land, most of the people we met declared that wherever they came from had “the best beaches in the world” often with an accompanying photo in the wallet! (pre mobile phones, yo). Well, I’m sure all those beaches were well and good, but I thought then, that by far the best beaches I had ever seen were in south WA, and twenty years later I’m still of that opinion.

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The combination of green coastal shrubbery down to the beach, bright white sand and then turquoise ocean that fades to dark blue, with a few islands scattered in it for good measure. Pretty hard to beat in my book.

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Great beach drive. I knew the straightforward way out was through the National Park, but this sign, plus all the warnings back in Esperance about fines, etc, (even though our dogs stay in the car in NP’s) meant we started to hunt for a way out through the dunes.

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A couple a promising tracks got us nothing but yet more scratches, plus plenty of big revs and momentum to get us through the softer parts. Then there was patches of slick rock just to make sure you remember to take out all the differential locks (thanks, pin 7 mod). We got real close to a dirt road but the end of the track had been closed for revegitation? People had got round it, but I ain’t that guy, so in the end we back tracked to the beach. We had enough internet for google earth coverage, I was ready to take another promising track when N said “ what if it is another ‘track closed’ or ‘private property’, etc. All good points, and sometimes you need that second opinion. So we just back tracked down the beach till we hit the bitumen. Aired up, we were out.

An hour or so down the tarmac road we turned off onto dirt to head back to the coast. The road gets a bit patchy towards the end (our fellow campers pulled some backpackers out of one of these soft sections earlier that morning), but also looks like a Walt Disney set.

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Not a bad campsite, especially once I’d spent 15 minutes with the shovel sorting out previous campers mess.

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'You left that empty cardboard box, just in case that’s what we needed when we got here? Or you really didn’t have the space to take it out after you brought it in...?' No worries, we’ll pack it out for you.

...

I tried a bit of a fish off the rocks, but didn’t catch any fish, didn’t see any either.

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It was stinking hot that day, in SA the temperature normally peaks between about 2 and 4 in the afternoon. At 11.30 that morning I was thinking ‘if it’s this hot now who knows what it will be like this arvo’ but as it turns out that was the worst of it. It peaked late morning and got progressively more pleasant from then on. By 3pm it was about perfect. We all had a paddle and I dropped the dogs in for a shallow swim, which they tolerated... but they forgave me.

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Roxy, looking a bit punk rock after her swim.

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Rufant

Well-known member
I should mention I was reading the first of the two books I picked up in Kimba. Thoroughly recommended. If you have any interest in the ecology of the Australian Outback or just fancy a good read of someone who has lived life, this book is for you.

http://www.aridrecovery.org.au/books/red-sand-green-heart

That night I cooked the first of the haul we had scored at the butcher in Esperance. After previously working with food retailers my sense of a good shop is pretty acute. I got a good feeling about this one, and the spidey senses were not off.

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Shark Bay pork chop, pickled salade and mustard vinaigrette.

That night we were treated to an amazing red sunset. Which we found out the next day was from the bushfires in the nearby Cape Le Grand National Park. The same park we had been on the edge of whilst chasing dead end dune tracks two days before...

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Thanks for reading.

https://rufant.com

https://www.instagram.com/rufant_adventures/
 
I haul heavy equipment. I have never saw a trailer quite like that one under that rock truck. Thanks. I like seeing different parts of the world and how things are done there.
 

Rufant

Well-known member
I haul heavy equipment. I have never saw a trailer quite like that one under that rock truck. Thanks. I like seeing different parts of the world and how things are done there.

No worries. I'll keep it in mind and if I see any other good big rigs I'll take a snap.

We move all sorts by road over here. The blades that go on the wind turbines are a good one, they look like a space ship being hauled down the road!
 

Rufant

Well-known member
Beach Bums. Part 2.

Southern West Australia.

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So two nights at Mungliginup Beach and it was time to move on. Back to Esperance for some fuel and some weather checking whilst the phone service was good. My initial plan to head up through the WA goldfields from here was scuppered by temperatures ranging from 35-45 degs C (95-115F) over the next week. In fact pretty much anywhere inland was very hot. The only place that seemed to have reasonable temps was where we were, south coast of WA. So we may as well stay here a few more days then. There are worse places to be...

70km up the coast was Quagi Beach. This was a bit more ordered and busy than he last spot. But a trailer for rubbish and basic toilets made all the difference in terms of campsite cleanliness. Another fantastic beach and some awesome rock pooling to had.

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I had bought (not caught unfortunately) some local fish from the butcher in Esperance. So we had that tonight. I was just buying vegetables that were in season so, had mulled it over the last few days whilst the fish, caught and frozen at sea, thawed out.

Pan fried WA blue grouper, chinese broccoli (rapidly becoming my favourite green) stir fried with shrimp paste and white wine. Coconut, cucumber, lime salsa.

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Not too bad looking a dish either.

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I was happy how it turned out. Growing up in a cold climate I sometimes struggle to think of good combinations for hot weather food, so it is satisfying when it works.

...

The next morning whilst N and the pups hung out at camp, I followed the cliff track west. A couple of our fellow campers had told us about it in one of the regular ‘sundowner’ conversations you can have at these places.

The track is very rough, rocky and slow at the start. I was thinking ‘if it’s like this all the way I’m going back to do some rock pooling!”. Luckily it smoothed out. After just under 5km I got to a 'hazardous descent' sign and also the sign that meant you couldn’t go any further along the cliff.

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Down the hazardous descent (not that bad) and as far down as you could drive without being a total idiot.

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Through some soft sections that with hindsight might have been the place to stop,and walk from there as it was only the last 50m of track.

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Thumbs up and serious face, must be a good spot...

Coming down the hill an orange blob at the other end of the beach had caught my eye. I had a wander down and found it was a buoy of some kind that had washed up in the National Park. It was light so I packed it out back down the beach and shackled it onto the spare.

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Do I win a prize?

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It should be noted, that whilst I've always packed out anything I've brought in. I never used to pack out other peoples rubbish, I always thought 'why should I clean up after other people?'. Well after being inspired by people like Travis Wolcott, who base their whole trip on cleaning up, I thought that is a much more positive way to go about things. So I now try to pack it out as much as possible.

Other rubbish.

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Double Happiness. Like happiness, but double.

Ciggies from? Can’t be Australian, we've had plain packaging laws for years now. Still mostly full, I would have sparked one up but they were a bit soggy...

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My pet hate, broken glass. Found just ahead of where I had stopped the car, just where some excited little kiddy might go running out... What is wrong with us?

Took a few photos, it was a lovely spot.

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Rufant

Well-known member
I knew I would need to lower the tyre pressures to drive back up through that soft sand. So down to 20/25psi, centre and rear locker in, low range. That got me as far as the start of the soft sand but immediately I could feel it wasn’t enough. Down again, 12/18psi this time.
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Up we went, floating like a 3 tonne magic carpet on top of the sand. Right up until the final twist and rise, where we again decisively came to a stop.
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I managed to cock up reversing, but enough to pop in the front locker, but same result.
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I backed up to the top of that last small rise, maybe 5m, and got serious with the tyre pressures. 8 in the front, 12 in the rear. Took the front locker out, as I didn’t think it was helping with the amount of turning required, just causing the truck to plow on. I had a quick walk up the track, as I was now hidden in the scrub and wanted to make sure no one was coming.
All clear, so I gunned Bertha into action once more, and we popped up and round the rise no problem. Tyre pressures is all sometimes. As soon as I had cleared the scrub and was visible, I stopped and aired back up somewhat.
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I knew going into that soft sand, it would be fun and games getting out. But being on my own and not that far out, it was a good situation to have these little tests. Putting yourself in mildly challenging situations every now and then is how you start to build up the bank of skills and experience that you’ll draw down on the time things get serious.
What if I hadn’t made it that time? There were still Maxtraxs, shovel and a hand winch in the toy box.
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An easy drive back, and I chucked my collected wares in the campsite trailer bin (someone later retrieved the buoy, I figured that thing must be worth some $).
Alien looking scenes from rock pooling that arvo.
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The pit of Sarlacc.
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The bobble looking golden seaweed is Neptunes Necklace as I was later to find out (no service at the camp), and also all seaweed is edible (or at least not poisonous), I would have tried eating some had I known. Next time.
This girl and me, we been some places.
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Frickin’ fish tacos that night. Coconut and fresh chilli welcome additions.
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...
Next morning, I’m fussing around just outside the tent at about 6am. When a couple of kids we saw playing yesterday walk past, I wave, they wave back. Didn’t think anything of it.
15 mins later Dad comes roaring past in his Prado, stops “have you seen my kids?” “Yeah, a while ago, heading to the beach” he takes off. I’m thinking they are probably just playing in the surf.
Maybe 10 mins later I’m walking out to the road to get some reception so I can check weather reports. Mum is at the stairs down to the beach crying and calling out the kids names “you still not found them?!?” I say. The severity of the situation finally coming home... “No!” she wails. “I’ll help you look” I say. Figuring Dad must be down on the beach I peg it up the 4x4 track I took yesterday, it winds through the scrub and is hard to see more than 50m or so ahead. Thinking I can run this track up to the furthest point, about 1km up, where I can drop onto the beach and track back from there. No need, after about 400m there they are, little boy and girl wandering nonchalantly along the track. “You guys need to come back to camp, Mum and Dad are worried” I say. They follow me but at a distance and slowly, no doubt wary of the unfamiliar man “Just stay on the track” I say, and start legging it back, a quick couple of looks back to make sure they are scarpering off somewhere else. I get back just as Mum and Dad are piling into the Prado “I’ve found them” I call out. Dad is out the car in a flash, built for comfort not speed, nevertheless we bound back down the 4x4 track. He explains he came down here but not far, understandable, the main danger is down on the rocks up from the beach. I explain, that I feel bad as maybe I should have done more when I saw them this morning. Anyway... “should be just over this ridge” I say, and thankfully there they are. Quick shake of hands and I leave him with his family and reassure the Mum further back up the track that Dad is now with them. Painful start to the day for those guys, bloody glad it all turned out just fine.
As it happens, weather forecast for anywhere inland was brutal, everything over 40 degrees and some days over 45. So we beach bum for another day. More alien ********.
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Rufant

Well-known member
Starting To Push North.

West Australia.

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Time came to move on. As I said, I had been wanting to head up through the goldfields and mining districts. Taking the Holland Track, up to Kalgoorlie and some lonely dirt roading across to the coast north of Perth. However there wasn’t a day for the next week where the temperature didn’t start with a 4-, and a few of them were north of 45 degrees. So I had to accept, that plan was out.
The only place where the temps were reasonable was the coast. However the south west coast of WA is relatively heavily populated with few options to camp for people like us. Not to mention we had travelled that area extensively last time we drove round this part of the world. So we decided just to make our way cross country to the coast north of Perth.

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However, firstly there was some battery business to attend to. I had been concerned about our ‘Thumper’ auxiliary battery for a few days. I had run it a bit low charging up various devices and it didn’t seem to want to get back to a good state of charge and also seemed to drop charge excessively whenever it had a load on it. Now this unit is around 12 years old and had the batteries repacked about halfway through that time. So I was wondering if this set of batteries was reaching then end of its useable life.
Back in phone service I put a call into Home of 12 Volt, the manufacturer of the unit. They suggested freighting out another set of batteries that I could fit. If this unit was on the way out I was keen to upgrade, as you can imagine our power requirements have changed somewhat in the past twelve years. They could send me out an upgraded unit no problem, pretty much anywhere in the country - good to know. I asked if they had any distributors in WA, and they gave me a place in Bunbury, south of Perth. This would allow me to have our unit tested and pick up an upgraded unit if required, so we would detour there first (this being our last opportunity to do any ‘big city’ stuff, once north of Perth, that’s it till Darwin).

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On the way we journeyed to Wave Rock, a distinctive rock formation that wasn’t too far off our route.
Very touristy, unfortunately this just reinforced how little these popular tourist spot appeal to us these days. That’s more a reflection of where we are as travellers, rather than the feature itself. Although building an ugly concrete wall across the top of the rock to stop people falling off, kinda ruins its natural uniqueness... (I wonder what the indigenous locals thought about that...)
In a way this was good though. As it kind of decided for us that we didn’t really want to revisit any of the sites we did when we first toured over here. We can leave them as memories of when there were far less people in WA and even less people travelling around over here.
We weren’t going to make Bunbury that day, so we stopped in the pretty country town of Collie overnight.
...
Next day we plunged into the bustling metropolis of Bunbury.
I had run the fridge off the Thumper overnight and had not charged it since then. I was keen to know if it still had enough grunt to start the car if required, and a load test at the battery store would answer than question. To my surprise (and the battery technician’s) it load tested just fine, and was declared healthy (maybe it was just the on/off overcast conditions at the beach were playing games with the solar). Well, no need to shell out $750 on an upgraded unit just yet then. Especially as I knew Home of 12 Volt could send me one out with a few days notice.
Bunbury had been a significant detour, but worth it for the peace of mind. As we were here we took full advantage of the range of grocery stores and stocked up as much as possible. There would be prices and variation here that we would get out in the country. I even foundation Filipino grocery, and got some weird and wonderful stuff from there I hadn’t seen before.

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No one ever said touring Australia was a cheap exercise.

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So we hit the highway and headed north, pretty clear run through Perth itself and then north.

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According to the map and last time we had been this way there is very little in the way of suburbia north of the city, well not any more. An endless maze of new suburbs, and more being built all the time. Eventually the houses started to thin out, till it was mostly just land for sale. No doubt soon to be gobbled up by Perth’s booming urban sprawl. In hindsight we probably should have just stuck to the more inland highway, but hey ho.
Camping options were thin on the ground along this stretch of coast still relatively close to the city. We headed for Willow Brook Farm, a little inland but fitted the bill for a place to stay overnight. From their website we also discovered there was a Benedictine Monastery town a little further inland, as well as an award winning bakery. We don’t need much of a reason for a detour, let alone ones that have award winning and bakery in the description.
...
Arriving at the town of Bindoon the next days, with rumbling bellies in anticipation of tasty pastry treats. We found the bakery was shut for three days whilst there was building works outside. Damn.
Onto to New Norcia. Named after Norcia in Italy the birthplace of St Benedict. Construction of the town started in the mid 18th century led by two Spanish Benedictines. It is Australia’s only monastic town. Benedictine monks still occupy the monastery, while the rest of the town is run as mostly a tourist attraction (although there is very little promotion about the town from surrounding areas, we only learnt about it from the Willow Brook Farm website. So maybe our slightly torturous route yesterday was beneficial).

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The town contains many impressive Spanish influenced buildings. Although most are in need of a fair bit of maintenance truth be told, no doubt an increasingly daunting task. The monastery bakery still functions to this day (hooray), so we scored some delicious home baked lemon tarts and a six pack of ‘Abbey Ale’ a joint venture between the town and a Swan Valley brewer. The beer was excellent too (sampled later at camp obviously), not something that can always be said about high alcohol Australian beers. 7.3% - git sum.

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We enjoyed doing our own little tour of the town, an undiscovered gem in the middle of the WA wheatbelt. It made me think about what it must be like to be a monk in modern times. Also you marvel somewhat at how this church was willing to put so much money into building all this grandness in (relatively speaking) the middle of nowhere, round the other side of the world. That’s belief for you I guess. I remember having the same thought at Kalumburu, another Benedictine mission, and somewhere we might get to later on this trip.
 

Rufant

Well-known member
We headed back to the coast, a mixture of country roads and dirt and we tried to plot as direct a route as possible to the town of Cervantes.

On the way.

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Hope the driver was ok.

Cervantes is a town with pretty much one industry, lobster. Well two really, lobster fishing and lobster related tourism. So I ducked into ‘The Lobster Shack’ to grab a locally caught beauty.

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We then headed a bit further up the coast to stay at pretty much the only bush camping in this area, Sandy Cape. This would do us for a few nights, after three days of driving everyone was ready for a break.

Local lobsters, fried potatoes, lemon curry mayo.

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In the end we stayed four nights. This was a public holiday weekend in WA and we soon realised once we gave up our spot here we might not find another, only being a few hours drive from Perth. Now I would normally happily put some miles between us and the crowds but on these longer trips I'm learning that you have to do things a little differently.

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I took this snap from atop the sand dune directly behind our camp. Where I was sat as it was the only place to get internet to be able to write this journal - while N was sat in the car as the local bee populated was attracted to her brightly coloured crochet wool - it probably looked like we'd had a big argument!

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In the end it was actually a good spot for a few nights, and we ended up having some good neighbours. When there is just the two of you, it is important to talk to other people occasionally!

On the third day we were going to head out to the nearest town for a few supplies, and then the Land Cruiser wouldn't start. I spent a few hours on it and eventually got it started, after fitting the brand new set of spark plugs I carry, after finding 3 of the cylinders flooded (fuel). This has happened once before a couple of years ago, but those plugs were more like 15,000km+ old, these had less than 5000km on them. Maybe the ignition coils are on the way out, they are probably original. Or as I said to Naomi, maybe my mucking about did fix something but by then it was already flooded. It started up fine the next morning and has been fine since, at time of writing. Disconcerting though...

After Sandy Cape we tootled a bit further up the coast to another organised camping area in Irwin Shire. We hung out here for a couple more nights while the long weekend madness subsided. With unusually good internet reception at this campground, I actually managed to get these journals up to date with the present time.

Filipino pork curry that night.
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Tomorrow we move on. Thanks for reading.

Cheers.

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vbc1_75

New member
Just caught up. Great read. I have fond memories of Sandy Cape since the 80's when we would camp there and often have the place to ourselves.
 

Rufant

Well-known member
Just caught up. Great read. I have fond memories of Sandy Cape since the 80's when we would camp there and often have the place to ourselves.

Thanks. Not much chance of having any of those places to yourselves these days. Looking forward to getting further north and finding a few more remote spots (y)
 

Rufant

Well-known member
Gold Fever! Part 1

Mid West Goldfields. West Australia.

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After a good couple of weeks on various parts of the WA coast, we were ready for a change of scenery. Time for some red dirt action!

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We had coughed up ($50!) for a caravan park at Dongara for our last night on the coast. Being able to camp on grass, whilst also having power and water on tap, meant we were able to get ourselves, our clothes and the dogs clean and ready for a few days on the road.

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Roxy enjoying her bath/shower. Using our collapsible washing up bowl and Nemo camp shower.

I also spent some time on the Cruiser. I had wrapped a couple of jubilee clips around the noisey steering damper, but there was still a knock from the front end. So I took the damper right off, still there. A bit of time with a lever and I found that the front anti-roll bar bushes at the axle were shot.
So a quick call to Geraldton Toyota to order the bushes and a few other parts so we could pick them up on our way through tomorrow.

So that was our first stop of the day, as Geraldton was the last major town for sometime, we also stocked up on various other supplies and took the Cruiser to wash off the salty crust it had acquired the last few weeks. So it was midday before we turned the truck east, to head inland.

We just pounded bitumen for that afternoon. Through the town of Yalgoo, which has a different ‘installation’ next to the metal town name sign on each of the three roads that lead into the town.

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Some sort of rock crusher I'm thinking? Anyway, made in Gawler, South Australia.

A quick photo of the pretty little church and we were back on the highway.

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Our eventual destination was the town of Sandstone, however it looked like that was going to be too much of a stretch tonight. So we overnighted at the gold mining town of Mount Magnet (I think every town in this part f the outback was originally a gold mining town, however Mount Magnet still has an active gold mine).
As we drove around this area, known as the Murchison Region, after the river in the western part of it, or simply the Midwest Goldfields. There was more evidence of historical and current mining operations than I would ever have imagined before coming here. Mine tailings, large and small, dotted the landscape. WA is renowned for its ‘resource boom’ economy, but I didn’t realise it was quite so prolific, or had been going on for so long. Many of the places we visited were started in the 1800’s. It certainly makes the South Australian Outback feel considerably more lonely.

...

However, first this morning we would explore something of a more natural spectacle.

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‘The Granites’ is an area just north of Mount Magnet of impressively eroded and shaped rocks.

These overcast skies made for some less obvious photos and brought out a different character to the land. Let’s face it, I’ve got plenty of blue sky/red earth photos! The fact that it meant the high 30’s temps felt like low 30’s a lot of the time, was a considerable bonus too.

Big Red almost impossible to see against the rocks.

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Plenty of places for skippy to hide in here.

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Next up was a few piles of rubble that used to be a town. As is the nature of mining, the area is also littered with abandoned towns and settlements of all ages and in various states of disrepair was one of the older and more dilapidated ones.

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No plastic piping for plumbing in the 1890's.

We took the backroad to Sanstone. This fella was very hard to pick up against the dirt road, lucky he moved in good time for me to avoid him. He also wasn’t in a hurry, and was happy(ish) to hang around and have his photo taken.

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I haven’t seen this exact colouring on a goanna before, at least not up this close anyway.

He (she?) was a beauty.

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Another smaller one a couple of km’s down the road, then we saw another smaller one a bit further along. Must be good territory for them around here.

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Rufant

Well-known member
The road cut through this station. Fairly typical country Australia vehicle selection.

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Onto Sanstone (sounding like a gritty western TV series - Kurt Russel, Hugo Weaving and Gary Sweet in Sandstone...).

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I had a good feeling about this town for some reason, and so it turned out to be a good one. We were just in time for lunch at the pub. Pretty good country pub.

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Proper character.

We headed out to ‘London Bridge’ another interestingly eroded rock. Standard tourist photo!

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and others...

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Also out this way was a cave that an industrious Irishman had converted into a brewery , to quench the gold minors thirst back in the day. Evidence of the cave’s previous usage still remains.

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