Chilly start, but warmed up quickly, sort of noyhing day, in the afternoon walked up to Victoria Rock again.
We have 2 other campers arrive this afternoon, a Swiss couple who are over here till June, they have been up north to the Kimberley's and Darwin then back down via Alice Springs, they encountered floods in the Flinders Range so came west, but are now going back to S.A. The other couple are Bernd and Marion in their own Toyota shipped over from Germany, we first met them in Lane Cove, Sydney, at the very start of our journey, what a coincidence, it seems they have had problems with their vehicle as well, they are at the end of their journey and go home in a few weeks time so they can sort the vehicle problems out then. We keep saying to people "we might see you on the road " and now we have. Have fly sprayed the tent and LRover.as Rose is covered in bites again. Time for bed.
18th March Sunday
Weather forecast is correct, it started raining just before 6am and a bit chilly. It seems this is the tail end of a cyclone in the north west of the state. Left site at 9.30am and still raining, looks like settled in for the day. Drove along Great Eastern Hway
to Kalgoorlie-Boulder . It is shut except for the visitor centre, museum and cafes. Went to W.A.museum and spent 2 hours seeing the history of the city and surrounding goldfields(free) really interesting and time went very quickly. Still raining and probably will be tomorrow. Found the library and brought blog up to date, it was 4pm when we finished so drove back down Hway to free camp site at Lake Douglas Reserve. Sleeping in LRover tonight so just putting awning up. The weather is worse than this morning , it is horrible, it was difficult finding somewhere to park up that wont be too boggy in the morning, we just feel damp all the time.
19th March Monday
Finally stoped raining in the night, just fine drizzle now. Bedding is damp on Rose's side so wont be able to put anything away properly. Left site 9am, back to Kalgoorlie, did food shopping, then fuel. Colin realised too late that after one tank that he'd put petrol in instead of deisel($71), he filled the other tank from a Jerry can, then started to syphon the petrol back into the Jerry can. The girls in the servo were very helpful and told us where a nearby mechanic's workshop was and then a customer took us to it and we told them the problem, (he didn't laugh too much). The owner gave us a couple of cans and Colin emptied the petrol into them and then we filled up with diesel at the owners pumps leaving the petrol,(they didn't charge for the use of the workshop, again nice people). We now have a Jerry can full of petrol to try and sell cheaply. Still raining. We drove up to the Super Pit Lookout, it is very impressive and large, but hardly anything moving
due to the rain. we left there and drove to Coolgardie where we had lunch and swapped books before getting back onto Eastern Hway following the Golden Pipeline to our camp for the night at Karalee Rock (named after Natalie and Ricky?). It has finally stopped raining, put tent up and will stay for a couple of days to dry out. Lit a campfire and cooked garlic bread on it then heated water and kept us warm till bed.
20th March Tuesday
Lovely warm sleep, bit windy night and not very warm this morning. Left packet of noodles out on the table and had we've had a mouse visitor nibbling a packet. will stay vigilant and not leave anything out. Where we are camped at Karalee Rocks is part of the Golden Pipeline. A dam was built here to supply water to the steam trains in the 1800s, using the water run off from the local rocks. The Golden Pipeline was built to supply water to the Goldfields starting at Mundering Weir and pumped to Kalgoorlie. It was the brainchid of a British engineer CY O'Connor who died before the pipeline was finished, almost half the pipeline is original and still there and in service. Met our neighbour and he gave us some caravan pks and free sites on our journey, he also showed Rose how to access the internet without charge via the phone. Sent Emails to Round The World Flights to change home flight dates. Collected some wood and Colin lit campfire in pit behind tent and we cooked jacket spuds and sausages for dinner, it was lovely to have change of diet.
21st March Wednesday
Woken by phone call from Nats, catching up with Colin. Sunny morning but wind is chilly, staying here another night. Colin has relit fire and using it to heat water and will cook dinner later on it. Rose sorted out her clothes and needs to buy some shorts as hers are too big. Stuart came over and he's written down some places to visit in the north, again so helpful. Made a savoury damper today and cooked it on fireplate with chicken casserole. Heard back about flights and we have to pay extra to fly from Brisbane, sent Email saying Brisbane it is then, we will be leaving Brisbane on the 3rd September 2012.
22nd march Thursday
Overcast chilly morning, leaving today moving west,where it's hopefully warmer. Really pleased over last few days as not needed the solar panel to top up the batteries for fridge, the weather has been like an English bad summer. Colin admitted he's had to tighten his belt on his shorts as well, no one will recognise us when we get home we'll have lost so much weight. Back onto Eastern Hway we stopped at no.1 Rabbit Proof Fence
(1837kms) which was commenced in 1901 and completed in 1907, it is now known as the State Barrier Fence. Stopped in Merredin for lunch and a walk around, Rose bought some shorts in a sale in Target, treated ourselves to chocolate and a bottle of wine before driving to Kellerberrin Caravan Park, not suitable for us so drove down to Kokerbin Rock
free campsite, it is Australia's 3rd largest monolith. It has niw warmed up but the flies are a menace at the camp and it's very windy.
23rd March Friday
FRIDAY FACT:- THE PIPELINE FROM MUNDERING WEIR(PERTH) TO KALGOORLIE IS THE LONGEST FRESHWATER PIPELINE IN THE WORLD.
Overcast windy start to the day. Stopped at Kellerberin Resource Centre to check Emails, but unable to connect to Yahoo, seems they've had a problem all week so got our $10 back, did manage to do couple of other things first. as we got to Tammin saw the roadhouse had deisel for $1.49 per litre so pulled in and filled up, haven't seen fuel that cheap since Victoria, also treated ourselves to a nice coffee. Weather now sunny but still windy. Tammins concrete wheat silos were the first concrete silos built in Australia. Onto Meckering, where we had lunch. Saw The Big Camera there,
it is also a camera museum, it used to be a servobefore conversion. Visited the memorial park and farmhouse ruins, due to the earthquake on October 14th 1968, (6.9 on the Richter scale) due to the fact it was a public holiday and in the daytime nobody waas killed, the worst injury being a broken collar bone. All the buildings in the town were damaged,
railway lines buckled,
the pipeline had exploded
but within a couple of days the utility services were working again in the town, they still have tremors in the town to this day. we drove across country, through the wheatbelt
to Goomalling Caravan Pk for a few nights. It is only $10 per night, and is a nice clean modern Shire site. A woman came round selling eggs only $1.50 for 6. Cooked and ate in camp kitchen, nice to have somewhere to go of an evening.
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