Day 70 - Sandstone to Menzies (16 Nov)

Had our first puncture today on the car.  Luckily we had stopped to try and photograph a couple of wedge tailed eagles (got one photo) and as we were pulling off heard air been released from the back type, bummer.  We had somehow split the side of the tyre so not fixable.  Will have to replace it in Kalgoorlie.  Went through Leinster (another BHP Billiton project - nickel this time) and Leonora.  Leinster partiularly caters for the worker and is well setup, Leonora not so well setup but a pretty town.  Menzies, well another story.  We have only stopped here to visit Lake Ballard where the stick men statues are set amongst a salt lake (known as the Inside Australia exhbition 2003).  The town of Menzies has absolutely nothing except a tourist bureau, a Caltex service station and a pub of course.  The caravan park would only just qualify as a caravan park in that it provides power and water, the ablutions are demountables with no doors on the shower cubicles just a curtain, however they are clean (at least the ladies - one good thing about being a female in mining areas is that there are very few women around so generally the ablutions are clean and empty most of the time).  I'm sure the same can't be said about the mens.  We quickly setup the van and took off to Lake Ballard to take some shots at sunset.  After 51kms on dirt road we found the stick figures in the lake.  There are 51 of them (total of the town's inhabitants back in 2003).  The artist depicted each person by their own statue to capture their soul (if you are into that arty type stuff).  Anyway a little disappointing as what you see on TV is not what you get.  Yes 51 figures are there alright spread out across the whole lake which is very muddy due to recent rain and it takes two hours to walk to each one (on a good dry surface day).  I thought they would be closer together in groups.  We are the only ones here by the way.  So we set off with an impending thunderstom and lightning (3rd day in a row) on the horizon, with the thunder getting louder by the minute, we trudged to the closest statutes, took the photos, watched the lightning get closer and closer and decided the other 48 statues could wait and John justified it by saying how different can they be, they will all have tits or dicks.  He is probably right, being on a open lake with lightning strikes probaly not the smartest thing to do.  By this time also the wind was picking up and we could smell the rain in the air (yes you can smell it).  Got back to the car, cleaned our shoes and Coco's paws as best we could, had a coffee and waited for a sunset which never eventuated as no sooner had we done this then the heavens opened and it has been raining ever since.  Lovely big drops of rain, it is great as it is still warm!  We had driven to the lake on a very dusty road and the drive home was a very sodden sticky and muddy road.  Easy to see how quickly floods can develop.  Here are the photos of the stick people.  Unless you have Lake Ballard on your 'bucket list' I personally wouldn't bother, interesting to see but a long way to travel.  Some of the surrounding landscape however is very very pretty.  We've ticked that box.

Day 69 - Sandstone (15 Nov)

Sandstone is a really quaint town with a total population of 150! 50 townies and 100 country folk. The Police visit every 3rd Tuesday, doc and nurse every 3 weeks and grocery supplies are dropped by once a week, so when they sell out that's it and its very expensive. The general store is also the bank and post office and they man the fuel pump. In its peak 1910-1918 the population was between 6000 to 8000, in 1919 it dropped to 250, due to the end of gold rush and men going off to war. However the town existed for the growing pastoralists. Today there exists a gold mine nearby - (Troy mines) and cattle farms. Last night went for a walk at sunset and the colours are spectacular, a fantastic pink sky against the dark red dirt really make for gorgeous lighting. During the evening we had a great thunderstorm with some magical lighting. There is something very special about the outback. We have decided to stay today as well in Sandstone, it is so peaceful here and there are some natural formations that we want to check out called the brewery and London Bridge.  We did the heritage trail walk around town - took about 20 minutes.  Any windmills here are multicoloured, must be a town quirk! They even have a golf course albeit in the dirt.  The flies are really bad here, hence the sign on the shop door.

Checked out London Bridge and the Brewery and decided to go back at sunset to get some sunset shots of the bridge.  The Brewery was built in 1907 on top of a breakaway close to where the cliff drops 30-40 feet. Water was pumped to the top via a well. Beer by way of gravitation founds its way to the coolers and two large vats on the main floor. It was then stored into a cellar which was tunnel driven into the face of the breakaway. It was cooled by a hole bored through the ceiling of the cellar to the top of the breakway. The things men do for a beer!  The brewery was built for the miners working nearby, but was only used for 3 years until the railway line to Mt Magnet was completed. 

London Bridge is a natural formation believed to be 350 million years old.  It was a popular picnic spot for the local townfolk in the early 1900s and at that time a horse drawn carriage could be driven across the top.  Over the years of course it has thinned out and walking across it is not recommended.  While we were there at sunset another thunderstorm was brewing in the distance and by the time we got back to the park it had hit and we had a real heavy downpour, shortlived unfortunately.  It was great as it had been such a hot day that we ran out in the rain to cool off, haven't done that since I was kid.  There really isn't anything to do here once you have seen the bridge and brewery, not even a public pool so don't know the locals do for entertainment or to cool off, however it is a quaint town and certainly worth a visit.  It does get very hot in summer, last summer they had a 57 degree day!  There are a lot of multicoloured hubcaps around the place, some with flowers, dots etc so this must fill someones time.

Day 68 Geraldton to Sandstone (14 Nov)

Have done what we needed to do in Geraldton and are starting the trek to Kalgoorlie via Mt Magnet and Sandstone.  Fairly uneventful trip until we got to Yalgoo to fill up with petrol.  We didn't stop in Mullewa as we still had 3/4 tank and it was only 120kms to Yalgoo.  Our mistake.  Whilst there is 24 hour fuel at Yalgoo it is fully automated via computers and credit card (don't know what you do if you don't have a credit card).  We had just started to read the instructions on how it worked when one of the local workers came by to inform us that the petrol pump was not working due the computers been down caused by thunderstorms a couple of days previous. There was no way to manually override the system. He hoped we had enough petrol to get to Mt Magnet 128kms away.  We don't get the best fuel economy due to an old car and heavy caravan and didn't think we could but really had no choice but to continue on at 70kms/hour.  The local worker informed us to flag down a road train if we get stuck and they would help us out.  Anyway we drove slowly without the airconditioning and made it to Mt Magnet without incident thank goodness.  Think its time to get a jerry can.  Had a look around the town of Mt Magnet, quite a nice looking town, they even have a cinema and of course the pub (see pics).  Obviously a lot of prospectors head this way due to the merchandise the stores sell.  We were going to stay in Mt Magnet for the night but decided to head to Sandstone 158kms away.  Along the way we saw a few large lizards/monitors/bungarra/parenties/goanna (not sure what they are called) on the road.   Just outside of Mt Magnet there was quite a lot of water on the road verge from the recent storms which we thought might not be a common sight.  Arrived in Sandstone late arvo and checked into the caravan park, this is run by the Shire and is well maintained and empty.  Only us, one other van and 3 permanents.  Apparently Sandstone is at its busiest during the wildflower season.

Day 63 - Carnarvon (9 Nov) - On the move

We are finally leaving Carnarvon (after 2.5 weeks) on Wednesday.  The thought of packing up and decamping has been too onerous to think about (haha - we are just getting lazy).  We will head to Geraldton then inland to Kalgoorlie via Mt Magnet, Sandstone and Leinster (phew going to be hot) then down to Esperance for a couple of weeks.  John's dad is going to drive from Albany (480kms) and spend sometime with us which will be good to catch up with him again.  It is approx. 1900kms from Carnarvon to Esperance with not a lot in between, you don't appreciate just how big this state is until you drive it.  No wonder some of the eastern staters are daunted by the distances here when they have towns so close to each other.   From there we will head east into SA.  Looking forward to crossing the border, will really feel like we on an adventure then.  This picture is of the OTC (Overseas Telecommunications) dish.  It is no longer functional (we think) but is a landmark in Carnarvon.  At night they light it up and it is very pretty.  Some blurb on the dish pinched from the web - "The OTC dish is one of the landmarks of Carnarvon, it is 29.5 metres in diameter and was the first antenna in Australia to transmit and receive world-wide television via satellite. The Overseas Telecommunications Base is situated on Brown’s Range and ceased to operate on 31st March 1987. It was one of just eight in the world and was an integral part of the communications network for the Apollo Moon Programme and also for tracking Halley’s Comet.

During the “Gemini” and “Apollo” space missions it was the station that transmitted the first live TV from Australia to the outside world on November 25th 1966 and transmitted the first live TV into Western Australia on July 21st 1969. The second event was Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.

Day 61 - Rocky Pool (6 Nov)

Drove 50kms from Carnarvon today to check out Rocky Pool.   Driving through a very arid desolate landscape you wonder what we are going to see there is lots of nothingness.  Eventually we see the sign for Rocky Pool 4km on dirt road and end up at oasis.  It is beautiful.  A clear blue fresh water pool with ghost gums and paperbarks around the banks and deep red rocks. This is one of the pools along the Gascoyne River where the water holds after the river ceases to flow.  We found a shady tree and had our picnic lunch.  There was a time when you could camp along the pool but camping is no longer allowed.  If this is an example of some of the gorges and pools in the Kimberleys and Pilbara then we are in for a real treat.  The windmill was taken on the way home, I like it as to me it really represents the outback.

Day 59 - Quobba (4 Nov)

Just got back from Quobba (80kms NW of Carnarvon).  The 'King Waves Kill' sign is true there are cairns on the rocks proving that people do disappear over the edge of the rocks all for the sake of a fish!  Today is very warm (39 degrees) so the ocean was flat which meant not as much blowhole activity as we have seen on a previous visit.  However we still got some good action shots. We climbed down to the edge of a blowhole and got drenched, that water comes up with a lot of force, was good chance to cool off.  John tried his hand at fishing off the rocks (luckily I held on to the car keys so could get home if he fell over the edge) and caught two wrasse and a sweetlip all undersize so they got to live another day.  Not sure if you can eat wrasse anyway?  We checked out Quobba homestead with a view to maybe staying for a few days, which has a great website but a bit too rustic for our setup. There are also camping spots along the sand dunes ($7.50/night) which are popular and we may consider doing that in some time in the future.  It was a good trip and is a must do if ever in Carnarvon.  Here is an example of life on the road, a retired farmer and his wife have been staying in this caravan park since before we arrived and today he was giving away fresh tomatoes that he got from a plantation owner who had excess.  I asked him when he was leaving and he said they were leaving tomorrow but now they have all these tomatoes (three green shopping bags full) they are going to stay longer and make chutney and relish!  Sure beats working.

Day 56 - Carnarvon (1 Nov)

On Sunday I became a volunteer through the local Rotary club for the Gascoyne Dash. My job was to check off those competitors who had paid for fuel at our checkpoint and add to the list those who needed fuel but had not ordered it!

It was a stinking hot day and despite having a large shade cloth area everyone took strain, especially the poor guys doing the actual refueling. We left at 6:15am! (yes I actually got up) and got home around 5pm. What a huge cross section of vehicles quads and bikes. We had the race chopper buzzing overhead and even had a visit from the news chopper (although I believe the main reason he landed was his chopper was overheating!)

As per usual we had the standard Rotary BBQ and bangers plus also a great breakfast so catering wise we were well cared for (unlike some other check points who were short on some of these luxuries).
The old homestead or overseers residence, which is now abandoned, supported some 80 workers and their families in it’s day growing a lot of market garden products.

This race which runs over 3 days apparently started as a boat race down the Gascoyne River! BUT as this only flows (floods) after heavy inland rain it’s not predictable enough so it was changed to a race down and through the dry river bed in vehicles!

We’ve met some really lovely people here and the friendship shown is really great, all as a result of someone we met at a Rotary function, which says volumes for service associations. Go join yours! :-)