Bagging 300

November 23-27

So I had 4 1/2 days off, with nothing planned and great weather forecast....What to do then???

With a 4am start at work completed by 1000, on a last minute spur of the moment decision, I decided to pack the car and head out into the wheatbelt. It had been a while and whilst at it, I could knock off a cache or two. By the time I had done some food shopping and had the car packed, it was 1425 Hrs. That should give me a head start on some wheatbelt stuff in the morning. The rough cut plan in my head was to head to Billiburning Rock, somewhere I had visited but not stayed at previously. Making my way North from the Highway at Kellerberrin, a lowering sun on the horizon meant I wasn't going to make Billiburning before dark. So I put plan B into action....Marshall Rock. This was a lot closer. nearing Marshall, A huge full moon was arising, but with time of the essence, I didn't have time for a picture. As it was, it was dark when I arrived there too.

Having had an early start due to work, the night was a pretty quiet, early affair. But I was in the wheatbelt, just South of Bencubbin, ready for the next 4 days of unknown adventure.

Coffee and breakfast done, I decided to have a bit of a walk around the summit of Marshall Rock. The only other person here, some back packers in their bongo van, whom I never laid sight on by the way.  I was camped around the back, on the Northern side, they were on the South East side, so all in all, I may as well have been there on my own anyway.

 

 

With no real plans except maybe pick off a cache or two, it was a late start. I never got underway until midday. It was pretty warm, so I decided to go into Benny for a cool drink and a cache on the way into town. I was having an experimental trip this time around. No fridge. I just packed an icebox. This would be interesting, as I hadn't used an icebox in years. Could I get 5 days usage on ice alone??

 

 

Well it was going to be tough. Trying to fit 2 bags of ice into a 50L icebox full of food/drink was tough. In fact, it couldn't be done unless I broke one bag of ice into pieces. Not ideal, cause it melts faster that way, but it had to be done.

 

 

I dropped into lake Mcdermott for a look, a large open area is here that one could push into a quick overnighter if needed. I decided Muckinbudin was the plan for today, trying to make Baropin Rocks for the night. A quick stop at Welbungin tennis club was called for....a cache lying in waiting GC5DP35.

 

 

From there it was a short hop to Welbungin Hill. A rather unloved cache (GC5DP4H) needed another signature. I dropped a TB that I had picked up in Dongara and also placed my first pathtag into a cache as an incentive for others to visit. Some 4 months later, and no one has been there since. The view from the top over the surrounding agricultural district was pretty special:

Seeing I was passing "dead men tell no tales" - GC5DP42, I had to go pay homage to poor old Richard. A grave site out in the middle of nowhere.

Making Muckinbudin around 1430, I dropped into the café for some lunch, then headed off to the botanical gardens for another find. I had knocked off another hour of sunlight making these detours, so time was now of the essence to get to camp at a reasonable hour, whilst knocking another couple of caches off.

Making De-Eraning Rock at 1600, I knew things would be tight. I had a fair hike to get to GZ from where the car was parked. The Cache here was a pretty special one, some pretty good aboriginal art is to be found nearby (GC57CTN).

Making my way up the large rock face, I had to find a path through scrub and granite to get to ground Zero. Eventually I got there. It was mid afternoon  with temps in the mid 30's when I arrived at GZ. try as I might, I just couldn't find this bloody cache. Approaching from every angle, looking in every crevice and turning over every rock, I must have spent a good 1/2 hour looking for it. Then I read the prior logs. I suspect the co-ords are out a little, and the cache is on top of a large granite sloping rock, some 5M or so above ground. The issue for me being, I reckon I could get up there, but would probably break my neck getting back down. I was solo and a long way from help. It's no place to break a leg, so I had to let it go to the keeper. Next time I might bring some "tools" to help me find it.

The cave at the site was pretty impressive with all it's artwork. So I took some pics and started making my way back to the car.

I had now wasted 1 1/2 hours on this DNF and time was getting on. The original plan was to knock of the sister cache to De-Eranning, but both time and the prior logs told me this wasn't going to happen today. It was time to head for camp. I knocked Baropin on the head and decided to hit Beringbooding rock  instead, arriving at 1800.


I quickly got some gear out and got up top of the rock for both the sunset and moonrise. unfortunately, there was an hour and a half between both events, so I just sat up top and waited. I wish I had my DSLR this trip as I may have got a decent moonrise shot with that.

 

 

 

 

A short 123Km day was done. Arriving back to camp in the dark at 2000, it was time to get some dinner on the go.

 



 

 

Come the morning, after breakfast, I decided to go around the back of the rock to try to find this aboriginal had print I've looked for a few times prior - without success...



 

 

 

 

A short stroll and I was in familiar country - balancing boulders:

 

 

 

 

 

And making my way through the vegetation, I arrived at the site, ready for another investigation for this hand print:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking up, looking down, all around the site, again I just couldn't find it. I walked the periphery and just happen to look into a gap in the rocks at a time when the lighting was right - bloody hell, there it was, on the cave wall - the cave I had been in and out of numerous times without seeing it.

 

Well I'll be buggered. Inside the cave, if you look hard enough, there she was in all its glory 😏. I cant believe I had never found it prior.



 

So walking back to the car, I now had a bit of a spring in my step. That made up in some way for the drama at De-Eranning yesterday.

Another late start, I got on the road around 1130. With no idea where I was going, I decided to head down to Westonia and maybe check out South of the Highway.....A place I keep meaning to investigate, but never have.

I picked up a cache at Sandleford Rocks (GC2E48A) where I has some lunch in the shade of a tree. Again, it's another hot one today.

Then onto Westonia. What a magic little town this is.

Explore Westonia

I will have to come back one day and spend some time walking around here, but for now, its just enough time to find a niggly nano.....on mechanical equipment. You always know this will be a challenge.....

But I had it in hand pretty quickly:

 

Mind you, the guardian of the cache was keeping his eye on me:

Another find at the town entrance and it was time for the highway to continue the journey on the South side:

 

 

 

 

 

Making a DNF on a cache at Bodallin, I headed East and turned South at Yellowdine. There are a couple of caches down here and I veered off track for one near a salt lake. You have to cross the lake to get to the hide. Unfortunately, I had a bit of water on this track - obviously a storm had rolled through at some stage - and this had me a bit worried about driving across a wet salt lake, solo and unassisted. When the vegetation closed in, that sealed my fate. I turned around. I will leave that one for another day. No point being a hero.

 

 

Soon after, I made Mt Palmer and knocked off the cache here (GC6K8XW) then made my way back to the old Mt palmer Hotel for tonight's camp.

 

What an amazing place. The ruins of the Old hotel is the most significant feature of the area, but with a beer in hand, I went for a short stroll and found the remnants of a now defunct gold mining township.

 

 

 

 

 

 A more respectable 260Km's for the day done.

Morning dawns and the weather is looking a little sus. I suspect it will burn off during the day. With coffee duties done and a nice omelette to boot, it's time to hit the tracks for Marvel loch at 0900. After 3 days of pretty warm temps, I am needing some ice. I am right for the time being, but I reckon tomorrow I will be out, so best to resupply whilst I can, in Marvel Loch.

All these tracks South of the highway from yellowdine are an unknown entity to me. Knowing the region in general, I fully expect to tracks to either be locked up in a mining lease with no entry allowed, or they will close in with vegetation. but I am pleasantly surprised......for a while anyway.

 I turn off a bush track onto a well formed dirt road. It is too well formed for my thinking, I wonder if its a private haul road?

Some 10Km's later, I find the answer....yep, it sure is. No signage whatsoever where I joined this road. It really grates me this mining industry. They can just get access to roads/tracks, put a bit of work in, then claim them as private. Well screw you. Whilst I wont deliberately enter a signed "keep out"place, I have no grudge using a road that I just happen to stumble on in the bush. If the miners take offence to that - well, get over it.

And so I make Marvel Loch. It just appears to be nothing short of a donga village for the local miners. I find the general store - the general store with no ice....Grrrr but the bowser out front is worthy a pic:



Seeing as its only 1000, the pub isn't open either. So on the ice front, I am screwed. At camp last night, I looked at some maps and decided to make my way down to the Holland Track, to exit at Hyden. Always good to have a plan hey! But this means another day without ice. At least the slurry is still ice cold and my food containers aren't leaking.

So Another pesky nano is picked off on the way out of town (GC3HZGH)

From there I had to make my way to Mt Holland. Stopping at cockatoo tanks (GC3HZGN) cause it was on the way and there was a log that had to be signed   :



However, my main aim was to get down to the site of the Vultee Vengeance (a27-295) aircraft crash site. Not just for the cache, but for the history too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It makes a riveting read:

 

 reference: yilgarn.wa.gov.au

On Sunday the 27th August 1944 one of the most dramatic events to involve members of
the 15th battalion took place in the far eastern part of the unit’s area.
An RAAF Vultee Vengeance dive bomber went missing on a training flight from Pearce
near Perth. The plane had apparently become lost and run out of fuel. The RAAF
started searching between New Norcia and then Moora without luck. A few days later
a chance conversation between a commercial pilot and Sqd/Ldr Haber, the commanding
officer of No.7 Communications Unit at Pearce, revealed that the former had sighted
what he thought was a tent in the bush east of Narembeen. Next morning a Beaufort bomber
identified a parachute but no sign of life and a large number of soldiers from Northam
were sent for a ground search.
The pilot Warrant Officer J Ingram was located at a remote farmhouse some four days
after the crash and told his story. On realizing that he was nearly out of fuel he had
warned the navigator Flt/Sgt CL King to bale out and went through the necessary roll to
allow him to do so. He then climbed for height and baled out himself. There being no sign
of King he headed west and found the farmhouse after four days during which he had only a
goanna to eat.

A huge effort was now mounted to try and locate King and the aircraft. The wreckage was
finally found by a Tigermoth on the2nd of September in extremely thick and inhospitable
scrub, however this did not deter a search party which included 15th Battalion men,
Cpl M Holtfreter and Pte D Wilkins from setting out to find it. They drove a truck as far
as possible then continued on foot. After they reached a spot five miles beyond the truck
it was arranged that a plane would fly over and drop a smoke bomb on the crash site to mark
it. Holtfreter fired his rifle into a tree well ahead in line with the smoke then went
forward and marked it so that one of the others could take a compass bearing. A further
thirteen miles into the scrub they found the crash site. A large area had been burnt and the
plane’s engine was buried ten feet in the earth and the wreckage strewn over ten acres.

There was no trace of King or his parachute, it was believed that he had been hit by the large

tailplane of the Vengeance as he bailed out. After the war, his father travelled from the

eastern states and enlisted the help of Holtfreter to make another search for his lost son,

but to no avail.

Just getting to the cache 50m in the scrub was bad enough. the site is total devastation. Just small fragments of aircraft alli scattered throughout the bush.


So that was a pretty cool detour.

By 1300, I had made Mt Holland and decided to drive the steep, rocky track to the top for another log signing:

And then I was to make my way down the Holland for Hyden:

 

 

 

 

 

The next 2 hours was hell. I only travelled a mere 23km, it was all stop/start/think and pick a route through very deep puddles and ruts without causing vehicle damage. Very early on I copped a bit hit to the front intercooler bashplate (thank goodness for bash plates). Soon afterwards, I reduced the capacity of my auxiliary fuel tank and broke one of its mounting brackets as my arse end slid into a hole. then to top it off, I dented the left side fender on a tree about 1 1/2" in diameter that I misjudged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, it left a sour taste for me regarding the Holland track, one that means I wont be back. To me it wasn't fun, it was a chore. It wasn't even technically challenging. It was just a pain in the arse. The worst part was that the track wasn't naturally rough - all this has been caused by vehicle erosion from mud warriors, that feel they have to travel these tracks when wet, and then do what they can do to transfer dirt from the track over their panels. I guess rule 5 means nothing.

It's now 1530 and its looking like I may not even make Hyden tonight - if this crap keeps up. However I made a coms tower and a quick find of another cache (GC2E47Y)

From here the track opened up pretty much and I started to make some progress. Apart from a large rut I had to traverse crosswise. I got some pretty big air time from the front left hand wheel, more than I expected and I near crapped myself when it lifted. but all was good, down she came, and onwards I went to cross the barrier fence:

With the last cache on the Holland crossed off (GCVRR1), I finally made Hyden at 1745. Here I managed to grab a bag of ice. Opening the ice box, the carnage was revealed. The rough bouncing along the Holland had tossed my shit everywhere. The slurry now a mix of punctured dip containers, meat juice and all other delightful things. Great. Consulting wikicamps, I found a place I reckon would be suitable for the night, and made haste to get there before dark. There I had to perform ice box maintenance and try to clean up the juicy concoction that now lined the walls of my box. it was only 316 Km's for the day, but it sure was taxing. I was pretty well stuffed.

Whilst every day had been hot - mid 30's, and the nights had been pretty good, last nights camp certainly wasn't. A cold wind was blowing and I just couldn't escape it. In the end, I said screw it, so at 2000, I just went to bed. Something quite bizarre happened though. I spotted a satellite, heading roughly North East. Nothing bizarre in that, but wait, there's more. It eventually flared out and I immediately spied another roughly at 90 degrees to the first, travelling South West. And when that one flared out, another following the trajectory of the first. As if that wasn't weird enough, a 4th, same as the first also appeared. 4 in a row. I doubt I'll ever see an event like that ever again....


I woke early on the last day and decided I wouldn't bother with breakfast or a coffee, but head into Bruce Rock for a bought breakfast. I also noted my geo tally was now 288. Could get 12 more before home to crack the 300? I wsas now back in civilisation, deep into the middle of the wheatbelt.

So I put a plan in place. I picked up 5 in Bruce rock and one DNF.So it's only 0900 with 7 to go.

Stopping in the old township of Kwolyin, I thought I could grab a couple more. But reading the logs, some walking was involved and I just didn't have the time to pick them off. I needed quicker ones. So a detour to Mt Stirling and I had another one bagged. Mind you, that one wasn't quick either, it had taken me 45 Minutes for the one find (GC11XA0)

Now with 5 to go, I picked off 2 at the pink lake (which wasn't pink) , one being an earth cache and then another 2 in town. I was now at 299.

Merredin was looking good to bag 300. I drove up an appropriate named street, to the top of Cunderdin Hill. A bit of looking around and I had hit my target. 300 Finds. You lil ripper. It wasn't planned before I left, but I made it happen once I realised I was so close.

Time now being 1415, meant I was going to have to fight peak hour traffic across town when I got there. I arrived home at 1730, exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. The largest day of my 5 days on the road with 440Km's driven.

I love trips like this....no plans, just go and see what happens. This is living!

Then, I noted that I finish 2018 with a rather tantalising milestone to achieve in 2019.

I will chalk up 100,000 Km's of trips away since 2011. I've been every where man.....

 

And fuel usage for 2018 was substantial too:

I have a pathtag in production to mark the milestone. They will be starting to be placed in caches once I hit the target.

Bring on a mighty big 2019.



Trip Stats:

 4 nights under canvas

 1502km travelled

 168L fuel used

trip average of  11.2L/100

cost of fuel $263

camp fees $0 - No camp fee's out here 👍.

Finishing the year off with 42 nights under canvas

Trip Vids:



Wooramel Woes

October 23-31

With 10 days up my sleeve and my partner in crime, Warren all lined up to come, we had to formulate a plan to visit some more of this spectacular state. Having done 3 trips this year already out into the Great Victoria Desert, it was time for a change. I had two thoughts of localities and put them to Warren. We could do a Wheatbelt/Goldfields tour (something well overdue on my schedule) or try something different: maybe up into the Murchison region. We decided on the latter. Time would tell if going a bit later in the year would be a good thing or not.

So Tuesday morning, I arranged to meet Warren on the freeway. Best laid plans go astray. He rang me when he was getting close to my abode, so I got on the road and made contact via radio. I turned up the freeway, expecting to pull up in an emergency lane for him to join me. Radio coms started to get scratchy (which was concerning), and soon after, non existent. Oh crap, here we go again, visions of new years eve coming back to haunt me. This time though, I had phone coverage and made a call. Somewhere, somehow, our coms had got mixed up and Warren didn't turn onto the freeway, but decided on a parallel running road a few Km's east of me. Ok, I said, I will meet you on that road, just past an intersection we both knew. I arrived first, and soon enough, I had Warren waiting at the traffic lights behind me, so I slowly made progress northwards until we were joined. Disaster averted!

The plan for today was to head into some unknown country, camp up at a site I had never visited, Coal Seam Conservation park. On the way, I would knock off a cache or two, too.

First port of call was Mingenew, where a drive up to the lookout produced the first cache for the trip. The weather warming and the sky sultana's getting friendly, we continued North.

It was only a short hop from here onto Coalseam, and we had arrived pretty early, so a drive around was called for. A month earlier and it would have been nothing short of spectacular. Blankets of now dead wildflowers were covering the ground in blankets. It would have been so colourful here back then, with the wildflower season this year a pretty good one. So I knocked off another cache and we went to set up camp early. It was great being camp and able to just sit back and casually set up for the night with a beer in hand.

Pre dinner and before dark, Warren and myself walked across the river to check out an old shaft that had been dug chasing one of those seams of coal. The dark patches that can be seen in the river bed on the left are some of those seams meeting the river.

A leisurely 400Km day and we got down to business of making dinner. Unfortunately for Warren, he cut his finger and we had a bit of first aid training to put to use. Little did we know what the next 9 days had in store for us. We spent the night listening to a recording of Len Beadell recounting his exploits of work in the interior, opening up country and cutting tracks through virgin desert. Whilst it is known he was a hard man to work for, he is the most humorous and interesting fellow to listen to. I sat there spell bound, picturing in my mind his stories to the tracks of his I have travelled. A take your hat off to kind of guy.

Day 2 and we hit the road North. A cache or two on the way breaking up the journey. A stop at Butterabby graves was an unexpected find. A tale of woe of indigenous resistance nd the subsequent reprisal of the justice system of the time. Further reading can be had here:

Butterabby Graves history

And so it was in short time we made Mullewa. The town has a reputation I don't need to go into here, but our expectations were blown away. A couple of hours in the town, with a cache knocked off as well, we both left town in awe. To spend a couple of days here would be easy to do. Something we must do at some stage in the future.

Heading North now, the country becoming more hostile, we dropped into Stockmans pool for a look. Whilst the weather was still quite warm, the clouds had Moved in.



A couple of hundred K's up the well formed gravel road we hit Murchison Roadhouse. A great place for fuel and an oasis in very dry, parched country. Green grass everywhere and a magnificent looking campground. With fuel and an ice cream down, we continued on. The plan to be at Bilung pool later that afternoon.

Passing the turn off to Errabiddy Bluff, we ventured in for a quick look. Whilst we didn't really have the time to spare, and the fact it was pretty warm, it would be great to climb the bluff and explore the surrounding hills at another time.



I love all this country out here. I have read A.C Gregory's journals from the mid 1800's exploring the area and I have always wanted to explore out here. This trip however, I can only touch base. maybe another time I can put in some research and find further places to explore in the region?

A C Gregory


With time getting on, we reached the Wooramel River around 1730 in the afternoon. my mate Trev, told me of a little known place here, the Wooramel River Gorges. Not finding a lot on the net, I had found a track on Google Earth that looked like what Trev had described. So Warren and myself shot up the said track.

A little rough, but nothing extravagant, I had an over voltage alarm pop up on the ultra gauge. That was weird. And a kilometre further on, a second instance. I said to Warren I would check under bonnet to make sure all was ok, but first, we need to grab some pictures, so we can get to Bilung before dark.

With pictures done, it was time for the last 20 odd K's to camp. Jump in the car, turn the key and click...click...click....

Crap.

Popping the bonnet revealed nothing to the eye, so out with a multimeter. When trying to crank, my battery voltage was dropping below 10V. That's not good. So I figured we would just jump start it, get to camp and look at the problem in the morning.

Best laid plans gone astray, this battery want having anything of jump starting. We were stuck here. With a fair wind howling and the sun going down fast, it was time to make camp: where I had stopped. Which was rather inopportune, because I wasn't exactly positioned for camping where I stood. Anyway, we just had to make do with what we had, hoping I didn't need to go for a wee walk in the middle of the night, cause only meters away was a fair drop.....

 

Come the morning, I decided the only course of resolution was to remove my aux battery and place it under the bonnet for starting duties. A major inconvenience because all my accessories power is fed by that battery - fridge and all.

Having to pull all the rear end of the car apart just to get to the battery was a pain too:

But it beats walking.

With the starter battery out, I delved a little deeper to investigate a front end squeak that had also developed that day. My fears were realised when I found the strut shaft wasn't in center - again....the upper strut mount has failed after being replaced only 6 months ago, with very little rough work in between. Not happy Jan.

There is nothing I could do about the strut for now. I just had to limp it through the trip. Fitting the aux batter under the bonnet was a struggle too. It was a bit high and I couldn't stretch the negative lead to fit. Ferreting around in my kit, I find a piece of bar, part of an exhaust bracket bent in an L shape with a hole each end.In the best bush mechanics style, I put a shifter on each end, bent it sort of straight, and now I had a busbar I could bolt to the battery and bolt to the negative cable. Electrical connection sorted, would the battery start the car?

No drama's at all. Thank goodness for carrying a redundant supply. Getting a tow out here would be expensive. So with just enough clearance (and a little persuasion of terminals), we got the bonnet shut and started loading all the gear back in. The starter battery will not fit the hole of the aux battery, so I cant use it for anything. I will have to find room for that somewhere in the car. just for the record - after my original oem battery failed at lake rason on mowing the Spackman, I lashed out and bought an expensive optima, thinking I don't want starter issues again. Well that didn't quite work out either, 6 months and its either dropped a cell or has short circuited. Not happy again, Jan.

The next drama, how to power the fridge. Again bush mechanics 101 - turn the power on to my rear Anderson plug, and plug an Anderson extention cable I have, through the back door and to the fridge. So I now have my fridge running, but I am down to a single battery for both starting and fridge duties. Not a good prospect in warm weather, but I suppose, we are moving every day.

So now back on the road, we have decisions to make. I decided to give Mt Augustus a miss for the time being and head straight into Gascoyne Junction to see if I could get another battery. failing that, I would have phone coverage and could see what either Carnarvon or Geraldton had available.

Arriving in Gassy, first thing I had to do was eat. Cheap as here at the roadhouse, but the $20 burger would allow me to skip a week of meals:

Finding a battery in Gassy proved futile and a phone call to Geraldton to have the optima replaced under warranty wasn't much better. So I decided I would just complete the trip on the one battery as I had Warren to jump me if required. So another couple of hundred K's later, and Mt Augustus comes into view. The scenery out her is nothing short of spectacular, long plains of flat ground broken by intermittent hills and mounts.

We arrived to Mt Augustus pretty weary after a day of hardship, but we had lots of green grass. Another oasis in extremely dry country.

With the dawning of a new day comes new challenges. Warren has found good reason not to park under trees with masses of Major Mitchell's flying around - Guano.  His car was covered in it. So even though it was bore water, warren decided that was less damaging to his paint work than the uric acid in the poop. A quick clean and wipe down and he was sorted. The bird life here is amazing .....and extremely noisy too.

Proving the car still starts, we head off for a day exploring the mountain -

Mt. Augustus is more than twice the size of Uluru. Unlike Uluru, which is a monolith  and, in general, devoid of plant growth, Mt. Augustus is a monocline (an asymmetrical anticline).

Clear as mud now?

First port of call, Kotka trail. There I pick up the cache 1/2 way up the gorge. Then its onto Cattle Pool:

What an amazing place. I cant believe how many little oasis's exist in such dry country.

We walk downstream for a bit and I spy an old piece of machinery in the scrub to go and investigate:

Lunch now done in the shade of the river gums, we venture on to the Southern side of the rock for the Flinstone rock walk to check out the petroglyphs:. 

It's becoming quite warm today, peaking at around 42 degree's according to the car. So major trail walks aren't going to happen.

Onto Edney's trail for a couple more petroglyphs:

The southern slope of the mount creating a picturesque view.

I would love to know of the significance of the following figure, scribed into the cave wall. I'm sure its a common indigenous image;

Before we know it, it's late afternoon, and being so hot, it's time for camp and a refreshing ale. Our job here at the mountain is done. You can only do so much being so hot. the sun going down over the mount makes a wonderful backdrop:

The following morning we departed Mt Augustus for what we hoped would be the Kennedy ranges. The plan was to come in from the North, but there was an issue. Before we left home, the roads were closed and so too was the Kennedy Ranges. We could get no reliable intelligence at the Mt as to when the road was going to open. It was supposed to be open once we got there 2 days ago, but wasn't. So the only way to find out was to drive down.

Unfortunately, the road still wasn't open so we had to go back to Gassy Jct. Once there, we find the access road to the Kennedy's from the South wasn't open either, so out plans for the Kennedy's was shot. What to do now......Well I drove around a bit and found a nice little camp just off the banks of the Gascoyne River, well shaded and open. Seeing it was pretty bloody hot, we decided to pull up for camp early here and cool off with a couple of beers.

And that evening, Warren cooked some apple pie in the camp oven for a birthday desert. Nice one. A short 300Km day was done.

We now needed a plan B. With the Kennedy's out of the equation, we decided to head to the coast for some cool relief. However on the way, we passed the track to the Eastern side of the Kennedy's and decided to go part way up for a look.

Until that is, warren got himself bogged trying to cross the Gascoyne river. Well, he was stuck, not bogged in all reality, a tyre pressure adjustment and he ambled out. I tried to con Warren into going across again so we could see some of the Kennedy's, but it was hot and he wasn't keen so we stuck to plan....Carnarvon.

We dropped in at a most remarkable place on the way: Rocky Pool. We scouted around to find a suitable camp, however, it was again very hot and the only shade to be found were in spots just a bit small to camp at. Otherwise it would have been perfect.

Arriving in Carnarvon, we grabbed some lunch, did a quick tour of the town then headed out to Quobba for the night. The temperature was certainly cooler and we had to seek some shelter behind an old fishing shack to escape the onshore breeze.

In the middle of the night, I heard what I thought was rats rooting around. So I waited patiently until I could hear they were near, sprung to attention from the swag to spot the little bugger only to find........crabs, haha. All these crabs, about 3" across had come out to play. With breakfast done, it was time to head up to the HMAS Sydney memorial to knock off a few caches.

Spotting some limestone on the side of the track from a recent grading, I was surprised to see all this limestone impregnated with fossils:

Back into Carnarvon, we decided we would make Wooramel River retreat for the night. A paid campsite on a station, but I had heard good things about it. And the things I had heard were correct. $13 bucks a night, they have their own artesian spa, a fantastic shaded campground on the banks of the Wooramel River - dry as a bone at this point - showers, flushing dunnies....It was well worth the $13. 

 

A relatively relaxed short day:

Passing the overlander roadhouse, Another cache was calling:

Then we decided to have lunch at Northhampton. The Ploughman's lunch was delicious. A bit different from my usual hamburger.....

But I had higher duties to attend to. My new trackable:  All Aboard TB7Y9HQ needed to be released in a rail oriented spot. Whilst I was a bit worried about this spot, being somewhat open and prone to being found by non cachers, I took the risk. It paid off, it was collected by another cacher, who is now looking for a suitable spot to drop it off.

We ended up at Ellendale Pool, another spot I had heard about, but had never been to. It was a good choice:

There was a gentleman who had home built his mobile home on a man truck base. It was pretty spectacular and didn't want for anything, right down to its own desal plant and all. It was on a shakedown trip. Funny enough, some 6 months have elapsed from this trip to when I write this blog entry, I have seen it quite a few times South of Perth.

In the morning, day 9 was home time. A relatively leisurely drive home, saw us complete out trip. Lots of woes, but lots of high's too. We have left room to go see some more of the region, the Kennedy's in particular.

Trip Stats:


 8 nights under canvas

3067  km travelled

362 L fuel used

Best consumption: 10.9L/100, Worst 12.7L/100

for a trip average of  11.8L/100

cost of fuel $617

camp fees  $24 - $11 at Mt Augustus, $13 Wooramel River retreat.

With a 4 dayer prior to Peaceful Bay and 2 at WAGB 2018, the running tally of nights under canvas now stands at 38


Trip Vids: