Blogger: Pat Lynch
Day 20 – July 21st
I am up first this morning. I am only questioning that it is early but I see the first sign of light in the distance. Clouds have moved in over night and it is extremely warm. Sandles, t-shirt and shorts is the order of the day. The worry is that warm weather means rain and we see a rainbow in the distance as the sun rises. We clear more spinifix out of the radiators of our vehicles. Lets hope this is it as we have a 1000km to do today. This is twice the length of Ireland. We are ready to leave at 7.30. Our first stop will be where we can get diesel. It does not open until 9am. The road is very smooth and we travel at 85km p/h. Our car is driving well so far.We pass a dead rue on the road and see two golden eagles feasting on the dead carcase. We see our first vehicle which is a station vehicle going to tend cattle. There is a lot of rain in the sky but it is still dry. The sky is very overcast. Nick, our lead vehicle is having some difficulty with Kangaroos running across in his path. They can do a lot of damage to a vehicle if we hit them but we have Rue bars on our front bumper to take the impact if we hit them. Some of the Rues out here are 6 foot tall. At 8.15, it begins to rain and we have to put on our wipers. It is not heavy enough to cause any problems. The rain is keeping the dust down for us. We see our first truck coming towards us with supplies heading to a station or a gold mine. We pass a gold mine entrance, it is big business out here. An emu with two chicks cross in front of us. The sky clears towards the South and the rain dries up. The Emu male looks after the chicks including sitting on the nest. We hit our first bitumen road 5km for Wiluna. We pass a native community camp with kids out playing. It is 9.25am.
We arrive at Wiluna, it is a strange, sleepy looking town. The petrol garage/grocery store and pub are the key attractions in town. It also has a school and a preschool and a camping ground for visitors. It’s 50 degrees here in the summer(Christmas) and it is unbearable. Gold mines bring some business to the town. We buy our deisel, $118 to fill our tank. While at the station, a mini bus of Aboriginals arrive in a Toyato mini bus. The ladies get out and go into the store and instruct the driver(who is possible one of their husband) to put in $35. Two dogs also get out of the vehicle. A tiny little dog was on the dashboard above the steering wheel. Rob and I went over to admire the dog and build up some conversation with the driver. He says he lives in the Aboriginal community down the road. He asked us were we out exploring and we said we were. Not a very chatty guy. His van was filthy with dust everywhere and litter scattered around the floor. I would have loved to have taken some photos of him but Aboriginals do not like to have their photos taken. While in Wiluna, we go to the cemetery and see the graves of the last two Nomads and the grave of the person who found them. I got a chance to send a text to home to say we had arrived back into civilisation. I decided not to call as it is the middle of the night at home. Some discussions between ourselves indicated that we may not get back to Perth tonight. Rob would like to camp and get their tomorrow at lunch time. Most of the other guys are anxious to get to Perth late tonight, even if it is midnight. We are about to get onto a gravel track again, rather then stay on the Bitumen road. It is 180km longer if we stay on the Bitumen road. We could go to Meekathera and then go South but our route is to go to Sandstone and then to Paynes Fine. We stop for morning coffee outside Wiluna and clear our radiator of Spinifix. Our water to our windscreen does not work and it is a nuisance. Oil, tyres etc are checked and we get on our way. It is now 11am.
I drive on to Sandsone. Sandstones population was 8000 people once but now it is as little as 100 people. It was created for its mining in the area. Gold is still mined in the area. We met two vehicles in about 250km. Quite a boring drive. We arrive at Sandstone at 1.30 and we visit a tourist spot called London Bridge where we have lunch. London Bridge is a bridge made out of natural rock. At 2.30 we head to Paynes Fine which is 234km away. We check if the road is open and it is. A sign is put up at the start of the road and if you travel on it and it is closed. You can be fined $5000. The road is only closed in heavy rain. We have traveled the length of Ireland today and have seen only two cars. It becomes a boring drive at this stage. The road is just straight and wide. We hope to be on tarmac surface by 6pm. We got to Paynes Fine for 5pm and we eventually made it back to civlisation in Perth at 10pm. It was great to have a shower and sleep in a comfortable bed after 2 and a half weeks. The following day we had a great catch up with the family and Rob’s family dropped me to the airport for a midnight flight home.
It was probably one of the most memorable couple of weeks of my life and I would like to thank my fellow comrads for putting up with a rookie and thought me a lot over the two weeks.
Hope you enjoyed it. Until my next adventure, over and out!
Pat
