OK plan A was too stay at Nillibubbica until our friends Laureen & Tom caught up with us on Saturday. Then we heard about this nice place called Telegraph Pool, a little bit rough driving in but doable, and on the way to Derby not far from our camp, so it would be a good idea to spend a couple of days there and come back to Nillibubbica. Off we went about 34 kms to the turnoff, then 1 km down the road finding out that it was much too rough so we turned around. Back at the main road we decided that we might as well go forward and meet them in Derby, so we went to Derby and met Laureen & Tom. After a very friendly catch up chat they continued to the rather expensive ($44) caravan park that they are staying in so that Tom can do a fishing charter tomorrow. We went out to the rather fancy sounding Mike'N'Ath Savanah Retreat which turns out to be an empty paddock with facilities, which suits us anyway and is a much more reasonable $15 per night. It just goes to show that there are many ways to skin a cat.

Derby is a fairly small town boasting a Woolworths shopping centre, a town shopping centre further down to Main Street and various other shops and small businesses spread all over. It also is home to Curtin Air Base which also serves as the commercial airport, the Regional Prison, a boat person holding centre (I think), a port with quite along jetty and very high 10 mtr tides (not all time time, that is peak tide) , the prison Boab tree and lots of other heritage type things. Like most of the towns in rural WA they are trying to promote their points of interest to attract tourists. I suspect that there is a very big opening for someone or multiple someones to assist in this process because in my humble opinion it is not being done properly outside of each town's zone.

For those who are feeling the cold the weather is beautiful being both hot and dry.

Another thing to note is that this part of the world is home to the rather beautiful Boab tree. They have huge bloated trunks with lots of branches going every which way and in season lots of leaves. Described by a friend of ours as having a permanent mad hair day.......does that make them all female?

I am cross with myself because I didn't do a blog yesterday. We spent the day at Stanley finishing up the cleaning of the van, servicing the chain saw then repacking the tunnel boot. We also met a very nice couple who parked near us and we had a long chat with them at sundowners. That is my excuse anyway.

Today we got going fairly early leaving the camp at 8.45, wow! We were still almost last out as everyone was trying to beat the wind. So we went up to Broome where we shopped, bought grog and fuel then headed out. We are now heading east towards Kununnurra. On the way to Broome I saw a gathering of brolgas, I say I because madame was asleep which means that I was driving. I always feel deprived when I have to drive as I don't see as much, but today firstly the brolgas then large numbers of cattle either side of the road and I didn't stop to get photographs. If Elaine had been driving I would have been cross.

We have finished up the Nillibubbica rest area which is basic and nice like most of the rest areas in this part of the world. We have also met another nice couple who are heading our way so we may be able to travel together.

Today, as on most of the days since we left Perth this time, we were absolutely amazed at the very large number of RVs travelling south. There might be as many travelling north but we don't see them because we don't pass them and they don't pass us as we are all probably travelling at similar speeds. That being the case the rv traffic round Australia is unbelievably huge and is definitely worth the towns across Australia vying for their business both shops, fuel and of course caravan parks. Some, like us prefer these free parks and other of course like the caravan parks.

Big day today, we have driven well over 300 kms to the Stanley  rest area. This morning we surrendered to the dust, you know the story discretion is the better part of valour. The DeGrey Rest Area has been plagued by strong winds which have turned it into a dust bowl. Yesterday we, mainly Elaine, cleaned the van twice then had to clean it again in the evening and when we got up this morning there was more dust everywhere despit being closed up all night.

I got up this morning and walked along the railway line away fron the railway bridge which crosses the river to try and find out more about the line. We already knew that it has had major work done as late as 2013 from casting dates on the concrete sleepers. However, judging by the rust on the lines it is not in use. I walked some distance and came across piles of line made up with steel sleepers, piles of unused line and heaps of unused blue metal. The only information that I managed to gleen was that it is over 85 kms long, I came across a switch building of some sort with solar panels and a sign that said 'node 85 km' and, separately, a sign that said that the access road belonged to BHP.

Back to the van and Elaine was going on about the dust and the need to move, I agreed and looking around so did most of the other people around us. So off we went stopping at Pardoo Roadhouse to have a good clean up, refill a gas bottle and have nice chat with the owner. Then on to Sandfire for fuel, water and lunch, which we ate on the run. Finally on to Stanley where we will spend the night and probably tomorrow.

I always said that we eat very well on the road and to prove a point we have just finished really nice roast chicken done in the camp oven on a campfire. We are still at DeGrey River having spent a large part of the day cleaning up the dust that strong winds blew into the van this morning. Other than that a very pleasant day walking and talking to our neighbours. Gwen phoned and it was a high point of the day to have a chat with her and Lyla. I should add that Elaine waits every day for her daily chat with Toni. So we do get to keep in touch.

Last night there were about 20 RVs in this part of the camp area, someone said that he had counted and there were more than 100 RVs here. Tonight we are much thinner up here, only about a dozen vehicles up here and I don't know how many on the lower level by the river under the trees. We have stayed up here as there aren't trees to shade our solar panels, it would be nice under the trees but the price to pay is having to run the generator for a while. Elaine calls the lower levels generator city!

There were about 12 RVs parked at Whim Creek Pub when we got there last night, some went in for meal last night others for breakfast this morning. Other than that there was a regular coming and going of locals presumably buying grog or having a drink so hopefully the pub is doing well. I would really like to see it suceed. The refurbishment is an ongoing project so each visit will see changes. In the morning I went for a walk limited by some restricted areas, but I suceeded in climbing the smaller 2 of the 3 hills neighbouring the pub which of course gave me a good view of the surroundings. It was interesting on my way back to the van I traversed part of the restricted area and could see some of the old construction that is being replaced. Anyway after a quick breakfast and shower we headed into the pub for our treat, coffee and vanilla slice, by which time all the others had departed! By the time we got back to the van there were another 10 caravans in for morning tea, good show.

So we set course for northern climes passing fairly low level scenery. Mostly scrub with patches of small trees, interestingly one side of the road was different to the other. We passed the level crossing for the Roy Hill railroad which is still under construction, and were puzzled that Gina is allowed to do this when all the other miners have built bridges. Later in the day this was explained to us by an FMG (Fortesque Mining Group) lady at the show, of which more later. It is dependent on the tonnage being shipped which in turn establishes the number of trains using the line each day. It appears that Roy Hill will only have about 7 trains a day, bearing in mind that these trains are very, very long (about 1or more kms) it indicates major traffic disruption! Anyway when she sells more iron ore she will have to build a bridge.

This weekend there is a fair in Hedland, you know the usuals rides, sideshow stalls, lots of itinerant sellers and in this case a few information stalls. One of them was the FMG stall and we had quite a chat. It appears the Andrew Forrest broke a few records getting his mine(s) up and running. I was also told that 40% of the iron ore going to China comes from FMG, which I find to be a hard to believe statistic and will follow up with my friend Google.

After shopping, fuelling and fair going we got back on the road arriving at DeGrey River where we will stay for a few days.

Right now we are at the Whim Creek Pub in the parking area where other RVs park free in exchange for spending money in the pub. Last year when we came through it was all boarded up, which was very disappointing as I had been telling Elaine that it was a great place to stop for lunch. Anyway it has now been refurbished in the original style and following my comment on Wiki Camps late May is very popular with the grey nomad set. We are going to do the same probably a late breakfast because they have great vanilla slices!

Back to the morning. Our new friends got going early like 7.30 to attend to their van problem in Karratha. We got out of bed, got organised, pumped up the tyres and still got going by 9.45am......minor miracle. Then 1km down the road we found our friends waiting for a tow truck, then later in day when we checked with them they were expecting it at 3pm! Long day for them, we have been there but both times were able organise the tow at night for the following morning. 

We kept going, the scenery was fairly ordinary but that is not really accurate. Scenery like people might look similar but is always varied. Some is flat with bushes, some with grasses, some with small hills in the background, some with big hills, always different shapes and colours.....you see what I mean, never boring. Then at 3.27 north of Karratha we burst into sunshine. The other thing about the last couple of days is the number of wildflowers along the roadside, today supplemented by my favourite Sturt Peas in profusion. 

Naughty boy I did not do a blog last night so I will just do a summary of the day's events.

We left our camp at Minilya, not quite last out, in fact we excelled and set off at 9.45am. It was a nice spot, very busy but not packed with toilets and concrete fire pits. So once again we made use of our camp oven and had a very nice chicken soup, not quite as nice as at home where Elaine uses chicken bones instead of the mix that she has found on the road. Once again the day was overcast but virtually no rain all day. There was a lot of road works, we had to stop at the beginning of these
for ages before being allowed through with a large following group of vehicles. All up the road works spread out over several kilometres, sometimes with stoppages, one detour and lots of go slow stretches.

We stopped at an information at the turn off to Exmouth and met a couple with a motorhome same size as ours. So we organised to travell together and stopped for the night at the turn off to Exmouth.

Last night was spent at a rest stop called Nerren Nerren which was fairly busy but still had room for more. This sight has had a recent upgrade and was very nice, still just a basic rest area with toilets and gazebos. It would appear that some effort is being put into rest areas, at least in this part of the world, as a means of encouraging more people to visit.

This mornings walk did not uncover anything spectacular although the bush was nice to walk through, then breakfast and we were off at the unheard of time of 9.30am and......we were still the last to leave (almost). That was us getting a move on now that we are working on heading north fairly quickly! The day started dull and overcast and has not improved although there was very little rain and it is not very cold. We are still travelling through bushland although it is now thicker and more dense and there are quite a few trees of moderate size. Onward past Shark Bay to Carnarvon where we refuelled then further to the Minilya River Rest Area, a total of 400 kms. This is another nice rest area and is once again fairly busy, even so is better than a caravan park, in our opinion anyway.

I have to admit that it was nice to run the air conditioner on heat have a long shower and all the other nice things that go with being in a caravan park. Furthermore my wife agrees and adds being able to use a washing machine and dryer. This caravan park was reasonably priced so we both enjoyed making sure that we topped up with water before leaving.

The weather was a little better today but we have had small showers intermittently all day. We have been travelling through areas affected by the rain as evidenced by water on the roadside pretty well all day and at times in considerable quantity. Leaving Mullewa we were once again enjoying the pretty collage of greens and yellow. Crops are nowhere near as pretty late in the season, but pretty is not the name of the game. As we approached Geraldton the scenery became more picturesque with rolling hills and lots of greenery, some of it crops and some natural vegetation. There is a photo stop on the way in and the view from it was spectacular. Naturally we took some photos even though getting up the hill put mud on our otherwise newly cleaned van. Neither of us have ever approached Geraldton from this direction before so it was quite an eye opener, we then left by an unusual route which was also nice. It seems to me that touring like this is not only for the major sights but for the variations that are unexpected.

After shopping and fuelling in Geraldton we headed North intentionally putting kms in to get up there and catch up with our Queensland friends who are just north of Broome. Just a note in passing......today we drove over the Minnoo Creek in Binnu!

Who would think that up here in the mid-North I would be sitting here sheltering from the rain to write this blog. I kid you not all morning we had wind, not as strong as yesterday but wind nonetheless, and since midday when we left Mt Magnet it has been raining continuously increasing in volume as the day has progressed. They need the rain in this part of the world so good on them, but for us it has meant a drive of about 300 kms which is about 100 kms more than we normally drive. The first planned stop was not suitable as, even in the light rain at that time, it would soon become wet and muddy, the next alternatives was already wet and muddy, so we stopped at a town (actually just a siding but it did have a couple of houses and a really nice stone pub come guest house) but after having lunch decided to move on. Thus we arrived at Mullewa and booked into their caravan park, council set up and run and quite nice. It has laundry and showers and power all of which are nice to have in this sort of weather. How long we will be here depends on the weather, tune in tomorrow.

We left our camp, last out but at 10 am, not bad for us and were greeted at the by 2 huge oversize loads heading south. All of this after my morning walk when I saw a few wildflowers starting to make their appearance. I also saw a few burrows today and yesterday which have me intrigued so I will have to find someone with the knowledge to identify them. On the road we came accross a magnificent eagle, feeding on road kill, but he took off before I could get a photograph, I made up for that little later getting some good shots of another eagle. We have noticed more roadkill on this road than on other roads this year, which I guess means that there are more animals around. We fuelled up at Mt Magnet still in fine weather starting to cloud over. Then we turned west into light rain following the old, abandoned railway line towards the coast. The scenery was rather pretty with huge green fields and wildflowers starting to show themselves and the rain added to the beauty.

Friday July 18

I write this blog we are sitting next to our fire which is cooking our dinner in our new camp oven. The is our first on the road meal from the camp oven full report tomorrow but I have no doubt that  it will confirm to Elaine's very high standards. We will be spending the night here at 'Paynes Find Camp' where there is space for a large number of campers/vans in pure bush surroundings but so far we are the only campers.

As usual today we were the last to leave our camp, which wasn't very hard as the farmers in the caravan left at 7 while we were both tucked up in bed. I went for a short walk, probably about 3 kms to to lower rocks (I climbed the main rock yesterday) which were reasonably spread out and still had view over the surrounding countryside. The other motorhome left around 9 and we left around 10.30, not bad eh!

Back into Wubin where we were quite surprised to see a huge Linfox yard with a few trailers in it. Judging by the size of the yard of it must be a busy operation way out bush. On the subject of trucks the road had become quite busy with the aforesaid Linfox, Toll in all sort of livery, Centurion and a few other smaller outfits. We are in wildflower territory but too early in the season for a major display. However the green, and a few yellow, farms and the extensive bushland was very pleasing to the eyes as we headed into warmer territory. 

The other point about today was the number of RVs heading south, camper trailers, caravans and a few motorhomes, presumably signalling the end of school holidays. However we are heading north to warmer climes and for the first time are still in shorts at this late afternoon hour. 

Saturday July 19

First a report on last nights dinner cooked by the very clever Elaine in her new camp oven. It was a very stew lots of flavour and well cooked even though we had it a bit too hot, we will do better next time. We finished up with van cooked stewed apples and shop bought cream......delightful. 

With another 10.30 am departure we once again proved that (our) life on the road is leisurely. I did however walk first although there was not much to see, the camp area is fenced off from the neighbouring property, limiting my exploration, by a fairly new fence.  There was an old fence nearer the road and a large number of dead trees, not burnt, just dead. 

The countryside that we are travelling through is bushland, I said forrest yesterday but bushland is more accurate. The ground is red dirt, powdery, reasonably flat and at the moment quite dry, although I am sure that it would turn into red mud with rain. The bushes are up to 2-3 metres high with anything over that being a stand out. The colours are the full range of greens with virtually no wildflowers at the moment, probably the wrong time of year. However there is a bit of ground cover, oddly enough more on one side of the road than the other. The bushes are spaced so that walking through them would be no issue and in fact there have been several spots where vans vans could, if it is legal, pull off the road and camp. 

We continued on tacking into a strong headwind which occasionally gave us even more trouble by becoming a strong beam reach. Our plan was a bush stop 16 kms north of Mt Magnet, which then meant a 16 km drive back to Mt Magnet before changing course to head west down to Yalgoo and points beyond. However we came across a sign that said 24 hr rest area and have stopped for the night about 60 kms South of Mt Magnet. This appears to be a new stop complete with seperate area for trucks, toilets, dump stations (2), a large camp area with gazebos and fire pits, very nice.........good onya main roads! 

Here I am again happy as etc, mainly because I am able to wear shorts for a little while. It was cold again this morning, not as cold as it has been but I was reduced to jeans and sneakers!!

We visited the rather progressive Wongan Hills visitor centre this morning and as further evidence of vitality were greeted by knowledgeable people and found what else there was to see. From there 10 kms out of town to the Mt Obrien lookout which is very well set up 424 mtrs high and affording a magnificent view of the surrounding farmland. The impression we have is that this area has some very large farming companies operating very large farms. This is reinforced by the apparent lack of farm houses as you drive north.

From there through Dalwallinu, another town that shows a bit of pride, to Wubin and Wubin rocks where we planned to camp for the night. Lovely view but it was hard to find a level spot and nobody else was there.  So we moved westward to Buntine Rock where we have a couple of neighbours, always a good thing. I climbed the rock which was not as grand as some that we have seen but still afforded a good vista over forrest and broad field farms.

We had never heard of Eadine Springs but it was a nice spot if a little close to the main road. There was not enough noise to keep us awake although Elaine's walking into a post, while playing with 2 little girls, bruises didn't help her sleep! Anyway waking up to a freezing cold morning after a freezing cold night a walk was called for starting at an old, but still quite legible, sign that said Eadine Springs walk trail. The trail was easy to follow and lead me to a delightful bush pool and on to the proper camp area for this place. It was level, not very big, had 3 gazebos with BBQs and some fairly new limestone terracing, all in all a nice spot and one that we will visit again. Where we camped the ground sloped, so we had an angled floor, although there were some picnic tables.

Then onward we went, after a wrong turn heading north towards warmer weather. The drive was picturesque through forrest and green farmland. We stopped for morning tea, at midday, in a rest area with views across farmland, canola crops mainly as far as the eye could see, very pretty. After gathering and cutting wood for our fire tonight we continued towards Lake Ninan via Wongan Hills. To those of my friends who enjoy fast cars the road was beautiful and bendy, although with enough traffic to spoil the fun a little! Wongan Hills turned out to be a big surprise looking fresh and vibrant including a huge visitor centre come railway station building that looked really attractive in a country heritage sort of way.  There was also, amongst a whole range of shops, a large IGA that impressed Elaine lots.

So we headed out to Lake Ninan about 10kms out of town, found it alright but no camp area, just what appeared to be large scale farming. So back to town and an excellent no frills set up for self contained vehicles as part of their large sporting complex. In the morning we will make point of spending money in town.

At long last we are on the road again heading for warmer climate, we didn't realise that we we really don't do winter any more.

But it was lovely seeing our family and spending time with them, thanks to all. We also caught up with friends which was also nice, just not as nice as family......sorry friends!

Now..... Have you heard of Eadine Springs, neither had we, but that is where we are camped tonight. About 29 kms west of Northam and just off the main road. A pretty little spot but the springs appear to be all gone, I will check that out in the morning. We have only one neighbour but they appear to be set up for the duration. On the way here the TomTom took us on a little detour through Chidlow on the old Northam road which was very pleasant but lead back to the main road!!!

That's it until tomorrow.

So much for a quick visit to Perth, we have now been here for a month and are really missing the warm weather. But it has been lovely spending time with our family. Anyway we are getting the van back tomorrow so hopefully that will be all fixed and won't have any more issues then we will get it serviced on Monday then stock up and head off........warm weather here we come!