Guess what.......another 8.15am departure.

 First stop just up the road is Balladonia. I commented last night that it is intersting seeing the places that go with the names and this one was quite a surprise. It is quite an oasis, not in the desert sense as we are now passing through the Great Western Woodland of which more later. Here there is a relatively new development with hotel, motel, servo, cafe, playground etc in fact the whole Megillah. Very impressed we were.

Back on the road there are trees everywhere, not big ones but trees nonetheless with lots of shrubs. What is disappointing is the lack of wildlife and this has been a feature almost all of this trip. We have seen some wildlife but not much, this might be a product of the times that we travel and walk. Then we start going up and down lots of small hills but all working upwards as we are climbing the Fraser Ranges. Then we stopped for morning tea at a delightful spot overlooking a dry lake bed and there was a story board about the woodland. This woodland stretches from well north of Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie south  through the eastern wheatbelt across east to Balladonia with a finger going further east for a total that is about the size of England around 16 million hectares. It has woodlands, mallee, scrub and wildlife species found nowhere else on the planet and some of this is endangered ecology........wow, something else eh! It is also good looking and nice to drive through.

Then into Norseman where we went up to the lookout and looked down over 360 degree views of the town (1100 population) and the still operating mines (one is the oldest continually operating mine in Australia) and the surrounding countryside of salt lakes and woodland.

Tonight we are camped at the Lake Cowan rest area with Lake Cowan in the background and a railway line in the foreground.