Well I am sitting here in the van in the rain in Perth and thinking about all those poor people experiencing hot and dry conditions up north. Oh well!!!

Elaine is still in hospital and wd will learn more about the problem after a biopsy tomorrow. In the meantime we are experiencing winter.

Update time.

Thanks to our friend Karen we are camped in Dianella.

After some discussion and a lot of effort by our GP Elaine was transported to Hollywood Hospital last night.......by ambulance as this was the most comfortable way for her to travel. She has been in an enormous amount of pain and today was only marginally better, despite being in hospital. Anyway they, the doctors, are photographing and prodding to find out why the high level of pain, after a proceedure that was supposed to relieve the pain!

So we will see what the next few days brings.

Well that's it for the time being!

After a very pleasant night at Wannamal we packed up and drove the last 100km back to Dianella. Actual not so pleasant for Elaine but she did get a good sleep for a lge part of the night.

i don't know when we get back on the road, it will depend on the doctors

We are a bit closer to home and should get there sometime tomorrow. Tonight we are camped at Wannamal which is a siding about 60km south of  Moora and about 100km from Perth.  We have stayed at this site before and it is a very pleasant camp, complete with toilets and toniight shared by 5 other vehicles. It also has a shelter and BBQ and the cost is a donation.

As is usual, for the past few weeks, Elaine is suffering so hopefully the doctors can sort that next week.

This morning, in the light of a new and not so gloomy day last nights camp at Wubin Rocks looked much better. As I said yesterday the view over the farms, to the east, was delightful.  There was no view to the west as this was covered by hill and bushes. Even in daylight the road is obscured but we could just hear the heavier vehicles. The site that we had chosen for the van was on a rock base and more or less level, so we were quite comfortable. About 7am a couple of vehicles came to have a look but didn't stay, they missed out on our company.

Ok now on our way back to Perth. We have camped tonight at Wubin Rocks, just north of the town, which is a very small camp, like we almost fill it by ourselves. There is room for another couple of vans but in this weather that is highly unlikely. When I say this weather I mean overcast raining most of the morning, in other words winter........bummer. The good thing is a great view over the surrounding farmlands and barely any road noise, in fact we can't see the road and have stand outside to hear the trucks. Talking of trucks we are quite staggered by the number of trucks, heading in both directions, on the road. In fact they almost outnumber the caravans.

Friday 3rd June

Offline again at Paynes Find which consists of a pub and a caravan park, a pretty primitive caravan park.

Today we took off from Meekatharra at our usual early start time of 10am. There is a special truck fuelling facility here which is usually chock a block full of queued up trucks and is 15c per litre cheaper than the servo. This morning it was empty so we went in to fuel up. It is a card only site and it would not accept our card so we moved on.

The next stop was Cue and the fuel there was the same as the truck facility, so guess what we did. We stopped for morning tea just before Cue and about 70km after Cue for lunch. I thought that this would be enough foe Elaine, but she wanted to proceed and proceed we did. After a bit of fiddling around we have stopped about 100km further on for the night. Judging by her pain probably a bit too far, so less tomorrow.

Well tomorrow we head for home, that says it all. We visited the local hospital and on their advice are going to consult with our doctors in Perth.

I took another walk around the town this morning and learnt a little bit more about Meekatharra. Including a walk along a creek, Meekatharra Creek to be precise, which was nice, but again nothing special.

That's about it see you all soon. It will probably take us up to 5 days as Elaine has difficulty sitting in the van and I won't drive with her lying down, not strapped in, on her bed.

Bad day today, she spent the morning trying to sleep in the passenger seat while I drove. Note I drove the whole way. Then when got here into bed with sleeping pills. But Elaine is feeling slightly better now.

We got here to Meekatharra booked into the very average caravan park so that we would have Telstra phone coverage and awaited calls from doctors. We are still waiting for that call hopefully tomorrow.

After lunch I went for a walk down town. There are a few historical buildings here and there has been some effort put into the history of the town. But it is nowhere near as good as Cue. There are 2 pubs, Farmer Jacks and a couple of smaller shops so the retail side is covered as far as a small town is concerned. There is also a swimming pool but that appeared to be closed.

I noticed, both today and yesterday, that there are still a fair number of operating gold mines, at least I think that they are all gold mines. They seem to be part of a perennial industry that survives despite the fluctuations in the gold price. There is a huge open cut mine not far south of Meekatharra and I would imagine there are more of them to see if one took a flight over the area.

Ok not a lot to report today. We left Mt Magnet with plans to carry on to Meekatharra, but finished up at Cue with Elaine resting her back!

That meant that I took a good long walk around the town. We passed through here last year and I walked the Main Street, but there was lots more to see. Firstly I walked down the main street to the visitor centre which was in a side street. Before going in I photographed the Masonic hall which is very old built of timber and corrugated iron. Then spoke to the lady and found out that the town is working towards RV friendly status, somewhere down the track. Followed by a longer walk around  this town which is putting a lot of effort into attracting tourists. There is lots to see and there are a couple of parks, lots of sheet metal tableaux, a caravan park and eventually there will be an RV park. I stopped at the shire office and had a look at their photographic collection, I don't know how many, maybe a thousand or more, certainly censory  overload and well worth the time. There was also a model of the Big Bell mine but it needed an explanatory diagram so that one could understand what it was all about, and it was a big operation and a very detailed model.

Then with the shires permission we camped for the night.

Ok today was a bit better, in fact a lot better, but night brings the pain back.

Anyway we actually left the rest area at 7.30am which was a massive shock to the system. We had morning tea at 10.10am which is our usual departure time! Anyway it was a good run into Mt Magnet which is a nice little town that we visited last year and had a good look round. So this year it is just somewhere to stop, which we had to do as we needed to make some phone calls.  So we have booked into the caravan park and will head off again early tomorrow.

Sunday May 29

Lots of pain today! She is not having a good run.

Not much to report today. My morning walk revealed a nicely set up town as is usual with the mining companies. It is normal for them to provide the infrastructure around mines in remote places, such as Paraburdoo, Tom Price, etc and this is another good example. There are well laid out villages for single staff, shops, sporting facilities (footy oval, tennis courts, basketball courts), school, day car centre, bmx track, medical centre and probably lots more that I didn't see.  There is also a number of residences surrounding all this, obviously part of the deal because they are pretty much identical. Having said this the town is supposedly in decline because the nickel mine was closed, but there seemed to be a reasonable number of people around so maybe something is happening.

Anyway after that we left town stopping 4 times before reaching our camp. We are camped at the Peter Denny lookout which had a great view, along with 2 other campers.

Elaine had a slightly better day today but she really suffers at night.

Yesterday was a very interesting day, as I have already said we were camped at the free RV camp area outside the Gwalia museum. The Gwalia mine has a long history starting in the last decades of the 19th century. A lot is made of the fact that Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the USA, was an early mine manager and was instrumental in some very innovative activities that helped make the mine very profitable. It has had 3 incarnations, the first being the usual underground mining surviving a major fire and subsequent rebuild in 1921-1923. Then becoming unprofitable and closing 1963, reopening under new managements in the 80s as an open cut mine. There is now an enormous pit, quite beyond imagination that is many hundreds of metres deep and many hundreds of metres diameter. Now it once again has been under new management for some years and is once again an underground mine. This mine is some 1600 metres underground and huge ore trucks transport the ore from that depth underground to the surface! Again quite beyond imagination. It really needs to be seen to be appreciated.

I took a morning walk around the old ghost town. To start one has to realise that the buildings are slapped together tin shanties, some with hessian internal walls, quite an eye opener to the miners living conditions. There is Patronis Guest House which has hessian walls dividing the tiny rooms that people, mainly single men, lived in. In a modern house the laundry is bigger than these rooms! Then there is Mazzas Store which literally sold everything and anything. From there to houses that are unbelievably primitive in size and construction, tin outer walls and roof, hessian internals (mainly) and it is hard to imagine families living in these houses. There were cots and all sorts of old furniture still there as evidence that complete families lived in them. Then I visited the museum, another eye opener from the original headframe (which lowers men and materials into the mine and lifts them out again) to the gigantic steam engine that powers the headframe and loads of interested artefacts. I could go on for hours but suffice it to say that it was an great experience.

Today we packed up and drove 130km north to Leinster where we are in the caravan park and have caught up on our laundry. We also have power and are able to watch tv, at least madam is watching.

Naughty boy no blog last night! My excuse is that Elaine had a bad day and I was cooking etc.

Just a couple more comments on Niagara Dam, it is a great spot both historical and picturesque. The was built round the end of the 19th century to supply water for the steam trains that connected the northern goldfields to Kalgoorlie. The quoted price was £42000 but the final price was £62000 (it may have been dollars, my memory is not 100%) due to a misjudgement by the government department of the amount blasting and rock removal to be done! That does sound like a familiar story doesn't it?  Anyway by the time it was finished they had discovered a nearby artesian well which did the same job, so the dam became a white elephant. Now it is a popular camping spot, particularly for those who go prospecting.

Yesterday was spent with Elaine resting and me exploring the Gwalia ghost town, I will cover that in detail later when I have time to put my thoughts together.

Elaine is still not good, one has to wonder about the efficacy of the proceedure that she had a month ago.

Today dawned bright but not very sunny, however we were in a lovely spot overlooking both the dam and the bush. I made a late start but decided to repeat yesterday's walk. This is a fascinating walk, not spectacular like some that I have done but, to repeat myself fascinating. Coming down from the lookout one can look back, and for that matter all around the creek bed and surrounding breakaways and see rocks of all sizes and shapes and, importantly, colours. There are reds, browns of course, yellow, glaring white quartz, subtly tinted quartz some on the ground and some cascading down the sides of the breakaways. Today I wandered around more than yesterday and would love to see this area in near flood conditions as there are gullys every which way.

When I got to the area below the dam wall I had call, on our hand held radios, from Elaine and met her on the dam wall. We were parked close to the wall so she did not have to walk far.

Later we decided to pack up and head for the Gwalia ghost town. This is just south of Leonora and is supposedly worth the stop, I will complete that judgement tomorrow. They have a free RV parking area which overlooks the old town and the open pit. The pit is enormous and is, I understand the second reincarnation of this extremely profitable mine which was first mined at the end of the 19th century. The view in every direction is spectacular.

Elaine still in pain but still functioning, she walked a little today but was obviously finding it difficult.

Yesterday we left Menzies heading for Gwalia but remembered Niagara Dam and stayed there for the night. We camped in the lower camp which is below the dam. It was a good spot and we enjoyed it even though it rained lots last night. This morning I walked around the dam then took another walk covering the other side of the area. It encompassed a couple of good lookouts, my favourite things, and extensive quartz fields. Quartz is where they find gold, I didn't find any of that but I did find some very pretty rocks. Quartz has some fantastic qualities when it has impurities that show nice colours based on what the impurities are.

When I got back we had breakfast then Elaine walked up to the dam wall with me, it looked great up there, so we shifted the van to the upper camp area. We now have a site with great water views over the dam on one side and forest on the other side. There are quite a few people up here and I went to a sun downer with some of them, Elaine stayed in the van nursing her back.

Tuesday May 24

Offline again !

Elaine still in pain but functional. We have driven north for warmer weather and are sitting here, 200 km north of Kalgoorlie, with grey skies, cold winds and occasional rain!

The day dawned sunny and warm in Menzies but with a noticeable cool wind. So I set off on my walk around this interesting town. It is a very small town that once, during its golden days, had thousands of inhabitants. The current occupants have created a lot of statue tableaux made from flat sheet metal cut out and painted. Each one has its story board telling the story of the local aborigines and their interaction with the booming town. There are also story boards telling, in part, the town's history. It is very interesting and this time I found more than last year.

Then back to the van, breakfast and after some deliberation we decided to move on. The plan was to visit the Gwalia Ghost Town, but on the way the remembered Niagara Dam where we stayed and enjoyed last year. So here we are at Niagara Dam. With conditions as explained above!!!

One other thing, I stopped to talk to a fellow camper. He turned out to be vitriolic in his condemnation of WA. Further he wouldn't listen when I tried to tell him similar stories about his home state of Queensland without complaining. He seemed to be one of those people who by their bad temper attracts all sorts of dramas!!!

First things first.........happy birthday Gwen.

Now Elaine, not such a good day but seems to be a bit better now than she was earlier today.

The first night that we stayed in Norseman all, or lots of them, the local kids came down to the oval to play but left shortly after dark. On the way out one of them knocked on the van door but disappeared when we answered. Because of the strong northerly winds expected, and as it happened received, we decided to stay put the following day. So on Saturday we just pottered around town then returned to the oval, this time joined by 2 other vans.

One thing that we have noticed the last couple of mornings is that the van motor doesn't like cold mornings or we have picked up a bit of dirty fuel. We will have to see how it pans out.

So Sunday dawned bright and cheerful and cccccold. We have now made the definite decision to head north to warmer climates in the hope that it will help Elaine's back. Norseman is the cross roads with the Nullabor to the east and Kalgoorlie to the north. So we drove north to Kalgoorlie and in this RV friendly town spent the night in their RV 24 Hr Stop at Centennial Oval on the edge of town.

This morning we were greeted by lots of people outside our van, our egos shot skywards with such a welcoming group then were deflated when we discovered that they were setting up for an inter- school (Catholic Schools) cross country run. So we went about or business, the usual dump, water and shop. Then headed out of town continuing to follow the north mark on our compass.

We have stopped for the night at Menzies where they have a delightful but basic low cost caravan park, with madams favourite accessory.......a washing machine! There are a few, but not many people here and I wonder why. It is a nice town with a well set out historical walk complete with story boards and statues. They also have a good historical display in the visitors centre and unlike some places it is all very nice and interesting. The buildings are also rather nice reflecting its goldming past. Then again it is the gateway to Antony Gomley's Inside Australia statues, all 50 of them on Lake Ballard.

Mr Slack at it again, this is morning after but I will do a more detailed blog later today.

First Elaine, not a good day yesterday but maybe slightly better this morning. Tonight we will be in warmer climes which will hopefully help.

We spent the night in Kalgoorlie at their RV park and boy was it cold this morning.

More later today.

Well today was a day was a day. I gather that Perth copped a bit of a bashing, up here we have had wind and rain but than keeping us in Norseman not dramatic. The wind was fairly strong and coming from the north and guess where we were planning to go. We spent the day collecting the balance of Elaine's meds then back to the visitor centre where we had lunch. Then back to the football oval for tonight.

The Elaine report says basically no change, although to me she seems to be just a little better.

Just to catch up on a few notes that I made along the way and have not used yet. On the way to and from Lucky Bay we passed a couple of large tree farms growing what appeared (to me) to be very tall, very thin eucalypts. There appeared to have been some sort underbrush clearing fire being replace by new leaves starting at the bottom of the trees. We are also intrigued by power poles, our understanding being that property owners are responsible for the maintenance of the poles on their property. Fair enough except that we saw lots of poles carrying power to the community (in other words going past the property) just inside property fencelines and wonder who maintains them.

 Our only complaint in the Le Grand National Park was the lack of a dump point for our toilet, either at the campground or nearby.

At Gibson Soak, which is a very small town of maybe 20 houses, there was an fairly large operational factory called the Gibson Soak Water Company.

Last night we stayed at Bromus Dam which, as I said, is a very old catchment that does not appear to be in current use. The area around the dam is set up as a bush camping area with tables, fire pits and lots of ad hoc spots to camp on. There were only 4 of us last night but there is room for large numbers of  campers who would need to be self contained.  My only comment is that it would benefit from a story board detailing the history of the site. There is evidence that there was infrastructure around the dam and there is a pipe coming into the dam from quite some distance away. This pipe is large, I guess about 1 mtr diameter, laid on the ground then covered to create a prominent mound. Where it enters the dam there is a spillway so my guess is that it brings water from somewhere.

As usual we were last out, by a large margin, and drove into Norseman where we picked up some medications. Then we went to the visitor centre to dump and top up our water tanks. Whilst there one of the staff directed us to a free camp for self contained vehicles at the football oval, which is where we are now. Oh, and the other thing that we had to do was get someone to fix our generator as the cloudy weather is not good for our batteries and last night it would not start and resisted my efforts to get it going.  It turned out that the issue was old fuel gumming up the carburettor and it is now doing it's job of topping up the batteries.