Nearly Home

After leaving Sandstone we moved slowly South, sometimes East going through small Wheatbelt towns that we hadn't been through for a long time. Managed to find some great free camps along the way.

One of them was Latham Community Centre, a free camp at a very small town, no shop, just a PO operating for one hour each morning and a small school which is due to close at the end of the year. The community Centre was new, great shower and toilets, looked after by a resident who was very passionate about the area and appreciated a donation, with the donations she plans to plant trees and will put a tag on with names of the people, we hope to go back one day and see if there is a tree marked Brian, Gill and Bentley.....

Our next site was an abandoned town called Minnivale, still a few houses around and the ruins of a bakery, we had heavy rain driving into here, but the next morning was fine and we had a walk around for photos.

We camped at another abandoned town, Kwolyin, 40ks from Bruce Rock, great free campground with toilets and camp kitchen, nothing at all left of a town, except the church. We stayed here two nights and did some fossicking around, came up with 20 cents from around the church. One morning it was zero degrees and frost on the windscreen, we were glad of our gas heater that morning.

Last night we camped out side Lake Grace at the lake and today we have travelled to Porongurups Caravan Park, only 50ks from home but we wanted one more night on the road......

Over width truck coming into Paynes Find, would be about 8 metres wide, glad we were parked and not on the road

Didn't see many wildflowers as I thought, but two together here

Our camp at Minnivale 

Ruins of old bakery, Brian got a good photo of the inside of the oven

Ettamogah Pub, Corrigin 

Our camp at Kwolyin

Rupert came to play, Border Collie according to his owner

Jaffles for lunch

Good camp kitchen at Kwolyin 

Camped by Lake Grace

Canola fields as we approach Stirling Ranges

Bluff Knoll Cafe, still going, got hot chips here for lunch before heading into Porongorups 

I like to put the quotes from my calendar on the wall, plus photos of course

All my granny squares, 36 of them, just need to sew them all together...

Well we are home now, couldn't send blog last night, easy run into Albany and parked van in the driveway before a shower of rain..... Lots of unpacking to do, Bentley very excited to be home, ran around and around the back garden 

Sandstone

After Cue we drove south to Mt Magnet and then 155ks East to Sandstone, we had an overnighter on the road and that night it rained and when we arrived in Sandstone it was cold and drizzly rain, we both got out our jeans and jumpers, have been in shorts for such a long time I had forgotten where my jeans were! 

The weather in Sandstone improved and it turned out to be a lovely little town. Small with the hotel open and selling basic grocery items as well as beer, Post Office open 3 mornings a week and visitors info open April to October, about a dozen houses and a Shire Office and of course the caravan park. Everything is well looked after and tidy, Caravan Park is run by the shire, really nice and not pricey....

We decided to stay the week and spent each day prospecting, no gold but we enjoyed ourselves, had a very helpful neighbour Marty give us some good tips on prospecting. Most of the people here in the park are prospectors and take it seriously, having at least two metal detectors and also quad bikes to go further in the bush, Marty took Brian out on his quad and showed him areas to go etc but they were not areas Brian wanted to take the Triton....

Another great thing about the town was William a young Chinese man and his fresh veg stall open weekends and Tuesday and Thursday and he made bread too, I bought a loaf every morning he was there and he cooks at the caravan park Monday and Thursday nights, $12 for a take away Chinese amazing, of course we were in on that. There is also a Pie lady called Lady Di who bakes pies while you wait in a pie maker, not tried the pies preferred the fresh veg and bread, but amazing to have all that in such a small town.

London Bridge one of the attractions

Some of the areas we were prospecting in

A map we bought showing the old gold mines, the black crosses are a pick and shovel and mean a mine shaft can be working or abandoned and the grey pink dots mean abandoned shafts, lots of tracks and areas to fossick around, we went as far down as Hancocks which was about 10 to 15 ks away

Today we found a creek bed to wander up and down

Some photos of the town

The lovely bread William baked $6

He had lamingtons one day, $3 each

Chinese takeaway I had the chicken on the left and Brian had sweet and sour pork, both with fried rice 

Tomorrow we will moving on, slowly heading south and home......

Cue

After stopping at Newman for some shopping we had another overnight stop on the Gascoyne River and then travelled into Meekatharra, As the caravan park didn't look to good Brian asked at the fuel station for a free camp and we were directed out of town about 2ks to Peace Gorge and found a great spot by the rocks, very quiet only one other van came in. We were now in gold country!! The next morning we went back into town to the Mines Office and got a Miners Right, $25, which allows us to prospect on crown land as long as no one is currently mining there, he was very helpful and sent us out of town about 30ks to an old mine site and town site. We had the van on the back but the road was ok and we spent the day fossicking around, didn't find anything of interest but enjoyed our day, we headed back into town and back out to Peace Gorge for the night. The weather changed and we had some rain overnight the first rain we have had since we left Atherton Tablelands in June.

The next day Tuesday we drove to Cue and booked in the caravan park, our first night of power since we left Broome about a week ago, good caravan park, very tidy and clean $25 @ night. I hit the laundry with two big loads of washing, haven't done any washing since we left Derby!! 

We got info on where to prospect and yesterday travelled out to Big Bell ghost town, only the remains of the Hotel and a few buildings left, it was a town and gold mine in 1936 until 1955.  We mostly looked for relics or old coins around the town but mostly found old rusty nails and tin cans, it was lovely out there, lots of wildflowers and we got chatting to another couple who were doing similar to us and they were planning to camp out there, seems there is a ghost or two around the hotel, and they wanted to see if that was true..........

Cue is a very well kept town, green grass in the middle of the highway, the buildings have been well looked after but only the basic services, fuel, supermarket and government office, still a couple of active mines around. Friendly people

Took the van out to an old gold mine out of Meekatharra 

Lots of holes in the ground and very unstable 

Main Street of Cue

This is the Masonic lodge, built of corrugated iron and timber in 1899

Remains of the Hotel at Big Bell 

How it looked in the early years

Had a walk around and this is the front verandah

Inside still some lovely arches left standing

I enjoyed all the wildflowers that were around the town, lovely, must pick up a book and find out all there names

Bentley got a little  tired by the end of the day 

We will move on tomorrow towards Mt Magnet and Sandstone 

Extra time in Broome and then on the road

Well we managed to stay an extra couple of nights in Broome, and enjoyed another Broome weekend, actually we didn't do to much, had to go to the sunset of course and the weekend markets and more coffees, and also Brian cooked a pizza in the Weber, something he has been wanting to do.

On the Monday we travelled to Barn Hill about 140ks South, Barn Hill is a caravan park on a working cattle station, situated on the coast, lovely red cliffs and the park is right on the cliffs, beautiful views, we stayed unpowered for $20 @ night, very popular place, the little shop there has fresh bread each day plus sausage rolls and pasties and yummy Vanilla Slice. There was Tai Chi sessions which Brian went to and also lawn bowls on a patch of grass which no one was allowed to walk on as its difficult to keep grass growing there. We were all set to spend a few days there doing nothing much but we got hit with a warm Easterly wind, very unpleasant for everyone, we stuck out the wind for one day and one night and when it was still in force the next day we decided to move on. We packed up and out on to the highway again and turned south towards Sandfire Roadhouse the next stop down for fuel when we realised we were going to be cutting it fine with the fuel. We had filled up in Broome and Sandfire was the next fuel stop, not often that happens but we were a bit nervous when the fuel light came on 40ks from Sandfire.... We turned the aircon off 20ks out to conserve fuel, held our breath, not sure if that helped but we managed to get to the roadhouse and wait in the queue for Diesel, the Diesel tanker had just arrived to fill up their tanks. We took 66.66 litres and Brian reckons we have a 70 litre tank, if so we were really running on empty.

We had a nights camp on the road that night and then travelled to Port Hedland and turned inland on the Great Northern Hwy, had another overnight on the road, lovely spot, wild flowers around and a little gorge to walk to.

Today we didn't travel far, found a nice rest area about 120ks north of Newman, again lovely little walk and wildflowers. 

Broome Sunsets

Cooking Pizza

Ready to eat

On to Barn Hill

Barn Hill beach

Sunset

Barn Hill, red sand, blue sea

Lovely fresh Vanilla slice, first day we shared after that one each.... $3.50 each 

Overnight stop in the Pilbara, little water hole

Bentley went for a paddle, found a bubble

And then it was gone

Lovely display of Sturt Desert Peas we found, never seen so many together 

Close up of them

Tonight we are at Mt Robinson rest stop, we walked up a track a little way to take this shot, our van on the right with the dark ute.

A few wildflower shots.

So the trip changes, after being in the Kimberlys and on the coast we are now down in the Pilbara, iron ore mining towns, wild flowers, all so different