Wednesday 1st March

We got away about 1130 and took our usual route up the scarp to Dwellingup where we decided to take lunch.    Crossing the scarp is always hard work, up and down the box and once we hit the flatter bits it got a bit easier and we made good time other than the slight headwind which makes the fuel gauge drop pretty quickly.    We could not get over the amount of surface water there is out here, we know that they had a lot of rain but that was a month ago.  We had a look at a couple of potential overnight stops but since they were both disused quarries we weren’t surprised to find them flooded, so we eventually used the caravan park at Newdigate, not a particularly nice park but at least the showers and toilets were clean.   One of my crocs disappeared over night!

Thursday 2nd March

These pictures were taken just west of the township of Lake King where we would normally be crossing a huge dry, bright white salt lake! These pictures are amazing scenes considering that this is usually the hottest and driest  part of the year.

     

After about half an hour the other side of the township of Lake King, we came upon a sign which said we had to ‘detour’, however, we saw that there was traffic coming towards us that obviously hadn’t detoured, so we proceeded with caution and came across our next bit of excitement, water completely across the road.    We could see why the detour sign was there but for trucks and 4x4s there was no problem.

 

I was hoping to put a video link in here but at the moment we’re off-line, so I’ll have to post it later. 

There were numerous places between here and Cape Arid where the roads had been washed away and were in the course of being repaired, just unbelievable the amount of water everywhere.

We stopped for coffee in Ravensthorpe, a town that has suffered from the appalling management of one of the world’s largest miners.    BHBP of course, another typical project.   They designed and built a nickel processing plant 40 ks from Ravensthorpe with promises of hundreds of jobs for the locals, in an area that had very little employment.   Everyone got excited, the Shire of Ravensthorpe ploughed money into housing and infrastructure.   Locals got good jobs and training.    Then BHBP couldn’t make the plant work properly and therefore weren’t making enough profit and decided to close it!!!!!    All too hard.    Along comes a Canadian company, buys the enterprise for a $ and makes it work profitably.   In fairness they did employ as many locals as they could but they know how to operate efficiently and needed far fewer people than BHBP were employing.

It’s only 190ks from from Ravensthorpe to Esperance but it always seems a long way and we always have a headwind!   A few more detours along the way but we’re in Esperance by 1300 refuelled and on our way to Cape Arid which is uneventful apart from a couple of wide loads.    The approach to Thomas River was always an exciting view but the bush seems to have grown higher and higher since last year’s fires.

By the time we had set up the camp, awnings, mats and grey waste disposal, it was time for a sit down and relax period, soon time for wine and nibbles, followed by a latish dinner.    An hour or so playing around with videos from the Dash Cam and Pat’s iPad and it is almost time for bed!