Canna to Newman

Tuesday 27^th September

Today we said goodbye to Barry and Carol as they’re heading towards homewards and we’re heading ………….. north?

We’re travelling through wildflower country to Yalgoo and then Cue on our way to wherever.   The flowers are still looking pretty good, even when we get to the GN Hwy.

We were going to see if we could get to Meekatharra but decided that Lake Nellan was far enough for the day and pulled in there in the late afternoon and found somewhere that would do us for the night.   There was plenty of choice.

Wednesday 28^th September

Pat is a bit concerned that my right calf looks swollen so, having done all the necessary things in Meeka’ we visit the local hospital.   The duty GP is concerned it might be DVT and refers me for an ultra-sound.   No problem you may think but the nearest facility is Newman Hospital some 400ks to the north!

Thursday 29^th September

We arrive in Newman late morning, as usual, we’ve had a headwind coming up which soaks up the diesel but not as heavily as the V8 used to.   

We have booked an unpowered site at the caravan park, which itself is not particularly inviting but it is new and being a Shire managed facility at least everything is clean.

Pat manages to get caught by our neighbour for a long explanation of their towing vehicle woes, which sound pretty frustrating:  having had the vehicle serviced in Geraldton it broke down between Yalgo and Mount Magnet, i.e. in the middle of nowhere.   Generally in WA this means no phone signal!   They used UHF to contact a passing truck who stopped to help by taking husband to Yalgoo.

We got established, had some lunch then headed for the hospital.    The Emergency Department were very efficient and organised an ultra-sound and called the duty GP. There were no restrictions to blood flow in my right leg.     The GP thought that there was some fluid in the lower legs but nothing particularly urgent.    No bad thing to have things checked out.

The weather changes to strong winds and rain, heavy in the evening. It’s a good thing this C Park has a firm, even blue metal surface as we won’t get stuck.

Friday 30^th September

Early on today there are louds overhead but no rain. It’s washing day but the machines were busy so we went shopping first and enjoyed a cappuccino in town.    Newman doesn’t have much going for it really.   The majority of the population is transitory, FIFO with money.   Is it indicative of the population that you can’t buy a newspaper in the town!

The weather becomes sunny and breezy so 3 loads of washing are done by lunch time.  We have a good telstra signal here so we are taking advantage of it, emailing, paying bills and generally using the internet. 

Saturday 1st October

Due to the lack of good sunshine our batteries are getting a bit low and since the weather doesn’t look as if it will get much better we decide to move to a powered site. This is no problem but it has to be done online here.

Having done this we’re comfortable that the freezer in the car will remain at its set temperature and will stay there, which means we won’t lose any food in it.

On Sunday we decided to go for a ride round and investigate a potential campsite, Kalgans Pool, to the north of Newman.    We were told that there were a couple of river crossings to go through to get to the pool.    We arrived at the first, Cobbers Crossing, which was a very pleasant spot in itself.   We had a bit of lunch then put the wheels in the water for the crossing.   

We haven’t been able to fit a snorkel to the 300 yet and although the book says you can go in water up to 700mm deep we’re a bit wary from experience of these crossings.

After about 100m in we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and reversed out of it. The curent had been against us and we could not see where the exit point was.

On talking to the locals back at the entry point, they showed us a video of their last crossing and said there had been more rain since then and that without a snorkel we had done the right thing!

Part of the return trip ran beside one of the mine railway lines and we had this on the dash cam. 

Part of Ore Train video.

We’re going to be leaving tomorrow in the hope that the weather will get better.