In search of warmth…………………………….

Finally got away this morning about eleven and made leisurely progress east on our usual route out to Norseman. We’re hoping that the section from Hyden to Norseman is open and that there is no more rain on the dirt section before Monday. The route for this trip has been a bit of a dilemma due to there having been quite a lot of rain along parts of the southern section and about 1500 ks of it are dirt. Whilst actually negotiating it isn’t a problem, having a thick layer of red mud caked on the car and the caravan is a significant consideration.

Anyway, we will find out in the next couple of days.

The first leg of this trip takes up the Scarp and through the forests of the Darling Range.

For now we’re spending the night at a wheatbelt town called Narrogin, which is reasonably quiet, we’re expecting it to be pretty cold.

We had a rather cold night (1 deg)!

This morning we’re setting out for Norseman but will probably stop for the night at the Breakaways,

a place we’ve stopped at several times before. Essentially, it’s where an underground limestone cave or watercourse has collapsed back in time and has left a nice sheltered area for camping.

About 70 ks after we leave Hyden the tar runs out and we’re onto the red dirt that forms most of the outback roads in WA.

Dirt roads need quite a bit of attention to keep them in good nick but in many cases this means operating long distances from the depot. In the case of the road we’re on today the guys are about 150ks from Hyden their Shire depot.

It is pretty lonely job being a grader driver but this one has some company in the form of a couple of rollers and a water truck.

Another 50 or so ks and we’re turning off to the Breakaways.

We arrived about three and spent an hour or so reading in the sun with a cup of tea.

Wasn’t so cold last night and we had a leisurely start this morning.

Since we have taken lots of pics previously on this route I decided that I would use some dash cam footage to show what the country that we’re driving through looks like.

Having refuelled at Norseman we continued north to our nightstop at Kambalda

We came through to Kambalda today and have found a 48hr Stopping area which is very quiet.

This evening I discovered that the dash cam has died!! We will have to go into Kalgoorlie tomorrow to see if we can find a replacement.

Watch this space!

Having left Kalgoorlie I started to get suspicious that there was a problem with the fuel system. We have two fuel tanks, the two tanks are designed to be separate but it appeared that even with the LR tank switched off it was still feeding the system. Whilst not a problem if it kept doing that, it had to be fixed before we set out across the GCR.

To cut a long story short, we are waiting for a spare to be shipped from Perth to Leonora, an old mining town about 280 ks north of Kalgoorlie and we could be here a while! Fortunately, there is a very pleasant camping site about 15ks out of Leonora at Malcolm Dam and we trying to enjoy the relative peace and quiet and birdwatching on the dam!

8 days later we are still waiting for Australia Express Post get a small package a few hundred ks up the highway to Leonora!

In the meantime we have experienced an electrical problem that would have prevented us for continuing on the trip. To resolve this we have had to come into Leonora and spend three days on the caravan park! Roger has had several conversations with the people at Bushtracker and they appear to have resolved it. We have to be confident that is properly fixed, so we are on the campsite with mains power disconnected, to prove the caravan system is functioning.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal to do in or around Leonora apart from an old mining town called Gwalia, where we have been several times before and the photographic record can be found in previous blogs.

It looks unlikely that the spare part will arrive before the middle of next week, so we will have to go out to the Dam again. This will, at least, enable us to get some confidence in the electrics and help us to decide whether or not to set out on Great Central Road.

Well, it eventually took Australia Post 10 days to get our small package to Leonora!!! The workshop guys in Leonora were brilliant and in spite being very busy they changed it the day it arrived! Unfortunately, it didn’t fix the problem. We decided to stay here another day and make some decisions.

We’ve rung appropriate repairers in Kalgoorlie and they can’t look at it for a couple of weeks. Even though it seems to be working (albeit not the way we expect) it a risk because we don’t know what ‘might’ happen and we will be further away from support.

It has taken another two weeks to get the car fixed but we did manage to do a few jobs on the caravan that needed doing.

Darwin is out of the question now so this morning we decided to take a more direct route north but have to head north- east a bit first.