The planned route involved travelling to Kitchener, a crossing loop on the Trans-Australian Railway Line and then follow the line reaching Zanthus, another crossing loop. From there a track led south to Balladonia on the Eyre Highway. After refuelling at Balladonia the group would head to the Great Australian Bight before going west along the beach.
I made a decision not to take the trailer down onto the beach. I was somewhat 'risk averse' about towing the trailer on a very remote beach where; if I got bogged; I might lose the trailer to an incoming tide. Three driver had already decided they would follow the railway from Kitchener back to Kalgoorlie. All three of them had lost their spare tyres when they were either staked or hit a sharp rock. I decided to join them.
Walking around the campsite in the morning I noticed the dog fence on the eastern side of the Connie Sue Track.
Australia has some of the longest dog fences in the world. This one runs north-south and protects the western boundary of Rawlinna Sheep Station. The station is 400km east of Kalgoorlie and is the largest sheep station in Australia. It's approximately the same size as greater Sydney.
These fences need to be continually repaired and maintained to prevent wild dogs (Dingos) from attacking the sheep.
Time to pack up and fill in the firepit. But not before I toasted a couple of cheese sandwiches on the embers.
Back onto the Connie Sue with 150km to Kitchener.
I commented on the good condition of the road and was informed it was only in this condition between where we turned onto it at the Lake Rason Track junction and the junction to The Cut Road further south. The northern and southern sections of the Connie Sue are in very poor condition. Why is this portion so good? There is an Aboriginal community just north of the Lake Rason Track junction and the government maintains the road from the community to Kitchener.
The other thing I noticed were the large number of burned out vehicles beside the road. Was this where vehicles go to die? Apparently not! I was informed it's likely most of them were stolen from Kalgoorlie and driven until they ran out of fuel. At that point the vehicle was set on fire to destroy evidence and prevent recovery. I stopped counting after seeing 50 vehicles.
Eventually we reached the Trans-Australian railway crossing it and stopping at the junction with the railway access road
Forty kilometres west we reached Zanthus and started to pass vehicles going in the opposite direction. That's when I remembered the Rawlinna Muster was scheduled to occur in a few days. Actually the correct name is The Nullabor Muster.
At Zanthus the four vehicles heading to Kalgoorlie parted from the main group. We headed west whilst they would go south. The road was quite busy for an unsealed outback location. No doubt due to the muster. The four vehicles gradually spread out to reduce our ingestion of dust. I then realised my small windscreen mounted UHF antenna was having difficulty receiving the transmissions from the vehicle in front. However the vehicle behind my was having no issues with his larger bullbar mounted antenna. In open, flat country I had a range of less than a kilometre. something for me to think about if I go solo on a remote trip.
Kalgoorlie was reached at 2pm. The other three vehicles all needed replacement tyres which would be delivered overnight from Perth. Rather than camp on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie I decided to press on and perhaps camp at Yellowdine where the group spent it's first night.
There was still daylight when I reached Yellowdine and I decided to keep going eventually reaching home at 8.50pm. I must have driven close to 1000km on the last day. Certainly not the longest journey I've travelled in a day. However I was pleased to be home.
Tomorrow will be a big cleaning day.
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