The usual breakfast of bacon and egg grilled in the frying pan and eaten on a toast sandwich. Yes, I'm a boring cook and hate cleaning dishes.
After an hour driving on unsealed tracks we turned south on the sealed Coolgardie - Esperance Highway reaching the town of Norseman which is located at the western end of the long Eyre Highway that crosses the Nullarbor Plain to Adelaide in South Australia.
Gold was found here in 1892. A prospector discovered a major gold seam here in 1894 and named the town after his horse (Hardy Norseman). At one time the area was the second riches goldfield in Western Australia. Today the town survives on mining and tourism
The group stopped to refuel at the BP Roadhouse although I only purchased 11 litres having used two of my 20 litre jerrycans before departing that morning.
Wide main street allowing plenty of parking for large caravans.
We continued south with a short detour to the east to view the western end of the Old Telegraph Line. The telegraph line was one of the first major infrastructure projects built across the continent. With no existing road all the materials had to be transported along the coast and then carried inland on camels.
Our campsite for the night was Peak Charles. Another major rock formation.
Short blue line on the map above
The unsealed road into Peak Charles was very heavily corrugated and consequentially I was quite surprised to see five caravans at the campsite below the rock. It was a tight squeeze but everyone in the group filled the last of the available sites. An hour after our arrival three more 4WD's arrived only to discover the site was full.
Some members of the group decided they would walk to the summit of the rock. But would wait until tomorrow morning when it would be cooler.
I decided to be adventurous and cooked pasta and mince for dinner managing to burn the bottom of the pot in the process! We haven't been able to have an evening campfire during the trip as it's still total fire ban season.
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