Southern Safari – Day Three

I think I have identified the problem with the Samsung Tablet SatNav and will describe my research and conclusions in a later post.

The plan was to spend several days at Lake Ballard.  However the wind, dust and flies resulted in a shorter stay (any fool can be uncomfortable).

Despite the adverse conditions there must have been upwards of 10 different groups freedom camping here.  What’s so special about Lake Ballard?  The lake has an area of 4900 hectares and is approximately 50km long and 20km wide at it’s widest part.  It’s a ephemeral lake which; depending upon the rainfall;  can either be dry covered in a crust of salt or a shallow wetland.

The local shire managed to convert it into a major outback tourist attraction when they commissioned sculptor and Turner Prize-winning artist Antony Gormley to make 51 steel statues based on residents from the nearby town of Menzies.  The statues were cast in Perth and transported to Lake Ballard where volunteers installed them over seven square kilometres.  After viewing ten of the statues I’ve come to the conclusion the people of Menzies are inter-breed and the town is in desperate need of a lingerie shop.  

One of the first things I did was to climb the hill in the above photo which provided panoramic views of the lake.

 

It was rather windy on the hill but at least there were no flies!

You can see the lines in the salt where people have walked to visit the various statues

My campsite in the above photo

Zoom in

After walking the first two rings of statues I decided eat dinner.  Too windy and exposed for a campfire and I didn’t fancy eating dust with my meal.  Dinner was biscuits and an apple.

My nearest fellow campers were from Adelaide, South Australia.  They had driven over with their new outback caravan that had all the mod cons.  Despite it looking rather luxurious I was slightly bemused when they told me this would be their first night sleeping in it.  For the previous fortnight they had been sleeping in hotels.

It was a noisy night as the clamshell rooftop tent got a buffeting from the wind.  A major part of my original plan was to fly the drone in an effort to get some good video footage.  The wind stopped that.

Tomorrow I start heading south.

Southern Safari – Day Two

I tried flying the drone at Lake Baladjie. Link to some brief video footage below.

Video of Lake Baladjie

A broken night as I needed to get up and do the “Old Man’s Walk of Shame” (damned bladder).  Breakfast was always going to be early if I intended to beat the flies.  The embers in the fire pit were still warm and it didn’t take much to get it sufficiently hot for my Jaffle Iron.  The bacon and egg jaffles were burnt but filling.

After packing everything away, checking the campsite and shovelling earth over the remains of the camp fire, I headed towards my next destination, Lake Ballard. 

 

The lake was approximately 450km away and my planned route would take me through country with few public roads.  Indeed, the previous evening one of the other campers who was a local informed me there was no road!  Undaunted, I trusted my Open Street Map and Samsung Tablet GPS.

The first stop was at the town of Bullfinch (second arrow above).   In 1910 gold was found here and the town rapidly developed.  By 1963 the gold was exhausted and the last goldmine closed.  Today little remains of the original town.

No swim today

See all the houses

I hadn’t been driving more than 15 minutes when the Samsung tablet GPS decided to have a coronary.  After fluttering for a minute it went into a boot loop.  Nothing I did would make it work.  Now I’m in a quandary.  The map in the Isuzu sat nav might be out of date for city driving and does show main roads.  However they don’t have the detail I would need.  Time to stop and think!

Whilst the road was corrugated it looked well used.  I decided to press on using my watch as a compass to give me a general direction.  One hundred kilometres later it became apparent the few roads I was crossing were private leading to mines.  The eastern wheat belt was now well behind me and I was into the western goldfields.  It’s actually quite surprising the number of mines out this way.  Few appear to be gold; mostly nickel, cobalt, magnesium and rare earths.

A mine ‘Blasting Board’

My watch told me I was roughly heading in the right direction so I pressed on.  The road corrugations started to get worse.

When I’m not driving on a sealed road I always engage 4WD high range to maintain better adhesion with the surface.  If I'm towing I don’t exceed 70km/h.

The corrugations got even worse.

It’s wildflower season out here in the desert and took photos of some when  I stopped to let the tyres and shock absorbers cool. 

Not long after restarting the journey I noticed a thin tree branch lying across the road.  I was doing 70km/h with no opportunity to avoid driving over it.  Then the end of the branch rose into the air and looked in my direction.   Oops!  Snakes are protected in Australia and must be relocated rather than killed.  I relocated this snake to heaven! 

You will not be surprised to read I eventually reached Lake Ballard. Oh, and I never saw another vehicle during the 450km journey

Southern Safari – Day One

Preparations for this trip around southern Western Australia has been going on for several weeks.  The plan was to visit a couple of outback locations and also do some fishing.  I don’t like paying when free is an option and had been carefully studying the maps to find suitable overnight locations.

We have just replaced the garage roller door and managed to increase the vertical clearance by an additional 40mm which provides sufficient clearance for the camper trailer without having to deflate the tyres.  Jan checked the clearance as I very slowly towed the trailer through the garage and onto the driveway.  Apparently it was a very tight squeeze.

Last of the packing done and I headed south to Costco where I would fill the Isuzu and five 20 litre jerry cans with the cheapest diesel in Perth.  After that I headed east on the Great Eastern Highway. 

The destination for the day was Lake Baladjie, some 360km from home.

 

Left arrow – Perth.  Centre arrow – Merridin.   Right arrow – Lake Baladjie

The plan was to stop for a late lunch at the town of Merridin.  Last time I passed this way was with Ken after completing the Holland Track and I had noticed the Merridin Railway Station.  This time I intended to stop and have a look.

Aiming for maximum fuel economy I attempted to maintain an average speed of 90km/h avoiding 6th gear as it places too much demand on the engine when towing.

  Lunch stop

Old Merridin Railway Station is interesting but it’s no longer used.  The new station is adjacent, smaller and bland.

Signal box

I never got to see the front of the station as it’s now a railway museum and museums are not free in Australia.

You might wonder why I took this next photo.

It was the writing on the old water tank.  Kalgoorlie is the largest West Australian city east of Perth.  A gold mining town with plenty of thirsty miners

I do like traditional Australian hotels

Even the post office was interesting

Merridin has a SubWay!

Time to get back on the road and continue east.  Occasionally a pipeline appears beside the road.

 In 1892 gold was discovered west of Kalgoorlie which led to a gold rush with people travelling to the region from the eastern states and overseas.  This rapid increase in population created a serious shortage of available water and so a pipeline was built to deliver water from Perth.  The original pipe was smaller and water was pumped using steam powered engines fired by locally sourced timber.  This had the effect of deforesting the route.

I left the Great Eastern Highway 20km east of Merridin and headed NE. I’d planned the trip to ensure it started at the end of the school holidays hoping to have Lake Baladjie to myself.  It didn’t quite work as a number of ‘grey nomads’ had the same idea!

Campsite

Luxury.  The local shire had install a flush toilet at the end of the track.

The location is known for two main reasons.   The large salt lake, which covers approximately 8,400 hectages and Baladjie Rock. This large granite outcrop has been sculpted by the elements over time, pockmarked with caves, overhangs and fractures and is peppered with ponds.

Being a lazy cook I decided to heat my evening can of spaghetti and sausages by standing the can in a billy half filled with water.  The fire would heat the water and the water would heat the contents of the can.  I could then use the hot water to wash up. 

The biggest problem here were the bush flies.  Millions of them!  Fortunately I’d remembered to bring my head net.  If you don’t want to share your food with the flies then you need to cook after dark and before dawn whilst the flies are still in bed.

Tomorrow should be interesting as I’m heading well off the beaten track.

Airspace and the New SatNav

There are likely to be few people who either haven’t seen on TV or heard that the mainland chinese airforce has been repeatedly entering Taiwanese airspace.  This has led many politicians to accuse the Chinese Communist Party of aggression. 

The diagram below shows claimed airspace by South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China in the region.

If you believed the media you would think China is being aggressive towards Taiwan.   However the actual accusation against China is that its aircraft are penetrating Taiwan’s self declared Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).  What is the difference between Taiwan’s airspace and ADIZ.  This next diagram shows Taiwan’s self declared ADIZ.

Completely different.  Taiwan is claiming all of the Taiwan Strait and even part of mainland China.  It appears some in the media should do their research.  The issue isn’t airspace breaches but the Taiwanese self declared ADIZ.  Moreover, is Taiwan crying wolf?

My repurposing tablet project is 80% complete.  I  managed to remove the Samsung firmware along with the ‘bloatware’ replacing it with a new version of Android.  This version is named LineageOS and is community developed.  Samsung stopped updating the tablet at Android V6.  I have been able to update the tablet to the latest version, Android 11, using LineageOS.  The removal of the ‘bloatware’ and unnecessary application has made the tablet much faster.

The next step was to ‘root’ the tablet using Magisk.  This gave me access to additional hidden functionality.  Then I installed MacroDroid which allows the user to automate the tablet functionality.  This is the part I haven’t completed.

The final software step was to install OSMAND, a SatNav application.

The last step was to purchase windscreen mount components in order to fit the tablet to the windscreen.

I now have some detailed maps of track in the Australian Outback.  The only financial cost in this has been the windscreen mounting bracket.

Off on a trip tomorrow.  No further posts for at least a week… or longer if the fish are biting

Shower Test and a Delivery

The weather was better today enabling me to test the trailer shower setup without the risk of getting wet.

The height of the shower cubicle might be an issue and I’m already thinking of how it might be repositioned to increase it’s height.  The gas instant heater is in exactly the right position.

This morning my latest order from China arrived.

A 600mm woodworking set square

It’s very well made and quite accurate.    The price was also a bargain as it had been reduced.  Then Jan found a discount code along with free shipping !

 

 

Unannounced Visitor and Disturbing News

We had rain today.  Hopefully the last of the spring rain as there are things I’d like to do outside.  The rain will make the farmers happy.  It looks like there will be a bumper grain harvest in the west this year.

An unannounced visitor decided to take advantage of the rain and have a wash.

Kookaburra's have taken up residence in a neighbour’s large gumtree and been raising a family.  Their young are of an age where their voices are breaking which is making an amusing hash of their attempts to call out.  It’s only when you see them up close that you realise just how big the adults are and what a powerful beak they have.  I rather like Kookaburras for their diet. They eat snakes, lizards, small mammals, frogs, rodents, bugs, beetles and worms.  Obviously not vegan!

 

Obviously not worried by the rain!

Some not so welcome news from the UK.  Our youngest son has COVID and, despite being fully vaccinated, .he isn’t feeling too great.  He has lost his sense of smell and taste and has a ‘croaky’ voice.  Ten days home quarantine for him along with some bed rest.