Southern Safari – Day Eight

This was supposed to be another short day of driving with the intention of reaching Betty’s Beach located approximately 50km east of Albany.

What should have been a relatively simple trip turned into something different when the Isuzu GPS decided I should go off-road.  I didn’t realise I was being led astray until the GPS told me in 300 metres take a left turn.  That proved to be an overgrown track with a farm gate.  <grrrr>

I backtracked 20km and configured a new route with intermediate waypoints in an effort to force the GPS to take a sensible route.  I thought everything was going well until the gps started directing me around a 200 metre triangle of road.  If I’d kept following the voice instructions I would have rear ended myself

Backtrack 12km and make the gps work in small steps.  Eventually I reached the camping ground at Betty’s Beach finding a vacant site beside the long drop toilet block.  Ideal location for an old man!

 

My en-suite

Time for a late lunch of pasta cooked by Jan before I left on the trip.  Then it was down to the rocks for a spot of evening fishing.

My fishing spot on the far side of the bay.

Not a single bite.  It was going on dusk when I made it back to the trailer to cook dinner.  Tinned potatoes and mixed veg with the last of the pasta.

I was up before dawn and back on the rocks fishing.  Again no bites!  Back at the trailer I was cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast when my camping neighbour asked how the fishing had gone.  “Zero luck” was my reply.  He then informed me he had been here four days and had only caught two herring.  He attributed the poor fishing to the recent “fresh”.  That is; the recent rain which has run into the ocean reducing the salinity and discouraging the fish.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around Betty’s Beach considering what I might do.

Eventually I decided it was pointless fishing for no fish and decided to drive the 450km back home arriving in the late afternoon.  Tomorrow will obviously be taken up with unpacking the trailer and 4WD before some serious cleaning.

 

Southern Safari – Day Seven

Woke at dawn to low cloud cover and did the old man’s walk to empty the reservoir.  No one was around and I had a quiet breakfast of Weetabix in the kitchen on my own.

Other camper were just starting to rise as I closed down the clamshell tent and did my final packing before checking everything was secure on the trailer. 

Only a 20km drive to the junction to Bluff Knoll.  There was a lookout parking area beside the road and I stopped to take a few photos.  Bluff Knoll was concealed by cloud so all you see are more wildflowers beside the road.

  

One significant difference I’ve noticed between Oz and NZ is here you pay for access to National Parks.  You then usually have to make a second payment if you want to camp in the park.

The National Parks have become very sophisticated, they even have ‘pay and display’ machines that take cards.  The cost of my entry was $8 (senior’s concession).

 

A further seven kilometre drive to the Bluff Knoll car park where; to my surprise; I found three rather wet looking  men with head torches.  They had just completed a three hour return trip to the summit leaving at 4AM.  The top half of Bluff Knoll was covered in cloud which meant their plans of seeing a rising dawn had been a failure.

Ever optimistic, I thought the cloud might have lifted by the time I reached the summit.  Not wanting to be caught high up by the weather I had bought a day pack containing two fleeces, raincoat, camera and beanie.  I also had a 750ml stainless steel water in one of the open side pockets of the pack.

The summit path was well defined and sealed.  I thought “This will be a doodle!” and set off at a rapid pace to warm up the body.  After 350 metres the seal ended and I was on a smooth unpaved path with the occasional step.  It’s three kilometres to the summit and at 800 metres the steps started to get closer together and higher.  Thigh muscles that have received little serious exercise in the last decade started to burn.  The steps became even closer together and steeper.  At the halfway point a small voice inside me was questioning my decision (this is starting to hurt….. you don’t want to do this… there will be nothing to see at the top) I ignored the small voice determined to carry on. 

Several minutes later the toe of my right shoe caught on the top of a step and I tumbled forward.  The water bottle flew out of the pack side pocket and I was instantaneously concerned it would get damaged impacting with the rock.  fortunately its impact was cushioned when it hit the fingernail of my out stretched right index finger.  I said “Gosh that hurt” (or words to that effect).  Picking myself up I ignored the voice exclaming (I told you something would happen) and watched my fingernail turn black.

At two kilometres the voice was shrieking at me (idiot…. you’re old… what are you trying to prove…… turn back now, no one will be any the wiser….. remember you have to come down and that will be even more painful). 

Blocking out the shrieking I decided to press on for another 100 metres before reviewing my plan.  That’s when out of the cloud ahead of appeared a father and son slowly heading up.  Well I couldn’t turn round now!  One silent screaming step after another until I reached the summit where; as I anticipated; I could see nothing but cloud.

Father & son at the summit

Within a minute of me reaching the summit a ‘Fell Runner’ appeared behind me with a spring in his step and a smile on his face.  He wasn’t even sweating… Bast@rd!  He was dressed in a white T-Shirt and shorts with a small bum pack.

After a 10 minute recovery I stripped off the rain jacket and one of the fleeces before heading back down.  I’d only walked 200 metres when the Fell Runner came bounding past with a big smile on his face.

At the halfway point the car park started to appear

Hell, it looks a long way and I’m carefully doing one step at a time in an effort to ensure I don’t take a downhill tumble.

Zoom

The thighs are starting to feel like they are made of jelly.  At least I can still feel them and they work.  By now I’m meeting people coming up…. Do I look as exhausted as them?

Now I’m out of the cloud and it’s possible to see something

Reached the car park and looking back I can see the summit is still covered in cloud

It took three hours and twenty minutes to completed the trip.  Another off the bucket list!

Southern Safari – Day Six

Waking at dawn I quickly closed up the clamshell rooftop tent and made breakfast.  No dust or flies…… Sausages and eggs… Great!.  Then it was just a case of washing up and closing the camper trailer tailgate kitchen.  The old soldier in me means I pack things away as soon as I’ve finished with them.  A habit Jan will tell you I don’t have at home.

Having driven a significant distance yesterday I only had three hundred kilometres to todays destination.   Trio Bush Camp on the edge of the Stirling Ranges.  This would be the one location where I paid to camp.  An honesty box system at $16 pp senior’s concession.  The campsite had a kitchen, toilets and showers.

There was low cloud cover, however I considered flying the drone until I noticed the “No Drone” sign <dammit>.

A sign outside the kitchen proclaimed guided wildflower tours would depart in the afternoon at $25 per person.  I decided to go for a walk thinking the wildflowers can’t be too far away.   I was right!

Saved $25

The weather became very intermittent with a changing mix of sun, cloud and gusts of wind.  I decided to setup camp in a clump of trees in an effort to get some shelter from the wind.

The Stirling Ranges occasionally appeared when the cloud lifted.

I’ve decided to walk to the top of the highest hill, Bluff Knoll.  However that will be tomorrow morning as I don’t trust the weather. 

At 1099metres Bluff Knoll is the highest hill in the Stirling Ranges. 

Dinner was cooked in the camp kitchen.  A tin of Irish stew which appeared to be mostly potato and ‘gloop.   Poor choice on my part!

After dusk I spent several hours in conversation with a couple from Derby, UK who now live in Perth.  They were explaining they usually travel back to the UK each year to see their aging parents.  However COVID and ‘Fortress Australia’ has placed a dampener on that in the last couple of years.    

Southern Safari – Day Five

A thirty kilometre drive saw me reach Coolgardie where I topped up the Isuzu with diesel not knowing when I will next see a service station and if I do, then the price will be exorbitant.

Some rough navigation guesswork here as the vehicle satnav map is rather sparse on details.  I want to go south down Victoria Rock Road which ends at the Hyden to Norseman Road. 

When completing the Holland Track with Ken and Bob we crossed this road and I wanted to inspect the Victoria Rock campsite in the national park.  I was even thinking of spending the night there. 

The bitumen disappeared very quickly and I was back into 4WD.

The Victoria Rock camping ground is 80km south of Coolgardie.  It was empty.  no doubt because the school holidays were over.  A typical national park campsite with a long drop toilet.

Too early in the day and I decided to press on.  In some places the road was wide with a reasonable surface.  In others it was narrow and heavily corrugated.  At one point the road appeared to disappear, but I found the missing end after a brief search.  Never saw another human during the two hours.

Native woodland scrub

A right turn at the junction heading west towards Hyden.  I didn’t want to go that far as the plan was to reach the south coast in two days.   The Hyden to Norseman Road was empty but heavily corrugated.  I discovered driving on the right hand side of the road going uphill was a smoother ride and then change to the left side when going downhill.  I assumed this was because two wheel drive traffic going uphill was creating the corrugations so switching sides meant I was going up the side used by downhill traffic.  There was no traffic which meant I could travel on whatever side of the road I liked.

I crossed the Holland Track for a second time and then passed through the Rabbit Proof Fence which runs for thousands of kilometres from the north of the State down to the south coast.

Eventually I turned south onto Bushfire  Rock Road guessing it would lead me to civilization.    Shortly afterwards I left the goldfields and native woodland behind entering the SE wheat belt.  This must be near civilization as the gravel changed to bitumen

Hundreds of square kilometres of grain and it looks like there will be a bumper harvest in the west this year.  One advantage of this continent called Australia is if there is a poor harvest on one side of the continent then it’s going to be a great harvest on the other.

A right turn at the small town of Newdgate had me heading west towards Lake Grace.  I’ve been driving for nearly 12 hours and refuelled from the jerry cans twice (ie used four of the five).  After Lake Grace dusk was starting to fall and I began looking for a quiet campsite near the road.     Some 10km west of Lake Grace I noticed an area on the right in some trees.  On driving into it I discovered It had been used previously as there were the remains of several campfires.

I wanted until it was dark and then cooked myself a meal before opening the clamshell tent and heading to bed.  Despite it being a long day of driving I didn’t get a great nights sleep as it was broken by the sound of passing road trains rumbling along the adjacent road.

 

Campsite

Southern Safari – Day Four

Dust was blowing around when I woke and a decision was therefore made to skip breakfast.  The clamshell rooftop tent is very easy and quick to close up and as I tend to pack everything after using it (a habit I don’t have at home) I was one of the first to leave Lake Ballard.

About 30km of unsealed road and then it was bitumen all the way to Menzies.  However before reaching Menzies I stopped at a roadside rest area and cooked sausages and eggs for breakfast.

The rest stop had a small shrine where Australian humour was apparent.  His mates had left a small collection of beer bottles at the base of the cross. 

Menzies is a small former goldmining town established in 1894. At its peak the population was 10,000.  However within a decade that rapidly declined when the gold ran out.   Today the population is only a couple of hundred and we know, courtesy of Gormley  51 of them are skinny with droopy breasts.  I was unable to confirm this latter point as there wasn’t a soul in sight.

No opportunity for a pie at the bakery

I do like Australian hotels

Menzies would like to be famous for it’s 100 year old clockless Town Hall.  The Town Hall stood clockless for 100 years after the ship bringing the clock from England sank in the Indian Ocean.  The town fathers decided against purchasing a replacement worried about the repetition.  It wasn’t until 2000 that the town father eventually had a clock installed.

It is just over 130km from Menzies to Kalgoorlie.   With a population exceeding 30,000 Kalgoorlie is the largest city in the goldfields region.  Established in 1893 it was rapidly overtaken by the nearby town of Coolgarie where richer ore was found.   However Coolgardie subsequently declined as a major population centre.  In 1896 the railway from Perth arrived along with the water pipeline. 

Kalgoorlie used to have a reputation as a “wild west” area with bandits and prostitutes.  For many years the “Hay Street Stables” did a roaring business serving the needs of the miners.   Illegal; but ignored by the law, the stables (brothels) existed for many years they have now gone (mostly).  At its peak Kalgoorlie had 79 hotels and more than 30 breweries. 

The Palace Hotel.   Years ago I stayed in the hotel on the recommendation of a work colleague’'.  The hotel held fond memories for him as it’s where he met his wife.  No; she didn’t work in the Stables.   AND NO!   For the record I didn’t visit the Stables during that trip….. or on any other visit!!!!

From a tourism perspective Kalgoorlie is probably best known for it’s interesting buildings and the ‘Super Pit which is the largest open cut mine in Australia.  Originally created as a number of underground mines which were consolidated and then converted into open cut.

I last visited the Super Pit more than 25 years ago and it keeps on getting bigger.  Currently it’s 2.5km long, 1.5km wide and over 600 metres deep. 

’

To give some idea of the scale the tiny yellow excavators in the above photos have a bucket this size.

 

The bucket has a capacity of 70 tonnes and each dump truck needs four bucket loads to fill it.   The huge dump trucks take a hour to move from the bottom to the top of the mine.  Many of the drivers are female as they are (apparently) more reliable and less inclined to damage the equipment.

One of the main reasons for stopping in Kalgoorlie was to refuel the Isuzu and the five jerry cans as my next leg would be taking me back into remote country.