And so into South Australia, with a time change to 1.5 hrs. The nice thing about staying in SA for the rest of our trip is that we don’t have to worry about any more time changes until we are heading home again.

Yesterday we stopped at Border Village to get fuel, dump the toilet and get bread, then on our way again. The South Australian quarantine station is located near Ceduna, so we won’t cross that barrier until tomorrow. We got some pretty heavy rain yesterday morning and it confirmed that we have a leaking roof and it drips on the bed. This happened a bit when we were at the Breakaways, but not as badly. We stayed at Whitewell yesterday morning until there was a break in the weather and the dripping (sometimes pouring) water stopped. A system of bin bags, our basin and a tray helped to capture the water. We have a quilt on top of our doona and that seemed to capture all of the wet without wetting the doona. Whilst we were driving it rained heavily but the water couldn’t stay on the roof long enough to pool and start a new flood.

The drive from Eucla to Whitewell on Friday was in good weather, except for a strong wind. We didn’t feel the need to go out to view the cliffs at any of the many viewpoints as our experience is that the wind makes it very unpleasant. We were so lucky last year that when we camped at Bunda Cliffs it wasn’t windy.

We stopped at the Nullabour Roadhouse for icecreams and spoke with a man who was cycling from Gold Coast to Perth. He was very stiff from his ride and wanted to check in a set up his tent, but we kept him talking for a little while. He is about to turn 60 and said this trip was sort of a very, very late mid life crisis. Sensibly he intends to fly home from Perth, not take the return journey by bicycle.

Once at Whitewell, which is fairly close to Nullabour Roadhouse, we set ourselves up near the fence and prepared for our Facetime session for a Working Voices committee meeting. Ellen has an ipad that she set up facing Yvonne and we managed to get a bit of business sorted, including closing down the website and relying on the Facebook page for our online presence. Then they organised what they will do for May Day as the choir has been asked to sing.

Yesterday, as I said, we waited until there was a break in the rain to set off for Penong. Fairly shortly after leaving Whitewell the vegetation changes completely, back to bush instead of low, grey shrubs. We still had quite a lot of rain on the journey and were gratefull to be accommodated at the Penong Caravan Park. People are booking ahead as the closure of the top bitumen road to Western Australia means most traffic going East and West comes via the Eyre Highway and we have noticed that the free camps are usually very busy. You do get a bit spoilt on the Eyre Highway as there are lots of rest areas, including places that are good for camping because you can get away from the highway. However, they tend to be very busy overnight.

We had a bit of communication with Matt yesterday. Dad Brian organises Matt’s HBF membership and asked if we could get his bill paid, he said he will reimburse Matt later. In the end I had to pay online as Matt cannot identify himself over the phone and they would have had to go to HBF in person. They showed us Matt’s new iron on labels. I ordered them online and had them sent to him. His name is very clear and we hope they actually stay on during multiple washes. Matt and Eli were labelling his new sheets and pillowcases.

We were feeling quite exhausted yesterday evening and decided we will stay here another night. That gives us a day to do some planning for our South Australian travels and gives me time to catch up on this blog. We are low on fruit and veggies, but people sometimes leave them here due to the quarantine station, so we hopeful of having some donated fruit.

I’m taking advantage of the lovely washers and dryers here. They are large, front loading models and don’t squish things too much. I did our towels last night and will do a load of clothing today sometime.

We did it again! At Eucla caravan park we couldn’t resist camping on the rather sloping part with the best view down to the ocean. It took some time to get level, but eventually we managed it. I had to rush off to do the washing so that it would have a chance to be dry by the evening even before we levelled up. There are no dryers here, so we have to peg everything out. At least things will be really fresh.

We had lunch at Mundrabilla and also made a stop to put up the drone. I did a couple of flyovers of the roof which show that the mud did not extend as far as the closest solar panel. Oddly, though the air conditioner is clearly affected, as we can see from the ground, the roof appears clear.

We had dinner at the motel restaurant before coming back to listen to podcasts and music. Stephen had a shower before dinner and I had one just before bed. We pay extra for the showers, $1 for 8 minutes, but the fee for camping is only $30 so it seems reasonable as this whole area is very dry. We have power of course.

Today (Tuesday 11th) was our first really windy day. This morning as we got up and did our usual morning routine the Sherwood was being buffeted around. There was an upside. During the drive it felt like the good ship Sherwood was blessed with a following wind and we were coasting along at 90kms an hour without any effort.

We visited Caiguna Roadhouse and then Cocklebiddy, where we got fuel. We were a bit tempted to go all the way to Eucla in a day, but I felt like it would be too far to drive, especially as I want to do some washing. It means a bit of a effort at the end of the day, not enjoyable after a long day of driving.

I see from the trip planner that we were going to spend the night at the Madura Pass Lookout, but we made it our lunch stop, then drove about 27kms to this campsite, hoping for a bit more shelter from the wind. It is a designated 24hr stop, with clean drop toilets.

Actually, the wind was blowing up dust swirls when we arrived, so we chose to camp on the blue metal near the entrance. It’s also close to the toilets. For quite a long time we were only one of three vans here, but as it got close to sunset the big caravans started rolling in and we are now quite a big village. I think one or two may have gone further into the bush, but most seem to be clustered close to the entry.

By sunset the wind slowly died down and it is now quite peaceful, though a bit colder than the official forecast. Last night we had quite good internet, tonight not so good, but I didn’t have the energy to set up the Starlink. Also, with people driving in it didn’t feel safe to put it out. We don’t want people driving over the cord.

If we don’t have good enough internet I write the daily blog in Word, then transfer to WordPress to upload. That is why there are sometimes two posts in a day.

We are a bit a head of our plan due to being chased out of the Hyden-Norseman Road by the heavy rain. I’m noticing how that my plan was for quite short hops between campsites even now on the Eyre Highway. This route is pretty familiar to us and we want to get to our favourite bits!

Today was just a driving day, with little stops along the way and getting fuel at Balladonia Roadhouse. We are camped well into the bush behind the blowhole which is very close to the road.

We had quite a busy time yesterday morning, hence driving only about 80kms from Norseman. We did the usual things of dumping and filling up with water. We didn’t need all of the water from our two tokens, so the next person in line got an extra 30 litres.

Then off to the supermarket where we not only did some good shopping, but ran into two other Suncamper Sherwood E series vans. One was brand new, and you wouldn’t have expected us to head straight for it and try to open the door, but that’s what we did. Before blushingly returning to our own Sherwood.

Later, after we had put things away a bit we noticed the second Sherwood, this time rather more like ours, a bit older and with a large storage box on the back, such as we used to have on ours. We have to say that our box is quite a satisfactory size: it carries two small camping chairs, our levellers and chocks, an airer for washing and a folding table. Stephen has also put his spare shoes in there.

We wanted to have a go at cleaning up the outside. First of all we went to the BP station where Stephen checked our tyres, all good. They offered to let us use their water tap for $5, but suggested that it might be best to go back to the old Tourist Information Office (now a nice laundromat) as there was a tap there. Knowing it might take time and not wanting to hold up people wanting to check their tyres, as usual tyres and water were at the same point, we took his advice. Only to find that the tap had been completely closed off and there were no other taps available.

Stephen got out our bucket and got water from the hand basin of the nearby toilets and we started wiping down. Although using the dump point hose the night before had done a little bit of good (we didn’t have enough pressure), there was still a lot of cleaning to do. It took about an hour and we’re very pleased with the result. Although we still have a lot of mud underneath and on the wheels the rest of the van is basically fairly clean. The dirt washed off reasonably well. I kept taking my cloth back to the stainless steel basin in the Ladies to wash away the red dirt. By the way, I left it cleaner than it was due to careful washing down.

We couldn’t reach all the way up at the back and hope that we can borrow a ladder at some point to get at it.

We went to the Gateway Caravan Park and were able to get the gas bottle refilled, so really feel well prepared for the next phase of the trip. Although we arrived at our park up at about 2.00 p.m. and could have driven onwards after a short nap, I didn’t want to travel any further along.

I wanted to cook a chicken and vegetable curry, and that was accomplished. We also wanted to speak with Matt on Facetime, which meant setting up the Starlink. It takes time for it’s signal to stabilise and I wasn’t too hopeful due to all of the trees, but in fact it worked quite well and we had a nice chat with him. We called him before his teatime, but I think he felt we interrupted the best part of the day (meal prep), so we must try to time it for after tea next week. We did get some smiles, but mostly he just wanted to be off to join the party in the main living room.

This is the road closure sign when we finished the Hyden Norsman Road. When we were planning to take this route we always said we would take advice about the conditions and not travel this way if there was heavy rain. We rang the Visitor Centre before we left and there was no warning about heavy rain. The weather forecast was mixed, some rain in some areas, none in others, and it wasn’t clear where exactly we were.

When we were leaving the Breakaways this morning although there were small puddles there weren’t any extra muddy pools where other vehicles had left. So, we weren’t prepared for the next 50 kms to be muddy. It was raining as well, though not heavily, and I guess we weren’t in any danger, but the condition of our Sherwood towards the end shows just how much mud we went through. I had to concentrate very hard as we still had the usual corrugations to deal with and felt them more than the on first day due to having to drive more slowly.

However, after the 50 kms the road condition did improve. The road wasn’t as wet and was firmer. So, we were a bit surprised to find the road had been closed. We had seen a few cars coming from the Norseman direction. We saw a car and caravan on the side of the road and are still not sure if the driver meant to drive into the ditch due to mechanical problems or because he slid off the road. It was when the road was firmer, so it would have been strange if it had been accidental. There was another car with them so we didn’t feel the need to stop.

We stopped a couple of times on the journey, once for coffee and once for lunch. It was at the later stop when driving conditions had improved that we saw the state of the Sherwood. Awful!

This is what our back window looked like from the inside and I quite like the effect of the patterns. We’ve been able to do a bit of a washdown here in Norseman, but I don’t know if we will be able to get rid of it all.

At Norseman you are advised to fill up with water for the journey across the Nullabour. Of course, the Visitor Centre was closed by the time we arrived so we couldn’t get tokens for filling up. They won’t open again until Monday morning. We asked at the supermarket and they had two tokens, all we needed, but they were the last two tokens they had, and I felt a bit guilty. Each is for 60 litres, and if we can’t use all of the water the next person who comes to fill up gets on a bonus.

Fortunately the dump point is free and we used the hose to do a bit of a preliminary cleanup. Our rear vision camera is now clear enough to see what’s behind.

The free RV camp was full by the time we got here, but another camper let us share their pitch. Caravans need a wide bay for the van and car, but vans only take up half. We feel tired by the day of driving, only about 160kms, but we needed to concentrate all of the time.

An Easter Saturday to remember.

Two trucks shared our parking bay with us on Thursday night, one of them running the engine all night. It wasn’t as bad as you’d think. The constant noise wasn’t disturbing and we slept well. We woke up to a bright, sunny morning and felt good about heading off towards our next destination.

The gravel road was mostly an easy drive and we travelled at just under 80kms an hour most of the time. We stopped at the various wayside markers along the way, which made for quite nice little breaks to get out in the sunshine and take a break from the bumps.

We arrived here at the Breakaways at about midday. First off, we had a cup of tea near the entrance, then drove around to find a flat spot. We settled on a sandy area away from the cliffs. There was a deep, muddy hole in the main part, but all cars had taken a chicken track beside it, so we did too. By evening we counted about seven people here, including us, but we a dispersed enough to have a sense of privacy.

I set up the Starlink fairly close to us and after a couple of hours of up and down internet access I realised that it really did need to be moved. The next spot I chose was behind the Sherwood where no one would drive, but beyond the small trees. That worked really well and we had good internet for the rest of the day.

In the evening just before sunset we took a walk over to take photos of the beautiful ‘breakaways’. Nowhere near as spectacular as Wave Rock in Hyden, they are nevertheless special because of the colouring.

We had a few drops of rain and the forecast was for some rain in our region, but we were still not expecting how wet it was overnight. Our gas bottle ran out at about 9.00 p.m. and Stephen had to get out to do the changeover. I decided to bring the Starlink in for the night, I was worried about some small animal chewing the cord, or something. Later I was so glad I had because the rain came in and has persisted until this morning. A sandy patch behind us is now a small pond.

One of our neighbours had asked us about the weather forecast because he was worried about his chosen campsite. To me it looks like the centre of a shallow lake. We are a bit higher than that, but could still get flooded out if the rain was very heavy. I wasn’t able to give him a good answer, other than rain was forecast, but the forecast area is so large that it’s hard to know if it will rain in your particular area.

We have woken up to a grey morning, with the sound of rain on the Sherwood. It’s quite loud, though it doesn’t appear to be really heavy rain when you look out of the window. No one has driven off in a hurry because of the wet, so I guess we are OK to wait and have breakfast.

So, that was our Good Friday and I hope you have a peaceful and interesting day as well.

Dishy is off in the bush, but you can see the cord.

So we didn’t spend the night there. We drove a little way along the Hyden Norseman Road to the first parking area. It wasn’t anything special, but we didn’t arrive until about 4:00 pm and were quite tired.

In the morning in Brookton we went to Stumpys to check the tyres and fuel up. During the drive we stopped at Corrigin to dump our toilet, then went to the supermarket for a new knife and firelighter for the stove. A nearby cafe tempted us and we spent time over coffee and slice, plus chatting with a local.

By the time we finished we could have had lunch but didn’t have the appetite. We drove on to Kondinin where we filled up our drinking water containers.

In Hyden Stephen went to the supermarket for fruit and to the bakery where he bought chocolate crackles. By this time we had eaten bananas to keep us going, but did not have lunch until we arrived at the parking area for the night.

We had one more meal later after dark, but it was very light, tuna and salad. It was a mixed up day due to thinking we would be staying at Hyden overnight.

At Hyden we bought more fuel, about 60 litres. There is a sticker on our windscreen that says our fuel and distance measures may be off because we have a non standard tank. We’ve always assumed that we have a range of 600kms, but it might be more because although the car has reported the kms going down the tank guage still registers past full. We’re not complaining, but should perhaps try filling up until the bowser clicks off.

Today we’ve made it as far as the Breakaways for the night, but I’ll write about today in the next blog.