Day 1 – Tuesday 11th June, 2024

In the morning on Tuesday we spent a lot of time finalising what food to take and loading it in the Sherwood. Stephen had taken charge, but consulted me about things. He feels that I just pack anything and everything in case we need it and wanted to carefully curate the food.

In the end it was a good compromise and we were away by about 12.15 p.m. We hadn’t been on the road very long before he realised that he hadn’t locked his filing cabinet. We were on Great Eastern Highway and were able to do a U turn and go back to the house. I checked things again as well. It added 18 kms to the journey.

We had thought we might stay at the free camp in Wundowie, but despite the late start I was feeling well and after a stop in Mundaring to visit the other bakery/cafe (the one near Woolworths) we drove the rest of the way to Meckering, arriving at about 4.30 p.m.

This may have been a bad decision as Stephen had a headache by then, and ended up taking two lots of Panadol, one when we arrived and another about 6 hours later. Even I felt a headache coming on by bedtime and went to bed at about 9.30 p.m. I haven’t been sleeping very well at home, but despite the early night I slept well.

Day 2 – Wednesday 12th June, 2024

It takes two or three days to acclimatise to our camper after being at home. We didn’t hurry this morning and dodged showers when doing outside chores. Meckering is a donation site and of course we made a small donation. It was noisy overnight as the Roadhouse is a well used truck stop, especially at night, plus there is a train line nearby.

Given that Stephen needs a bit of recovery time we have only driven about 180 kms today, about the same as yesterday, but spread over a longer time. In Merriden we shopped at the IGA, bought some RAT tests at the pharmacy, had lunch in the camper, then went to the Mitre 10 for a mouse trap. The mouse trap is just in case and is a ‘catch and release’ type of mouse trap. This is not just that it’s more humane than the ones that kill, but also means we don’t have to deal with a dead mouse.

Stephen said that the toilets at the Mitre 10 are very special with cloth hand towels to use after washing your hands.

In Westonia we are staying at the free camp near the church. For the first time since we’ve been coming here there are other campers as well. In town there are is a caravan park and a separate overflow area, so there are actually three options.

The town is very cute, with lots of the old shopfronts maintained to give a sense of what it was like here in the early days. There is still a gold mine operating, but you can no longer get accommodation and meals for 1/6 or 5 shillings a week. We took a stroll down the Main Street just after sunset.

The little grocery store is also a cafe and only a short walk away. There are also public toilets, a potable water tap, and as you go out of town there is a dump point.

Photos from our evening walk at Westonia.

We’ve had a lot on in the past few weeks, but are also doing some planning for our winter trip. We’ve set aside 2-3 months from Tuesday 11th June. Travelling to Uluru via the GRC is the challenge for this trip, but it’s not certain that we will be able to travel on it as conditions change depending on rainfall. The distance is about 1,100kms from Laverton on mostly gravel and if there has been significant rain it may be closed. There has been rainfall in the past few days, but fairly light and people are still reporting that the road is doable. We are finding the Facebook Great Central Road group very valuable in keeping us in touch with current conditions.

Marie and Geoff came to lunch yestereday and after we had eaten we put the map on the dining table and went through our options with them. This was very useful for us in getting some clarity. If the GRC is closed we plan to divert back to the Great Northern Highway and head for Mt Augustus. This is a monolith that is even larger than Uluru, but not well known outside of WA. Getting there involves travelling on gravel roads, and the weather may impact our ability to go there as well.

Marie suggested that we take the Sherwood to a weighbridge before we pack up to get an idea of the weight before we load our clothes, food and other stuff. We will then have a clearer idea of how much we can take. In the past we have always gone to the weighbridge when fully loaded. We are usually just under the maximum. Our weigh-in is planned for Wednesday this week.

We’ve been going to the Concert Hall and WAPPA to listen to music and also went to Luna Leederville to see a National Theatre Live film. We’ve been catching up with friends and family. This has been enjoyable, but I’ve been ready to leave for several weeks and am finding the waiting around (Stephen is singing in the Last Night of the Proms this weekend which keeps us here) is rather stressful. I need my fix of being in nature for a few weeks to reset.

I’ve taken on being Secretary of Working Voices again as the last person was finding it too stressful. We had a committee meeting Thursday afternoon and I should really be typing up the minutes, but am procrastinating. Stephen and I are not really committed to Working Voices as a choir, but we like it for keeping us in touch with a circle of friends that we have known for a very long time.

Stephen has long since given up providing musical leadership at our monthly rehearsals as he has a second choir rehearsal on Thursday evenings and found he lost concentration when he tried to lead last year. He just lost it. He finds he needs to save energy and preparation time for that choir as it’s pretty demanding. Fortunately, the WVC consists of many strong women who are actually committed and we can leave all decisions and initiatives up to them and just float in sometimes to enjoy it when we can.

We have a newish choir member, Jeff, who plays the guitar. Although he’s very unassuming he is really helping with the guitar accompaniment and a strong, baritone voice. Rob also attends, about half the time, and when we have all three men it makes a really good sound. Most of the time it is just the said strong women keeping things going as we are away. The full paid membership is now 16 as many who had previously left have rejoined. The annual fee is low as we don’t have to pay a choir director, and that combined with meeting only once a month helps to make it attractive.

Stephen now has only one more rehearsal for the Last Night of the Proms concert, plus the three performances and this is not going to be quite as tiring as other shows he has been in. The music is pretty standard and the choir and orchestra have been doing it for the past few years so they don’t need much preparation. Eversley and I are going to the matinee on Saturday and meeting with members of her choir for lunch beforehand.

Reverting back to our trip, we had a practice run of letting the Sherwood tyres down and then using the air compressor to pump up again. We did this as part of a 4WD course last year, but hadn’t done it since. Although it took us a little while to work things out we now feel confident that we can do it on our own. We will let the tyres down for the GCR to help with the corrugations and make it easier on us, the car and the motorhome. We have a book written for Suncamper 4WD motorhomes which gives us suggested tyre pressures for different environments, as well as the car manual, which gives information on the various settings for optimum off road use.

UPDATE: Tuesday 4th June, 2024

The road is closed to all but 4WD vehicles and must be under 4 tonnes. This is due to the recent rain. Our vehicle is 3.45, but other users are reporting that the road is slippery.

Our plan is still to head to Laverton when we leave next Tuesday, watching the situation as we go. We can always divert to the northern route and Mt Augustus, perhaps taking the Great Central Road after spending time in northern Western Australia and the Northern Territory.