I challenge you to pronounce it. Fortunately when you arrive there is a sign on the counter giving you a guide to it’s pronunciation. You also have a manager greeting you with ‘you’re through the worst part of the road’. We were lulled into a false sense of how easy it would be after leaving Giles Breakaway. Sure, there were short patches that were sandy, a bit wet, or with bad corrugations. We have been running into another couple doing the same journey since Laverton and they came into the same rest area after about 150kms. We all agreed that it wasn’t too bad.

But the last 100kms was very corrugated and we ended up travelling on the dry ridge in the middle of the road. It was rough, but nothing like taking the corrugations. Apparently, that part has not yet been repaired from the floods.

So, we arrived feeling a bit shattered and were so relieved to hear we were through the worst of it.

We opted for the roadhouse caravan park for last night as we wanted to do a bit longer drive yesterday, plus needing to top up with water. It has been very comforting, especially as our neighbours, a NZ couple in a large and very comfortable caravan, invited us for a cup of tea after dinner. We enjoyed discussing our lives and children and discovered we had many things in common.

They are very adventurous with their Jayco Silverline and Ford Ranger and think nothing of taking gravel roads on their Australian trips. They keep the caravan and vehicle here in Australia and fly over for about four months in winter each year. He is an experienced off roader in NZ as well as here.

We’ve been recommended a place for bird watching called Fog Dam, which is just out of Darwin. It is another incentive to travel north once we hit the Stuart Highway. And, as the man said, it makes a change from just doing our own thing in our RVs in the evening. I’m so glad they took the initiative.

We will do our filling up of water before we leave here and plan to free camp tonight, somewhere before the next roadhouse. This roadhouse offers water fillups for $10 and we are hoping the next roadhouse will do the same. That means we don’t really need to stay at roadhouses, unless we want to, of course.

We ended up not letting our tyres down yesterday, partly on the advice of our neighbour. With his years of experience, and the fact that his setup is 6 tons, he said he doesn’t really think it helps, it’s just an obsession with the young ones. We don’t travel very fast, sometimes up to 80kms p/h, but mostly 60-70kms, and it really is a faff. He says that he only does it for sand.

Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th, 2024

Yesterday we drove to Leonora for shopping, getting water and fuel and dumping our toilet. We could have driven to Laverton afterwards, but my efforts to contact the Laverton Caravan Park by phone or email were unsuccessful. So we decided to camp somewhere on the way to Laverton. All Hands Well Rest Area is a silly name for a beautiful place. We found a lake, which extended on both sides of the road, with lots of birdlife including a swan nesting pair. There was a short walk which we enjoyed in the late afternoon before sunset.

This morning we went to the Visitor Centre in Laverton, which proved very fruitful. We now have our Great Central Road map and a journal to record our trip which includes HEMA maps and lots of information.

The Visitor Centre had a little museum with a 15 minute history movie and then information about people, places and the mining industry. Very interesting.

There was a cold wind this morning and we enjoyed our time at the Visitor Centre in the warmth. We went out to get sandwiches which we were allowed to bring back to Centre. As well, staff there organised our permits for the WA and NT sections of the road. They were friendly and very helpful.

There was a dump point and potable water tap in the car park behind the centre and a combined service station and grocery shop a couple of streets away. Having emptied and filled, including filling up with fuel again, we were on our way to the Giles Breakaway Rest Area, about 50 kms from Laverton.

The positive Wikicamps reviews were absolutely right, it is beautiful here. We arrrived here at about 3.00 p.m. We had a cup of tea and a rest before going for a walk before sunset.

As you can see, it is much easier to get a sense of the landscape when you have an overview like this. The campsite at All Hands Well was equally becautiful, but you had to be there to appreciate it.

In answer to the question in the heading is both yes and no. We are on the GCR, but have not yet entered Aboriginal Lands where we need the permits. According to others on the GCR Facebook page no one ever looks at the permits, but we have them because it means we are officially registered and can legally pass through these lands.

It’s exciting to finally be on the GCR after all of our planning. So far the road is bitumenised, but we should be starting on the gravel section tomorrow. There has been just a little rain further along in the last couple of days. It is obvious that there has been heavy rain in this area, with lots of puddles, but people are reporting that the road is dusty, so it must be reasonably dry.

We are back to using the Starlink for our internet. Although both campsites had a little bit of a Telstra signal, it wasn’t enough for normal internet. We’ve been able to find excellent locations free of obstructions and it logs on within minutes of being switched on. It was useful to get our WA permit via email, but, of course, it’s more that we love to have the internet.

We had one other possible fellow camper last night, someone in a car parked a long way away. Tonight, although there are lots of campsites around the breakaway, we have a couple of campers quite near to us. They came in after dark and this is the first camping section, which probably made it easier for them. Anyway, it makes us feel a bit safer to have other people here.

Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th June, 2024

Above are some of the photos we took of Kalgoorlie four years ago. As we were leaving yesterday I asked if I could have time to take some photos, but Stephen said he had some from four years ago I could use. Once his photos were in Apple photos I could see photos that I took as well. Just to give a bit of an idea.

It was fairly dry on our way to Menzies, but when we stopped briefly a couple of times we still had to dodge the mud. Rain was threatening when we arrived, but it didn’t actually rain until about 10.30 p.m. By then we had settled in at the caravan park on a concrete slab, glad to have no more mud!

We decided to take an extra day here to relax and enjoy the experience of having normal 240w power and water. In the couple of weeks before we left we had found out about a type of fitting that would allow water to be connected to the van. There are two fittings of the same size, one with British thread and one with American thread. I had found out on the Suncamper forum that we needed the American thread, and it works. Until this trip we couldn’t connect to water, but had to fill up our tank and use our water pump as if we were off grid.

It is also a quiet little town, with a Visitor Centre that takes care of the caravan park management and a new to us excellent cafe. The cafe winter hours are about 7.00 a.m. until 7.00 p.m. and it’s a boon for truck drivers and visitors. We took a walk in the sunshine and I enjoyed time at the cafe, with Stephen joining me after a longer walk.

We did a great deal of washing, at least it felt like a lot. The first night here was busy and I had to wait for machines to be free. Today a lot of caravans/campers left and I did one more load of washing as Stephen had forgotten to give me his pyjamas. So, we are all up to date.

We are spending lots of time scrolling the Great Central Road forum for information on the condition of the road and whether there is going to be too much rain. It seems fine when people report using the road in the past couple of days, but we are still waiting until we get to Laverton to make a final decision about whether to go.

Just a few photos from Menzies, I took far more last time, so am not really much motivated. We have chosen to be near the road because we have some trees and a garden bed behind the van. We have great views of the large trucks passing through town. It may be slightly noisier, but better than the other side of the caravan park where it is quite bare.

Tomorrow we plan to shop and get fuel in Leonora, then decide if we go to a free camp near the town, or start heading to Laverton. Depends on things like our energy levels, how early we get going, and so on. At this stage it looks like we will be in Laverton on Thursday.

We’ve been fretting about the issue of deflating the tyres for the gravel road, which is always recommended, but means we have to decide how much to let them down and then be confident about using the air compressor once we reach bitumen again. However, we practiced before leaving home and also watched a great video that went into enough detail to give us confidence that we can do it. Our plan is to let the tyres down a bit, perhaps not as much as our Sherwood expert (we have a book specifically for Sherwoods by someone with experience who now owns a Sherwood hire company and runs specific 4WD courses for Sherwoods) suggests, but enough to give us an easier ride and not shake the car and van to bits. We can’t use vehicle only recommendations due to the Sherwood being so much heavier.

I’m once again writing this just before bedtime, but it does help me to clear my thoughts. Of course, it can also mean I ramble a bit and perhaps bore my readers.

Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th June,

It rained quite a lot overnight at Karalee. Fortunately where we were parked was sandy soil that drained well. We had a walk to the dam and the channel which brought the rain water from the huge rock to the dam. Stephen actually walked out on the rock. There is a trail marked so long ago that the metal markers are hard to read. I was worried that the rock would be slippery after so much rain, so didn’t venture out.

We left at about 10.30 a.m. It began to drizzle as we left and rained most of the time the whole day. We made a couple of short stops, but didn’t fancy being in muddy conditions, and waited until we arrived in Kalgoorlie to have lunch.

Kalgoorlie has a 72hr free camping area with potable water, flushing toilets and a dump point. The local council has confirmed that allowing travellers to camp for free means that we tend to support local businesses.

On arrival we wondered about a section of the campground that had caravans and campers in rows. It looked like a caravan park. Driving around we realised that most of the area was very muddy with large puddles and the section that was so orderly was paved. That’s why people were there, and we decided it was the best spot. We’ve been fortunate to have the same spot twice, after driving off for the day we were able to stay in the same spot tonight. Just luck.

We certainly did our bit to help local businesses today, doing shopping and going to a Chinese restaurant that we went to four years ago, almost to the day. I also went to the Dome for a coffee. The cafe I went to four years ago had closed and a fish restaurant opened in the same space. I don’t think the Dome Cafe was there when we came here last.

Kalgoorlie has some beautiful old buildings and is surprisingly attractive for an old mining town. I realise that I haven’t taken any photos as we took so many last time we were here.

This evening we had a light meal of tuna and salad. We had a FaceTime conversation with Matt at about 6.00 p.m. And then a quiet evening watching the news and readi

Yesterday we did something that’s very unusual for us. We decided to stay in Westonia for two nights, giving us a full day to do the Westonia Woodlands Walk. As you can guess, this trip is about the journey and exploring places as we go, rather than being committed to getting to particular destination. The Great Central Road may be affected by this rain as well, but our plan is still to go to Laverton, get advice, and make a decision.

I spent ages yesterday morning setting up my new clip for my smaller Sony camera so that I could carry it on the strap of a backpack. It was quite a learning curve as I initially put the clip upside down. It’s easy to accidentally hit the release button and the camera predictably fell down, but I was able to catch it. I then spent more time getting the clip set up the right way.

On the walk it took time to be able to reliably unclip and clip the camera on the strap, but by the time we arrived back in the town it was getting easier to manage.

Fortunately whilst I was messsing around with the clip Stephen was also taking time to get ready. He made us cheese and pickle sandwiches to take for lunch, a good idea as it was after 11.00 a.m. before we left. The day had started out very misty and when the mist cleared it was still cool and cloudy, ideal for the walk.

The path was well marked with arrows and some explanatory signs. As well, there were bench seats and we found it useful when we had our lunch. The seat was a bit damp from all the rain, but I didn’t mind getting my bottom damp and Stephen used the map of the walk to cover his spot. He did offer it to me but I’d already sat down and felt as I was already damp it was better if he used it.

On the walk we were able to see all of the different colours of the salmon gums and gimlet trees. The walk also goes through the town cemetary, with some lovely old gravestones.

By the time we arrived at the finishing point in the town the sun was out. So, we not only felt good about the walk, but the town was lit up and more cheerful looking. We felt we deserved coffee and cake. The gallery cafe had closed, but the little general store is also a cafe and we enjoyed a rest as well as our refreshments. The walk is only 4kms long, but we spent a couple of hours on it because of reading the signage and looking at trees and plants.

This morning we left at about 10.30 a.m. after filling up with water and dumping black and grey water tanks. We also made sure we had extra drinking water as our present camping spot has no facilities, or at least, no usable facilities. It is apparently run by the National Trust and they haven’t organised to clean the toilets and fix the dump point, despite being told.

On the way here we spent about 1.5 hours in Southern Cross, shopping for fresh bread and other stuff, then making our lunch in the van, having a rest, and Stephen checked out the Museum. I found a cafe open and bought a coffee which we shared.

We had our tyres checked and the attendant noticed that one of our valves was a bit open, the one we had been using to test out our compressor. Stephen purchased a tool for fixing the problem in case it happens again.

We then filled up with fuel, we are needing the deisel heater at the moment as it’s cold at night.

When we arrived we had a cup of tea and planned a walk afterwards, but it began to rain and eventually the rain was pretty heavy. The road in had been graded and we are hoping the rain doesn’t affect it too much. We’ve been here before in the Winnie, so didn’t really need 4WD, but used it just in case it got slippery.

There are about four other campers here, one arriving as it was getting dark and in the heavy rain. It’s good to know that other people don’t think it’s too dangerous to come here in wet weather. We’ve parked on a mound and don’t expect to wake up in a shallow lake.

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.

We began our Rottnest adventure by catching the ferry at Barrack Street Jetty. We caught an Uber to the Jetty, leaving home at 7.30 a.m. On the cruise down the river we had commentry, which I found irritating at first, then very interesting. Looking at the changing views from the ferry I was reminded again of how well the early settlers chose the location for the city. Apart from Kings Park there are several areas of bushland along the river. As well as millionaires’ homes.

The ferry was only about 1/3 full when we left Perth and in Fremantle we seemed to have lots of people waiting, but only some of those came on board, the rest were for other ferries. We had a fairly smooth half hour ride to Rottnest, there was a swell, but it was fairly comfortable.

Tuesday was sunny and mild, ideal weather for being on the island. We walked up to the lighthouse for the sunset, but as there was no cloud it wasn’t very interesting. Still, we enjoyed a drink at Pinky’s bar.

Yesterday we woke to another sunny day, with the light streaming into the front bedroom where Stephen and I sleep. Not complaining, we have a blind to shut it out if we wish. It was ideal for going out on the hop on hop off bus around the island. We got off to see the seals and walk along the boardwalk to enjoy the views. There is a coffee van at West Bay and a row of toilets, high end drop toilets with water to flush. They’ve added shade shelters and seating since last year and it makes a good place to go to focus on sightseeing.

Then Stephen went for a walk to the next bus stop. Eversley stopped off at Geordie Bay and I went home for a nap. All happy to be doing what we wanted.

In the evening we went along the foreshore looking at restaurant menues. We settled on Lantana and ordered what we hoped would be enough food. The salad turned out to be very mingy and we had two dumplings each. Fortunately we still had plenty of frozen sticky date pudding at home, which we had with yogurt. We were back in time to watch the news and the 7.30 report.

Thursday morning I woke up with the alarm to quite a striking pre dawn scene. Eversley and I went out to take photos. Then we went back to bed for a while. Eversley and I had coffee at Frankies before taking the shuttle to Geordie Bay for lunch. Stephen went off for another walk and joined us later for lunch. We shared a good sized salad and a burger between three. Stephen then walked back along the path to our cottage, about thre kilometres.

In the evening we had Annette and Stuart over for drinks and spent the time sitting outside with the gate open. A little quokka joined us. One of the nice things about our cottage this year was that although we have a little fenced off patio area out the front our actual front door isn’t fenced off. We had a pregnant quokka visiting us quite often, looking as if she wanted to come inside.

Friday morning was the busy morning as we got up early, dressed, washed and packed our bags so that they could be picked up at 8.00. There was a possible storm forecast and we had a bit of thunder and rain, but fortunately it wasn’t raining when we put out of bags and they were picked up almost immediately.

We decided not to hang around until 9.00 a.m., the normal exit time, so E and I went off to the Dome for a farewell coffee. Stephen stayed a bit later, but left due to the cleaners arriving a bit early.

Stephen and I went off to walk the Bickley Battery trail near the Kingston Barracks. It was humid and there were small flies, but apart from the history, there were lovely views and a pleasant breeze when we were in the open overlooking the sea.

We went back to the Dome for a light lunch, a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, rather than our usual ‘Big’ breakfast. Stephen went off to the museum for a while before we gathered up our things to head down to catch our 2.30 ferry.

We had stored some of our gear in a locker near the Visitor Centre and this made going for a walk much easier than it would otherwise have been. The lockers are paid for on card, so that was easy. Note: we picked up our stuff from the locker before going back to the Dome.

The journey back was actually not a rough ride, a possible storm had been forecast, but it was sunny on our walk and there was no rain for the rest of the day. We could have been unlucky as there was a small tornado in Bunbury in the afternoon, that would have been awful to encounter on a ferry.

On arriving at Fremantle I repacked my suitcase with some of the heavier gear from my backpack and the train and bus journey home wasn’t difficult. It just takes time. For the last little bit we walked our suitcases on four wheels from the bus stop to home, and I’ve decided not to retire my suitcase just yet, it’s wheels work well for four wheel driving and that’s very positive for travel.

I used a wheeled backpack for carrying electronics and a small bag for my phone, cards, etc. The wheeled backpack is quite heavy even before you put things in it, so not really that suitable. But handy when you have to surrender your suitcase and keep all of your valuables with you. The wheels have begun to break apart and I wasn’t sure it would last the whole Rottnest trip, but it has.

I didn’t get a quokka selfie with a live quokka, but the knitted quokka sat just as we posed him, so was very easy to photograph.

Pros and cons of the different cottage we had at Rottnest this time:

It is a two bedroomed unit with an external bathroom and extra external toilet. As mentioned above, quokkas can come right up to the front door, and they do. The size of the unit worked for us, especially as we spent most of the time trekking around and eating out. Having an extra toilet was a bonus with three people, especially as it was separate from the main bathroom.

A con is that it is part of a larger house and we had a big group of people staying next door. They did not appear to realise that their voices carried so much into our part of the house and we didn’t want to potentially antagonise them by pointing this out. I seriously thought about it, but we often had to pass them on our way in and out, and it would have been uncomfortable. The group were older women by the way, if young people I might have risked it.

Eversley was in the back bedroom which had no power points for charging her phone or using a standard fan. As it is unusually warm this year we were using a standard fan in our room, which had enough power points for charging, one lamp and the fan. She also had to put up with us walking past her window to get to the toilet at night. Although we tried to be quiet we must have disturbed her a bit even though she was using earplugs. Fortunately she had spares and I used them to shut out the noise of the women next door.

Stephen is having a think about parking at Hillarys and travelling to Rottnest from there next year. That’s because it would maked it easy to bring some cooked food with us. We don’t feel like cooking whilst we were away and eating out so much was a bit expensive. E brings a cooler bag with food as her car is parked at Hillarys.

Tuesday 30th April, 2024

Just yesterday the Great Central Road from Laverton to Ularu opened again. It had been heavily damaged by rain and closed for the past couple of months. That means that we have the option of travelling there when we leave in the 2nd week of June.

We brought up a map of the whole of Australia on my ipad and put it on the TV screen to consider our options. Later, Stephen found a paper map which will be better for planning.

There is a type of filter that is under recall for the Hilux and we are hoping that the part comes in before we leave. Otherwise, she is all ready to go.