Perth post-Christmas trip: getting there

After the success of our Queensland trip, we thought we'd try driving to Perth to visit Graham's family. Of course this was a much longer distance, so we couldn't zig-zag around like we did that time, or spend two nights at most places. Instead we took a relatively direct route, stopping after a long day's drive.

First night's stop was at Cobar:

Next morning we headed for Wilcannia en route to Broken Hill. It got drier and flatter and the toilet stops bleaker.

We stayed the night in a caravan park at Port Augusta, a rather dreary industrial town, then headed for the Nullarbor. Graham's big ambitions for the trip were to drive on dirt roads and to camp beside the road instead of in a caravan park. The first ambition was somewhat fulfilled when we turned off the Eyre Highway at Iron Knob, driving through the Gawler Ranges National Park.

The road was mostly good, and we raced along at about 80km/h, slowing down for the stock grids where the road was damaged.

The landscape along this road was very beautiful, mostly for the colours: silvery-green long grass, bluey-purply-grey shrubs, ochre soil. The whole scene had a silvery look.

We considered camping in the National Park, but arriving at lunchtime we found it extremely hot with little shade, and decided it wouldn't be pleasant bushwalking there till evening, so we ate and headed on to Yalata, which the maps showed with a roadhouse and caravan park.

Yalata turned out to be an aboriginal community where the roadhouse and caravan park are closed down. I knocked on a door and asked if it would be ok to camp in the caravan park, and the woman who answered said we could, but that there were no toilets. However, despite it being free, with no other campers and having no facilities, it still counted as a caravan park for Graham rather than camping beside the road.

Next morning we continued on the Eyre Highway, stopping at a lookout by the sea.

Then at Cocklebiddy it was time for another spot of unsealed road. We headed off on the Cocklebiddy-Rawlinna "Road" to the Trans Access Road which runs beside the railway line. The woman Graham spoke to at Arubiddy, just out of Cocklebiddy, said the 145km road was "a bit rocky" and took her about 3 hours to drive. That didn't sound very good to me, but I was to find that "a bit rocky" was an understatement and 3 hours very optimistic for our trip. Then we saw thunderstorms ahead (and all around us).

We were crawling along at about 18km/h, emus kept running out in front of us, it was beginning to rain, the dirt was getting slippery and it was getting dark. I was a bit scared, but Louka was enjoying the lightning. About 30km out of Rawlinna Graham's phone rang - it was his mum! That was encouraging, and even better was the sight of lights ahead. We made it! It was late, I was tired, so we stopped beside the schoolhouse, ate some chips and muesli bars and went to sleep. Or tried to - the wind became a gale, blowing our eskies off through the rough scrub. I retrieved them and listened to the wind blowing the campervan about. When we awoke the wind had dropped and the rain had stopped.

Graham's mum's call last night had been to invite us to Shakey's birthday party on New Year's Eve at 6pm, so we had a long drive ahead of us. Fortunately the Trans Access Road was smooth and flat, and we could drive at 90km/h. We didn't see another vehicle on either the Cocklebiddy-Rawlinna Road or the Trans Access Road, about 500km. As soon as we turned off the Trans Access Road, onto another dirt road, we passed a road train. Then we were in Kalgoorlie. We stopped in Coolgardie for lunch, but all the shops were shut so we just ate snacks. Then as we approached York, Graham's smart phone warned him of a dangerous hailstorm. The rain increased till visibility was almost zero, so I turned off the road looking for somewhere to shelter. I stopped under a road bridge and Graham got out to cover the campervan with a tarpaulin. He had to wade through ankle-deep water swirling across the road, getting his thongs wet.

Evenutally the rain eased and we drove on towards Perth. The storm had held us up and we were half an hour late for Shakey's party. It was lovely to reach family at last and have a shower.