MONDAY 24 JUNE 2019
Another cold night but this time we were prepared and just
snuggled under the doona and didn’t rush to get out of bed in the morning. Scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and
today marked the end of fresh milk and the beginning of the UHT stuff in the
coffee. Fingers crossed we can buy some
fresh milk at Mt Barnett shop on Tuesday!
We decided to do the 4WD track out to Wunnamurra Gorge this
morning. It is about a one and a half
hour drive out there – whilst only 10km from the station, it is extremely rough
going with large, rocky descents etc.
The map suggested there were 3 car parks you could stop in depending on
your willingness to smash your car to pieces on rocks and we decided we would
stop at Carpark 2 and then walk the 2km into the gorge rather than go on to
Carpark 3 and only walk 1km.
Well we parked the car in what we thought was Carpark 2 and
walked about a kilometre before hitting another carpark which obviously wasn’t
the end one. We walked another kilometre
and still hadn’t happened across the final car park and by this time we were
starting to worry about just how far we were walking with only about 700mm of
water each. It was highly possible we
were facing a 4km walk in and then another 4km out (and all uphill) with a
serious under supply of water. Although
not a really hot day, it was still warm and sunny and we knew there were only
one or two other sets of people out here.
We decided discretion was the better part of valour and turned around
and headed back to the car. We didn’t
make the gorge but we had got our exercise for the morning with a 4km hike and
Larry had put the Jeep through its 4WD paces.
We headed back to the van and replenished our water supplies
and then headed straight out to Warla Gorge which we hadn’t got around to
yesterday. This was a much easier drive
and the first half was on the main Mount Elizabeth Station road and the second
half was on rough, but only occasionally rocky, track. We parked at the carpark and walked the easy
50m down to the first waterhole where we partook of our cold roast beef and
salad sandwiches and had a drink. We
decided the waterhole really wasn’t that conducive to swimming so walked
further into the gorge where the map told us was a deeper pool with a sandy
edge that the locals call ‘the beach’.
There were another couple there already with a small child
and we chatted to them for a while. They
are originally from Belgium but now live in NSW and have had both a bit of car
and a bit of camper trouble so they are heading to the Over the Range mechanics
tomorrow. Another family then turned up
who had met the other family at Lake Argyle so they had a catch up and then we
all stood in the water or on the beach and had a good long chat about our
travel routes, itineraries etc. The
second family are from Melbourne and have been on the road for 5 weeks of a 5
month long trip and have covered over 10,000km already. They are pretty much just doing a big loop of
WA rather than trying to cover the whole of Australia and they are all still in
good spirits.
We left there about 3pm and headed back to the van for hot
showers and then to attempt to make pizzas from scratch. Luckily we have internet and I could Google
how to make pizza dough with the limited ingredients we have but it rose
beautifully and made a fabulous thick and crusty base. Our toppings were also based on what we had
so it was Italian/Hawaiian with pepperoni and pineapple plus tomato, onion,
cheese. Well it tasted pretty terrific if we do say so
ourselves and we have frozen the other half of the dough so we can have pizza
again later in the trip.
Once again, the temperature had dropped by the time we had
finished so it was time to head inside the van for some blog writing, cup of
tea etc.
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