Hit The Road

 

Sunday 17 July 2022 – Time to hit the road

A bit of a broken night’s sleep thanks to Larry’s cold (not Covid!) so then slept in a little later than we probably would have otherwise given the level of excitement that this trip is actually finally here!  We did the last bit of packing and were hooked up and ready to roll by the time H&M arrived and then we were on the road spot on at the 9am start time.  It had been drizzling all morning but once we started driving the rain set in so we were happy to be in the car knowing that if we kept heading east we may eventually outrun the clouds!

The Bakers Hill Pie Shop was a convenient distance from home to stop and check wheel nuts etc and also to grab a sausage roll for brunch given that we had been a bit too excited to sit down and eat a proper breakfast.

We stopped for a driver swap in Cunderdin and then on to Merredin for lunch.  We pulled into the playground/park next to two MDC camper trailers so therefore had a little MDC convention – the “Cold Wet Bash’ instead of the ‘Big Red Bash’!  Lunch was consumed inside the vans given the weather in Merredin was as wet as that in Perth.  It fortuitously stopped long enough for Jenny to jump out of the car outside of the house in Cunningham where I spent the first few months of my life before Dad was transferred back to Perth.  It looks a bit shabbier than what I’ve seen from photos from when the family lived there.  Mum tells me she never liked the dark bricks though!

                                            

We drove onwards with a refuel at Southern Cross which is where we finally caught up with two huge wide loads we had been hearing on the radio for the previous hour of so.  Unfortunately they were quicker at their business than we were so we eventually caught them up again and did go a bit slower.  We finally broke free of the rain clouds after this so was a lovely late afternoon light as we drove past the lovely old historic buildings in Coolgardie and we driving slowly enough for a good couple of photos out of the car window.  The big yellow scoopy things on the backs of the big trucks turned off to a truck parking area there so we picked up speed for the final run into Kalgoorlie and were able to retrieve our site information and keys for the locked box and park up just as it was going dark.

Time for a quick set up and tidy up and then we jumped in the car and headed to the main drag for a celebratory first meal of the trip at Paddy’s at the Exchange Hotel.  I had a very nice chicken schnitzel with creamy garlic sauce and L had the Parmy.  H&M  were also happy with their meals so it was a set of happy campers who headed back to the vans for a couple of nightcaps before bed.