August 30th,

We seem to get up earlier at present because the mornings come light earlier..soon there will be a time adjustment.
The track out to the Eyre Highway was dry but very rough and ridged from vehicles  driving through in very wet conditions. The bush, again, has been very pretty with yellow cassias and wattles as well as white pink, purple and mauve flowers and even an example of Sturt's Desert Pea.
After meeting the Highway at Balladonia we have scooted along on the bitumen as far as Caiguna where we have found a bush camp amongst some very grey and twisted trees. The Nullarbor wind is blowing which is a change. We have hardly experienced wind at all and no doubt this is why the trees are so twisted and deformed.

Sturt's Desert Pea on Zanthus-Balladonia Road

Rough bush around Caiguna camp site

August 29th

After spending nearly 24 hours near the Rail Line we have seen 10 freight trains go by..some in an easterly
direction and others in a westerly direction. They make a lot of noise in the night!!

We had camped in the same spot as we did some years ago while travelling this road. The Gimlet trees are a
real magnet. Soon after reaching Zanthus we turned south on the track to Balladonia. It was quite an easy
track for 40 kms as it had been maintained by a mining company. From there on for the 80kms it deteriorated. However it was dry, which was a bonus after all the mud we have seen.
John had a 'collecting' day as he picked up a good gas bottle on the roadside, then further on a several lengths of rope. It appeared that there had been a bogging experience for some travellers although the road and surrounds are bone dry now. There were great scourges in the road and through the trees near the road.  Evidence of jacking a vehicle, filling the bogs with branches and even a broken surf board were obvious. In a tree we found a 'make-shift' winch made from a branch and wide strapping.
We are camped in plain grey scrub tonight..no Gimlets in sight although we have seen some magnificent
examples along the way. We also saw the Boorabin Mallee trees coming into bloom which was great as earlier when we saw them they were only in heavy orange bud.

Boorabin Mallee tree in bud and bloom

An interesting orange and black lizard.

August 28th

A day of sunshine and showers. Our first stop was at Kambalda which is a mining centre near Kalgoorlie. We drove to the top of Red Hill to see the most magnificently wide view of the area. The huge salty Lake Lefroy is 510 square kilometers in size with some areas of dark red sand and others of white salt.
Onward to Kalgoorlie where we took the road east along the Trans Continental Rail Line. Bitumen for several kms then the muddiest red road which consequently covered our vehicles..what a mess and no water at hand!!
The bush actually looks wonderful because of the recent rains. Everything has a strong green colour and many bushes are in flower..particularly cassias and wattles.
 The road has followed the line and in five hours we have seen five freight trains. We have set up camp near the rail line west of Zanthus so we may wave to more train drivers before we leave in the morning.

Hop Bush

Mulla Mulla

August 27th

We have had a great day driving north toward Norseman and then Kambalda. The bush along the way has been beautiful and ever changing.  Most of the time we travelled on bitumen but took one very interesting track to the east and south of Norseman. This led us along a tourist route through the old mining areas. From the late 1800s until early this century mining has been taking place in a small way. The bush is riddled with mine holes, mullock heaps and old machinery.
The flowers were like a garden..so varied and bright. They must surely have had recent rain.
We have not had rain today and this evening is warm and fine which makes cooking on the campfire mush more fun. We are having silver-side and vegies tonight.
Our plans have changed and we hope to travel for a short distance along the Trans continental railway line ..definitely heading east on our return to Victoria. Sadly our coastal route was not a viable choice. I think I really prefer the inland country to that of the coast.

Cassia bush south near our camp.

August 26th

We returned to Esperance this morning..on the roadside, at last, I had the opportunity to photograph the coastal banksias. It is wonderful to see them growing so healthily in their natural environment.
Very soon we met up with John & Beth and it was great to hear how they had spent the last two weeks.
After a 'bought lunch' and real coffee, a visit to Woolworths for fuel and food we headed north with the hope of escaping rain.
Along the way we visited an Aboretom which had many stands of eucalyptus trees. Some familiar but many new ones once again. We  have become much more familiar with this family of trees.

Tonight we are camped at a small Nature Reserve north of Esperance and south of Salmon Gums. There are clouds about but we hope the day is sunny as we go north tomorrow.

Showy Banksia near coast at Esperance

August 24th and 25th

We are spending the weekend here at the Cape Le Grande National Park. It has easy access because of sealed roads. This also makes it a popular weekend destination for people from Esperance. Saturday was the first sunny day in the area after 2 weeks of rain. The temperature is in the mid 20s so good for camping and enjoying birds and flowers. We have had several walks over the 2 days..either on the beach or along the very rocky coast line. The views are spectacular. The smokey blue 'smoke bush' is very evident in the coastal bush along with coastal Banksias.
We stayed for 2 nights at Lucky Bay and now we are here in Le Grande Bay for a single night before we head back to Esperance to meet our travelling companions. We also have internet connection here.

Hellfire Bay

Looking into Lucky Bay from Granite Coastline walk

August 22nd

We drove out from the Fitzgerald River NP through the most delightful native garden. Pea flowers of every colour..yellow, pink, mauve, blue, orange and red. We stopped several times to look  closely and to photograph. Of course I can only identify a few as there are so many new flowers for us. Banksias and wattles are quite plentiful.

Close up of Royal Hakea

However the most spectacular was the Royal Hakea..Hakea victoria which was named after Queen Victoria. The actual flowers are insignificant but the huge floral leaves dominate the bush. These leaves persist for up to 5 years, and the colour becomes deeper each year.


Late in the day we found a Square Fruited Mallee Eucalypt tree.The buds, nuts and flowers are large about 5 cm in length by 3 cm wide. The flowers and buds are bright red. I do hope we see some more of these.

Again we will sleep with the sound of waves in our ears. We are at Munglinup Beach on the Great Southern Ocean.

Royal Hakea

August 23rd

Our search for Square Fruited Mallee trees continued. We only found a few which were difficult to photograph because of wet conditions and the fact that the flowering season seems to be almost over. We will continue searching.
We arrived in Esperance late in the morning..the laundramat was high on the agenda! Sadly we have now found out from the DEC office that it would be ill advised for us to go through either Cape Arid NP or Nuytsland NP. We will have to re plan out trip home. The road closures have been caused by an unusually wet winter. We will have to return on a drier year!!
This evening we have come out to camp in the Cape Le Grande NP for the weekend. The beach has white sand with an aqua sea. It was squeaky clean to walk as we did late in the day.
Lucky us, we have had Snapper again for dinner..purchased from the 'All Seas Fish Supplies' in Esperance.

Square Fruited Mallee tree

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August 21st

 We have had a very happy day exploring St Mary Inlet in warm sunshine. This morning we walked for 2 hours and this afternoon for 1 hour so I am weary this evening. The flowers and views from the beach and coastal dunes are so interesting with large variety of flowers and bushes. We even came across the end of the Rabbit Proof Fence at Point Ann. It is now rusty and out of comission.
The most spectacular part of the day were the whales...surely St Mary Bay is a Nursery for Mother whales and their calves. Their were up to 20 of these wonderful creatures floating in the sea..blowing sprays of water and showing off their tails and fins. Binoculars were put to good use.

Prickly Dryandra

A visitor to our camp site

There are a lot of campers in this park tonight..probably whale watchers!

August 20th

Grass Tree with a difference--'Kingia Australis'

The floral bush display on the way out of Waychinacup Inlet was a wonderful start to the day..lots of 

Scarlet Banksia, an unusual type of Grass tree..completely different from those we have seen previously,

Pincushion Cone Flowers, Wattle and white Daisies. We drove down to Cheyne Beach where we had the good fortune to see four whales playing in the waters not far from the shore.

We have had quite a drive today, along the South Coast Highway through rolling hills of canola and wheat crops and in and out of areas of coastal bush.

We made our lunch time stop by the Pallinup River. The bush looked so inviting that I walked for awhile to

look at the flowers. I actually found a large spider orchid.

We continued on down to the Fitzgerald River National Park. We travelled into the park quite swiftly because of the lateness in the day. The wild flowers looked varied and bright. I even saw some examples of Royal Hakea. We will travel out more slowly. Unfortunately a number of roads are closed for various reasons.
However we have a lovely spot to bush camp by St Mary Inlet. Again there are whales in the water, some calves, but altogether about 10 whales playing in the shallows. Evidently they could be Hump-back whales or Southern Right Whales.
We plan to stay 2 nights here so more 'whale watching' in the morning I hope.

Looking over Mary Inlet early evening

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August 19th

A fine day..how easy to break camp when the sun is shining. Our main aim for today was to organise a
postal vote for ourselves for the coming Federal Elections. We had planned to be home for the original
date of September 14th but now it has changed the September 7th. Eventually we applied, on line, for a
postal vote while we had internet connection at Albany. Also while we were in Albany we bought ourselves
some Saddleback Snapper for our evening meal.John grilled it on his cook
top over gas. It proved to be one of the most delicious fish meals we have ever tasted.

We travelled east to Waychinacup National Park and camped in a tiny spot near the Waychinacup Inlet. Unfortunately the weather has turned to rain again. There are flowers in the bush as well as birds. No sooner had I climbed down from EC than two tiny wrens came hopping around the rig..a Scrub Wren and a beautiful Blue-breasted Fairy Wren. Far too quick to photograph though.

Rocks in Waychinacup Inlet

August 18th

Boorara Fire Watch Tree

We started the day badly by getting our feet, boots & socks wet as we walked on the beach. An incoming wave was just too quick and high for us! However, despite that we enjoyed the first fine and sunny day for a week. The roads along the coast from Windy Harbour were too wet for us to attempt so we drove north to the bitumen and headed east. Unexpectedly a track went off to another Fire Spotting tree. Boorara tree is over  200 years old. The tree top cabin was built in 1952 and was used as a 'Fire Watch' until 1972.

From there we explored some of the gravel roads before returning to the Highway. These roads took us through some beautiful forests. the Karri trees are surely the most majestic tree. There are so many of them all very tall and very straight. The under-story of the forest is quite dense with quite a few flowers in bloom. One outstanding splash of intense blue/purple/colour is the thick climbing vine of the Sarsaparilla.  Another spectacle we saw  today was a flock of red-tailed black cockatoos flying through the tree tops.The red feathers in their tails really glow when they fly.

As we neared Walpole we came upon the Fernhook Falls on Deep River. There was a massive amount of water flowing over the wide rocky falls resulting in a thick layer of froth. The water is deep brown in colour which results from the vegetable matter that is soaking in the river.

This evening we are camped in the Walpole Noralup National Park with pretty bush around us and a few very dark coloured kangaroos. This park is near Peaceful Bay and south of Walpole.

Fernhook Falls on Deep River

August 17th  Windy Harbour

We decided to follow the bitumen today. The weather has been most inclement with nasty showers all day. Along the road to Manjimup we went through the forests of 'Great Southern Plantations' with Jarrah on one side and Blue Gum trees on the other. After Manjumup we headed for Northcliffe and Windy Harbour and travelled through the most magnificent tall forests of Karrie.. Flowers are still bright in the under story of these forests. We stopped to inspect the tourist attraction of the Diamond Tree which is a huge Karrie tree with steps running up and around the trunk for you to climb up 52 metres to a fire lookout on top. The climb was not for me and I think John wished he was in his 20s again!!

We are now on the coast at Windy Harbour which as you would expect is very windy. We are on the lighthouse point at present where we have Internet connection but will camp down closer to the shore line in the sheltered camping park.

John on the lowest steps of the Diamond tree

Karri trees through the wind screen as we travel

August 16th

Beautiful mushroom found in bush at Mt Trio Park

Rain fell in the night and dawn was very cold. evidently snow had fallen overnight on Bluff Knoll. However despite this we were able to enjoy an hour of walking in the bush at Mt Trio Bush Camp and also followed a track which went into the Stirling NP. I found Cowslip orchids and Cockatoo orchids as well as a wonderful mushroom which will not be going into the Gnocchi sauce tonight!!

Cowslip Orchid

We travelled south through the Stirling NP and then followed the road at the north of Porongurup NP. Nasty cold showers came spasmodically all day. We were again lucky to fit a walk in early this morning. The bush is gradually changing to tall trees instead of Mallee trees. The Blackboy or Grass trees are looking fantatastic after the showers of rain. Heading west we enjoyed a brief visit to Mt Barker where we shopped at IGA..a very good Supermarket.
Still the showers persist..another cold night. we have camped along a narrow track in the Denmark catchment State Forest. Quite a remote spot in the bush with a new red Grevillea blooming and 4 of those wonderful black cockatoos settling in the tree tops.

August 15th.

We awoke this morning to the chatter of a flock of Carnaby's Black Cockatoos, sometimes known as the Short-billed Black Cockatoo. They are a large black bird with white feathers in their tail. They are endemic to south-western Australia. (Note the blue sky..I have cheated with this photo!!)

Black Cockatoos

The day was fine so we hurried off for a walk...only one hour through the bush, and we returned to our rig just in time to miss the first shower of rain. Since then it has been raining and blowing most of the day.

We have come further north to the Mt Trio Bush Camping Park which is just outside the boundary of the National Park. We are safe here from large falling branches and any minor flooding ..as well as this we have internet connection. It is a pretty park which we hope to explore further if tomorrow dawns fine. The evening is certainly cold so we are glad of our warm rig. In fact there has been snow forecast for the higher peaks of the Stirling ranges.

August 14th
What a wonderful day we have had! Firstly Robert Fergie took us for a walk across his property taking in the three preserved bush areas. We found many new trees and flowers. What a treasure having natural bush preserved in this way and right at 'your back door'. There were even some early orchids to be found.
We were so lucky to have the time to examine the leaves, buds, flowers and fruit of so many new types of eucalypt trees.
Heather and Robert certainly proved to be 'perfect' hosts.
We left Kendenup late morning and headed for the Stirling Ranges. I cannot explain in words the pleasure and peace I felt as we drove through this lovely area. The flowers were wonderful..banksias, hakeas, grevilleas, eucalypts and many,many varieties that were new to me. Despite the weather being cold and windy we walked a little to get closer to all the bush. What a really pleasurable day.
Tonight we are camped in the northern area the Nataional Park in the Moingup Spring Camp Ground. We are very glad to have a warm rig to spend the night in.

View of Stirling Ranges from Fergie's home

June with beautiful roadside Banksias 

August 13th

After camping near Lake Corycup we awoke to the calls of young lambs and grey butcher birds.
This was the last night on the Holland Track. It has been an interesting and challenging trip.
The last 30 kilometers we travelled on well made roads through farming country. The wheat crops look wonderful as do the canola crops. Bushy roadsides still created a lot of interest.
At last we came out on a bitumen road a short distance north of Broomehill. The journey was over and we did feel a sense of achievement despite the fact that there was one section of the track we could not travel because we were told it was closed. It has been difficult to find out whether the track was closed or not. The north section of it was so muddy that it should have been closed to traffic as vehicles only worsen the condition. Once we had committed ourselves it was nearly impossible to turn back and there were no other tracks available to turn on to for better conditions.

Southern entry to Holland Track

Late morning we arrived in Katanning to do washing and to visit Woolworths Super market.
We had arranged to visit Heather and Robert Fergie late in the day. They live near Kendenup with a magnificent view of the Stirling Ranges. They own a small farm with 3 wonderful fenced bush areas.
Robert works with Western Australian timber making the most beautiful furniture.
Heather teaches at the local Primary School. They cooked dinner for us and we had a fun night together.
EC was parked at their front door so we were able to watch the sun rise over the silhouette of the
Stirling Ranges.

August 12th

The roads have been a joy today...smooth gravel roads, some bitumen which still follow the Holland Track as closely as possible. The roadside bush has still been varied and interesting with Grevilleas, Hakeas, Eucalypts and many more. We were lucky enough to see a wonderful broad leaved eucalyptus tree, with a glaucous appearance on stem, nuts and leaves. I wonder whether it will dye silk fabric!!

We are actually travelling through the 'Wheat-belt' of WA. The wheat and canola crops look fabulous so I hope the remainder of the season is kind to farmers. The whole area has had good rains. The crops stretch over very wide acres bright greens and bright yellow of the canola flowers.

The Lincoln Ring-neck parrot is very bright green in colour and has been crossing our path in pairs, fours and flocks..a great change as we have seen few birds.

The weather is cold with snow forecast for the Stirling Ranges. We have camped very close to the Holland Track near a salty lake in Chinocup Nature Reserve. It is quite sheltered and we have a clean wire fence to hang our washing on.

Eucalypt Tetragona commonly known as the Tallerack Gum

August 11th

A little more rain in the night. Today we travelled 40 km in 4 hours..what a slow trip. The bush, again, was varied and lovely with many flowers of every variety. The water holes were even deeper and seemed more slippery. The Prado and EC have both performed well. We did tow the Prado and trailer for a short distance because the Prado became stranded on a middle bog hump. Everyone has become weary of water and bog holes. Eventually we came to the main Hyden/Norseman Road.
It is hard to explain the variety of bushes, flowers and trees...some we can identify but most we cannot..a beautiful 'toothbrush' Grevillea was easy to find today. We also found a wonderful small eucalypt mallee tree with deep maroon coloured long flower buds on it. John did a search on his Euclid computer program and was told there are 47 other eucalypts with the same style flower bud.. He actually narrowed this particular one down to 'Eucalyptus Incerata'. Some blooms were showing..beautiful cream delicate flowers.

A brief visit to Wave Rock was enjoyed but very commercial and different from what we have been through!!
Beth & John have now departed west and we have come south. We plan to meet again in a couple of weeks.
We are camped in at Flat Rock Nature Reserve some distance south of Hyden and surprisingly there is internet connection.

EC going through mud holes..taken by Beth in the Prado

June at Wave Rock

August 10th camped near Mt Holland

Travelling today has been slow due to all the water holes we have had to negotiate. Some were very deep and others very slippery. Because of our excellent drivers we have not had a bogging incident. We only travelled 85 km for the day of 6 hours driving.
The bush still continues to amaze us all with variety and colour. Quite a few areas have been burnt,
some areas have low bush, some areas are dominated with flowers. We have seen a number of lovely wattles and some new eucalypts to identify.
Desert areas often have dead acacias which have dried and look much like woven baskets. They have inspired me to stitch. During the last few days we have seen more of these 'acacia baskets'.
The weather is fine, cool and windy this evening.

Dead  'Acacia basket' near a small bog hole 

A small piece of textile art inspired by an 'Acacia Basket'

August 9th

Because we had very heavy rain last night we decided to spend the day at this camp amongst the beautiful Gimlet Salubris Eucalypts. Their trunks are a magnificent deep copper in colour. Some of the trunks are quite fluted. I really love them and hugged quite a few!! Exploring this bush at leisure h

as been a pleasure.
We have had no further rain and the road and camp ground have dried out considerably.
Tonight I am cooking 'Casserole Australis' in the camp oven. It is always a fun meal with dumplings on top!

Coals on top of Camp oven

Beautiful fluted trunk of the Gimlet Salubris 

August 8th

The day has been clouded with rainfall becoming heavier. The Holland Track has also deteriorated which has caused progress to be slow as we slipped through water and mud holes. Despite all this we have had an
interesting day visiting various rock holes and rock formations. We considered it important that we visited
Thursday Rock on Thursday!!
The last rocky outcrop we actually drove over.Krackouer Rock was very rough but interesting to cross.
Again the trees have been a feature. Low bush undergrowth really highlights the beautiful trees.
Today's woodlands featured Salmon Gums and Ribbon Barked Mallees. The beautiful salmon colour of the
trunks of the Salmon Gums was spectacular. The contrast of the Ribbon Mallees with their long streamers
of bark ribbons was magnificant.

The Holland Track was designed as a short cut for miners walking from the coast to the Coolgardie and
Kalgoorlie gold fields. John Holland, a resourceful bushman, chose three other experienced bushmen and with five good horses and a light dray and they left Broomhill in April 1893. They arrived in Coolgardie in June 1893. They had blazed a track more than 500 kilometres in length. Much of the original track has now disappeared under clearing and cultivation. The track we are following is as close to the original one as possible.
The northern end is wide and makes for excellent travelling, but for most of today we have travelled much
more slowly on a two wheel track. We hope for a dry day tomorrow as we are camped in very wet conditions this evening.

EC has travelled the deeply rutted tracks with ease and we are warm and dry inside.

Spectatular tree trunks

Glowing Wattle

August 7th..Holland Track

A visit to see the 'Super Pit' where gold mining still continues within this massive hole.
The trucks and graders at the bottom of the pit look like 'match box' toys. Again the colours on the mullock
heaps impress me with their soft beauty.

The Holland track beckoned us to travel south west. We drove through Coolgardi which is an old mining area but has not produced gold since 1963. Gimlet trees have dominated the roads sides along with a few other eucalypt varieties. We stopped to explore Gnarlbine Rock which is huge. Further on we stopped for lunch at Victoria Rock which is even larger. Victoria Rock is named after Queen Victoria..both rocks are extensive with small 'tarns' or water holes on top.The water is amazingly clear.

 The road is much easier driving then we had imagined so we have been able to camp earlier than anticipated. We are in a bush spot with many small gimlet eucalypts about us. It is a very warm evening again.

'Super Pit' Kalgoorlie

Victoria Rocks

August 5th & 6th

The highlight of our 150 km. drive into Kalgoorlie was the beautiful trees..with trunks the colour of deep copper, copper/green, black, cream and some with black butts. There were those with single trunks and the
Mallee trees with multiple trunks.
Mining became obvious as we neared the town with the colours of the soil and gravel in the mullock heaps proving quite inspirational. Luckily we have found a camping park for two nights.
Kalgoorlie is quite a clean town with wide streets featuring many of the old buildings of the early 'Gold' days. Hotels feature on many of the street corners. Mining adds an obvious background to every day life. This week there are 2000 visitors in town to attend the 'Dealers and Diggers' conference.
Our main focus has been on shopping for food and other necessities, washing and drying clothes and some time out from driving. EC had to have some mechanical work done this morning.
Both nights we have walked a kilometer down Lane St to have dinner at the Albion Shamrock Hotel...quite a pleasant change from eating around a camp fire.

Paddy Hannan Statue
Patrick "Paddy" Hannan was a gold prospector whose discovery on 17 June 1893 near Kalgoorlie, set off a gold rush in the area.

August 4th

Quite a long day of travelling with warm weather and now an evening breeze. We are camped in the bush along side the Nippon Highway. The bush was similar all the way out of the Queen Victoria Spring Reserve.
The variety of trees is amazing, many are in bud or just beginning to flower.
We came out of the Reserve and onto the Nippon Highway at Argus Corner.There is mining happening in this area NE of Kalgoorlie. Presumably because of this, the road was much better and of a normal width.
We stopped at a water tank and windmill and chatted to a truck driver who had stopped to have a quick wash to rid his face of dust. He was the first person we had seen for 3.5 days. It is quite remote in this part of Australia. It was the first windmill we had seen for a similar time. The water was clean so a hot shower will be enjoyed this evening.
I still love windmills after seeing so many on outback stations.Many times I have used their familiar blades in my textile work.

Water collection camp near Nippon Highway

'Windmill'..tiny textile work inspired by outback windmills

August 3rd..

The days are warm although the mornings are quite cool with our coldest today at -04 deg.
We continued travel through the Queen Victoria Spring Conservation Park. Despite this park is so far west
it is still considered as part of the Great Victoria Desert. Much of it has been burnt by wild fire.
It is recovering well with plants and trees showing wonderful new growth, in fact the new Spinifex bushes
look so fresh and healthy, We enjoyed a walk to a Streich's memorial cairn across the sand dunes for 1.3 km.
Lunch was enjoyed among flowers and bushes. We continued for a short time and then set up camp early in the afternoon. Time spent relaxing at this flat sandy area surrounded by Marble Gums was much appreciated. Marble Gums are really beautiful eucalypts which have glaucos type leaves and an amazingly marbled trunk. Another very attractive eucalypt is the Boorabin Mallee which has brilliant orange coloured buds. I have collected a few leaves from the trees we have been able to identify. My plan is to dye fabric with them on my return to Milawa.

Marble Gum

Boorabin Mallee

August 2nd

We all enjoyed the wonderful drive through a spectacular bush of Gimlet Eucalypts and Goldfield Black Butt
Eucalypts. The bush varied as we went along but we saw a huge variety of bushes and flowers.
I will list some of them for my own record: Causerina, Cypress, Hakea Francisiana, Acacias, Grevilleas, Eucalypts including Gimlet, Youngiana, Goldfields Blackbutt, Wood Wardie, Flavida (Yellow Flowered Mallee) and Platycorys (Boorabin Mallee), Daisies, Upside down plants in bloom, Desert poplars and Grass trees.
Driving through the abandoned aboriginal settlement of Cundeelee left us all feeling disallusioned. Such places, where so much money has been spent and not used to advantage is really saddening. The relics of buildings, sports courts and old cars were in a really scenic spot on top of a hill. We believe that aboriginal families were relocated to this point in preparation for the tests at Maralinga. Evidently there was no readily available water and people, generally, were not happy.
The road did deteorate this afternoon and was very tiring for the driver, the passenger and  the vehicle, because it was so narrow. However the lovely bush continued.
 This evening we are camped near Queen Victoria Springs on a red sandy spot. To really top the day off
John Harrison is cooking roast beef for dinner.

Hakea Francisiana

Eucalyptus Flavida in bud

August 1st.

Sunrise at Rawlinna

What a wonderful sunrise over Rawlinna this morning!! We have not yet become accustomed to the dawn time in WA. Sun-up was about 6.30 am..we were up and about!
John has had contact with the Barbara Hogg, Secretary, of the 'Nullarbor Muster' which is held annually in April at Rawlinna. It is a big event which attracts 1000 visitors,,,horses and competitors. There are many aspects of entertainment including a Silent Auction. The proceeds from this auction go to the Flying Doctor Service. John brought a pack of wine over to donate to this cause. It will be interesting to see how much the box of five Patricia wines are sold for.

This morning our road had a contrastingly good gravel surface compared with the track of the previous few days. It ran adjacent to the Trans Continental Rail Line so it was fun to watch several trains quietly move by.

This evening we have camped amongst wonderful Gimlet Salubris Eucalypt trees at Zanthus near the Rail line. Their trunks are fluted with wonderful smooth copper/green bark. I find them remarkably attractive.
The weather is warm and sunny so we have stopped travelling mid afternoon to dry clothes, make bread,
have showers and generally relax in this very pretty place.

Patterns made by the Gimlet trees

Freight Train passing through Zanthus