Thursday, November 12, 2009

Through The Wheatbelt

Week Two, 12th November 2009.

I stayed at Wannamal for another couple of days and then took off on Friday morning. Through to New Norcia and fuelled up ($1.26/L) and headed in a big loop north and east to a spot called Petrudor Rocks near Kalannie. This is a granite outcrop, similar to many in this area. This particular one is not as big as some of the others I have seen, but the area looked quite nice with a bit of shade, so I set up for a couple of days.

Appearances can be deceiving! This place is infested with ants - everywhere. I must remember to buy a large economy size container of baby powder to put around the van's wheels. Flies are really bad too, I've been spending most of my time inside the van, which wasn't the idea.

Took a ramble over the rock to have a look around and to get my daily exercise.
After a couple of days, I got so sick of the ants and flies I packed up and headed off. I stopped in Kalannie to pick up some bread and milk. Every single container of milk in the shop had somebody's name written on it. "Those are ordered" the girl in the shop told me, so there was no full-cream milk available for sale ( I absolutely hate that UHT stuff). I know it's only a tiny place, but you would think that they would have at least a couple of bottles of milk for passing trade.

On again through Koorda (plenty of milk), Bencubbin, and Mukinbudin heading for Baladjie Rock which was supposed to be my next stop, but when I got there, there were no extra-special campsites and the radio is forecasting severe thunderstorms for the area, so I think I'll keep going and head for Southern Cross. Baladjie is certainly worth a visit and there is a great view from the top if you walk up.

Three nights in Southern Cross and it looks like the worst of the weather has gone, so I headed for Hyden via Marvel Loch. Great gravel road, looks like a good short cut if you're coming from the east from the G E Hwy to the Great Southern without going further in towards Perth.

I'm heading out on the Granite and Woodlands Discovery Trail, heading across to Norseman and I am planning to stop at the Forrestania Plots (whatever that is) tonight. I'll be out of range for a while, so see you next week.

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