WA for Easter - Monday 15th April 2019 623KM

Heading for WA for Easter Orienteering we had a later start than expected as we cleaned up all the loose ends before heading off. Lucky there wasn't a plane to be caught.  (just the low flying prado) .

First stop was Pt Pirie, where we checked the progress of the camper trailer that Peter and Matthew are building and ate our lunch in the excellent company of Peter, Belinda, Isabelle and James (even a brief hello to Matt) before heading onwards. 

The plains opened up and gave us low saltbush and our beloved far horizons, with the small few tress bent as though in a frozen dance.  We saw the new Lincoln Gap Wind Farm (still under construction) and laughed at the metal structures, shot to pieces on the army land... testament to good practice sessions. 

Kimba was the next stop, where we admired their silo art, while enjoying a cuppa. What would we do without the trusty thermos on trips like this?

first road-side cuppa of many

We slowly made our way past the various towns along the highway, accompanied by the sound of "Hot Money" by Dick Francis being read to us.  An excellent story that had us amused and awake most of the way to Perth (Thanks Ev). 

Finally we arrived at our intended stop for the night - Tcharkulu Rock (near Minnipa).  A rock rising from the ground (as they do across the Nullarbor in various places) , with some good camping spots and some peace and quiet. 

A couple of vans were already pulled in on one side of the rock, but we headed around to our favourite western side, and the Pony club shelter where we have stayed before.  Sure enough we had the place to ourselves, and set up our swags as the light started to fade to the buzz of many bush flies (initially we thought we had some bees). 

As the light fell, and we enjoyed our drinks and quick meal, the flies were replaced by mozzies.

We fell into our comfy swags, happily relaxed on a balmy night - the first of many to be had in the next few weeks.

The moon was very bright, and stayed up till about 4am, when we finally had a couple of  hours of good dark to see the stars better, before the sun was saying "good morning" to us again.