WA Easter Sunday 21st April

After a cooked breakfast we headed off towards Beverley and our event (Hill Park Dale) .

It was a long , hard course over hillsides with side slopes, lots of rocks, and fallen timber and green areas in places.

map example - note the swales (brown lines with dots on them) on these hills- just like my brother Andrew and Vic have on their land. 

It was hard on the feet, and very long, but the camaraderie was pretty good with the SA contingent and the view of the finish chute was great. We were able to sit in the shade on a slight hill to watch the proceedings.

Both Trevor and I had a start at around the same time (mid morning) - and it was nice to walk to the start together and support each other.

Trev came 20th and Erica came 11th .  Here are a few photos of the SA gang.

Maurice Patten (ex Tintookie)  is over competing and wore his Easter Bunny shirt for the day!!

We had organised tea together for those who were staying in York, so 18 of us ended up at the Castle Hotel for dinner.  It was a bit understaffed and tea took a long time to come, but the conversation was great and it was a lovely way to spend an evening.  

WA Easter - Sat 20th April (172km since arriving in Perth to end of day)

After breakfast with Nic and Maggie and the girls we headed over to Scotch college to run the sprint event.  This was the first day of 3 events to be added together for a composite score.
I didn't take any photos today, but have lifted a couple from the OA facebook page. (including on of the map to give you an idea.

Both Trevor and I had a map flip.

Trevor had a mistake in the middle of his course, which put him down towards the bottom of his class, but Erica went one worse, with a mispunch.  (I missed one of the controls completely) - silly silly silly me.  It was still a great course with lots of complex route choices. 

We purchased fuel at Mt Lawley  ($151.55 bought us 106.5 litres @1.489) from the slowest pump in the world. 

After a quick shower we headed off towards York and Hope Farm guesthouse , which will be our accommodation for the next two nights.  They had a crib board and cards there , so we had a couple of games to keep our hand in.  The place was built by Dr Hope (a long time ago).

We had dinner at the Settlers House pub and fell into our beds on the promise of  cooked breakfast in the morning. 

WA for Easter - Friday April 19th (Good Friday) 2019 -

After a pretty good sleep in we spent the morning catching up on social media and updating the blog while Nic and Maggie were off at Good Friday catch up with friends. 
They were home in time for lunch and we all enjoyed fish and chips with salad.

The afternoon brought our planned catch up with Joc, Tim and John (freshly home from Brazil)  and Lou for hot crossed buns.

Sadly I didn't think to bring the camera out, which was a pity.

Along with them, the party comprised Michael and Roslyn Bartholomaeus,and their daughters and assorted partners.  Caitlyn and her partner Scott (who have just moved in together) , Heather and her fiance Andrew(both teachers) and Fiona.

It was a lovely hubub of conversation, too much food (afternoon tea drifted happily into an evening meal) and also some games of telestrations - quite a good relaxed game for this group to play.

We snuck in late , but Nic and Maggie were still up. 

WA for Easter- Thursday 18th April 2019 (646km)

The last day to get to Perth took a bit longer to get going as we ran out of gas while trying to boil the billy , and then the back up can of gas for the light weight stove as well.

First stop was Coolgardie, where we read the historical signage and wandered a little before heading onwards.  The opinion below was about the new post office building.  It is pretty ugly, but not that bad...

This is the courthouse nearby. Much more fancy.

The "Yerdani Well" rest stop was a very nice one for morning tea, but it did get us asking "where is the actual well.??"

These lovely pink satiny gums graced the stop.

After a bit of a map search we discovered that Yerdani rock and well were a bit further along the road and in along a track, so we decided to see if we could find them.  We found the rock (and some less impressive ones nearby that also held some water in pools)

but never found the well.  Maybe the green patch at the right of this photo is where the well was (water probably holds here in the wet)

It was a very pretty track and there were many spots between here and the main road where we could have happily camped.

A little further along the road we stopped at the memorial to truckies burned in a bushfire.  The map below would have been helpful for us to find Burra Rock the night before.   We were attempting to come in via Widgiemooltha.  It looks a clear enough road on this map.

This was the memorial in the bush to the Truckies.

The lunch stop was at Karalee rock and dam, where we walked to see the workings that captured water off of the large rock surface into a huge reservoir and supplied water to many people heading for the goldfields. Impressive workings and worth the 5km drive in to a fantastic campsite. 

The kids camping here with their families over Easter are in for a great time.  It was nearly 2pm by the time we got back on the road after lunch and we still had miles to go to get to Perth.

the drainage into the reservoir and the steps up to the wall of the reservoir. 

Kids playing in the massive drain to the reservoir. 

wattle just coming out in flower. (very strong smell)

the sluice gates 

drainage channel from the rock. 

the wall around the rock channeling into the sluice.

an old well

butcher bird companion at lunch.

We stopped at Meckerling, had another cuppa to revive the driver and a brief shop stop to replenish some supplies, and read about the Earthquake in 1969.  It measured 6.1 on the Richter scale and destroyed most of the town. .. which then was relocated. They have a book exchange in an old fridge in this  town.

We finally arrived in Perth in time for tea with Nic and Maggie and Sarah and Rebekah.  The rain on the roof and chilly night made us happy to be under their shelter tonight instead of camping.

Four days to drive across is a bit too fast I think.  Trevor was pretty tired. Next time we might aim for a bit longer so that the days are not so long. It made it hard for Trevor to think clearly with a tired brain. Not good as a lead in to a weekend of orienteering.

WA for Easter - Wednesday April 17th 2019 (813km)

We woke in the morning to the sound of the waves and high winds continuing.  Our swags were heavily coated with sand (including lots inside) and storm clouds threatened on all sides, so despite the early time, we decided to pack up while we could do it in the dry and head on out. (no breakfast yet)

We pumped up the tyres again on the other side of the sandhills and ate breakfast as we waited for this to happen.

Then we headed on towards the west.

Morning tea was in a rubbish strewn roadside stop just East of Cocklebiddy, where we boiled the billy and ate toast.
We had bacon and egg sandwiches at Balladonia just before midday (now on Perth time) . Lots of people seemed to be on social media on their phones but we had no signal at all.

We deviated in Norseman to do the final stage of the Woodlands trail (which we started with Joc 3 years ago) and picked up the notes for this also - so that next time we have really good reading material quality. 

The surface of the trail was the tiny marbles of rock that are deadly to walk on - that made it a challenge.

Great coloured rocks at the parking spot for the woodlands walk.

We had a hot shower in Norseman (buy a token at the tourist centre) and headed onwards. We chose to take the road towards Kalgoorlie.

After trying to find the road to the Burra Rock campsite we gave up in frustration with our GPS (It would not follow the road which was clearly on the map) .  We changed tack and pulled in a little side track into the bush about half way between Norseman and Coolgardie. We found ourselves on the salty shore of Lake Lefroy for the night.  It was 5pm.
Although we were fairly close still to the road, we weren't worried by the traffic noise.