'Wherarwee' in Oz: Log 20-09 Goomalling

Since leaving Denham (our most Westerly point) there has been a noticeable change in the topography & flora, there are now rolling hills & vast fields of grains. In both temperature & outlook it is much like Queensland.

Since Kalbarri we have stopped at several places, Coronation Beach with it’s lookout that we had to climb to get phone reception. Geraldton (pop 50,000) is a beautiful little city, small enough for the country feel, large enough to have all the usual facilities that we are used to & house prices similar to Gosford. Dongara where all the trawlers put to sea, we stayed at Port Denison C/van park which was right on the ocean.

From Dongera we returned to Geraldton then set off inland stopping at Indarra roadside stop & the next morning of to Mullewar. This town has 50% of it’s population as indigenous people & despite being a very small town has the most magnificent church deigned by the priest (John Howe) that built & ran it. The guide told us that he designed 22 churches, 14 of which were built. We found out the church which we admired in Geraldton was one of his & also the church in Yalgoo. We stayed at Yalgoo for 2 nights as the c/van park there had a relaxed homely feel about it with very friendly tenants & managers.

Pushing on in a roundabout way towards Kalgoorlie we next drove to Mt.Magnet, got fuel & some supplies & were heading East when we received a phone call from Sally suggesting we visit the down South where a safari was being organized from Perth to Kalgoorlie (normally 600K’s) over 1400K’s of back roads. We were only 500K’s from Sally so we turned around & headed South stopping for our first night at a place called Kirkalocka Station, we thought a station stop would be a nice change. What a laugh, firstly it cost $25.00 a night, electricity was restricted to lights & fridge only, there was no drinkable water &, to have a shower, you had to first heat the water in this big, oven like thing with a 200lt. drum inside that was the water supply fed by a tank, by lighting a wood fire underneath. There were several of us there & the conversation centered around who was going to get up first & light the fire.

The weather was getting decidedly cooler now, in the low 20’s. We were on a narrow country road surrounded by vast fields of wheat & canola (which looks lime green as it has a small yellow flower), beautiful countryside. It was very windy & after 3 hours driving we stopped on the roadside for a cuppa. We had just pulled up when we were deluged by a fierce storm, the wind shaking the truck around a rain lashing about us, the road turned into a torrent & visibility was reduced to almost nil. The temp dropped even further & it was cold! We pulled into the little town of Dalwalinu & into the first c’van park for a hot shower & power for the heater.

Goomalling was only another 120K’s & we arrived Monday morning, there was a spot next to Sally & Dave which we took. Sally immediately told us to hurry & get set up as we were going out for lunch to the Station Café. It’s only open 1 day a week & run by a different charitable organization each time. Well, we had a delicious 3 course lunch for only $17.00 each. There were several CMCA members at the park, all staying for a while so we decided to stay for a week. Sally & David, who were going the next morning, decided to stay on as well.

One good thing, the rain has driven the flies away.

Sorry the photos arte mixed up, had a bit of trouble uploading them.