Day 35 - This is the life!
Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 02:42AM Ok I know you have not received blogs for two days now, but man me & Ness & Annie have had some awesome experiences.
Starting off last night in Leinster, we had one of those neighbours that want to help just a little too much. His name was Brian, & he was an ex firefighter. When we pulled into Leinster he wanted to help us back the van in, now Norm & Marg you know that one of the cardinal rules of caravanning is to not interfere when people are backing the van! Then he wanted to run my electricity lead out for me, then he followed me around as I was setting up the van to see what else he could help with. Don’t get me wrong he was a lovely guy but maybe just a little too helpful!
Started again this morning when we were packing up, he came over to see what he could do! Thanks Brian, hopefully we will run into you again somewhere.
We hit the road to Wiluna, it was about 175km, so roughly 2 hours. Arrived in Wiluna, now if any of you ever do get the urge to travel this beautiful country, you have to pass through Wiluna…. And I mean pass through! It is a small township that has a fairly large aboriginal population. But the hotel has bars on the windows & doors, there are abandoned cars parked on nature strips with wheels missing, we even witnessed a full on barney amongst some local women outside the supermarket, which also has bars on it!
We filled up with fuel, but you have to pay first! And then Ness went in for some water, everything in this store has a security tag on it, including Ness’s bottle of water! No shoplifting tolerated here!
After we filled up with fuel we went for a drive around town, Annie decided she was hungry, so we looked for a place to pull over & feed her….. ended up parking directly across from the police station in town where we saw a car pull out and head down to the supermarket to control the kerfuffle that was going on down there!
But it also gave us the opportunity to check out the road conditions for the next leg of the journey. I partially fulfilled a lifetime dream today, we actually drove on the Canning Stock Route, I’ve been wanting to go on this road ever since I could drive a car, the road out of Wiluna is the start of the Canning, so we drove on it for 40km before we had to keep going on our road. We actually drove on it for 2.2km of the real Canning to get to Well 2, it was a rough old drive just for that short distance, can’t imagine doing the whole road!
Turned back after Well 2 & then we had dirt road for the next 195km, it was well graded for most of it, but there were a few sections that had bad corrugations on it. Needless to say Pete A & Egg the Disco & the Trakmaster handled it with ease.
Got to the end of the dirt & back on to tar, had 70km to go before out next stop & just before we hit the tar these two trucks went past with huge pieces of mining equipment on them. We had the CB radio on & heard the pilot (the guy who drives in front) warning other trucks that the loads were 6M wide!!! So there was no chance of overtaking them! Luckily they easily sat on 100km/h so we just stayed behind them till our stop. We have photos…so check them out!
We pulled into the roadhouse at Kumarina Roadhouse, we had filled up here on our last trip & we knew there was a caravan parking area out the back, it’s NOT a caravan park. So we pulled up & I said to Ness I’ll go sort out our site while you get Annie out of the car. Ok so I don’t know where to start, I mean we should have known better when we saw the blackboard out the front that said “Cook Wanted” and someone had rubbed out part of the O & it now said “Cock Wanted” I went into the office & was served by a large girl who’s boob’s almost fell on me & who had tattoo’s all over her arms and multiple face piercings! Her exact words to me were “What sort of shit you been through!” I looked at my wheels to see if I had gone through dog poo or something! But then realised she was asking why I was in a wheelchair. I just said “Had an accident” she replied with “That’s F#@%ed!!”
I asked her if we could have a powered site, she said “yes as long as no one got it before ya”
So I paid & headed out the back only to be stopped by another lady that was much older than the one at the front, this one had a cigarette hanging from the side of her mouth, but she was still able to talk without it falling out! She looked at me and said “You’ll be F#@%ed tryin to get around here”
So I’m guessing that the F word is part of the acceptable vocabulary up this way!
We had considered having dinner at the café/meals area, but when we were walking around the place after setting up the van we saw the guys that were cooking the food…. We had dinner in the van tonight!
Reader’s replies
Not sure….got no internet!!!
Annie’s Blog
Today my Dad packed up the box on wheels & Mum closed it all up, that means we are going somewhere else!.....Yayyy!
We got to this town that was a bit scary, lots of the buildings were boarded up and they all had metal windows, no glass. I wonder why? Dad said lets get fuel & keep going, but I was hungry & made them stop. Don’t know why but my dad parked outside the police station?
We then went on this bumpy road, it wasn’t as bad as the other day because my poo didn’t fall out today. But it was still bumpy. It made my new tooth come through. Maybe Dad should drive on more dirt roads and all my teeth will come through.
I hope you are all well, have not heard from some of you for ages….have you forgotten me so quickly?
Love from
AnnieInAVan
Reader Comments (4)
Oh Annie, sweetheart, no-one would forget you.
Make sure mummy and daddy lock your car doors - but I guess your fancy car does that automatically.
And we think that someone on crack cocaine invented In The Night Garden but we haven't told Jack this yet, it's his favorite show. Grace is yet to be converted fully. xx
You Guys I have missed you - I didn't realize how much until you were not there glad you are ok love hearing about your journey - I will fill you in about the one I'm taking at the same time later xx
Hi Annie - haven't forgotten you but I'm pretty sure your looking much bigger by now and maybe even some teef? I love my teef... I love to grind them together as they make this amazing sound . . Mum on the otherhand is not so happy about the noise but ehhh they're mine and I like it :o) Next week Mum says that she's gonna be back at work . . not sure what that means but she seems a little sad about it. Anyway I'm LOVING daycare atm . . So many friends and the ladies there are lovely too. I get all kinds of diffrent meals and the toys and outside area is just so much fun. Gotta run but take care of your mum and dad x Edward x