What seemed to take forever finally happened.  The big day finally arrived and we picked up our new caravan.  It was great to see what we had ordered in the flesh and seeing how it turned out after all the decision making on colours and extras.  We were vey happy with it but one disappointment was that they had put the wrong finish of leather on the seats.  After some discussion the replacement ones were ordered and we took the van while they got them made up.

We decided on a short one week trip away in the van that would cover around 50% gravel and 50% bitumen.  We thought this would allow us to see how “dust proof” the van was and also make sure that everything was working properly for both powered and non powered living.  The route we chose was the Wheatbelt Way that went east of Perth out towards Mukinbudin and around the wheat belt towns with a couple of small diversions on the way.  Also expect to see a lot of photos with the new van in it.

First stop was a two night stay at Petrudor Rocks not far from Kalannie.  We were the only ones at the rocks so had the pick of spots, not that there were many to chose from.  It wouldn’t take many campers here to fill the placed up.  It was nice all the same and the weather was excellent so that it even nicer.

 

 

 

The van performed very well for our first two nights free camping so we then decided that Koorda seemed like a good place for our next stop and make sure everything worked well being hooked up to power.  Happy to say that most things worked well.  The washing machine wouldn’t start when Kaye tried it.  After a bit of investigation we found that the power point wasn’t working so that started off the “warranty” list.

Not far from Marshall Rock we stopped at the Pergande Sheep Yards and Homestead.  The homestead is not much to look at now, just some rubble on the ground.  The sheep yards though were truly interesting.  They sheep yards are constructed entirely of granite slabs.  The way they made the slabs was to light a fire on the large granite rocks then cool it down quickly with water.  Granite slabs would then break away and these were then used to make the sheep yards.

 

 

 

 

The next spot after Koorda was some more free camping at Beringbooding Rock which was east of Mukinbudin.  The campground here is pretty good and even has a flushing toilet.  At the rock itself is a massive water tank that holds around 9 million litres.  The tank was built not long after the area was settled to assist the early farmers with water.  Around the rock they have built a granite wall to allow the water catchment for the tank.  The tank itself is starting to show signs of deterioration and it will be interesting to see if it will be repaired or let to slowly decay.

We also did a short drive to Elachbutting Rock.  This was an a very impressive rock to visit and has a spectacular wave section that would nearly rival Wave Rock at Hyden.  There were also caves, an old prospectors well and lots of camping areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Beringbooding Rock we then travelled to Minnivale for a night.  This is a very small little place that just has a wheat collection depot and a camp ground not far out of Dowerin.  It also looked like they were trying to establish a railway tourist ride here as well.  There wasn’t a lot of information around about it.  If they were relying on Royalties for Regions funding then it probably wont happen for a long time.  The campground was quite good and pretty quiet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well it was great to get back in a van again and do some touring around.  Just a pity it was so short.  We had a small list of items we wanted attending to when we returned the van.  All in all though the van performed exceptionally well and there were no major concerns from us.  A great little week away.  While the van is in getting repaired we are off to Malaysia to see Renae who is over there for six months with Woodside.

 

 

Well its been along time between any sort of updates on our blog and we are so far behind, trying to remember anything over the last year will be a stretch.  Most of this will be pretty random stuff with almost all of it guaranteed maybe not to be to factual.

After Kaye had finished her little return to work we packed up the car and headed off around the goldfields area near Kalgoorlie for a few days.  We were still waiting for the new caravan to arrive and it just seemed to be taking forever so a trip away was hopefully going to keep our minds off it a bit.

We were just going away and using the roof top tent and intended to just camp wherever we decided to stop for the night.  As our luck would have it the day we left Perth it was cold and raining quite a lot and pretty much continued until our first stop for the night at Boondi Rock not far from Coolgardie.  Luckily for us not long after arriving the rain stopped and cleared away very quickly.  The camp area at Boondi Rock was very good and the walk around the rock itself really interesting as all the water catchment walls and channels were still intact with a lot of water in the storage dam.

 

 

 

 

 

After a cold night it was up early and a drive onto Kalgoorlie and a short trip down memory lane for us both.  It was in Kalgoorlie that we first met and as they say the rest is now history.  Kalgoorlie still doesn’t do much for me personally and we really didn’t spend much time in the town at all.  We drove around and looked at a few places that we both lived in, had a coffee in the main street and then headed out of town.  Sorry Kalgoorlie but I was finding it very hard to find anything that would keep me in town for very long.

After leaving Kalgoorlie and having a picnic lunch at Broad arrow it was a drive through Ora Banda where I was surprised to see that the tavern was still operating.  For some reason I thought it had closed down so it was great to see it still open and quite a few people there as well.  Rowel’s Lagoon was our next stop and the low level of water in this was disappointing.  I can remember going out here years ago and water skiing.  Not sure how deep it is now and I doubt you would get a boat in it anymore.   Next was a drive to Ularring Rock for our night stop over.  What a great little camp are we found.  We were also the only ones here as well so that made it even a bit more special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next day it was up early and off to Lake Ballard.  Had wanted to see the statues in the lake for many years and was quite excited at last being able to do it.  The lake surface was very wet and slippery that also caused mud to cake to the bottom of your footwear.  On seeing this Kaye immediately decided that looking from the edge of the lake was better.  What was surprising was the amount of people that were there.  Great to see this is still attracting people to the area.

After Lake Ballard it was off to Leonora for a lunch stop and a look around Gwalia.  We did a walk through the refurbished Hoover House and a walk around the old miners huts that are on display.  This is a great free entry display that shows how hard they lived back in the early days.  There were donation tins around so if ever there do the right thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled the short distance to Leinster next and  stayed the night at the caravan park.  After a few nights of camping in the bush it was time to freshen up in town.  While in Leinster I showed Kaye the water tank that we built many years ago when Leinster was first being developed as a town.  It was good to see it was still standing.  After a good night sleep it was off towards Agnew and Sandstone.  We hadn’t decided where we were going to spend the night and thought we would see how the day panned out.  We were both surprised and disappointed to see that Agnew was just a ghost town – if you could call it a town.  The mess and rubbish where the old hotel was was a bit of an eyesore.  Sandstone had a couple of sites near town worth visiting and was a very neat tidy little town.  London Bridge and the Sandstone Brewery were both excellent visits.  The Sandstone Brewery would have been something very unique in its day.  Although there is only the cave left that they used for brewing, the site itself is very informative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the weather forecast for the area we were in not looking good for the next couple of days we decided to travel back the Perth via the farm and end our little goldfields tour.  It was a great little trip and we would like to come back one day with our caravan and spend more time around and having a much closer look.