So I spent a couple of nights in Geraldton, where I arguably had the best steak I've ever eaten, cooked to perfection. However, I was ravenous so this is the only foodie shot I got
I mucked about, looking at this and checking out that...
Part of the memorial to the loss of the HMAS Sydney. All lives were lost. Sad.
There wasn't to much other photogenic stuff, so I'll leave it at that.
Then set off back North to have a look at Kalbarri. Stopping here and there to look at stuff. Like the Pink Lake at Gregory
It's Keratin gives it that colour, donchaknow
A slight resemblance
I got into the small settlement and grabbed a coffee, which took 20 mins to arrive. It seems everywhere is snowed under with visitors.
Nice wee town though. It got hit by a cyclone a couple of months ago and the damage was still quite evident.
So I finished my coffee and made my way into Kalbarri N.P. It was worth the $12 (?) entry just for the corners on the road in They have these skywalk things jutting out over a gorge
and some pretty lifelike sculptures
Pretty cool
Then I picked a campsite of WikiCamps and made my way to Fig Tree Crossing, where I happened to get involved with a zoom call back to N.Z.
So just as I was finishing packing up in the a.m. this guy sidles over and we get chatting. He recommends a route, based on my rough direction of travel. "Go down this track, just after this bridge" he said.
Some quite big country I rode through getting to the bridge.
I took the left... and it ended in three dead end 4wd tracks There was a picturesque little pool though
I should've known.... "Naah, it's not sandy, you'll be fine" he said... for the next bit
I consulted the Garmin, and it only looked like a few, or more k's so didn't bother letting the tires down.
I made it to the main drag and set a course for a place called Coalseam, which I'd heard about, something to do with wild flowers.
I'm not normally a flower guy, but this was pretty cool
The valley was awash with flowers. It was pretty stunning
I made my way back out to Mullewa, for supplies and found another WikiCamp. Was pretty cool, bush camping, with the sun going down, and wee taoscán a fire and some chick singing somewhere else in the scrub, she had a good voice too Perfect.
I planned to get to Mount Magnet the next day, just a transit leg, there's not much to see. This is the sole pic I took, on a piss stop.
I got to Mt Magnet, nice little mining town and couldn't find accom anywhere. It was busy with workers. One provider I spoke to had 5 units booked and paid for by a mining company, however they had only used 1 for the last 2 nights. But he couldn't double let the units. I got gas and buggered off. About 10k down the road, down a little side road a bit, then along a couple of wheel tracks for a while
Found a spot amongst some trees and settled in. No fire as I could still see trucks on the road. Gotta be stealthy.
Carried on next day towards Sandstone.
That's a looooooong truck The last trailer can be quite random in it's travels, pays to keep clear when over taking. So I got to Sandstone
and was having some trouble with the fuel bowser. It was card only and wouldn't accept my Kiwibank card. There was a nice lady taking a walking tour of the town who saw I was having trouble and came over for a look. She used her own personal card before continuing on with her tour. I caught up with her later to give her the cash. Things like this almost restore my faith in humanity.
I left Sandstone and made my way to Leinster, but not before I'd checked out London Bridge, or the local variation anyway...
I'd seen the sign and had gone a couple of k down the road before I won the debate with myself and decided to turn around and go check it out. After all, who knows if I'll be back this way...
So I got to Leinster, fueled up... and had to get my reserve cc out from it's hiding spot to do it, before hitting the road South. I found another wild camp behind a rest area, opposite the Thunderbox mine. A fire was had that night
They know how to shift a bit of dirt in these parts. The mine worked 24hrs a day so I had a low background noise for my stay, hardly noticeable
That big pile of dirt had flood lights on top of it, which lit up the trees around camp, so I didn't need a torch when venturing out of the tent at night.
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