Broome & Beyond: and Back Home again !

Monday 24th July, mid-afternoon

First, I put away the shorts and shirt which have been my standard clothing for several days. I dress in long pants, thermal top, shirt, shoes & socks -- for winter in Perth. Sigh.

Driving south, past Ninghan. I was only ten or so km north of the entry. As far as I can see -- as my pre-rogaine scouting -- the area is... foggy. The fog doesn't clear till after nine o'clock. Then it's cloudy.

Trees! I'm passing real, quite tall, trees! Of course I'm in the wheatbelt now, so most of the land is cleared. A few short bits of crop appearing. But there are some trees! A pleasant change after the last few days.

Through Wubin. Historical(*) note: Wubin was named after WA's first Jewish explorer. He had a lisp.

(*) The historical note may not be historically accurate.

There's a new road being built, several kilometres of it. Parallel to the existing road so there is not too much interference with traffic. I can see various stages of construction, from a graded track through wheatfields, through layers of yellow sand, layers of gravel, to the finished bitumen surface.

Later, there's a long stretch of completed-but-new road. With a different approach to the centre lines, they have the things that make a loud noise when you run over them. Plus a sign every time you can cross or not cross the lines to overtake, for those who don't understand the solid vs dashed lines. Perhaps it's a trial of the new markings.

There's another short stretch of roadworks including a rest area. It looks as though a toilet is being built... I wish I had time to check it out, see how it starts. I enjoy being distracted from driving :-)

Through Miling. It looks like a nice little town, with a newly painted hotel. You can use your CB radio to book a meal as you drive in... taking advantage of all the road construction workers -- with CB radios in their vehicles. Perhaps we should stay there on the Friday night before the rogaine. It's about 2.5 hours drive from Ninghan.

There's a rock by the road. One side is painted, "Future". The other side is "Past". I wish I had time to stop, see if there's an explanation ! But I also want to get home...

I refuel at New Norcia -- which is no longer on the highway. NN is still there but the highway has moved away, a loop (or a straightening) to avoid NN. It's lunch time so I have a sandwich & coffee. The sandwich is very nice and -- presumably! -- made with local New Norcia bread.

Drove 867 km

... and filled up with 88 litres diesel at 130.0, $115

(Have I been spelling diesel wrong? I'll fix that for my final journal...)

As I'm refuelling I mutter to myself, Why would someone spill water where I want to stand to refuel?! Hang on, water is everywhere... Oh yes, it must have rained... Welcome back to the southwest :-)

I set the Garmin to home. Then think, time to get used to the Hema. So I unset the Garmin and set the Hema to guide me home. Luckily it guides me where I want to go, including the preferred road when I get off the freeway near home... The Garmin always gets that "wrong".

And so I'm home !

Today: 396 km in about 6.5 hours.

I start reversing into the garage. Get out, shift the little red car from garage centre to one side. How quickly Deb forgets that I live here...

Reverse in. Unload. Make tea. Set up a load of washing: the two or three things that I wore, plus a load of Deb's stuff...

And I'm home :-)

The End.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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​"Vegetarian": Old Indian word for "Bad hunter".