Broome & Beyond: north of Ninghan

24th July 2017, early morning

I'm typing this at 7am on Monday. I'm fairly certain there's nothing much left to write about yesterday... but I'll only know when I start typing:

From Capricorn -- from the roadhouse, just south of the Tropic of -- I drive south. To Meekatharra. Then on to Paynes Find. The country is desolate.

The land is flat. The bush is low and thin. There are patches with no understorey at all. Is this natural? Or have cattle destroyed the understorey?

One point of interest: A square letterbox (delivery box, it's quite big) on the highway. The station house is somewhere off the highway, out of sight. The box is painted -- very nicely -- as Sponge Bob Squarepants :-)

Deisel at Kumarina. Is this out of order? I've lost track of what happened! Though I do remember, this is my first attempt at a pre-pay fuel pump. It turns out to be very simple. Is there a "till it's full" option? Probably, though I miss seeing it. I select $100 of fuel and it stops just short of that. Limit of pump accuracy, or is "full" coincidentally close to $100?

71 litres at 139.9, $99.29 for 600 km

Newman to Paynes Find may be a nice area to visit but I have no urge to stay. Definitely not a tourist area. Even the geocaches are sparse. In one spot -- driving down the main highway -- there is 300 km between caches.

Just 14km from Meeka I stop for a break and a possible cache. The cache description includes, "be prepared to scrabble amongst rocks". I smell something dead between the truck and the cache. There's enough litter in the rocks to fill several rubbish bags. I make a token search but decide that no, I'm not prepared to scrabble amongst rocks.

On the bright side, There's a lot of takeaway chicken boxes that missed the bin near the cache. I hope for a takeaway chicken dinner at Meeka. But it's Sunday and everything looks closed. The garage-with-hot-chook may be open but it looks deserted. The closed security screen doors don't encourage me to stop.

There's a garage just out of town, a roadhouse. I get a pie, to eat out of town.

I stop at a large truck bay, just on the edge of town. There's a track leading up to some sort of tank... And there's a cache, probably near that tank. A good view from there, judging by the cache description. I'm stopped, don't feel the urge to move towards the cache. Tired, too... !

I intend to make a very quick stop for dinner, leave the engine running. The pie is the first *hot* pie on this trip... I have to eat slowly and carefully to avoid burning my mouth.

More driving. More flat country. The sun is setting. I stop for a brief break -- and realise there's a cache within metres. It's on a wrecked car, with no hint. I give a cursory inspection and leave it, unfound.

Just before sunset and I drive through Cue. It has old buildings made of stone. It looks like a good town, worth a quick visit, some other time.

Driving in the dark. I have the feeling that I'm driving through a tunnel, with tall trees wrapping up on either side. Of course I'm not, the bush is still short and sparse. And flat to the horizon.

Soooo flat... At one point there's enough light to see to the horizon. I feel that I'm on a boat at sea. Do I have a strong imagination or am I hallucinating  :-?

Past Paynes Find, a friendly light -- from the one visible building -- just off the highway. I stop in a truck bay, it may do for the night. My thongs instantly pick up a few dozen nasty spikey burrs. I pull off all the burrs, drive on.

Another thirty or so km and I'm a bit north of Ninghan Station. The next rogaine will be there, it's said to be five hours drive from Perth. A good place to spend the night, I can get home tomorrow in five hours... And I can sneak a peek at the rogaine area :-)

The next truck bay is ideal: there's a track leading beyond the bay, to an area which is clearly used for parking. Lots of tracks, lots of rubbish. I sleep the night in the truck.

When I wake up in the middle of the night, the sky is clear, the stars are bright, there's no traffic. This morning there's mist, there's a car or truck every few minutes. Peaceful, though, the highway is fifty metres away and everything else is quiet. Except for a couple of distant birds.

I make tea and have a muesli bar for breakfast.

Yesterday, Sunday: drove 995 km in just over 12 hours. Ridiculous but I wanted to be within reach of home on Monday.

Interesting: The hotspot claims to be working. The tablet claims to be communicating. But it's not. Email is not really being sent. So this post will be sent... whenever. Hopefully, before I get home !

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Lawyers pay for their mistakes, doctors bury them, architects grow ivy on them. And consultants charge for them."