We eat breakfast in the hotel dining room. It's a bit tricky: when we arrive we pay for breakfast and are given a key to the hotel. A key for the very solid lock from the beer garden. Let ourselves in and find the dining room. Food is waiting, we help ourselves.
I have cereal, more cereal, another helping of cereal. A combination of choc something and iron man food. (The ads only partly stuck in my mind.)
Deb has cereal then toast. She tries to make coffee... but fills it from the urn... which is cold. There are exactly as many cups as guests... and nowhere to empty the cold drink. Deb uses my cup for a successful second attempt to make hot coffee.
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On the road again.
Another slow cruise on the back roads. Amongst broadacre farms with yellow canola or still-green wheat or whatever. Wildflower carpets in bush areas and wildflowers on road verges.
We pass a nature reserve and consider pulling over for morning tea, there is nowhere to get off the road. I spot a track going into the reserve, reverse to look again. It's a broad foot track, no good for us. We drive on.
Past the reserve, back amongst farms, there's a broad car-sized track leading to "cemetery". I don't want to eat with dead people. Luckily there is a clear area with the cemetery 100m away. We make tea, sit in the sun, wander round.
The cemetery is for three boys from the Tarbun Christian Brothers Agricultural School. From the info board this seems to have been a "good" CB school. At least one boy died in 1949, the school was sold ten years ago, the cemetery is still maintained though not spotless. Judging by signs further down the road the school is now St Mary's CB school for girls.
Another perfect spot for a break: sunshine, peace and quiet. With something interesting nearby.
Following the 4wd trail still... on to Coalseam nature reserve. Quite crowded here. We start to walk along the river... realise that the nearby geocache is at the lookout... at the top of a cliff. So we drive to the lookout.
We find the cache :-) Deb checks the view at the lookout, I stand well back from any steep drop. Nice enough view from back here, thanks.
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Next... a fairly straight drive to Mingenew. That's the end of one 4wd trail and the start of the next. We break for lunch. Oh yes: leaving Coalseam is a "river crossing". It had me worried. Turns out... we drive across a shallow puddle before we realise that tnis is the river crossing. Too easy :-)
We look for one cache just outside Mingenew, at the Pioneer Lookout. As we start to climb I think, We've been here before. It's a steep, rough track with some scrambling over rocks. Yes we were here a few years ago. This time... we get the geocache. Oh, and a view over the town.
We follow the 4wd trail to Three Springs. Just before town the trail leads off, following the edge of a lake.
We follow the trail. As far as we can tell, there are no trails leading off. We go through mud, across shallow water and plain sand. I try to drive over grass, it looks firmer.
It's not really difficult just not really a road. After a while, not even a track. Until we finally see a road... on the other side of a fence. Should we drive between the fence and a wheat crop, and hope for a gate? No. We retrace our steps.
Around the edge of the lake. Back to Three Springs. It's getting late, we decide to forget the 4wd trail and drive straight to Jurien. It's still a couple of hours away.
One-lane road, two lanes, one cache, down the Indian Ocean Drive. Arrive at our Jurien motel at about 5:30. The motel is -- as I expected -- a noisy sports bar sort of place. Our room is well clear of the noise and very nice.
We eat dinner at the motel. Fish. Delicious. We walk round the block after dinner then get back to our room for coffee. With a vanilla slice which we bought in the Mingenew Bakery. Yum :-)
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Tomorrow, we plan to follow some of the 4wd trail. It's a long drive, when we've had enough we will get onto the nearest highway for a quick way home.
We'll have several good options for different trips along this 4wd track. In the future...
Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
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