BARN HILL STATION

We stayed at Indee Station for 3 nights and then decided to head up to a place 130 kms south of Broome called Barn Hill Station. It is a station on the coast that has diversified (with great profits) by having a caravan park on the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean.

It is a beautiful spot with great views. It's a shame the same can't be said for the way they run it The powered Caravan park side of the business has been around for a long time and utilised by the same group of people for that period, if your not in the click then you live up the other end without power and with the most basic facilities. Now basics don't bother me but when you see the money going through that place it wouldn't take much to put a little back - but we still enjoyed our stay. The dogs loved going in the surf every day and we loved going swimming every day. I still can't get used to the idea that we are swimming in the ocean in Australia in the middle of Winter. The water is so warm. I must admit, it is always in the back of your mind that there could be a croc around. They say that they generally don't go down the coast that far, but you can never be 100% confident.

HAMMERSLEY RANGE AND INDEE STATION

We took about a week to get up past Meekatharra doing a bit more prospecting on the way. We stopped in town and saw Ross (the owner of Murchison Downs) going into the pub so we stayed and had a yack with him for a while and stocked up on the groceries at Farmer Jacks (like an IGA) and headed for the Gascoyne River. We spent a night at the South Branch of the Gascoyne River. It was a good camp spot but we decided to move 50kms up the road to the Mid Branch as it goes right in off the road and you park near the river. Only thing wrong was there was no water, but still a great camp area. It was nice to stop for the day and decide what we were going to do next and do a bit of buswork.(Housework). Leaving the Gascoyne river we had a look at the map and decided to head to a place just north of Newman called Munjina East Gorge Lookout where you can camp. We drove on up through Newman where you could see all the mountains around being eaten away by the mining companies, the country around here is beautiful, red from all the iron ore and the green foliage of the bush is a fantastic contrast. We stopped overnight at Munjina East Gorge in the Hammersley Ranges, beautiful sunset with the red and green while sitting high up in the gorge looking right down along it. The whole drive along the Hammersley Range is very picturesque.

Port Hedland was our next stop but we found a station stay at Indee Station about 65 kms short and decided this was a better option, after meeting with the owners they just said find a spot you like and park up, happy hour was from 6-7pm - just bring your drinks and we supply the nibblies. It's a great idea as you get to meet everyone else that is camped there and swap stories, destinations, etc.

The owners are Col and Betty, both aged around 70. They also have another couple from Taree working their over Winter, Des and Bev. They are all great down to earth people.

The station was hit by clyclone George in 2007 and pratically destroyed everything but the homestead. This is a picture of our fireplace - pretty cool!!!!

They are slowly cleaning up and rebuilding. There are no powered sites, but clean new amenities with solar hot water. The facilities were basic but new and very good.


They have their own Ayres Rock - called Red Rock. It comes with authentic Aboriginal rock carvings and water holes and it's a bit easier to climb!!!

The stations history also involves a plane crash on New Years Eve in 1968. A Vickers Viscount run by McRobertson Miller Airlines crashed killing all 26 passengers and crew still the largest loss of life involving an Australian airline, hopefully it stays that way.

We did a shopping run into Port Hedland - we have now seen enough of that place - too industrial.

WAVE ROCK - HYDEN W.A.

On our way back from Victoria we took a different route and went down to Esperence and then up through Hyden to visit Wave Rock. The rock has been formed by gradual erosion of the softer rock beneath the upper edge over many years. It is 14 metres high, and 110m long and the colours are caused by rain washing down the rock.

It is quite an easy climb up to the top - but the signage gives you a bit to think about!!

They have also built a small concrete wall on top of the rock directing rainfall into a storage dam.

OFF TO FIND GOLD AGAIN

We traded in our old GPX 4000 detector and bought two new GPX 4500's so now we both have the top of the range and can cover twice as much ground. We stopped at a "Ghost Town" called Paynesville (no not the one in Victoria). It is half way between Mt Magnet and Sandstone. There is nothing left of the town - just a couple of graves in the cemetery and lots of tins and bottles.

There is a couple of old prospecting huts also (some with a sense of humour - this one is in the middle of the bush miles from nowhere). We parked the bus off the main road in the driveway of an old Quarry - perfect spot for the bus. On our first day back in the bush - we decided to drive along a track towards the old township and this is what we found. What is it you may ask?

I will give you a few hints:

• There are plenty around in Western Australia





• They are sometimes very old





• Sometimes they are alive - sometimes dead





• They cost a lot of money





• They create lots of work

Give Up!!!!!

It is a bloody wooden stake that went into one of our new tyres (only done 10,000kms) in the side wall. Not impressed. We had intended refitting our old tyres to travel around the gold areas but hadn't got around to it. Steve spent the next hour replacing the tyre. Needless to say, we have since put all the old tyres back on. I found my first piece of gold at Paynesville. It is a nice little piece still attached to some quartz.

We have since returned to Laverton where we thought, with our new technology, things were going to be a bit easier. Well the potential is there but it's not without plenty of exercise and we now realise Laverton is not where it's all at. Maybe it was once, but we're ready to move and scour the earth further North, Nullangine, Marble Bar and the Kimberly goldfields, can't wait to see the Tropics.

BACK TO WORK

We had no sooner arrived back at the bus and the boss came over and said "you can start work whenever your ready". We had a few things to sort out and then it was back to the grind stone. Steve was now the "Chief Lime Spreader". It was another new experience. He had to learn how to operate the satellite GPS computer system that automatically drives the tractor and also tracks where you have spread the lime. I had a few turns at driving also, just in case I ever get asked to work!!!!!!

Steve also had fun driving his big Tonka Toy front end loader. The lime would be dumped at the end of the paddock by the truck and Steve had to load the lime into the spreader using the front end loader. He had to make sure that it was always spreading approx 1 tonne to the acre by reading the stats on the computer. All very high tech...

Some of the farmers around the area still use an old method of burning the stubble before they seed again which results in choking smoke that settles in at night for great sleeping and the neighbours (also affectionately known as the Hairybacks) were major culprits. Some of them have no idea and light the fires when the winds are up and the result is below.

Some are more sensible and do it at night, but still with the lingering stench.

There was a couple of weeks break between fertilising and seeding while we were waiting for the rain. We started to give the bus a "Spring Clean" and that's when all the Reno ideas started popping into our heads. So off to Geraldton and back again with some wood to build a new Entertainment Centre and some Vinyl Tiles to replace the carpet. The new Entertainment Centre looks great - Steve did an excellent job. We ripped out some of the carpet and replaced it but didn't get to finish it all as Steve was called back to work on the Seeder. We have a stock pile of tiles for when we have a "quiet time" again to finish it off.

Seeding was a whole new experience again. The Tractor, Seed and Fertiliser tanks and the actual Seeder Bar was approx 25 metres long. I will let Steve take over here. I understood the basics of the computer GPS systems after the lime spreading but now had to add in liquid fertilizer, seed and granulated fertilizer to the equation. The seed and granulated fertilizer were on the computer system but the liquid was on a gauge which had to be watched behind you all the time, too simple actually LOL - seeing as most of the time you were checking behind for something anyway.

The seeder bar was about 14 metres wide so when you turned at the end of each run you had to allow for 25m of whole machine length and 14 metres of bar width which is bringing up the rear, all the time getting within reasonable distance to the fence so as not to have any patches once it all grows. I did really well except for one turn, you wouldn't believe a bolt head at the very end of this chain caught a single fence wire and by the time you see the fence move about 30ft had been ripped out.(Wire cutters to the fore).

TWO MONTHS IN VICTORIA

We stayed in Victoria for 2 months. Initially we stayed at Diannes Mum and Dads and planned to catch up with lots of old friends but due to the extreme heat we didn't get about alot. We went over to Alex for the weekend to Ross and Sarah's engagement catching up with a lot of people there and had a great night. Stayed in our old house that weekend (really exciting stuff that).

Next day we left really early (about 4.30am) hoping to beat the 45 degrees forecast for the next day, we didn't do too bad getting up on Hotham by 7.30 - 8.00am . We spent a couple of weeks up at Rod and Jo's in Omeo trying to escape the heat, it worked a little bit but it was a pretty extreme summer all over.

We were still at Rod and Jo's when the devastating Black Saturday fires hit. First we knew of it was Dianne's mum and dad were under threat from the Bunyip fire coming within 1/2 km of them and they were getting ready to evacuate. We felt pretty helpless as we couldn't get there. All the main roads were closed, the Princes Hwy, Hume Hwy and Maroondah Hwy - it didn't matter which way we wouldn't be able to get through. There was also a big fire getting going about 30km's west of us near Dargo so everyone was on their toes. With all the devastation and carnage that happened, it was very frustrating as we felt helpless. Everytime you spoke to someone, you heard of another loss. It was just so incomprehensible - an area that had been part of our lives for so long - just gone. One good bit of news was that our old place was saved and the family that brought it were okay. The fire came across there on the Sunday morning but all the homes in Crystal Creek Road were saved.

Although we had had a relaxing time at Rod and Jo's and Andrew and Kate's, and we had seen all the family and visited some old friends, we decided to head back to WA a bit earlier than expected. It was just too depressing with the fires and we couldn't do anything to help.

We decided to take our time and go via the Eyre Peninsula in SA. Although it was really hot travelling it was a must see place especially the west coast of the Peninsula, fantastic beaches, great fishing, and spectacular scenery and believe it there was nobody around, naked romps in the emerald green surf just too good (Scary thought eh). Took more time out this time as well to have a good poke around the Great Australian Bight, it is just AWESOME. The power of the Southern Ocean is unbelievable.

After nine days on the road it was time to head back home to the bus on the farm and after so much swagging it was nice to get into our own bed.

Before moving back in though I bombed the bus with bug bombs, it did the job on the spiders and bugs but we were soon to learn the mice need somewhere to live after all the grain had been cut and guess where they decided to set up camp!!!! It's now been 6 weeks and we are nearly there, first go was traps, got about 15, still they came, more traps but they started getting fed and not setting them off, next we had to get the Talon blocks and that started to cull them but we still have to look for bodies so the dogs don't eat them ( deadly stuff for dogs even after the mouse has eaten it) we have had experiences before. Now we've got onto a new idea, apparently if you use a few drops of pure peppermint oil (has to be pure not extract) on cotton wool buds on a saucer and place them where the the suckers are hiding, they vamoose. Well it seems to be working fingers crossed, at least it smells better!!!!

CHRISTMAS SURPRISE

All of my family were at Mum and Dads having Christmas lunch. We rang the kids as we were driving up the drive way and pretended we were still in W.A. and had just been fishing. We kept them talking on the phone while we pulled up and walked into the house. Well, as you can imagine there was lots of screams and tears.



The kids had apparently been hoping that we would be there but when we weren't there for lunch, they had resigned themselves to the fact that we weren't coming. It took us about a week to recover from travelling so far in such a short time. We decided there and then that we would never drive across from W.A. that quickly again. We decided that when we head back, we will take our time and enjoy the places we flew past.