KangarooJacks Certificate

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DAY 159


We woke up early at Newman’s Rocks after a restful nights sleep, the Trumans were all scampering about and had been down to the Billabong to see if any Camels were around, all except Kahlia who was still asleep in bed.

I got up and put the kettle on, and put the table outside so I could boot the laptop up and get on with the blog, we still weren’t able to get internet access so the blog was backing up.

Caroline joined me outside, and we sat in the morning sun drinking our favourite brew.

The Truman’s came back from their morning march, and were full of the joys of spring, well Autumn really.

After a light breakfast we all just sat around talking and putting the world to rights, as the idiots who are running the joint at the moment don’t seem capable of doing so.

We eventually got our arses in to gear and started packing away, the Truman Family were first to leave followed by us about 5 minutes later. We had around 145K’s to go to get to Norsman, which would be the end of the Nullarbor for us.

The distance was soon eaten up, the Patrol was soon to be turning 110,00K’s which in miles is only about 67,000, not a lot for a diesel engine, but it has to be serviced every 10,000 to stay inside the Nissan Warranty, and would need to be done in Perth if not sooner.

The entrance to the town of Norsman, appeared at 12.30pm and the odo reading on the speedo indicated that our Nullarbor Journey was 1230 Kilometres long, and the box was ticked and it had been done.

I asked Caroline if it was what she had expected and wanted, and she said she was unsure what to expect except that it would be long and not much inbetween Ceduna and Norseman, my thoughts were that we hadn’t seen much wildlife, except the snake, the Wedge Tailed Eagle, too many dead Roo’s and not a lot else. Caroline was really miffed that we did not see any Camels.

I had just switched over fuel tanks, so we needed to fill up, as soon as we could, but first we wanted to pop in to Visitor Information just to find out about the place. We walk in just as the lady is walking out, I hold the door for her but she asks if we want information as she was just off to the bank. She wanders off back behind the counter, and we start to talk.

“Which way have you come, from Perth?” “No we have just driven the Nullarbor”, “Great she says did you enjoy it?” “Of course”, we replied “it was great”, “good” she replies “I’ll get your certificate ready.”

“Certificate, what’s that for?” “Well you have crossed a historic route, made famous by John Eyre, who would you like the certificate to be made out too?”

“Kangaroojack please we are the joint identities of Kangaroojack so make it out to him”, so KJ has got his own certificate for crossing the Nullarbor.

We sit in the gardens adjoining the visitors centre and upload a blog, its serves two purposes, one to tell everyone what we have been up to and two to let people know we are still alive and kicking, as we were a few blog days behind.

On the roundabout in Norsman there are some tin camels, we took a few photo’s, then we wished the Truman family a safe onward journey as they were off to Esperence and we had decided to drive to Kalgoorlie (Home of the super pit).

Shortly after leaving Norsman heading North we drive past Lake Cowan, of course it is an empty lake, it has the appearance that there is some water but that is because of the heat rising from the dry lakebed. The scenery does not change that much from here except that we now see private roads from each side of us, we can see now that we are in mining country, signs everywhere dictate pit/mine entrances.

The road trains suddenly become larger, we are now seeing 4 x 40 foot trailers again. A sign comes up stating that the maximum length for a road train is 53.5 metres. We are driving alongside a railway track that obviously services the mines.

55 kilometres before Coolgardie we turn off for Kimbalda and Kalgoorlie-Boulder. I have seen references to campsites in Boulder, which we are now heading for. It looks like we are in the middle of nowhere just surrounded by mines, but suddenly we start to see people around so of course we are heading back into civilisation.

It is nearly 4.00 in the afternoon and we are looking forward to pitching up for the night, we find a site just in Boulder and pop inside. The lady says to me, I probably only have tent sites left and there maybe room for one more camper trailer, showing me the locations on the map. “Are they Powered?” “yes, you can plug into the power at the camp kitchen”. She tells me to wander down have a look and if we are happy with finding a site we can go and book in.

I get back to the truck grab Andy and say “we are going for a walk”, I explain on the way. There is no way another camper trailer is going to squeeze into the powered site, there are already three there but the 4th spot is almost none existent, so we look at our options on the tent sites. We both agree that neither of us can be bothered to go and look for another campsite, we know there is one around the corner and the lady already told us that there are spaces left their.

We work out how we can fit in and where our cable can go, then go back to check in. She gives us a discount for the slight inconvenience, we are not arguing with that.

We work out which way to pitch and in record time the trailer is in place the tent is up and we have our bed for the night, the next important thing is to plug into power, we are now seriously drained on batteries, but they will soon be recharged.

I want to put some washing in the machine, but I feel completely exhausted and so really just want to sit quietly and have my cup of tea, there are people in the camp kitchen talking, we would usually join into the happy throng, but energy escapes me today so I just sit and listen to the conversation.

We pop out into Boulder/Kalgoorlie to find somewhere for Pizza (well, it has been 6 days since we last had one!), a drive round soon reveals Eagle Boys Pizza who seem to be a popular chain around Australia.

Pizza in hand we went back to the campsite and sat in the camp kitchen eating Pizza and just typed up the blog. We had a glass of shandy each while we ate this went down very well.

By 9.30 we were exhausted, well all these time changes have caught up with us now, no cards tonight (we were going to play 2 handed patience that the Truman family taught us this morning), the next challenge will have to wait for another day.

We have a busy day tomorrow and so to bed!

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Photos

Sun Up
At Newman's Rock

TheTruman Family
Ken, Josh Kahlia and Jodie make up the Travlin Trueys

Norsman
The end of the Nullarbor

Prospectors Friend
such a bad tempered creature, the Camel that is

Tin Camels
On the traffic roundabout

Post Office
The Post office in Norseman

KJ's Certificate
Success we crossed the Nullarbor!