Back to Perth

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All good things must come to an end and it was with some sorrow that we packed up camp on early Saturday. The guys helped us take the camper down and we were ready for the road.

I never like good-byes. Having shared such an intense experience with these guys, this was one where my expressions of gratitude seemed totally inadequate. They had really gone out of their way to make our time in the outback special and leaving was not without some stifled emotion. A week before we were strangers, I felt that we were leaving as friends.

After travelling bumpy bush trails for the last few days, the dirt highway seemed as wide as a runway and we were able to sit on a steady 60km. When we eventually pulled onto the asphalt route south the reality of our isolation hit home. Some distance south we arrived at a roadhouse where we ordered a full breakfast, refuelled the Pajero and prepared for the trip south. We were to avoid Toodyay and head straight for Perth.

There was far more traffic on the highway as we headed south. There were frequent encounters with vehicles carrying wide loads. They were massive mining trucks, equipment, modular production units etc. All were preceded by escort vehicles. Some were simply advisory, others waved us to the side of the road and onto the verge to make room.

We passed through Wubin, Dalwallinu and Pithara

Although I had slept well in the bush, the tedium of the journey took its toll and with a combination of fatigue, warmth and boredom as the countryside sped by, I was soon feeling extremely tired. Although we did make several stops, at one point I must have gently drifted into sleep and was quickly jerked into consciousness as the car slipped off the tarmac and onto the gravel verge. The shock was so great that we pulled up in the little township of Miling where I had a cat-nap whilst Hazel has a walk.

Then through Bindi Bindi, Walebing, Waddington and New Norcia -which appeared to be a religious settlement with massive and opulent ecclesiastical buildings. The landscape had changed from wild push to wheatbelt and was now becoming green and pastoral.

And soon we were in the upper Swan valley approaching the suburbs of Perth. It had been a very long and tiring journey.

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