Meekatharra to Sandstone

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Wiluna Council has the Wedge Tail Eagle as their logo. What magnificent creatures these birds are. I have watched them for over 30 years and have tried many times to get a photograph of one in flight or on the ground. We have seen so many of them over the past three weeks and finally after all this time I achieved it today driving into Sandstone. GMan slowed the car, he knows my obsession with them, and called me deep from in Anne Perry's Pitt number 9 (google it) and I managed to get my camera up and ready to shoot - finally a photograph of a Wedgetail eagle I was happy with. Glorious creature.

In the last blog we said we did not have the photographic equipment to provide a visual image of the night sky. Well finally playing with the settings on my camera we have discovered there are settings to deal with night scenery. When we next get a splendid night sky we will try. Also discovered there is a setting for dealing with taking photographs of clouds. Hope the resulting images don't ruin my former photos.

When we got to Meekatharra we were getting low on water, so we went looking for a source of water. Finally in a small park we discovered an unguarded tap and proceeded to fill up the van. Feeling rather awful we crept about like thieves and then reading the signs discovered we were in the Meektharra welcome park and RV service area where water was available to us free. We were obviously so excited about this that we drove off leaving our posh new step to the van behind - $90 worth! At the moment we are using a sturdy crate but it really is not very stable and we will need to replace it asap. The first opportunity will be Newman we think, but we will scour the community store in Mt Magnet on Monday just in case. I also found a very different plant in the gardens here.

Major disaster when the pepper grinder broke, NEVER leave Gman without his pepper so Chris wandered off to the Foodworks to replace it and discovered they were selling doonas and covers so bought one of each, finally admitting that the cold was getting to us and the sleeping bags need washing. 200 kms away discovered that she had picked up the wrong size cover (it was in the queen size area, it was). Oh well, Chris is responsible for the cover, Gman the step and we both are for the pepper grinder, all quits methinks.

Having ensured we had water we found the gravel road to Sandstone. The most challenging part of it was driving on the bit which was being reformed by the Meekatharra Shire. When we crossed over into the Sandstone Shire the road deteriorated a little but was still an easy drive.

One thing we had discovered was that there is very little information available about the Miners Pathway we are following. All the brochures just don't tell you where the stops are or even name them. Turn on the lightbulb, you have to buy the book of information similar to the one we got for the Discovery Trail.

We missed the first stop and still don't know what it was, but a little further on we drove past a lake, turned around and went back to take a look at it. Rather a nice place to camp. No name for it on the Hema maps, nor on any of the regional maps we have, so it is now Lake Mystery. Next stop was Barlangi rock. This is the remains of a major meteorite impact forever ago, no sign of a crater remains. There are some great names for places on the GPS examples are Gubanintha and Yogalong. This is working cattle station country with some very fine looking moo cows standing about the water troughs. We saw many of the old tin tanks lined with concrete which had been broken down to get access to the concrete base and poly tanks put in to replace them. When a windmill fails the solar pump goes in and in one case the windmill was still pumping away and the solar pump was already set up. I guess for those days there is no wind.

A couple of 28's flew past which bought back how little bird life we have seen this trip other than crows (they are huge by the way) and Wedgies.

The next stop was to view the rabbit proof fence which now goes by the politically correct title of Vermin Fence. It looked in good nick but did not photograph well.

The final landmark on this section of the pathway is the Lake Mason Nature Reserve and there are signs up you cannot enter unless you have permission from DEC in Kalgoorlie, a bit late really.

We headed onwards to Sandstone and resisted the temptation to stop at the cemetery and gold battery on the way in to town and headed straight for the Caravan Park. The caretaker was away and would not be back for 3 hours so we headed for the Tourist Bureau. The lady there handed us a brochure about the pathway and advised us if we wanted lunch they stopped serving at the pub in 10 minutes. We had our first counter meal of the trip whilst we looked at the brochure. The National Hotel uses the most interesting cruet sets as you will see from our photo's.

The Barmaid was a young pom who had been working here for 11 weeks with two more to go then back to Perth. The daily price of gold is displayed on a board and there is a map of the mining claims around the place also indicating the areas casual prospectors can detect. We thought this was a little odd but we were told that the caravan park was full of grey nomads who were here specifically to prospect.

The brochure proved even more useless than the ones we had, so we headed back to the Tourist Bureau having decided to purchase the book. When we got there it was open and empty. We checked around and found what we wanted and waited a while, still no one appeared. We wandered out the front and saw the lady across the road chatting at the service station. Eventually she noticed us and signaled she would be 10 minutes. Needless to say we got into the car and headed off south towards the "Peter Denny Lookout" free camping spot deciding to go back in the next day. It is a very nice place to stay, only firepits, bins and seating provided but we found a good spot to park and set up for the night. The lookout is set on top of a breakaway and the view is really nice. There are lots of breakaways all over the area. Peter Denny was a former CEO of the Meekatharra Shire apparently.

Some wag had painted a rock white and written a message to say a 15 oz nugget had been discovered here. I wonder how many of the grey nomads who parked here whipped out their gold detectors and ran over the area. No one who found gold here would advertise it!

On the way back to Sandstone we followed the signs to the site of "London Bridge". It is one of those Australian icons which has been photographed and we have all seen it many times, rather like the Bunda Cliffs in South Australia. It is really quite impressive. Apparently in the early days of Sandstone it was the thing to drive a horse and cart across it. Today it has eroded to the extent it could be walked if you were an idiot and ignored the signs asking people not to. It is a photographers dream making a perfect picture frame for the landscape behind it. Once more the left over equipment from past ages has been fashioned into a great BBQ.

On the way back we also visited the site of the original brewery which serviced the town. It was built on the top of a breakaway with a small shaft down to a man made cave/cellar below where the barrels of beer were stored to keep them cool. Just the barest foundations of the brewery itself remain but the cave will remain forever. A very unusual place to build a brewery, but according to the information signs the man who did was Irish, perhaps that explains it. Another of those great BBQ's. The two hairy persons (one not so hairy these days of course though it is growing) wanted to know when the tastings started.

Back to Sandstone and we booked into the caravan park at last. We were here for two things to watch the footy and to wash and tumble dry the sleeping bags. Inspection of the laundry showed lovely washers, no dryers. Hmmmm slap no 1.

Up went the aerial, no TV. Hmmmm Slap no 2. Apparently the powers that be who control TV distribution wanted the Sandstone community to pay $250,000 to have a TV tower put in. It is a small shire, they cannot afford that. The Shire runs the CP and they have a satellite dish and you can go to the TV room to watch the footy if you want.

This is a nice park with lawns and good clean facilities and best of all lots and lots of really hot water in the spacious showers.

We haven't done the town yet but will go out later today meanwhile that's all folks for this blog.

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