Blog 5 - Monday Fraser range to Tuesday Madura Pass lookout

Monday 6th July 2015– Fraser range station

Moose started his day with a long walk with Bonnie. It wasn’t quite as long as he had intended as Bonnie’s Princess side had come out due to the amount of prickles in her path. She took off after kangaroos like a startled gazelle but when a prickle patch came up she tip toed through it. Stopping and lifting her paw until Moose managed to get over beside her and took the prickle out. They both came back happy and needing a rest. Moose reported that the phone reception was much better just half way up the hill. Now considering I’d spent the whole time they had been out, balanced on a stool and my head in the “phone aerial” cupboard trying to answer a Walpole visitor enquiry with little luck, this was welcome news indeed.

my office!

We had a cup of tea then headed back up the hill, some handy rocks provided seating and I was able to get emails out without swearing or breaking my neck.

Relaxing Moose style

Once back at the van, Moose set the TV up outside so he could watch his tour de France, he encouraged me to join him outside in the sunshine by putting earphones in so I didn’t have to listen to the incessant commentating.

 I set myself up with my art supplies to catch up on some art journal pages I was behind with, in the art journal challenge. I was busy cutting, pasting, drawing when Moose delivered a coffee and sandwich to me. Oh I like this lifestyle. Curious stares came my way as new travellers came in and seen our set up. Even had one lady come over to investigate further.The sun was shining but by late afternoon it had cooled down but we were not deterred. On went the warm jackets plus I threw on a scarf and back to our earlier pursuits we went.
 

Moose overheard one of the ladies saying she hadn’t put the scones on yet. Which instantly put him in the mood for scones. I had every intention of getting up and making some but I had just one more thing to do on the page I was working on ……………………… so Moose shocked me, nicely, by making Damper for afternoon tea, very nice indeed.
 

Moose with a pile of rocks

We continue in this manner for the rest of the afternoon then climbed to the top of the hill to watch the sun set. The 360 degree view was worth the climb, it was like you could see over the curvature of the world from up there and we watched the sky change from blue to orange to black while listening to birds putting themselves to bed. Another bonus was the signal was 100% so we also caught up on what the kids, grandkids and friends were doing on fb.


 

 

View from the top of the hill

 

 

Best seat in the house

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



In the dark we slowly descended the rocky path. Bonnie was way ahead of us and kept coming back to make sure we were following. We overshot the path at one point but with a trusty torch, a nearly trusty iphone torch and a dog with great sense (in the nose not so much in the brain) we made it back to the van safely.

Tuesday 7^th July 2015

 

Bonnie and her rebel mates



Bonnie making sure we don't go without her

Before the heady joys of packing up the van, Moose headed out for a walk with Bonnie. I had pulled the covers up over my head thinking of nabbing a tad more sleep but there seemed a lot of talking going on for walking to be happening. Pulling the curtains aside just enough, I looked out . Sure enough there was a group of 4 men each wearing a warm jacket, beanie, jeans and sturdy shoes (except Moose who footwear consisted of thongs and it wasn’t classed cold enough for a beanie). In one hand they held mugs of steaming tea while dogs ran around them as they exchanged stories. Moose declared that Bonnie wasn’t into sticks as another urged her to chase one. Bonnie of course made a liar out of Moose and promptly ran after the stick and played tug of war with a very energetic border collie. The talking continued as some headed back to vans and others took their place. I was able to make my breakfast and eat it, try to send answer to another enquiry (why do these happen when I’m  not able to answer them?) and watch Coronation street – no wait, stupid dogs have knocked the satellite dish causing “no signal” sign to float across the tv screen, before Moose returned back to the van without going for the walk with Bonnie. 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
an packed up and we hit the road at 9.45 am. It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining and the sky a crisp blue without a cloud in sight. My ingenious Sewing cup has been called into service as I decided to pass the time with some embroidery. It’s a good thing to do as I could still watch the scenery at the same time. Our first stop was the  Balladonia roadhouse which supplied an acceptable coffee and stretch plus phone reception this brought the news of an Office break in – thankfully we have amazing people in the office who had everything under control very quickly. The flies seemed a tad annoying

Balladonia is the last stop before we hit the longest straight stretch of road (146.6 kilometres or 91.1 miles) in the world. The ipod clicked onto  “Avalon” by Roxy music, this seemed fitting for the long peaceful drive ahead. The bush colours seemed to be in  muted pastel shades today . A new telephone tower allowed a quick fb catch up and the long stretch was broke up with a few road work gangs clearing drains.

 The scenery stretches before us as there are no trees in sight. Roadhouse break the travelling time, giving much needed breaks to stretch legs, let Bon have a run and of course replenish the coffee and food well.  
 

 
 

A sign for roadhouse customers
"stop stelling the f*#%ing teaspoons!"

Caiguna roadhouse marks the end of the world’s straightest stretch and we celebrated with a very good steak sandwich. Did I tell you the flys are annoying? Walking Bonnie out the back of the roadhouse I heard rustling in the trees. Curious I followed the branches until I could see where the noise was coming from It was a Crow with a styrene foam cup. He was banging it around to get to the coffee – crazy wildlife out here.  


Distances between stops

 
The next roadhouse stop is at Cocklebiddy. Now I only ever thought this was it a road house and caravan park which is really just a big parking lot next to the road house but on reading up on Cocklebiddy I discover it has a bit of history. The crumbled ruins near by were actually from an Aborigninal mission station and during world war 2 it was thought that fresh water could be sourced in the area. Army engineers tried to tap it from the lakes but surprise, surprise it was discovered that a the fresh water was only a thin skin on top of salt water. There is however a new  Phone tower nearby.  

Our GPS is completely confused. Considering we were driving on the only road available to drive on Moose decided to put the GPS on “list” mode this should of meant we could see the distance between roadhouses and towns ahead. Instead it threw towns in wrong spots or at wrong distances. Moose was not impressed.
 

 We are usually in more of a hurry to get from Perth to Adealide so are enjoying taking in the sights. But this time we have time to smell the "salt bush" so we parked the van on top of scarp at the Madura pass lookout. The plains stretch out below us all the way across to the horizon. We tuck ourselves away inside with the heater on to keep the icy wind out. A couple of other vans join us but all is quiet once darkness was upon us.




 

Nullarbor Moose & Roadhouse Moz signing