On the road

Not much to report: just driving south. There is a lot more traffic going north, very little going south. Somebody once advised me to avoid the inland route because of all the road trains and trucks with massive “oversized loads” and their pilot vehicles which clear the way for them. This is true, but there are far fewer caravans which makes life easier.

I only took one photo: it’s called a Camel bush:

Meekatharra is not a place you’d choose to visit unless you had to. All of the possible accommodation looked pretty grim. I selected the Royal Mail Hotel. Was it the best choice? Maybe not! All these former hotels now have little units round the back, as opposed to the main building which just has a bar and fast food. My little room was cold and miserable. The temperature was forecast to drop to 2 degrees overnight, but fortunately I had my down sleeping bag in the car to supplement the bedding provided. The TV did not work: there were two of them, but I couldn’t fathom either of them out. There was no microwave. The shower was really hot, though.

I went to the bar and ordered a seafood basket and a glass of white wine. When the food arrived, it was a big plate of chips and a salad! The young manager soon sorted this out and brought me the seafood. He turned out to be from England and working in the regions as a way of obtaining Australian residency. Then the white wine ran out before my glass was full. He said he hadn’t ordered it this week as wine was not very popular round here.

I slept quite well in my cosy Camino sleeping back, till the departure of a truck woke me at 6.30 am.  It was too cold to make breakfast in my room as I normally do. My hands were freezing after clearing the heavy dew off the car windows. I needed to get fuel, and again there was no 95 octane. The woman charged me for diesel by mistake. This costs less than unleaded petrol, but I said nothing as I was eager to get away from Meekatharra asap! She did make me a good flat white, so I was able to warm my hands on the takeaway cup.

I’ve just stopped at Paynes Find to make myself a cheese sandwich for lunch. I first came here years ago with 3 girlfriends when we were looking for wildflowers. At the roadhouse, they unearthed a bottle of Mateus Rose for us, but had no idea what to charge as it had lain in their fridge for so long. It was on the way back from this trip that we heard about the crash that killed Princess Diana: that’s how long ago it was.