144. Day 91 – Meekatharra to the Gunbarrel Highway

Friday 25 July 2008

We were back on the road at 8.00 am under overcast skies at 60° Fahrenheit (15° Celsius) and headed for Meekatharra.  A couple of wedge tailed eagles watched us pass and one took off from the top of a tree and circled above us – such an amazing wide wing span and so graceful.

We arrived in Meekatharra at 9.25 am and found Ripper Engines, a vehicle workshop in the main street. Dick worked with ‘Ripper’ Bob Devene and made steel brackets from old pieces of dexion and bolted them to reinforce the broken aluminium battery box.  They were then able to bolt the cover back on.

While Dick was remounting the battery box a few local Aborigines came past and stopped to say hello.  They were very friendly and interested in where we had travelled.

While Dick was working on the vehicle Pip found a supermarket and was able to buy a few loaves of fresh bread made this morning in Meekatharra.  She was also able to send the words and photos for yesterday’s web site page using the Telstra Next G broadband card. From now on we will have to use our Iridium as no mobiles work out beyond Wiluna.

Ripper didn’t want to charge us anything but we gave him $50 for allowing Dick to use his tools and we left at 11.55 am

We were surprised to see on the aviation GPS that we had reached 1,862ft above sea level as we passed Killara Station on our way towards Wiluna.  The dirt roads are terrific out here and we manage to cruise between 80 and 90kph.

We stopped just off the road for lunch and after a beaut cup of tea we found ourselves travelling behind a 4WD towing a caravan.  The dust is so thick that it is impossible to pass so we just had to sit behind.  Fortunately out here because of this problem, every now and then the Roads Authority have sealed a 3 kilometre or so section with bitumen. On one long stretch we were able to pass two caravans!  There is very little traffic out here so we mostly had the road to ourselves.

At 2.50 pm we reached Wiluna and found the Gunbarrel Groceries general store and garage.  We filled the tanks with 174 litres of diesel at $2.16 AUS per litre, costing us $375.56.  We then drove to the Shire of Wiluna council chambers and visited the Tjukurba Art Gallery at the back of the council building.

Dick bought a lovely aboriginal painting by Annette Williams for Pip’s birthday present. Annette is one of the local Aboriginal artists who sells their work through the Shire’s gallery.  Pip found a beautifully painted building across the road.  It is the Children’s Community Centre and apparently a group of the local artists painted its walls.

About twenty years ago when we took Hayley and Jenny on a heli-camping trip up the Canning Stock Route we had arranged to have a drum of fuel delivered to Glen Ayle Station for our use.  We met the owner, Henry Ward and his wife Eileen at that time and Dick invited Henry to his 60^th birthday party at Bowylie a few years ago. We had decided to visit Henry again on this trip so Dick rang Henry’s daughter-in-law Pam Ward at Glen Ayle to check if they wanted us to bring anything out to them.  Pam asked us to pick up their mail from the post office but she also told us that our friend Henry Ward (now 89 years young) was at his son, Rex’s property, ‘Millrose’ helping with the cattle mustering and we should call in there.

At 4 pm we headed out of town on the Gunbarrel Highway for 42kms before we turned north onto the road to Glen Ayle Station, 228kms away.

We pulled up at the Millrose homestead at 5 pm and were met by Rob Dowling and his friend Barry.  Rob has a feed lot on his property south of Perth and he is here to buy some cattle from the Wards.  He buys about 10,000 animals a year that he fattens and sells to an exporter who sends the cattle to the Middle East.  He was waiting for Rex and his wife Norma with Henry to come in from their days mustering. The area up here is very badly drought affected and Rob had come to buy some cattle.  We invited them into our Earthroamer for a cup of tea while we all waited for our hosts to arrive.  Around 5.30 pm as the sun was setting, Norma and Henry arrived.

We then walked down to the cattle yards nearby just as Rex arrived with a double decker truck full of this afternoon’s muster.  Unfortunately it was now dark so Pip wasn’t able to get many photos but it was exciting to see the cattle move down the ramp from the truck into the yards.  We then all returned to the homestead and enjoyed a great meal of lamb chops, sausages and vegetables for dinner before we returned to our Earthroamer for a good night’s sleep.

Total today 378 kms  34,089 kms since Anchorage, Alaska. 

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