Monday, March 3, 2008

Day 2 - Pilbara, Kimberley Trip

1 March 2008

ON OUR WAY FROM JINDABYNE

We woke to a cold first day of autumn in Jindabyne. The temperature last night had dropped so much that a wood fire was lit at our daughter’s home. Our first bit of potential trouble was quickly fixed – extra holes were cut into the bottom of the dinette seat to keep the second fridge, that we are using as a freezer, from getting too hot in the space.

At lunch time we finally got under way.

It has not really sunk in yet that this is it – the big trip. We backtracked to Berridale then turned west towards Adaminaby.

We came across a large group of cyclists on the road They were riding 3 and 4 abreast straddling the centre line. They refused to move across to the left making it extremely difficult to pass them as our vehicle is slightly wider than that of a normal car.

We meandered along the Snowy Mountain Highway. In places it was lined with trees that at a distance looked as if they were reaching out across the road towards each other all gnarled and twisted but beautiful at the same time. Past the Big Trout, over the Great Diving Range, past the Batlow Tumburumba turn off, which we took last October, onto Kiandra, Talbingo Dam and then the Blowering. We took a side trip to see the Blowering Dam and it was time for a photo shoot.


The scenery changed to a more European one with poplars and weeping willows lining the road. Past beautiful Tumut and Adelong with its old buildings with lace like iron work. At that stage I asked how far we wanted to going today and the answer I got was “not a question of what we want to, but a question of what we have to do.” We were on a tight schedule until we reached Kalgoorlie so I made no further comment.

We stopped for a quick dinner at Wagga and continued just past Narrandera where we pulled up for our first bush camp spot. Just before this a problem had come up with our oil pump lead. So when we stopped it was inspected, found to be broken and replaced.

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