Fri, 30th Aug, 2019 Milly Milly Station, west of Meekatharra to Bush camp on Koonmarra Station, west of Meekatharra, WA

7am 19 degrees, clear sky and light breeze. The flies are up too!

Continued heading east. A few kangaroos were feeding by the road.

Turned north-east around Beringarra Station which would have been under water during the Murchison River 2006 flood according to the metre high signs along the track.

Crossed the 26^th Parallel again, heading north this time. Got the sign this time.

Two kangaroos came from the bush on the left to try and get across the road in front of us. As I have said before, they are dumb. If you heard a strange noise – run in the opposite direction, not to it! Luckily we didn’t hit them though one got very close to the van.

Crossed into Meekatharra Shire – road condition got worse. Flat open country.

Mt Gould (681m – Hema says we are 417m above sea level) appears out of the flat ground.

Near Mt Gould we turned south onto bitumen – yeah. Though that disappeared as we crossed the rocky crossing of Gould Creek.

On the other side we saw some buildings so pulled in to check them out. They are the Mt Gould Station and Lockup and had been restored in 2018.

The Lock-up – would be a bit chilly in winter.

The Station and quarters was locked but I peered in through the window of one of the rooms.

There is a well and old windmill between the station and the creek.

Further along was a grave.

Looking back at the station from the grave.

Mt Gould has an iron ore mine on it – not sure if it is being worked though.

We had a cuppa then Steve saw a someone riding along the road. He realised it was the lady we heard about who was riding a scooter. I ran out to say hello so she came in to join us for a cuppa. What an epic journey she has had. She left France in 2015 and has pushed her way through Europe, Asia then Indonesia before arriving in Darwin about 5 months ago and has been working her way down WA, preferring the remote areas rather than the touristy places. She has had a few flats and a couple of spills but luckily no injuries. Her fastest down a hill was 75kph which would have been terrible if she did fall. She is 36 years old and decided she wanted a change of life – wow. She is heading to Meeka next. She certainly has some interesting stories to tell and loves the Australian outback. She asked about whether there was any water in the lakes she sees on the maps. We laughed as we were only saying how misleading our maps are with all the rivers, creeks and lakes that rarely see any water or only flow for a very short time. We said farewell and good luck.

We passed her further down the bitumen, scooting along well on the bitumen which only lasted for a bit longer than we were back on the rocky dirt road.

Next stop was Moorarie Station on the edge of the Murchison River, to read the information about transport and a charcoal burner used here to fuel their vehicles. This is the charcoal shaker.

Steve noticed a roofing screw in one of the tyres – he pulled it out and checked the hole with soapy water and it looks like it didn’t pierce the tyre. The wind has picked up again.

Across the dry Murchison River causeway.

Then across the rocky base of the Yalgar River which had a couple of small pools of water.

A bit further on I realised we had crossed the 26^th Parallel again, no signs in the Meeka Shire.

Back onto some bitumen where some wedgies were enjoying some road kill.

The bitumen continued – might go all the way back to Meeka! We turned off though to find the spot where we are going to detect. We headed west towards Koonmarra Station. Steve spotted a vehicle behind us, thinking it was from the station, he pulled over. There was two vehicles with chaps going detecting too. We let them go ahead then followed them into the station homestead to say let the owner know we were here.

Puffy clouds are coming over now. We met John whose son owns the station but works in Newman. He was caretaking at the moment with his daughter and son-in-law. They also detect and said they had found a few little bits.

We had lunch then headed down the track he suggested. We found a spot to set up camp.

The wind has picked up a lot as storm clouds build in the west.

Lovely blue sky and puffy clouds to the east.

3pm 27 degrees – the storm continued south-east so missed us.

Had a cuppa then wrote some more of my blog – slow process, too many photos to sort!

Another squall is heading our way.

Played Skipbo while we had our drinks as it is too windy to be outside. The squall hit us with lots of wind – luckily we hadn’t pulled out the awning yet. A shower of rain, just enough to rinse the dust off the side of the van. The wind is cold too.

Inside for dinner and movies tonight.

Put out the mouse trap again – he needs to go! I found a long life cream (in cupboard beside the stove) he had a lovely snack on so have put anything he could eat into cupboards he can’t get into.