Fri, 23rd May, 2025 Rest Area, 20km north of Kumarina Roadhouse to Bush camp off Skull Springs Road, east of Nullagine, WA

5.2 degrees min and it still is at 6am so on with the heater! Clear sky.

Nice 21 degrees when we got up for breakfast - love our heater. Ray and Carol left at 7am as they wanted to be in Newman when the shops opened. We are more leisurely so we had said we will catch up with them in Nullagine.

8am back on the highway and headed north to Newman to restock with fresh fruit and veggies for the next month while we meander east of Nullagine.

An lady waved us down as their Toyota Landcruiser had stopped about 75km south of Newman. Steve went through things with the chap trying to work out what was wrong. Battery, fuel etc ok but he said the engine light has been on and by the looks of it the maintenance hasn’t been well done. With computers in vehicles now it isn’t easy to fix on the side of the road. They are from Port Hedland and were heading to Wiluna for a funeral. We have noticed a lot of vehicles full of people heading south. We didn’t have any phone reception here even with the antenna so I got a phone number of a friend of the driver and said we will let them know they were broken down and will probably need a tow. It was funny watching one of the women trying to start a fire, the young guy was trying to help with the wine carton but eventually they got smart and found some small twigs. I said ‘what happened to the bush craft - didn’t you go to Scouts’ - they just laughed. They had water and food so we headed off. I wrote out a text and when we got a signal I sent it off. The lady responded which was good and they will get something sorted out.

About 30km from Newman we see a cloud of dust which will be from the iron ore mine.

Across the Tropic of Capricorn - the sign has been removed off the big rock by the highway.

Across the Fortescue River which only has a small pool under the bridge.

Into Newman and around to the Information Centre to use the dump point. While we had a cuppa we rang Terry to see how he has been. Doing well - got new uniform for the Van Club. Will get his new lift up chair and walker soon too.

Ray and Carol rang to say they had finished shopping and were heading off to Nullagine. They liquor store doesn’t open till midday so they asked if we could get a bottle of port or muscat for them as they tried ours the other night.

We parked near Woolies then walked across to the electrical store and got a keyboard to plug into the laptop. That should solve my problem till I can get the laptop cleaned etc either in Kalgoorlie or when I get back to Cairns in October.

Restocked with fruit, veggies and a few other items and bought our usual ‘shop day’ treat - hot chook, bun and pasta salad for lunch.

The lady texted to say that she had been able to get help to the people we stopped for - nice of her to let us know.

Went to the liquor store but they don’t sell port or muscat!  I walked back to the street library box and dropped off some books and got one for Steve to read.

Topped up with diesel at the cheapest place here ($2.179/l) as it will be a lot dearer in Nullagine.

Left Newman then back down the road a bit to the Marble Bar/Nullagine turn off. Not far along we had to stop for the iron ore train - very very long.

Continued on to Roy Hill and Gina’s iron ore mine. Ray had texted that it was 60km all the way to Nullagine due to major road works. We had heard that Gina was wanting to bitumen the road north to her mine and on to Nullagine which will be good as some of it is very rocky and when it rains it is impassable. Stopped at the pull off area just before the mine camp area for a cuppa. It has warmed up a lot since the freezing morning.

Long section of graded road - no road work people here. Next section looks like it is nearly ready for bitumen. You would think they would start at one end and work their way along. Back to the under construction area with ‘pilot’ vehicles taking us through the road work.

Into Nullagine where we filled up the water tanks. Ray and Carol had continued on out to Mosquito Creek so we will catch up with them tomorrow. I rang Kaylene for a chat and looked at the lovely photos of Sophia and Beau that they have been putting up on the Geck Family page.

Back out of town as the sun was dipping into the hills then onto the dirt Skull Springs Road. There isn’t much mining happening by the big companies so the road isn’t as smooth as it has been! As the sun set we pulled off into a clear area off the road to park up for the night. Back in the hills and spinifex again.

Bit cool so kept the camper closed up and played cards while we had our drinks.