Fri, 29th Sept, 2017 Lake Mason camp, near Sandstone to Windsor Rest Area, between Sandstone & Mt Magnet, WA

71.5 am 13.2 degrees, clear sky & light breeze.

Packed up and headed into Sandstone. Trish and Claude haven’t been here before so they had a look around and Trish and I got on the internet to do our updates and downloads while we had good phone service. Checked Tengraph to find new places to detect.

I texted Mel and Sandra to say we were heading there way but they are just packing up to head down to Lake King to work the wheat season down there as it is very quiet where they usually work. Will have to catch them next year on our way back up. Texted Kerry and Malcolm to get Kerry’s sister’s address in Cadoux so we can call in and meet them. Kerry and Malcolm were at the airport ready to fly across to Melbourne to watch the AFL grand final with their friends.

Rang Mum as she had left a message yesterday when we had a moment of phone reception. All is good though her fluid is building up so she had to go into hospital to have an IV put in and a strong diuretic. Dad is going with his friends to Brisbane in November for Rostrum which will be interesting for him.

Steve rang Mike and Anne to see how their trip to the Palmer went – not much luck this year. They did better in Victoria at Avoca. They were about to get on the Spirit to go back to Tassie. They are planning to come to WA next year.

We decided a nice hot pie would be good but were too late so just got some hot chips from the pub and I made up a plate of cheese, tomato, silverside and crackers for lunch. Bit chilly sitting in the shade. Only 24 degrees in the van.

Drove out to the ‘Brewery’ to show Trish and Claude. I chatted with Jon while they checked it out. Rang Dan and got him for a change so caught up on his news. Around to ‘London Bridge’ where I got a nice photo of Trish and Claude.

Continued along the tourist track to the State Battery. Someone has been busy as we were here in May and since then they have built a shed over the stamper. Great to see that they are trying to preserve this history.

Before.

Now.

Back to the main bitumen road lined with wildflowers.

We headed west for 70km to a rest area just past Windsor Station.

It is also an old gold area called Paynesville and there are a few leases around here and a new pending exploration lease that we will check out tomorrow in case there is gold there at we can ‘explore’. The boys rounded up some timber for a fire and then Steve chatted with the couple in a Britz troopcarrier who are from Switzerland.