Tues, 5th Mar, 2019 10 Mile Outcamp, Tarmoola Station, 60km north of Leonora, WA (sightseeing)

8am 25 degrees, cool SE wind and overcast.

Headed into Leonora. Stopped at Station Creek to check out the history information and have a cuppa. Shame we had to share it with a thousand flies!!

Lovely big gums everywhere but they are known for dropping their limbs and can be quite dangerous to camp under. The gums indicate water whereas just up there slope there is only low bushes etc.

A branch of another big gum has fallen onto the info boards.

One board is about the gums and the other about the pumping station and wells that provided the water for Leonora since 1907. The trees have grown back well since this photo was taken.

This is one of the old wells with the base for the tank stand beside it.

Nearby is the modern version pumping station (one of 13) with a diesel generator to pump the water into town.

We continued along, passing Mt George where the town’s water tank is.

A new mountain is being created beside one of the mines.

Turned onto Nambi Road and headed north east for a while then turned off and drove 17km  to check out The Terraces. A long ‘break-away’.

Lots of good caves for animals to hide in. A kangaroo came out of the last one.

Checked out the two picnic areas – lots of ‘kaolin’ here.

Looks like some locals have been creating things here.

Continued along the track and up onto the top of the terrace. A creek runs down the side from here – nice looking tree.

Nice view from up here.

Drove back out to Nambi Road then stopped to check out information about a mine and township called Mertondale. All that remains of the town is an old Mulga tree and the bakery ruins.

Merton’s Reward was a very rich gold mine – check out the side of those gold bars on the table. Of course the mine has been reworked. I don’t think it is operational now but the mining signs are still up and it looks like there might be a drill rig over there.

There is a lot of dead cactus around too. Same as the stuff on Tarmoola. I spotted one still alive though the ‘cochineal’ bug is on the bottom so hopefully it will kill it off soon. The cactus is so hardy that if a small living bit hits the ground then it will reshoot.

We continued on past the north end of The Terraces. There were a couple of pending prospecting leases in the middle of a live exploration lease which Ray mentioned he was going to check out. We had a look around and it has lots of salt & pepper ground (quartz and ironstone) so it might be a good spot to detect once we get our 40E to be able to work on the exploration lease. The prospecting leases have heaps of small mine shafts on it so it must have been a fairly good area.

After a cuppa was headed back to Leonora to top up the water tanks etc. Rebecca had tried ringing again but we didn’t have any reception so the message just came through. I rang her back and she was just getting dinner ready. We had a nice chat then we headed up to the Homestead. It is still overcast and windy.

Picked up the fuel pump so Steve can put it back on the fuel pod for the generator. The Main Roads surveyor was there saying goodbye as he is nearly finished marking the new fence line for either side of the Goldfields Highway. It is further away from the road than the original fence. He was told it had to be 100m from the centre line of the road. The government is helping pastoralists to fence main roads to stop the stock wandering onto main roads – big problem around here. The musterers have finished one section.

Headed home. The mine has just graded their haul road – nice and smooth. Here’s an example of cattle on the road – a herd just wandered across in front of us. Will be much safer when the fence goes up though we have seen the cattle jump over the fence when frightened.

Further along we spotted two ‘wild dogs’ by the side of the road. One was the sandy colour of a dingo while the other was a black and white colouring. We are seeing more of them since we haven’t had any rain.

Home again by 6.30pm. Got the BBQ going and Steve cooked up pork chops and vegies on it – yum.

Early showers now as there was no sun to warm the water in the hose and it is a little ‘fresh’ since we only use the cold water.

Nice breeze blowing, 8pm 31 degrees in the van.