Thurs, 17th Nov, 2022 Boorabbin Rest Area, east of Southern Cross to 24hr Rest Area, York, WA

Clear sky, chilly breeze, minimum 15 degrees.

8am 20 degrees. After breakfast Steve coloured my hair but it is too windy for me to cut his so will have to do that at Bob & Margaret’s before we fly out.

Clouds getting blown over us. Had a cuppa then headed off.

Lovely yellow and purple wildflowers on the roadside.

The wind is on our nose so there goes the fuel economy. More clouds building as we drive slowly through long sections of roadworks. Long straight road.

Entering the grain area with big open fields.

Through Southern Cross. Spotted some sheep in one of the fields. Had to pull off to allow two wide loads pass.

Got a call on the UHF saying - hi Geckos but we couldn’t quite work out who it was. Col from Meeka heading to Kalgoorlie. First we thought it was Ross’ son but maybe it was the chap that works with Chris who came and checked out the camper. Unfortunately there was a lot of interference as he was heading away from us we couldn’t chat and find out who he was exactly.

Pulled up for lunch in a rest area east of Merridan. The clouds are darker in the west and the wind is strong and cold. Continued on to Merridan - a bit of silo art but not as good as what has been done in Victoria.

Past another of the many pump stations along the long pipeline from Perth to Kalgoorlie. Shame they can’t build more of them to pipe water around the country when places have floods and others have droughts.

Turned off at Tannin. Plenty of big silos to paint here.

Onto a side road just as another wide load headed towards us. Heading to York on a road we haven’t travelled on before. No traffic to deal with which is good and it was smoother than the highway. Through more grain fields - some have been harvested and others were in the process of being harvested.

Still very windy but the sun has been shining through the clouds.

Big ‘black boys’ along the roadside.

Into York, across the Avon River then around to the 24hr rest area. Except it is now a big playground. We spotted vans across the river so we did a blockie - nice mural, lovely old buildings here and a fabulous automobile museum etc.

Across the river again - spotted a heap of geese.

Around to the Croquet Club then into the 24hr rest area. There were a couple of other vans already set up. We parked near the suspension bridge.

Dark clouds coming over with the strong cold wind so stayed inside. A few drops of rain fell then the sun came out.

Had a cuppa then I put a banana cake in the oven as a couple of the bananas are very ripe.

I walked out onto the bridge for a couple of photos. Looking towards Red Bluff.

Another shower of rain as we went to bed and it is cold! Should have put the flannelette sheets on!! The wind has stopped blowing at least.