Naretha on

 

Leaving Rawlinna we headed to Naritha, a siding at the junction of a road leading to Kanandah Station. While travelling with the kids some 25 years ago, we visited Kanandah Station while out on the TCR line on our way to lake Boondaroo. The lake at that time was full of water, this time it was dry, we did not go to the lake this time but stopped at the small shed on the siding at Naretha. Back when we were last there we camped with the kids in the shed for the night. I can still hear the roar of the late night train as it sped past only metres away on that night.

Next down the line is Zanthus, another railway camp where we had camped way back then. We had set up camp in one of the abandoned railway houses and spent quite a few days there. The kids used to wave to the train drivers as they passed. One day we heard the approaching train slow down, as it got closer the driver threw something out the window and sped up again. The kids rushed to pick it up, it was the local Perth newspapers, a good read after some weeks out bush.

Now the houses are gone, only the workers shed remains. Still, we parked up where our temporary home used to be and stayed the night.

Our next destination was a siding called Karoni. Last time we were here we took the road going over the tracks and heading north to an old government dam, where the Italian internees during the 2^nd world war built a series of low stone walls on the rock formations in the area to channel water into the dam, which had a roof over it to stop evaporation.

So we turned up the road to find the old dam. Just before we reached the dam, an old quarriey site appeared. The road wound around the excavations, and at one point we turned off and were confronted with the old dam, the roof long gone but the concrete pylons which once supported it still standing like soldiers on a parade ground.

Up the road a bit and the rock formation with the channelling low walls came into view. We set up camp and explored on foot.

Spent a relaxing few days there, then slowly made our way back to the railway line.