Wiluna and beyond

 

Wiluna is a small town in the middle of nowhere. Mainly known as the start of the Canning Stock Route, a ruggard 4x4 track crossing hundreds of sand dunes and traversing the dessert ending up at Halls Creek. We were heading for Halls Creek, but this track was a bit beyond Ned's capabilities in his present form. One day we hope to negotiate that track, but not today.

Covering the distance from the Granites to Wiluna fairly quickly, we stopped in at the store and topped up the fuel. I asked the attendant if I could swap a small gas bottle as we had run out the day before. He just said nah, you have to go to the shed over there, pointing to a shed over the road.

After paying for our stuff, I drove the truck to the pointed out shed and asked a man in the yard if I could have a gas bottle. He said no, we only have empty ones here. Asking if anywhere had some, I got no, again. Shrugging my shoulders, I thanked him and turned to go, he said, I have one with some gas in it around back, you can have it if you like. I thought for a bit and said OK, it would be appreciated. He gave me the cylinder and said, I saw nothing, thanking him again, we were off.

The road to Meekathara from Wiluna is a corrugated, gravel road, with short sections of buitumin.

We were overtaken a few times by what we assumed were locals driving small, and medium sized town cars which were a bit worse for ware. One car came whizzing past, having no windscreen or back window glass and looked very much like it had been rolled and they had simply put it back on it’s wheels and kept driving. This is the outback.

Meekathara crept into view over the vast flat plains, another small town servicing the surrounding area. Filling up with water, we headed to a free camp a couple of k out of town called peace gorge. A large area amongst a scattering of granite outcrops. Selecting a nice spot we camped up. Having filled up with water, we decided it was bath time. There was wood for a fire,so , with out wasting time, a pot full of water was put on to boil and the shower tent erected. Spent the next few days there relaxing and taking in the beautiful surroundings.

Packing up again we headed into town where I grabbed some supplies from the store and refuelled, then, northward again toward Newman.