Towards the Pilbara

It rained during the night at Giles Breakaway, but thankfully not enough to cause problems on the 53 km dirt track into Laverton. The roads were wet and slightly slippery in places, but we managed without mishap. We both refuelled our 4WDs and used the air compressor at the garage to quickly pump our tyres back to road pressures.

We were all heading towards Leonora, where Narelle and Gordon would turn south towards Kalgoorlie, and we would head north towards Leinster. We both changed our cassettes and topped up our drinking and non-potable tanks in Leonora before saying our goodbyes.

We stopped in the BHP-run town of Leinster, where Ros bought fruit from the local supermarket. We then headed west and camped at the Peter Denny Lookout. The cliffs at this breakaway reminded us of Giles Breakaway, but on a much smaller scale. A little later, after we arrived, we were joined by another van for the evening.

Our total distance today was 431 km, including 53 km of dirt roads. At 6:30, we saw lightning on the horizon, and half an hour later, it began to rain, continuing for most of the night. We estimate about 20 mm.

The rain cleared by morning, leaving a patchy blue sky, and all the plants and trees look rejuvenated after last night's rain.

We left just after 8:00 for the 33 km drive to the small town of Sandstone. It’s a very clean and tidy little town. 

We stopped for photos, and I asked about taking the 192 km Sandstone to Meekatharra road, which would save us a significant amount of time and distance compared to travelling on the bitumen through Mt Magnet. 

The advice was to stick to the bitumen after last night's rain.
We stopped in Mt Magnet to refuel before continuing north towards Cue.

The abandoned Masonic building:

Here we changed our cassette and refilled our water supply before stopping in the main street for some photos. It was a sombre sight to see row after row of shops closed, with only one pub still open, while the shire offices, post office, and police station underwent refurbishment.

As we passed the caravan park, nearly all the sites were full, so I could only assume they were working in the mines surrounding the town and refurbishing the old miners' cottages.

By this stage, we were now driving into a 40- to 50-km/h headwind, so by the time we reached Meekatharra, we decided to call it a day and paid $25 to camp at the local caravan park.

We left Meekatharra just after 8:00 am and headed further north. Thankfully, the strong headwind we experienced yesterday was now gone. 

We stopped at the Kumarina Roadhouse for lunch before continuing another 140 km to a spot in the scrub, just 14 km south of Newman. 

We were out of sight from the road, but unbeknownst to us, we were directly under the flight path to the airport, which we found very amusing.

A quick visit to the mining town of Newman, where, in exchange for a gold coin donation, we could use the dump point and restock our drinking and non-drinking water supplies. We shopped at the local Woolworths but then had to wait until midday to purchase alcohol.

 While waiting, we stopped at the Newman Hotel and both had a Corona. Ouch, $18 for two beers.

We also met fellow BT owner Graeme, who is a member of the Facebook page. He works in Newman and reckons he will be on the road full time in six years.