Model A Restorers Club of WA Inc

Had a great camp; probably in need of a shower.  Stores now nil so we will head for Perth but may camp at a caravan park if needed. The country is woodlands with rolling hills in pastoral country, can see the results of the fires over the past few years, a lot of regrowth. 15 kms before Southern Cross; back into farming country, very dry, but we have a strong east wind pushing us to Perth . Car running well. Refuelled in Southern Cross where there is also a good museum.

Onto Merredin to look at the Cummin’s Playhouse Theatre which was moved from Kalgoorlie in its entirety; a fantastic building worth a tour. Had a delicious lunch and a shower at Avril’s B&B, the best in the wheatbelt, warmly welcomed by Avril who also is a great supporter of the RFDS. Glad running well and loving the tail wind; onward past Narrogin for Perth and home.

The main cars are 1 1/2 days behind and travelling well; Reg has diverted from Norseman to Hyden and travelling well also. I wish to thank everyone who has followed this Blog and supported the RFDS through donations on www.flyingdoctor.org.au ref Glad. Also Telstra for supplying the equipment to run this Blog over the last 6 weeks and the support of Rotary and the awareness of Men’s Sheds in Australia.  We completed 12900kms for the trip and 510kms on this the last day . I personally want to thank everyone who  contributed to the safe return and the Model A Ford Restorer’s club of WA.

Where to next   ??????    Maybe Perth to Ayres Rock via the Outback Way in October 2013 and back via Coober Pedy?

Awoke to the full moon still up and a slight easterly breeze.  Due to the lack of stores, breakfast was coffee and Barrie Guest’s Fig jam and toast, a real treat we had been saving for emergencies. Packed Glad after the daily maintenance and on the road again for Norseman.  Smoko at Balladonia Roadhouse for a great coffee , the place is a credit to the managers; clean, neat and tidy. Past Fraser’s Range Station Stay; very neat and tidy, a good place to overnight. Now headed for Norseman.

Arrived in Norseman for late lunch; the town was closed for the public holiday and only the roadhouse was open, so very little sightseeing.  Off to Coolgardie , country now dotted with salt lakes and gold mines in a woodland landscape, still pastoral country. Camped west of Coolgardie which is a lovely old town with impressive stone buildings and a great museum.

Colin and the boys are about 1 1/2 days behind and travelling faster than us. We completed about 510kms for the day, Glad cruising with the light east tail wind, throwing out a bit of oil from the rear main, and blowing out filler cap.

Awoke to a beautiful day on top of the cliffs on the Australian Bight. Packed up camp and headed to the WA border.  We are now home ??  Got TELSTRA contact and got word from the main mob that they are on the road to Ceduna today.  Reg and Coral left Port Augusta for Ceduna also. Fishing for main mob was great and all cars travelling well; GREAT.

Happy Easter everyone, we shared a block of dark chocolate.

Left Eucla a very small with caravan park/motel and desended down the escarpment onto the flat country , but followed the escarpment for 200kms[ this is the continuation of the bight cliffs] but now with land top and bottom, a great sight. Now in WA and the saltbush and blue bush flat country continues onward for 100kms with the escarpment always close on our north side, very different. Had a pie at Madura  and they looked tired like the whole place. Stopped at Mundrabilla for fuel and a great shower, after 2 days it was essential.

The road from eucla to norseman is 950kms , a long stretch.

Refuel at cockabiddy  which like all these roadhouses looked rundown and tired. Onto Caguna to try and buy some stores and fruit as it was not allowed over the border, we ate it all .No luck with the stores , so hard rations for our bush camp. Camped about 120kms east of Balladonia on the longest straight stretch of road inAustralia.[ 140 kms] Good camp in the bush entree was chips [smiths original] main course was braised steak and onions [ out of 2 cans] on toast and sweets being Easter Sunday was dark chocolate. Another great sunset at 5.30 due to the time change! And in the swags by 7.15 after a cup of tea. Fantastic full moon again. Completed about 520kms Glad running well.

Sorr  about the delay but there is little Telstra coverage on the Nullabor Plains.

We packed up camp south of Ceduna[which had only one mozzie and headed for Ceduna for fuel and a coffee. Now Easter Saturday, shopped for our camp-out  dinner steaks, met some locals and had a nice time. Ceduna has cleaned up its act and is a nice town situated in farming country on the Great Australian Bight.

Heading true west now onto Ponong and Nundroo which is the end of the farming country and some mining.  Refuelled and now in undulating gum country with limestone ridges. Glad performing well, hope the main mob had some good fishing , weather is calm and beautiful.

Now out onto the treeless part of the Nullabor Plain on a great day; a special part of Australia.  Headed into the Head of the Bight Interpretive Centre and whale watching observation decks where one can see east and west along the magnificent cliffs, all about 1000 feet high; a helicopter flew past feet above us. Rattled the RFDS tins and headed onto Nullabour Roadhouse to refuel and check water supply for camping out.

Headed west along the Bight and found a fantastic camp site at the 120km from WA on top of the cliffs. But sheltered , we witnessed the best sunset and followed by a beautiful full- moon-rise welcome to Easter, both framed by the cliffs; a wonderful experience and a great camp.  Cooked the steaks, a little whisky and the end to a great day. Glad  and Tommy were happy too!

We all left our luxury accommodation  for the Wyalla /Ceduna corner, 30kms, after a great sunrise over Spencer’s Gulf.

The main group, Colin, Bob & Bob, Ant and Frank headed south to Port Lincoln to fish and see the Eyre Peninsular. Brett & Mark headed the more direct route west to fish at Streaky Bay and try to get home a bit early for personal reasons, knowing the main group were behind if needed.

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We all had a nasty gusting head wind all morning, with dust storms; hard on the drivers and cars.   We stopped at Kimber, which was the end of the pastoral saltbush country, and are now into dry farming rolling hills, with more stubble crops and gum trees. Then onto Streaky Bay; town deserted due to Good Friday and a howling Southerly.  Even so it is a beautiful sheltered harbour at the western side of the Great Australian Bight. Got some stores at the service station and headed north to bush camp on the beach and catch dinner. We could not find a good beach camp so we camped south of Ceduna and had chicken dinner. Mark had anticipated the lack of fish and had smuggled into Glad a cooked chicken – wise man. Great bush camp under a near full moon; only ONE mozzie all night.  As we partook of a red wine we were visited by a silent Tawny Frogmouth owl.  He watched with interest; wind died down. Col rang to say main group had a easy headwind day and were at Port Lincoln getting ready for the fishing charter next morning.   All cars and team going well. They completed 260kms; we did 455kms.

Bob at Mannahill camp.  Awoke to a clear sky and no mozzies.  Packed up camp and headed off  to Peterborough  with a fuel stop at Yunta [good coffee] for morning smoko at the Old Cinema cafe; a great place for a good coffee.  Country now is dry and looks very degenerated; still pastoral properties.  At Peterborough we said goodbye to Pete and Kaye who headed for Adelaide – a truly lovely couple to travel with.  Now completed 10,000 kms and 2300 to go !!!!!

The country is now dry farming area with rolling hills and old stone buildings with the Flinders Ranges in the background.  Over the Horrocks pass to the site of the Spencer’s Gulf in the background; a very steep decline [Gilbo did it in top gear].  Everyone chose 2nd gear.

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Into Port Augusta and the bakery to some of the best pies in SA; the Stockmans pie was the best. Then into a caravan park for a clean up and sort out the cars.  All going well; Colin changed his points on the road.  Had a BBQ and a lovely meal. Nice to relax for the afternoon.

Travelled 280 kms today.

Day 4 started with mozzies so thick on the net above  that one could not see the sun rising, and Colin gone.  Carried away?  So we had breakfast and packed the camp up to head west to Willcannia.  Country is now pastoral scrublands that look to be denigrated by  goats  – saw plenty. Some nice remnant saltbush flats, another beautiful day, no winds and all cars travelling well on this very flat country.  Signs of kangaroos and goats; country is now very green with annual grasses.

Onto Broken Hill across very flat saltbush plains and lunch on the road, no bakery today. Weather beautiful, no wind and all cars performed all day without a hitch. Stopped at the SA border, changed our time and headed west.  Now at Mannahills, a quite small siding and the storekeeper”s wife is cooking us a meal.  Frank and Bob banker have gone onto Peterborough to catch up with Colin. We will all meet tomorrow and Pete, Kaye and Grandma will divert to Adelaide. Lovely still evening, the moon is nearly full.

Completed about 450 kms today and all cars going well.

We awoke to another beautiful day; no wind and clear sky. Left Warren, a very nice camp with noisy galahs.  It’s a great little town surrounded by irrigated very flat cotton country.  Headed for Nyngan bakery and a coffee.  Another nice town where the locals all came out to view the cars; one lady wanted to sell us a Model A.  Did some IGA shopping. Surrounded  by dry flat farming country and then onto Cobar, a mining town surrounded by pastoral scrub lands and gum trees as well as numerous mines, but a very friendly town; even the police waved to us.  We had lunch, refuelled and filled our jerry cans with fuel  as petrol stops can be a fair way apart. Headed 8kms out of town  to Norwood, a station I had visited on Glad’s inaugrual trip. Bill Arnold owns the property and is a collector of cars and machinery, and his manager Steve Morton greeted us like old friends. We spent a hour looking at his collection:  B Model, Buicks, Austins, Steam Engines etc, endless!

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Onto Emmdale Roadhouse to camp the night; mozzies extremely bad, had nice dinner at the roadhouse, a wild place but friendly.  Mozzies where so bad that during the night they carried Colin away, Frank was the blood bank for them. A rough end to day 3. Homeward bound, but we are now heading west and we completed about 380 kms.

Don’t forget to support Rotary, Mens sheds, and the RFDS. Please donate online at www.flyingdoctor.org.au and use reference GLAD. We also thank Telstra for supporting our communications across Australia.

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Left Moree for Warren at 7.30 for Narrabri on open flat cotton country; all cars going well, very flat with the New England ranges to the east. A great day; sunny autumn weather, stopping hourly or at local bakery, then on to Coonabarrabran for lunch.  Now into the largest nature reserve in NSW;  undulating wooded country, then back out into flat country all the way to Broken Hill.  At Gillgrandra we turned west for Warren; we now feel we are heading home.  Beautiful weather and a slight tail wind. Arrived in Warren; all camped out, really great company.  All cars performed without problems today.

We have had a great day and covered about 400kms.  Note Tommy, Ted and Sport  rounding up a fat pet sheep. The farmers in the A team saw some sheep and summer crops being harvested:  sunflower, cotton, winter cereals etc.  Farmer Pete used his new knife to trim his flapping tyre and trim Glads leather straps; very handy our Pete.  Bob the banker is missing Peachy, and Anthony is missing his sisters.

We are back on the road again.  We had a great rally with some wonderful drives around the Great Dividing Range, met new friends and caught up with past friends; a great time was had by all.  WA Club had a great presentation for our rally in 2014 at Busselton, and our power point talk by Colin and me was well received and believed with much humour and fun.

Brett, Colin, Kaye, Bob the gardener, Peter, Gilbo, Frank, Bob the banker, and Mark Thornton [replaced Alan the botanist] as Glads co -driver????????

We left Ipswich at 7.30am for Cunningham’s Gap in the Great Divide, a very steep climb, with some anxiety as another A had not got to the top. All cars performed well, sailed over the Gap [see photos] and saw another A half way up stopped and adjusting his points.

Then we were on the flat country, now quite dry,  heading for Warwick Bakery.  We arrived for morning smoko to the best pie shop in the world, consumed a pie or 3; we deserved this after such a successful climb by all including our cars. It must be noted that Glad did the whole climb in top gear; she is running very well, with Tommy’s help [the dog].  Then off to Goondawindi on the NSW border.  Met up with Merv and Toni Dane and their son Shane who had a sumptuous afternoon smoko fit for 29 men ready for us. We managed to eat a lot, thanks to our kind hosts. Then with full tummies we headed for Moree and the hot thermal baths, arrived at sunset and completed 480 kms for the day. A great start; all cars went well, Bob had a front shockie let go and everyone has fallen into bed after a thermal swim.

Frank, Colin, Bob gardener, Merv, Toni.

The girls