The time we went camping without a plan - final instalment I promise ;)

Sooooooo, to recap for those of you just joining our recent camping with no plan adventure

Part 1 we left Perth late and travelled to Dalwallinu

Part 2 we drove all the way to Meekatharra

Part 3 we had heaps of fun exploring some places around Cue

This bring us to this part. The last part. I promise. Yeah I know, sorry to draw it out over 4 instalments. I just didn't want to bore you guys too much!


We were up super early in Cue as we had at least a 650km drive in front of us and we wanted to detour to check out a place we had heard about.

Since we were looking for some adventure we decided to detour the safety of the Great Northern Highway and took to the back roads! The dirt back roads!

We headed back towards Walga Rock, passed it  and praying that the basic map we clutched to was correct we headed towards Yalgoo.

With a quick toilet pit stop in the tiny town that had emus roaming the streets we drove towards our destination. Jokers Tunnel.

Wow! What a site to marvel at!

The tunnel was hand carved (pick axe thingys) through the solid rock of a mountain by early gold prospectors.

It's a pretty spectacular tunnel!

The light at the end of the tunnel!

Big "snake warning" signs sort of detured me from walking through but we hopped in the car and drove around the other side.

Back on the road and we were back on the red dirt. Orginally we were going to be heading  back towards Paynes Find but being the adventurise risk taker that we are we followed some different signs back to the highway. 

The risk paid off and after about 200km of gorgeous red dirt landscape we came out 109kms of Wubin where we decided to stop at a road house for lunch.

Burger time!!

Then it was Perth or bust! Passed some HUGE trucks on the way home. Some that blocked the whole road and saw us and 20 other cards pulled over in a rest area waiting for them to pass!

After over 1500kms of adventure we made it home.

It was an amazing 4 day road trip. The perfect way to spend the lead up to our wedding anniversary!

Amount of km's travelled  - 1527
Number of live kangaroos seen - 4
Number of Emus seen - 15
Number of lizards seen and not run over - 6
Number of goats seen - uncountable
Number of snakes seen - 1
Number of towns visited - 14
Number of huge rocks climbed - 1
Number of ghost towns explored - 1

Number of new memories created - endless

Can't wait until we can do it again!

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If you've been following me on facebook you may or may not know that I have registered for a 220km bike ride  for the Perth Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2013. This is a cause close to my heart as I have lost some very special people to this horrible disease. As part of my entry I need to fund raise a minimum of $2500 to take part in the actual ride. I really hate asking for donations but I've been told that it's the only way! Do you have a spare $2? Every little bit helps. All money raised will go directly to support cancer patients and families. Thank you!!

The time we went camping without a plan - Part 3

Welcome to Day 3 of our little adventure. Today was an active day!

First. Have you read part 1 and part 2? No? I'll wait while you go catch up

*hold music*

All caught up? Good.

So. Had big plans to get up and watch the sunrise. Well, I was up. The sun rose. Didn't see it though. Crappy view.

I dragged Mr Hausfrau out of bed and we started the morning with a 3km walk around the Meeka Creek Trail

OMFG!

The entire 3km was littered with crap and most signs had been vandalised! The further I walked the more pissed off I got!

Grrrrrrrr - don't. even. get. me. started.

*mutter* disrespectful - disgraceful - disgusting *mutter*

Afterwards we walked down to the truck stop, you know the one, the one with the freaking trucks that kept us up all night, for a nice coffee. Then we packed up camp, hit the road and headed back towards Cue. We had some exciting places to visit!

First stop was the tourist info shop for some town knowledge. Mr Hausfrau had been to the area a few years back but says he doesn't remember. He didn't even remember that he had stayed in Cue before! I say old age. He says it wasn't memorable enough to remember.

We missed the Outback Triathlon by 2 days! Bugger! I would have loved to have seen this as I was meant to be doing the local Duathlon back in Perth on the Sunday but the chance of a getaway won out over it though... Meh, next year.

Anyhoo...

All info'd up we hit the road and started the drive towards the historic ghost town of Big Bell. Once a thriving mining town it's a shell of its former glory with a few remaining building and tributes to its glorious history.

We even got to see our only snake of the whole trip! It's a Ringed Brown Snake!

The pics on the left and right are the ones we took and hard to see. The middle photo is one I prepared earlier from here.

It was down the bottom of an old well type concrete thingy. We were perfectly safe.

Next stop was the absolutely amazing Walga Rock!

It is the second largest monolith in Australia. First being Uluru.

First we explored the cave with all the aboriginal rock painting.

Next we drove around it.

Then. Yeah you know what's coming don't you?

WE FREAKING CLIMBED IT!

IT. WAS. AWESOME!

Heading back to Cue we checked in at the Cue Tourist Park. What a great place! (free plug! free plug! free plug!) They've just expanded and have all new facilities. Very awesome facilities! They even have a TV room! Not that we needed it but would be great if camping with kidlets!

We found a spot right behind the old gaol and set up camp.

After lunch and a refreshing shower (in the awesome shower facilities) we were off again to walk around the town and checked out some historic buildings.

After such an active day it was dinner and early to bed.

No trucks.
No Belgian chitty chatty back packers.
No cold weather.

Still no sleep!!



To be continued.......

(only one more post I promise!)

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The time we went camping without a plan - Part 2

and so it continues.......

This post is dedicated to Lenny the Lizard. You'll understand why soon enough.

This isn't actually Lenny - image credit here

You may remember from Part 1 of our adventure I had a crap nights sleep and froze my bits off. Let's take up where we left off. Is that the right saying? Meh.

We were up, defrosted, fed and packed and ready to hit the road early.

Off we headed towards Paynes Find.

So much to see. Trucks, mines and wildlife everywhere!

We were admiring some HUGE trucks at a nearby mine site when out on the road runs a big Bungarra lizard. No time to slam on the brakes so we hoped he made it safely under the car without hitting a wheel.

I was hopeful until I looked in my side mirror.

Feck.

Poor Lenny.

May he rest in peace.

We pulled up at the Paynes Find roadhouse to find it all shut down. 

Picture one of those movies where there's a petrol station in the middle of no where ran by one old crazed looking guy with a glass eye, no teeth and wooden leg. Yeah that. Except there was no old crazed looking guy with a glass eye, no teeth and a wooden leg here. Thankfully the diesel is 24/7 self served with the use of a Star Card. Thank you Star Card!

We decided to check out the Paynes Find Gold Battery. Think battery as in "bash bash, beat you up" and not battery as in "let there be light". We took a tour of the Battery and museum.

A Gold Battery is where they smash up the rock to get the gold out! If you want to check out a video of how it works featuring Malcolm Douglas click here. It was interesting to see it being done.

From Paynes Find we headed towards Mount Magnet  and stopped just north of the town at The Granites for a picnic lunch and did a bit of snake hunting through all the rocks.

TMI alert!!

The best news! I successfully peed in the bush without splashing my hiking boots. I know! Amaze balls! Someone pass me the Bush Peeing Trophy. Yes a cheeky photo was snapped by Mr Hausfrau but I thought it best not to put you guys through that!

We took off towards Cue but decided to drive through -  it was Meekatharra or bust!

First stop was The Royal Mail Hotel 

for a beer.....

or two.....

We then found a crap caravan park and set up camp. Luckily we got there when we did as they shut the shop about 10 minutes later and there was no "after hours" button. As the 3 Belgian backpacker girls found out not long after. They snuck in anyway and set up tent next to us.

Incidentally it seems that Belgian backpackers do not travel with Belgian chocolate.

Mr Hausfrau laughed at me and said "So all Germans travel with German beer then?"

Um, HELLO!!!???? What's this then?

A "spare" carton of German beer in the back of the ute

That night we got smarter and set up the 2 swags hoping for a better sleep.

Yeah. 3 talking Belgian backpackers, the wafting smell of sewerage coming from a nearby drain and a big truck stop 50m up the road with trucks coming and going all night. Great!

Feck! 

Who needs sleep anyway. At least I wasn't cold.

To be continued........

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Linking up with Jess for #IBOT

The time we went camping without a plan - Part 1

A rare occurrence took place in our household recently. We were going to be kid free for almost one whole week!! PrincessBF and Random Boy were off to stay with their Dad. 

*dancing* "OMG OMG OMG! Kid free! Kid free! Kid free!" *dancing*

Hmmm - what to do? What to do?

Bali seemed like a good choice as neither myself or Mr Hausfrau have been there. Thailand was the first choice but the moths that flew out of our wallet was a pretty good indication that Bali was the better choice.

But.

Alas, it wasn't to be. Mr Hausfrau couldn't get the time off needed to really enjoy ourselves.

So we did the only sensible thing. We took Max to a kennel, packed up the ute with swags, food, beer & wine and headed off into the sunset!

We had no plan but we had the makings for adventure!

Soooo many "oversized" trucks to try and pass! Did you know that 1000 trucks leave Perth for the mine sites every single day!

As we didn't leave until the early arvo we made it to Dalwallinu and called it a day. Originally we had plans of camping in a rest area but I just couldn't get the Wolf Creek thoughts out of my mind! We found the local caravan park and set up camp.

After a yummy dinner while watching the sunset we were entertained by the local park resident coming home drunk and upon not being able to successfully stick the key into his vans door he proceeded to kick it open! Unsuccessfully. Luckily his lift home stopped and offered some more sober assistance.

Someone is going to have a sore head in the morning!

Turns out it was me from lack of sleep. No sleep was obtained due to the fact that I was fecking freezing!

We had decided to share the one swag laid out in the back of the Ute without setting it up properly so it could be zipped up. Major fail. It was soooo cold. Spent the night pressed up so close to Mr Hausfrau that he told me in the morning he thought I was trying to actually climb into his body. Kinda was.

Pretty sure that this was what outside resembled!!

At some stage I woke to Mr Hausfrau crawling out to use the loo. "Brilliant" I thought. "It must be at least 530. That's his usual pee time" - No such fecking luck! It was only midnight! MIDNIGHT!! ARE YOU FOR REALS!???

Had serious thoughts of crawling into the front seat to sleep or on the bench in the ablution block. Nope. Too cold to even move!

Finally managed to sneak in a little sleep as the sun started to rise and the temperature followed suit. A little. Maybe 30 minutes. Crap.

To be continued.......

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Twitter | @AussieHausfrau

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