7 August 2021

Hamburgers, mulled wine, and toasted marshmallows kept us up a little later last night. We nearly made to 8pm! A few pages of my book and I was out to it. Not such a good nights sleep last night, sometimes I get a reaction to wine, or in fact any alcohol. I think it’s the histamines, but whatever it is, my blocked nose reaction doesn’t make for a good nights sleep. I’m not a big drinker at the best of times, but I do like to enjoy the occasional drink, especially on holiday. I only had one drink of mulled wine…….today I’m saying it will be my last drink ever. We’ll see!

Awake at 5am, I read a couple of chapters of my book, ‘Water for Elephants’. It’s a good read, light and easy going, and it has me wanting to know how it’ll finish. It’s getting difficult to put down. Shower, breakfast and dishes out of the way, and we were on the road again at 8am. The weathers definitely warming up, and I suspect I’ll be in shorts tomorrow. My Marino jumper has given way to a long sleeved t-shirt, I’m sure I’ll be sleeveless tomorrow.

We stop at a roadhouse for fuel as we by-pass Newman. After Newman comes the most spectacular Pilbara scenery, real iron ore country.

This is probably my favourite drive in WA. I’ve heard people say it’s very much like Africa. The red rock and soil, the yellow tussocky grass, the wild flowers that border the roads, the rock piles, and the crevices and ridges in the ranges – it’s all so wild, so raw, so beautiful.

We arrive at Two Camel Creek around 3pm. It was pleasantly warm, so no need for a fire. I used an hour or two to sort the van out a bit, stashing the winter bedding under the bed, and organising the cupboards.

Apologies if each days account of our trip jumps tense from time to time. I’m trying to write as we travel along, as well as taking photos from the car window. The photos are sometimes a bit blurry, but to stop for good shots would add unwanted time to our travel days. As I type the Internet drops in and out, and sometimes I end up losing a lot of what I’ve written, and sometimes I start writing in the present tense, but then it might be the next day before I have internet cover again. It makes for patchy writing. Never mind, hope you enjoy some of the photos anyway.