Our Trip

Day Eight

Day Eight rolled around and the weather

was cooling down rapidly. 

The girls and I pulled out the beanies

and the warmer jackets. 

It was getting harder and harder to move

 away from the campfire each night and 

early in the morning. We would add 'just one more

piece of wood', then maybe 'just another' and so on. 

There had been quite a few dingoes hanging

around the night before so their tracks were in abundance. 

We made sure we didn't leave any rubbish or 

food scraps out to entice them more. 

(I know the tracks below are not 

from dingoes, but I liked them!)

We headed out and arrived at Well 39.

This was a dust bowl and we were glad we 

had been advised not to camp there. 

Well, we began once again to cross the 

numerous sand dunes, and let the tyres down on 

the old girl (cruiser) just that little bit more.

Emilee's ute was kept in 2WD unless absolutely necessary. 

She did have to put it into 4WD for one of them,

as 2WD just didn't cut it. 

We stopped at a rocky outcrop and climbed

up to enjoy the view. It was amazing 360 views.

As we travelled south, mid morning,

we crossed from the Sandy Desert into

the Gibson Desert. 

We stopped for lunch at some caves that

had rock art in them. 

They had a nice view from above them

and a cool interior. 

Our second step tread was now cracked 

and totally loose and rattling, but it held on. 

We came across some more

interesting caves and explored them for a while. 

As we climbed the sand dunes

and crested the top, we came across 

our first caravan of camels. 

I was very excited to see them in the wild 

and they were happy to have their picture 

taken, numerous times, although they were far away. 

As we came up to a sand dune,

as usual, the lead vehicle called out on

the radio that we were headed over,

and low and behold, 3 Japanese tourists

came flat stick over the top and very nearly wiped

our friends out! Not nice, not nice indeed! 

At Well 37 we explored some ruins and 

3 graves of men killed by natives back in 1911.

It was a very interesting site. 

As the end of the day drew near,

we found yet another beautiful campsite

under some she oaks, where we got the billy

boiling and the damper baking. 

And with the stars putting on their

nightly, awesome, majestic, totally mesmerizing,

beautifully intoxicating, sky show,

we settled down for the night,

excited about what the next day's adventures would be. 

To be continued...………..

Look Who's Growing Up!

Little Miriam is growing so quickly.

She'll be 17 months soon!

Yesterday, Grandma and the Aunty's

got to babysit for a little while,

so out came the camera. 

 

Miriam loves being read to and she

also loves drawing. 

Sweet little faces. ❤❤

Playing in her very own toy cupboard

at Grandma's house. 

And of course, playing on 

Grandma's piano. 

Below is a picture of Miriam, 

sitting on Chloe's lap, playing the piano

6 months ago!

And now, the big girl that she is,

she can sit on the bench all by herself

and doesn't need any help making up her

lovely little tunes, with great gusto!

(guess who's been watching Grandma play at church?) 

Our Trip

Day 7

Well, Day 7 has finally rolled around,

and I am celebrating as I have finally finished

editing ALL of the trip photos and am 

now at the sorting stage and picking out

the highlights for future blog posts. 

I hope you're all still with me?

So, last time I left off with the saga of

Emilee's leaking diff. After a good night's sleep

(and a hot camp shower), we were up early and 

ready to take on another day of whatever surprises 

it would bring. 

As we were camped by an old well, 

that had caved in, there was a little water

still sitting on the surface. This precious substance

drew the beautiful pink galahs in for a drink,

which made me and my camera very happy. 

Some more scenery and a dead camel complete with teeth! 

The weather was getting colder and windier

as we set off south once again. 

After an hour of driving, we stopped to tighten

the bolts on Em's diff and to check on a suspicious 

noise under the cruiser? (I mean other than the

incessant racket that the broken step tread was making)

We started the up and over of continuous sand dunes

which had us attempting a few a couple of times,

and Emilee showing us all up with her powerful

out of 4WD engine, and over the top she went in one go!

Emilee's ute was no longer able to be put into 4WD 

unless absolutely necessary because of the missing bolts

and leaking problem (which it only leaked while in 4WD).

So, Dave said to just give it to her and over she went. 

It did make it a little choppy for us following along behind tho. 

Oh, and that noise under the cruiser?

That was just an engine mount that had snapped! 

But, the old girl pushed on and got us all the way home

without being properly fixed, except by cob

 and co-ing it up with the trusty old fencing

wire which came in very handy. Speaking of which, it still isn't fixed 

and it's still going strong! 

As we travelled further along the stock route,

we came to Well 41, a beautifully restored well.

Here we met up with the Outback Spirit Tour.

Now this little tour group consists of 

5 Mercedes Benz 'G' Wagons, complete 

with toilets and showers. 

And, at the moment you can get a great special

(cough cough) at only $11 895pp for 16 days, 

from Perth to Broome (12 nights on the stock route).

So, if you want to do the trip in style,

and don't want to trash your own vehicle, 

this might be for you! 

The tour guides were very nice and gave

us some tips and let us know more about the 600km

detour we would be taking further down the track. 

 We filled up our water tanks here once the tour group was

done and I was able to snap happily away at some

beautiful green budgies and some tiny little red-beaked finches. 

These birds were incredibly swift. 

They'd swoop down all at once,

take a quick drink, then they were off.

Obviously, I had my camera on continuous shooting

just to get them in the frame. 

At Well 40 we stopped to have lunch

and look at a couple of graves with an interesting

history. Micheal Tobin was one of the exploration

party on the Canning in 1907, when he was speared by an Aborigine.

At the very moment he was speared, he shot and killed

the man who threw the spear, Mungkututu. 

I pulled out the lensball,

and we discovered that we could start a fire,

very quickly, in just seconds, by holding it just

right to catch the suns rays. 

We crossed Tobin Lake and stopped in the middle

of it to take a picture of a tall ants nest

and have a pit stop for our little friends. 

 There was some weird little bushes

that were purple in colour and 

very strangely shaped. 

Well, the day was getting on and the weather

was getting colder, so we found a beautiful

campsite under some she oaks (allocasuarina apparently).

These were some of our favourite campsites

as they were shady and we could take our shoes

off and sink our toes into the cool, red sand. 

Provided you didn't spike your toe on a pine needle. 

Dave and Kon plan our next day,

and Em gets some much needed rest after a tiring day of driving. 

I took out the camera, oh no wait, I never put it away!

Anyway, I coerced Chloe into being my portrait 

model and enjoyed taking photos as the sun set

picturesquely behind the trees. 

As was often the case, we heard dingoes calling out

as we sat by the campfire, but this particular

night, one decided to venture right next to us

and sniff out something under a tree. 

Dave didn't want it hanging around and managed to 

throw a hammer at it, but missed it by just a whisker! 

(he came back again anyway)

We saw some vehicles pass by and were 

very excited to see that one of them was an old 60 series!

We wished he would have stopped to chat.

(maybe he would have had a spare engine mount?)

 And so ended another amazing day. 

We had travelled 477 km so far on the CSR,

so we had a long way still to go, but we were in 

no hurry to get there. 

And so I leave you with one of 

my favourite pictures from the trip.

Chloe. Watching the sunset

and enjoying the view. 

Stay with me, read and enjoy.

Take in the view.

Rejoice in God's marvellous creation.

Wherever you are, take in the beauty 

all around you and remember that we have 

a Creator that takes pleasure in His creation

"God saw that it was good"

and He wants us to take pleasure in it also.

God's creation and His works are an expression 

of His glory. And we should be continually giving glory

to God for the beauty that is all around us. 

If God's creation praises Him,

and we are His creation, then we should praise Him too! 

Psalm 148 

 Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord 

from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.

Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye 

waters that be above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the Lord: 

for he commanded, and they were created.

He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:

Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, 

and all judges of the earth:

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

 He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him.

 Praise ye the Lord.