On more gravel road, we travel south towards Paynes Find, stopping just south of Yalgoo at Jokers Tunnel. This tunnel was dug out with pick and shovel back in 1894, when gold was discovered, it passes under a mound and is approx150 metres long. Only the sign of "beware of snakes in tunnel " put us off further investigation. The drive further south was 90k bitumen then 65k of graded well kept dirt road, arriving at a gravel pit 20k west of Paynes Find and camped the night.

Heading out the next morning, we are driving back on the Great Northern Highway, which was busy with road trains. The road we were looking for to get to Kalannie was only in one of our maps and nothing was showing up on Wikicamps…..were the bloody hell are we going!!!! Found the road and it was a recently graded wide gravel road, not to bad. The scenery is changing and we are starting to see some large gum trees again. After about 50km of gravel road, the landscape changed to open fields of wheat and canola. Travelling through wheat country, we travelled further south through Cadoux, Dowerin and Goomailing.

Throughout the day there has been consistent drizzle, so hence when we stopped for lunch we could barely see out of the rear windows. We found a tap and washed down the rear windows, before moving on. Our camp for the night about 45km from Northam in a wayside stop, it wasn't the best stop, that's what happens when its getting late and on a main road, did the job though.

The morning we arrived at Northam and stocked up on food and drinks for our west/east crossing of the Nullarbor, now the bus is heading in an easterly direction we know we are heading home.

After lunch we enjoyed a walk down the main street of York, which is Western Australia's oldest inland town, situated 97km from Perth. It was first settled in 1831, two years after the establishment of the Swan River Colony. The buildings were stunning throughout the town.

We stopped for the evening at Gorge Rock and enjoyed a fire outside, as the previous night we were in DABUS due to the wet weather. Before heading off towards Hyden, we walked up Gorge Rock.

We are blown away with the vast amount of wheat and canola that is grown in the region. After Gorge Rock we took a diversion south to Kulin, as it is the start/end of 'The Tin Horse Highway'. On route through the Tin Horse Highway, 70 Tin Horses are on display on the roadside for 15km. This certainly was a slow journey as we enjoyed stopping and looking at this artform.

Arriving at Hyden, we went out to explore Wave Rock. Whilst enjoying the base walk, we also then went for a hike up and over the Rock, enjoying the stunning rock and views.

Our option to drive to Norseman was to drive the direct route from Hyden to Norseman, a total of 300 km of which 50k bitumen and 250k of gravel road, which fellow travellers had advised us DABUS would be okay with travelling on.

After leaving Hyden we entered 'The Great Western Woodlands'. This area is the largest remaining area of intact Mediterranean climate woodland on Earth. Covering almost 16 million hectares (about the size of England). The vegetation in this area consist of woodlands, mallee and shrublands.

The first stop after Hyden was a gem of a place.

The Forrestania Pub…….. also know as The Forrestania Plots Camp Area. It had a lovely small shed, which had two rooms. The rear room had a door that travellers could sleep in and the first room had a fireplace were we had our choofer firepit in. We enjoyed a warm night, out of the wind, with our fire and the weber going. Our dinner for the night was scalloped potato with crumbed prawns, calamari and salad. Our home away from home……

So we enjoyed a free night at the pub, with our BYO drinks and the meal was fantastic.

The following day we only travelled 75km to our next stop, The Breakaways.

Couldn't believe the campground/facilities (firepits, toilet, concrete table & chairs) and the stunning scenery, when we are 150km either side of any townships. The colours of the rock formations was spectacular, vivid reds, blues, greys, browns,…….a fantastic spot which we enjoyed by ourselves.

We stopped at McDermid Rock and hike all over it. Followed by a stop at Lake Johnston, 150km before Norseman, this is a stunning salt lake. During the last three days, the only wildlife we have seen is birds, no kangaroo, wallabies etc had been sighted. This inland road has so much to offer travellers and we would certainly drive this road again, when back in the area.

Stopped 10km out of Norseman for the night at the Gem Fields Picnic area. DABUS has endured the 1400km of gravel roads throughout Western Australia that we had planned to travel on, with only two hiccups. The first being the dust in the rear door which was fixed with new rubbers and then we had a watertank move forward, as we headed towards Norseman. We are currently in Norseman getting fuel, gas, water etc before our trek once again back across the Nullarbor.