After 20km of bitumen from Gascoyne Junction (GJ), we are travelling over gravel road following the Wool Wagon Pathway and we have approximately 1400km of gravel to get back to Norseman. The Wool Wagon Pathway travels through WA's sheep and wool country. DABUS tyre pressure was reduced, so we are hoping for a smoother ride.

At first the road was pretty rough but by 40km in, it was a very pleasant drive. We stopped the night at Bilung Pool which is a natural spring feed waterhole. Our camp was on the cliff above and it was a stunning view down into the Pool. The trials and tribulations of travelling along gravel roads is dust getting into DABUS, as we arrived at Bilung Pool the back doors were open to a flume of red dust coming out to greet us and a very dusty bed. Alan had to perform some maintenance and adjust the rear doors. The wind was blowing and so an early night inside DABUS. Before moving on in the morning we enjoyed a lovely walk down the cliffs into the Pool, which is surrounded by stunning white gum trees.

Our first stop for the day was to check out some Sea shell fossils, some 250km inland, very tiny fossils were found. After we crossed the Wooramel River crossing, we drove off the road for 3km to view the amazing Wooramel River Gorge. This gorge has two massively wide river sections combining into one section, it would certainly be a sight to see when the river is running, the volume and velocity of water being pushed down stream would be an impressive sight to behold.

The next stop for the day was at Well 19, which had been reconstructed by two 4x4 groups. Just prior to lunch we stopped at a 'Historic Gate Site'. This area depicts an era prior to cattle grids between stations. Between GJ and Mullewa (500km) there was once over 100 farm gates, that truck drivers had to stop, open; drive through before shutting the gates behind them. Back in those days the truck drivers worked out it was easier to drive in a convoy so only the first and last trucks had to open and close gates. They would have loved the invention of the cattle grid.

Whilst driving the GJ - Mullewa road we are travelling through stations, when entering and leaving stations, signs indicating property names are place beside cattle grids.

Pulling into Murchison Oasis Roadhouse, we thought we could catch up with Internet, posting the blog and a few phone calls but only WIFI was available and all too hard to achieve. From here we could have followed the Wool Wagon Pathway but our plan was to head into Mullewa. We stopped beside the Murchison River near the Ballinyoo Bridge, amazing birdlife here and we were pleasantly surprised the following morning, to enjoy breakfast watching two black swans. That night sitting watching the night sky we both stated how brilliant the stars and the amazing night sky has been during our time travelling through the Gascoyne region.

Another hiccup occurred and a mechanism in our toilet cassette was broken, at first we thought we might have to travel down into Perth to get it fixed, once back into phone range, research was conducted and a Caravan Parts place was found in Geraldton that had the required part to keep us in the comfort that we enjoy. Fifty kilometres prior to Mullewa we were back on bitumen, we both stated that after driving on such smooth gravel road, the bitumen was is in a far worse state than the gravel. The scenery has changed from shrubland to open fields of canola and wheat. So after arriving at Mullewa the decision was made to do a 200km return afternoon trip into Geraldton. After getting our part, a new back door rubber and stocking up on more wine and Pepsi we headed back towards Mullewa and stopped at Tenindewa Pioneer Well. Here we stopped for two days, the first day was cleaning out the boot and changing over the rear door rubbers and the second day was inside the bus, cleaning down more dust and cooking, as the weather is raining and 16 degrees.

We have noticed that in this area, there is a lot more signs indicating points of interest, than when we were in this area four years ago. We popped into the visitors centre at Mullewa to gather more information (research) for our travels. Prior to leaving Mullewa we stopped at the Church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, which was designed and built by Monsignor John Hawes, it is an amazing design and is classified by the National Trust. In search of the Wreath Flower we headed east to Pindar and again signage indicating the direction of the wreath flowers, but we knew which direction we were heading. Arriving at the wreath flowers it was obvious that we were probably two to four weeks off their peak, but we did find a few that were just starting to flower.

The night before arriving at Yalgoo, we stopped a night at a free camp where 'The outback starts here'. In Yalgoo the following morning to catch up on messages and return phone calls, we headed to our next destination 'Melangata Station'

Melangata Station is 75km of dirt road, north of Yalgoo. This was always on our plan for this trip, as back in 2015, in Port Hedland we purchased a book 'Jo Clews' Australian Camp Oven Cooking'. This is the only cookbook we have in DABUS to give us inspiration with our camp oven cooking.

The author of this book is also the owner of Melangata Station, along with her partner, Ken and we wanted to meet her and get her to sign our copy of her cookbook.

Melangata Station is a sheep station, running Damara, Dorper cross meat sheep. These sheep are multi coloured and have fantastic markings. Jo calls them her 'licorice allsorts'. The homestead is the only privately owned residential designed building in Australia, designed and built the Monsignor John Hawes. The first afternoon there we went for a walk out to the airfield and a windmill, then finally met with both Jo and Ken. Ken was heading out to go gold prospecting, so had a good chat to Jo about the property and her cookbook, which we asked her to sign.

The following day was spent going for walks, exploring the station. Catching up on some washing.

Rodney the Roo

On dusk, as we were enjoying to colours on the horizon, above the homestead, a youngish male kangaroo was bounding down the driveway and into the campground and was coming directly towards us. He stopped just in front of the fire, had a sniff and then wanted a pat and was looking for something to eat. Should we……shouldn't we….. Well we decided to give him abit of flat bread. He had other ideas and came right up to Lorelle and wrapped his front paws around her right arm. Then we can't figure out if he was playing, ready for a boxing match or feeling frisky, raising his hind legs. His actions were quite unsettling, so it was time to deter him away from our camp.

The following day, when we caught up with Jo, we mentioned about the young male roo that came into our camp. "Oh….you meet Rodney" Jo had raised him since a young joey. On our last night we thought we weren't going to have a visit from Rodney but after dinner with all lights off and sitting by the campfire, he quietly sneaks past us, in the firelight. He scared the s*** out of one of us, then he checked out our side cover for the awning, it wasn't there the day before. Rodney took a liking to this and then commenced humping the cover……Mmmmmm… we have decided that Rodney is one frisky roo and needs a partner.

On Monday morning before heading off, we paid $5 each for a homestead tour. The homestead was amazing, as you walk into it; there are no external doors. Internal doors are on the bedrooms, sitting room, dining room etc; therefore the breeze flows through in all directions. Our quick tour took one and half hours but we certainly enjoyed viewing the homestead and chatting to Jo. Back to DABUS, a quick pack up and we are on the road yet again.