Bloody jet lag continues with our transition to WA's time zone. Rose early and decided to make the most of it, so headed off on my jog to complete another session of C25K. So happy with myself that l am progressing to running longer distances. I've never been able to run, even as a kid, so this new found passion is such a surprise to me. Hope it will continue and become a part of my everyday routine. The run itself was good, taking me along a path thru the different parts of town. Passed a few aboriginal kids sitting around, got a little nervous being alone but think it just made me run a little faster at times. Not such a bad thing probably, but was a bit stuffed by the end of it.
After getting back from the run, the others were just crawling out of bed, bloody slackers. We were on the road pretty early, quick stop over really for such a historic town. Maybe we'll venture back for a better look next time. We made good time arriving in Norseman by lunch time. Pulled up at the servo to fuel up and next thing we knew The Ellis's pulled up to refuel also. They had just finished crossing the Nullabor and were heading down to the same camp spot we had picked out. As we always say, "its a small world, but such a bloody big country"... After catching up quickly we decided to push off as the Ellis's had to get some groceries and stuff. As we headed thru the main drag of Norseman, if we had of blinked we would have missed it. Besides a few run down closed shops there wasn't much, think they had put all their money into the impressive round-about with tin camel statues in the middle. These bloody camels were a bit disappointing seeing they were posted in every tourist information brochure as being the "must see" of Norseman. Nikki and l decided to get out and take a few posed pics, one being the usual, kiss the camel portrait. We soon got the hurry up from the fellas, so off we jumped in the car and made our way down a few more hubdred kms, destination to be a lazy town called "Grass Patch".
The weather had improved, slightly overcast but no rain thank god. Seemed that since we crossed over the WA border, crappy weather had followed us. We drove up to the small country pub at Grass Patch to be greeted by the grumpious publican l have come across on this trip. Not even Nikki could sweet talk him round to a better mood, or get a discount. Still, we needed the comforts of electricity for one night to catch up on some washing. Cant remember the last time we had had power???? So for $25 per night with limitless washing machine usage, we were sold. Thats right, the washing machine was free!! So after unhitching the vans, Nikki and l soon got to work to catch up on all the washing. That meant towels, clothes and some sheets. We meant business. Even with the luxury of power the vans got a good spring clean. The kids were soon used to adults having to get jobs done when power was available that they made themselves scarce and played well with each other around the camp spot. Talking about the camp spot, it was nothing much, just pebble filled lot with big and clean amenities. Very impressive really as the local townies had built it all to put money back into the community, another reason l didn't mind the $25pn price.
To my surprise we got a few familiar travellers turn up. Kaz and Dan rocked up a little after we got there and then an hour or so later Ton and Cam drove in. Such a great little surprise to meet up with Ton and Cam again as we had missed their company. The Ellis's and the 'Hard-Furms' (as affectionately known to us) were on their way down, heading to Esperance. So it was the spontaneous "Alice Springs Reunion" with only one thing missing, 'The Woods' :(
After everyone had got their setups organised and cleaning done, we all heated up our left overs and sat around to catch up. The mozzies were a bit annoying and it was a little cool but the kids didn't mind. As we were all catching up, a local bloke, Mark, rocked up carrying a few VB bottles. We invited him to join us and he sat down and offered everyone a VB. We all declined, but he insisted and then told us that it was his homemade tomato sauce. Great small town hospitality at its best. The night went well but as Mark got more comfortable, so did his rough language, Now l swear like a trooper, but l think l found my match. Even though he was a bit rough round the edges, he was still nice enough. He ended up taking the not so subtle hints eventually and made his way home, which he then proceeded to turn his music up full blast. Now this was a very little town so you can imagine the echo the music created. We all pissed ourselves laughing, not only due to the loudness but also the songs that were pumping out. The usual hard rock 80's, no wonder the publican is grumpy!!! We all envisioned Mark smoking some bongs while winding down to his youth tunes...hahaha.
As we were all sitting back and chilling, catching up and swapping stories we heard the loudest screech and squeal. By our Meg of course. I thought she'd been hurt really bad or bitten by something, but no, she was running over in shear terror screaming out 'theres a black wild cat!!'. On inspection over where the other kids were we found a little black p**** cat smooching up to the kids, purring. Only our Meg would dramatise things to make this cute local cat into a WILD cat.....bloody Meg. This caused us all to have another great belly laugh, l think l even had tears running down my cheeks as some stage.
As it got late, we wrapped things up and said our goodnights. Even though l love free camping, the ease of having water on tap and power at the flick of a switch was heaven......but like sugar sweets, we can only have these thing sometimes and tomorrow we were bound for the great Esperance....having our sights set on the Lucky Bay Campground. We had heard from a few travellers on the road that all of Cape Le Grand and Lucky Bay campsites were full. But we were feeling like the universe was working with us, so with that, we would try our luck tomorrow.....
Bell Xxx