So we arrive at camp and while caravaners carefully place the fruit bowls on their tables behind their frilly net curtains, we do the real thing and set up camp. While only half set up I looked over at the caravaners gathering at the camp fire, already on their second glass of wine, and I start to wonder if there might be something in this caravaning lark after all.

Eventually we do finish and join the others around the fire, and to be honest you needed to be by the fire. Once we stopped setting up camp we realised how cold it actually was. At the appropriate time, the caravaners retired to their centrally heated hotels on wheels, while we snuggled up with our hot water bottles in our swag. We didn’t really mind, once you were in, it is very cosy, just don’t try getting up in the night for a wee!

The sunrise in the morning was spectacular, but best not to stray too far from the fire.

Early start again on the now familiar Great Eastern Highway, breakfast at The Meckering Roadhouse. Not the best coffee in the world and microwaved sausage rolls were average but the loo was clean.

Lunch was at Southern Cross a mere 400 klms from home and a good time to give the legs a stretch. Then on to Kalgoorlie, 8 hours and 600 klms from home and an overnight stop at the Hospitality Inn. Dinner was in the Exchange of course, I don’t think we could go to Kal without stopping for a pint in the Exchange.

We skipped the now infamous breakfast at the motel and headed for Leonora, stopping off at The Gwallia ghost town and Hoover House for tea and scones.

The little settlement that grew up around the Sons of Gwalia Mine in the late 1890s thrived until the final whistle blew on 28 December 1963, closing the mine and putting 250 men out of work. Gwalia’s 1200-strong population fell to just 40 in less than three weeks.

I installed a CB Radio in the car for this trip and it had already proved its worth. When you are on the tail of a road train it is a bit of a gamble to overtake them, but if you introduce yourself over the radio and ask the truckie to let you know when it is safe to pass, the whole manoeuvre feels much safer.

Next stop was the car park at the Leonora gun club where we were to meet up with the other Pirates and create a convoy to camp (CB radio came in useful again here).

But before I am allowed to pack them, Debbie wants to run her detector over them to make sure that they don’t give off any false signals.

https://www.piratesgold.com.au/

Debbie has just renewed our APLA membership, which means that it was around this time last year we were just starting out on these crazy adventures. Little did we know what a crazy year in would turn out to be. While we are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel here in WA, never far from our minds are those that didn’t come through this year unscathed and in some cases didn’t come through at all. While dealing with the unspeakable pandemic, friends and acquaintances have also had to deal with all the illness and the sadness that life refuses to spare us.

Our prayers continue to be with you all as we approach the new year.