Day 2 - Ninghan Station to Mount Magnet
Mar. 28th, 2011 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyre4/3/2011
First light is around 5:30am. It's now almost 6am and the sun hasn't even crossed the horizon, but I'm already being hounded by flies. Dawn chorus is only just firing up, with the tinkle of yellow-rumped thornbills and the caroling of magpies. Most of what I'm hearing is the whine of mosquitos and the buzz of flies.
Last night I discovered that even a slight wind is almost too much for the camp stove to handle. And it doesn't get anywhere near hot enough quick enough. My piece of kangaroo was still quite rare in the middle, but tough because I had to cook it for ages to even get to that stage. I think I'll wait until I can use a BBQ or camp kitchen to cook the rest. The water for my asparagus never boiled, so it was still quite crunchy - that's no big issue for me though. At least the water got hot enough that it was quite useful for washing the dishes afterwards.
Which brings me to another thing - when camping you certainly have to get into the "a place for everything and everthing in it's place" mindset - especially when you're camped on dirt and can't have things strewn everywhere because they will get dusty very easily. First task - dinner. Grab a green bag (these are VERY handy for this kind of thing), put all the food and utensils you'll need in it. Cook dinner, eat dinner, wash the dishes (as I mentioned before - I used the hot water from cooking, I was originally going to wander to the bathrooms and use the sink, but my water was much hotter and close at hand).
Wow, this dawn chorus is REALLY quiet. Kinda disappointing. I can hear Peewees now, and something that sounds like a Miner, but that's it.
Once the dishes are done - you put all the dinner stuff away. Then you get out everything you need for a shower and put it in the bag, go over and have a shower. The shower here is simple - just a concrete floored room. There are two showers, but no real place to get dry and changed - just the vestibule where the sink is. Lucky no-one else seemed to be using the facilities so I closed the main door and had the whole building to myself. And my God it is so worth seeking out a shower at the end of a long, hot day. There is no hot water here - not really surprising, but the shower was still absolutely lovely.
After that I sat outside briefly and read, but the mozzies bugged me too much so I decided to go to bed. Swags are pretty cool things. You get in and zip up and suddenly you're in a little capsule. You can hear the mozzies whining just a few inches away, but you're safe in a bug-free zone.
Ooh, I can now hear a Pied Butcherbird. *has a happy*
All the zippers in a good swag are above ground level too, so crawling insects can't bumble into the tiny gap left where the zipper tags meet. I laid in there and stared at the stars - amazing how many there are in an area with no light pollution. I didn't see the moon last night, but once my eyes adjusted I could almost walk around by starlight alone.
Handily, my head-torch has a red-light option. This is awesome, because the red-light doesn't ruin your night vision (or the night vision of any critter you're trying to spot), and it doesn't seem to be quite as attractive to insects.
I bedded down around 9pm, but didn't get to sleep until 10:30. Some stargazing turned into concern about the wind. It would sound like a plane passing over, I guess it was rolling down the hill as it came. I was worried about it blowing in storm clouds, but my fear was unfounded. I slept for maybe 4 hours until my bladder woke me up and I was surprised to find it was only 2:30am. I read for a bit and eventually fell back asleep and woke again at 5:30.
It's now 6:15, the sun is about to cross the horizon and these thornbills are getting noisy. I guess I better go for a wander and do some birding before breakfast. After that I'll pack and head off.
Well, the day started great. I wandered around Ninghan Station, spotting Crested Pigeons and thornbills and Ringnecks. While I was cooking breakfast a couple of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos slowly winged their way across the farm. I saw a medium sized bird land in a tree and bob up and down in a familar manner until it was joined by another one - they were Western Bowerbirds - my first new bird for the trip! After breakfast I packed up and squared up with the woman at the station - I'm pretty sure that had I just left no-one would be the wiser for the fact that I didn't pay. When I said I was there to pay she kinda paused and went, "Oh... okay." Gee.
There is a LOT of water beside the roads. I stopped at a floodway just north of the Ninghan turnoff that was obviously very recently reaching across the road. Beside that temporary lake I found Wood Ducks and Banded Lapwings. It's all so green up here because of the rain! Amazing.
The trouble started in Payne's Find, where I pulled up to the roadhouse to find that they were out of fuel. Another couple there seemed a bit bewildered by it all, I don't think they had enough fuel to get to the next stop. I had about half a tank as well as my jerry can. I eventually wandered to the caravan park around the back, found a (very dodgy and grotty, but usable) toilet and someone who could advise on the roads. The road to Maroubra Station was open ("My mate just bought a road train through there this morning!") and I was advised that the if the Sandstone Road wasn't closed, it would be fine too.
He was dead right. I went down the Maroubra Road a bit and birded a bit. Found an old mine pit and a feeding party of thornbills, among them were a few Southern Whiteface fossicking about on the ground - another newie, got great looks too. I was very happy. I decided to forgo going all the way to the spot that Frank O'Connor recommended because I didn't want to run out of fuel and really wanted to check out Warne River (a supposed good spot for Gilbert's Whistler). The road was beautiful, just a few minor washouts and some corrougations - which you really can't avoid at the best of times. I was consistently driving 80 - 100kph on the road, that's how good it was. I stopped at the cattle grid Frank recommended and had a look around. Hunted down a whistler, only to find it was a Rufous (from the call I had a pretty good idea that it would be). Near the fence was a dead animal, I assumed it was a roo until I got close enough to see the feet. It was a poor emu who seems to have been caught in the endless running up and down a barrier fence until it carked it, it was the first of a few dead emus for the day, haven't seen a live one yet.
I heard Crested Bellbird here (actually, I heard Bellbirds most of the day), but didn't see any. There were also plenty of thornbills flitting about including my third new bird - Slaty-backed Thornbill.
After the grid I headed to the river crossing, which was about 50km down the track. Wow, water wasn't on the road anymore, but the river had plenty of water in it and was rimmed with reeds and surrounded by green fields. As soon as I got out of the car I heard Zebra Finches and quickly found them. They were about it for the birds here though - I heard a lot but saw little (I heard a Diamond Dove - what a lovely sound). The place was an entomologists paradise, but not so much an orthinologists. Didn't hear a whistler at all. Did scare up a wader at a nearby pool of water, but it flew away before I could ID it. This place was riddled with Double Gees. Vicious, spiky seed pods that would be flicked up by my boots and stick in my sock behind my heel. Ouch.
It was just past midday by this time but I wasn't that hungry, so I figured I'd have lunch in Mount Magnet, and take a shortcut - the Red Bluff Road, which would end me up on the highway a bit further north. It would save me petrol. The turnoff was a little further down the road, so on I went until I found the road. It wasn't signposted, but there was a yellow flag attached to the post (turns out someone nicked the sign). There was the standard "Gravel Roads - conditions can change quickly" sign. There were no "Road Closed" signs. A few hundred metres along I came across a washed out area, but crossed without much trouble. There were further washouts and a couple of muddy puddles - the mud was deeper and slipperier than expected, but still, no big issue. It was a bit unnerving to be driving on this road because there were no other tracks on it. I must have been the first across since the rain.
Then I came across my obstacle.
A quick check of the map indicated that this was the Warne River again. So I stopped, checked out some nearby White-winged Fairy-wrens, and assessed the conditions. Slippery mud, okay, not much different from those puddles a little way back. Sand in the middle - pretty firm. Water was very shallow, barely ankle depth. Okay, I thought, I can take this. I put the Terios in low gear and slowly but steadily made my way forward.
Halfway up the far bank I stalled. I restarted and tried to move on - nothing. Tried again, nope. Swore a bit in frustration. Checked out where I was a stuck. Tried the CB on all the channels - no answer. Tried the emergency number on my mobile - no reception, even for emergency calls. Got back in the car. Rocked it back and forth a bit until I could smell the engine. Stopped that as I was just getting myself into more trouble. Great, here I am in the middle of nowhere, on a track no-one has been along in days and who knows when the next person will come by? I considered my PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) and read the sticker, "Use only during situations of grave and imminent danger". Okay, I wasn't in grave and imminent danger, not yet anyway. And setting off that thing would pretty much mean an end to the holiday, and it was only day two. Not an option (at least not yet). I looked at my map again and figured that the next station, Narndee, was about 10km down the track. Okay, I can do that, it'll take me what, about an hour? So I turfed all the crap out of my backpack, put in important things, like 3 bottles of water, a few apples and a bag of twiggy sticks. Donned my hat and long sleeved shirt and put sunscreen on my legs. I grabbed my binoculars - may as well make the best of a bad situation right? And I started walking. This was about 1:30pm. Lucky there was a slight breeze blowing so it was tolerable. I had visions of soon being on a lovely grassy, shady station where I would be offered a cold glass of water before hopping in some rickety old Troopy to go and get me out. Along the way I tried the CB and emergency number frequently, with no luck. 2:30 came and went. I found a fence line and a turkey dam and saw some dust kicked up in the distance. I figured I must be getting close. Then the track started to undulate up and down and I started slowing down. 3pm went by, still no sign of a homestead. I kept thinking I was seeing signs or rooftops ahead, but a quick check with my binoculars revealed I was seeing things. I started to feel queasy, my feet and legs and back and shoulders hurt. My hands were burning, so I put sunscreen on them. I heard a call like a weird kind of Whistler - possibly a Gilbert's? I really didn't care by this stage. I was stopping more often, a cloud of flies lifted off my backpack whenever I put it down, and more and more seriously considering the PLB, which I really, really didn't want to do. I thought to myself, what if I get to this station and no-one's there? Hey, a lot of them just leave their doors open anyway, I could just walk in and find a phone and call for help - I'm sure they'd understand. If I really had to I could probably break in. Oh my God, what if I'm on the wrong road and I never find a station??? I was getting a bit panicked by this stage. I did realise that I had slowed down a lot and 10km in one hour was pretty optimistic. Maybe it was more like 11-12km anyway. Okay, I'll walk until 4pm then re-evaluate. About two hills later I spotted an antenna. I tried not to get my hopes up too much in case it was JUST an antenna. Then a bit further on I saw a windmill, then another - both were turning and looked in good nick. Then I saw a sign up ahead, and a rooftop. Hallelujah I am saved!!
The station was actually exactly how I imagined. I wandered around the side of the house surrounded by lush lawns - the sprinklers were on - so somebody MUST be home! - there was also a pool. I found a gate that was unlocked and let myself in and said "Hello!" And then a woman (her name turned out to be Tracy), appeared. She was accompanied by a HUGE gorgeous dog (a Newfoundland). I hope she didn't think that dog was a guard dog, because it was as docile as anything. I explained my situation and she told me that the road was actually closed. We went around to the shed to get hubby (his name was Gary) because he had a winch. Just as imagined, the vehicles were old, dusty, Landcruiser utes. I wasn't offered a glass of water, but I was offered a cold bottle of rainwater to refill my water bottles - man that water tasted GOOD.
Back we went to my poor car (it took about 10 minutes, if that to drive back). Gary took a look and said, "I reckon I can drive her out of there." So I let him have a go. He reversed back along the tracks I'd already made for a few metres then gunned it, and out she came! If I hadn't been going so slowly through that I stalled it I would have been okay. But even if I had known that technique of reversing, I may not have tried it, just in case I ended up stuck right in the water or something. I had visions of sudden flash flooding carrying my car away. I thanked him profusely and he followed me back to the station. I knew from the walk that the road to the station would be fine to drive along, and I was informed that the road back the highway was also driveable. Really, the only obstacle at all on all the roads I drove on was about 10 metres of river crossing, and I was about 4 metres from getting out when I bogged. So close, yet so far away.
This is why I left a day earlier than planned I guess. I quickly decided to spend the night in Mount Magnet and get a donga, an actual bed to sleep on. Turns out I was cutting it VERY fine with the fuel. My fuel light had just come on when I got into town. Cost me about $65 to fill up!! I found the place Gary recommended to me. A yard of dongas, mostly catering to fly-in fly-out miners. For $70 I got a donga with a bed, a shower, a toilet, a sink, a fridge, air-con and a TV (the guy actually mentioned the TV as if that made it all worth it. I didn't really care for TV, but seeing as it was there and I was paying for it, I watched a bit anyway, nothing good on).
I immediately had a shower and assessed my feet - a few blisters, but not too bad. My boots are covered in mud and the soles are actually breaking up (I noticed this yesterday). Hopefully they see me out until I get back to Perth, if not I may be able to get a new pair in Newman or Broome - I'll just pay the premium price for them.
I slept well. I took a walk around the grounds this morning and found to my surprise that my legs do hurt a bit, but nowhere near as bad as I'd feared. My sunburn isn't major. And I can get internet here! So I let mum and Matt know I was okay and had dinner before I went to bed.
Now I'm about to get all my crap organised again and head off to Nallan. If the road into Nallan is impassable, I'll probably push on to Kumarina.
Here's to more new birds today! I would like a Crimson Chat to complete my set please!
4/3/2011 (Ninghan Station, Payne's Find, Warne River, Narndee Station, Mount Magnet)
Australian Pipit
Australian Raven
Australian Ringneck
Australian Wood Duck
Banded Lapwing
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Brown Falcon
Brown Honeyeater
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
Crested Bellbird (H)
Crested Pigeon
Diamond Dove (H)
Gilbert's Whistler (H?????)
Inland Thornbill
Little Woodswallow
Magpie
Magpie Lark
Pied Butcherbird (H)
Rainbow Bee-eater (H)
Red-capped Robin (H)
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
Rock Dove
Rufous Whistler
Singing Honeyeater
Slaty-backed Thornbill
Southern Whiteface
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Tree Martin
UnIDed wader (Common Sandpiper?)
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Welcome Swallow
Western Bowerbird
Western Gerygone (H)
White-backed Swallow
White-plumed Honeyeater
White-winged Fairy-wren
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Yellow-throated Miner
Zebra Finch
See more photos from today here.
First light is around 5:30am. It's now almost 6am and the sun hasn't even crossed the horizon, but I'm already being hounded by flies. Dawn chorus is only just firing up, with the tinkle of yellow-rumped thornbills and the caroling of magpies. Most of what I'm hearing is the whine of mosquitos and the buzz of flies.
 |
|
| Sunrise at Ninghan Station Crappy camera doesn't capture the light properly. |
Last night I discovered that even a slight wind is almost too much for the camp stove to handle. And it doesn't get anywhere near hot enough quick enough. My piece of kangaroo was still quite rare in the middle, but tough because I had to cook it for ages to even get to that stage. I think I'll wait until I can use a BBQ or camp kitchen to cook the rest. The water for my asparagus never boiled, so it was still quite crunchy - that's no big issue for me though. At least the water got hot enough that it was quite useful for washing the dishes afterwards.
Which brings me to another thing - when camping you certainly have to get into the "a place for everything and everthing in it's place" mindset - especially when you're camped on dirt and can't have things strewn everywhere because they will get dusty very easily. First task - dinner. Grab a green bag (these are VERY handy for this kind of thing), put all the food and utensils you'll need in it. Cook dinner, eat dinner, wash the dishes (as I mentioned before - I used the hot water from cooking, I was originally going to wander to the bathrooms and use the sink, but my water was much hotter and close at hand).
Wow, this dawn chorus is REALLY quiet. Kinda disappointing. I can hear Peewees now, and something that sounds like a Miner, but that's it.
Once the dishes are done - you put all the dinner stuff away. Then you get out everything you need for a shower and put it in the bag, go over and have a shower. The shower here is simple - just a concrete floored room. There are two showers, but no real place to get dry and changed - just the vestibule where the sink is. Lucky no-one else seemed to be using the facilities so I closed the main door and had the whole building to myself. And my God it is so worth seeking out a shower at the end of a long, hot day. There is no hot water here - not really surprising, but the shower was still absolutely lovely.
After that I sat outside briefly and read, but the mozzies bugged me too much so I decided to go to bed. Swags are pretty cool things. You get in and zip up and suddenly you're in a little capsule. You can hear the mozzies whining just a few inches away, but you're safe in a bug-free zone.
Ooh, I can now hear a Pied Butcherbird. *has a happy*
All the zippers in a good swag are above ground level too, so crawling insects can't bumble into the tiny gap left where the zipper tags meet. I laid in there and stared at the stars - amazing how many there are in an area with no light pollution. I didn't see the moon last night, but once my eyes adjusted I could almost walk around by starlight alone.
Handily, my head-torch has a red-light option. This is awesome, because the red-light doesn't ruin your night vision (or the night vision of any critter you're trying to spot), and it doesn't seem to be quite as attractive to insects.
I bedded down around 9pm, but didn't get to sleep until 10:30. Some stargazing turned into concern about the wind. It would sound like a plane passing over, I guess it was rolling down the hill as it came. I was worried about it blowing in storm clouds, but my fear was unfounded. I slept for maybe 4 hours until my bladder woke me up and I was surprised to find it was only 2:30am. I read for a bit and eventually fell back asleep and woke again at 5:30.
It's now 6:15, the sun is about to cross the horizon and these thornbills are getting noisy. I guess I better go for a wander and do some birding before breakfast. After that I'll pack and head off.
 |
Ninghan Station The sun about to peek over the hill. |
Well, the day started great. I wandered around Ninghan Station, spotting Crested Pigeons and thornbills and Ringnecks. While I was cooking breakfast a couple of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos slowly winged their way across the farm. I saw a medium sized bird land in a tree and bob up and down in a familar manner until it was joined by another one - they were Western Bowerbirds - my first new bird for the trip! After breakfast I packed up and squared up with the woman at the station - I'm pretty sure that had I just left no-one would be the wiser for the fact that I didn't pay. When I said I was there to pay she kinda paused and went, "Oh... okay." Gee.
There is a LOT of water beside the roads. I stopped at a floodway just north of the Ninghan turnoff that was obviously very recently reaching across the road. Beside that temporary lake I found Wood Ducks and Banded Lapwings. It's all so green up here because of the rain! Amazing.
| Water by the road This was just north of the Ninghan Station turnoff. Now doubt a few days earlier the water covered the road. |
 |
The trouble started in Payne's Find, where I pulled up to the roadhouse to find that they were out of fuel. Another couple there seemed a bit bewildered by it all, I don't think they had enough fuel to get to the next stop. I had about half a tank as well as my jerry can. I eventually wandered to the caravan park around the back, found a (very dodgy and grotty, but usable) toilet and someone who could advise on the roads. The road to Maroubra Station was open ("My mate just bought a road train through there this morning!") and I was advised that the if the Sandstone Road wasn't closed, it would be fine too.
He was dead right. I went down the Maroubra Road a bit and birded a bit. Found an old mine pit and a feeding party of thornbills, among them were a few Southern Whiteface fossicking about on the ground - another newie, got great looks too. I was very happy. I decided to forgo going all the way to the spot that Frank O'Connor recommended because I didn't want to run out of fuel and really wanted to check out Warne River (a supposed good spot for Gilbert's Whistler). The road was beautiful, just a few minor washouts and some corrougations - which you really can't avoid at the best of times. I was consistently driving 80 - 100kph on the road, that's how good it was. I stopped at the cattle grid Frank recommended and had a look around. Hunted down a whistler, only to find it was a Rufous (from the call I had a pretty good idea that it would be). Near the fence was a dead animal, I assumed it was a roo until I got close enough to see the feet. It was a poor emu who seems to have been caught in the endless running up and down a barrier fence until it carked it, it was the first of a few dead emus for the day, haven't seen a live one yet.
 |
Unfortunate Emu When I saw the bones I first thought this was a kangaroo. Then I saw the feet. |
I heard Crested Bellbird here (actually, I heard Bellbirds most of the day), but didn't see any. There were also plenty of thornbills flitting about including my third new bird - Slaty-backed Thornbill.
After the grid I headed to the river crossing, which was about 50km down the track. Wow, water wasn't on the road anymore, but the river had plenty of water in it and was rimmed with reeds and surrounded by green fields. As soon as I got out of the car I heard Zebra Finches and quickly found them. They were about it for the birds here though - I heard a lot but saw little (I heard a Diamond Dove - what a lovely sound). The place was an entomologists paradise, but not so much an orthinologists. Didn't hear a whistler at all. Did scare up a wader at a nearby pool of water, but it flew away before I could ID it. This place was riddled with Double Gees. Vicious, spiky seed pods that would be flicked up by my boots and stick in my sock behind my heel. Ouch.
It was just past midday by this time but I wasn't that hungry, so I figured I'd have lunch in Mount Magnet, and take a shortcut - the Red Bluff Road, which would end me up on the highway a bit further north. It would save me petrol. The turnoff was a little further down the road, so on I went until I found the road. It wasn't signposted, but there was a yellow flag attached to the post (turns out someone nicked the sign). There was the standard "Gravel Roads - conditions can change quickly" sign. There were no "Road Closed" signs. A few hundred metres along I came across a washed out area, but crossed without much trouble. There were further washouts and a couple of muddy puddles - the mud was deeper and slipperier than expected, but still, no big issue. It was a bit unnerving to be driving on this road because there were no other tracks on it. I must have been the first across since the rain.
 |
|
| Red Bluff - Narndee Road The road ahead - it was a little unnerving to drive on unspoilt road. |
Then I came across my obstacle.
| Warne River again - on the Red Bluff - Narndee Road This is where the trouble started. It didn't seem too bad. I checked the terrain, and figured it would be no more challenging than the muddy puddles I'd been through earlier. |
|
 |
A quick check of the map indicated that this was the Warne River again. So I stopped, checked out some nearby White-winged Fairy-wrens, and assessed the conditions. Slippery mud, okay, not much different from those puddles a little way back. Sand in the middle - pretty firm. Water was very shallow, barely ankle depth. Okay, I thought, I can take this. I put the Terios in low gear and slowly but steadily made my way forward.
Halfway up the far bank I stalled. I restarted and tried to move on - nothing. Tried again, nope. Swore a bit in frustration. Checked out where I was a stuck. Tried the CB on all the channels - no answer. Tried the emergency number on my mobile - no reception, even for emergency calls. Got back in the car. Rocked it back and forth a bit until I could smell the engine. Stopped that as I was just getting myself into more trouble. Great, here I am in the middle of nowhere, on a track no-one has been along in days and who knows when the next person will come by? I considered my PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) and read the sticker, "Use only during situations of grave and imminent danger". Okay, I wasn't in grave and imminent danger, not yet anyway. And setting off that thing would pretty much mean an end to the holiday, and it was only day two. Not an option (at least not yet). I looked at my map again and figured that the next station, Narndee, was about 10km down the track. Okay, I can do that, it'll take me what, about an hour? So I turfed all the crap out of my backpack, put in important things, like 3 bottles of water, a few apples and a bag of twiggy sticks. Donned my hat and long sleeved shirt and put sunscreen on my legs. I grabbed my binoculars - may as well make the best of a bad situation right? And I started walking. This was about 1:30pm. Lucky there was a slight breeze blowing so it was tolerable. I had visions of soon being on a lovely grassy, shady station where I would be offered a cold glass of water before hopping in some rickety old Troopy to go and get me out. Along the way I tried the CB and emergency number frequently, with no luck. 2:30 came and went. I found a fence line and a turkey dam and saw some dust kicked up in the distance. I figured I must be getting close. Then the track started to undulate up and down and I started slowing down. 3pm went by, still no sign of a homestead. I kept thinking I was seeing signs or rooftops ahead, but a quick check with my binoculars revealed I was seeing things. I started to feel queasy, my feet and legs and back and shoulders hurt. My hands were burning, so I put sunscreen on them. I heard a call like a weird kind of Whistler - possibly a Gilbert's? I really didn't care by this stage. I was stopping more often, a cloud of flies lifted off my backpack whenever I put it down, and more and more seriously considering the PLB, which I really, really didn't want to do. I thought to myself, what if I get to this station and no-one's there? Hey, a lot of them just leave their doors open anyway, I could just walk in and find a phone and call for help - I'm sure they'd understand. If I really had to I could probably break in. Oh my God, what if I'm on the wrong road and I never find a station??? I was getting a bit panicked by this stage. I did realise that I had slowed down a lot and 10km in one hour was pretty optimistic. Maybe it was more like 11-12km anyway. Okay, I'll walk until 4pm then re-evaluate. About two hills later I spotted an antenna. I tried not to get my hopes up too much in case it was JUST an antenna. Then a bit further on I saw a windmill, then another - both were turning and looked in good nick. Then I saw a sign up ahead, and a rooftop. Hallelujah I am saved!!
The station was actually exactly how I imagined. I wandered around the side of the house surrounded by lush lawns - the sprinklers were on - so somebody MUST be home! - there was also a pool. I found a gate that was unlocked and let myself in and said "Hello!" And then a woman (her name turned out to be Tracy), appeared. She was accompanied by a HUGE gorgeous dog (a Newfoundland). I hope she didn't think that dog was a guard dog, because it was as docile as anything. I explained my situation and she told me that the road was actually closed. We went around to the shed to get hubby (his name was Gary) because he had a winch. Just as imagined, the vehicles were old, dusty, Landcruiser utes. I wasn't offered a glass of water, but I was offered a cold bottle of rainwater to refill my water bottles - man that water tasted GOOD.
Back we went to my poor car (it took about 10 minutes, if that to drive back). Gary took a look and said, "I reckon I can drive her out of there." So I let him have a go. He reversed back along the tracks I'd already made for a few metres then gunned it, and out she came! If I hadn't been going so slowly through that I stalled it I would have been okay. But even if I had known that technique of reversing, I may not have tried it, just in case I ended up stuck right in the water or something. I had visions of sudden flash flooding carrying my car away. I thanked him profusely and he followed me back to the station. I knew from the walk that the road to the station would be fine to drive along, and I was informed that the road back the highway was also driveable. Really, the only obstacle at all on all the roads I drove on was about 10 metres of river crossing, and I was about 4 metres from getting out when I bogged. So close, yet so far away.
 |
Stuck I was TOO careful. Going so slowly caused me to stall and I was stuck. So close, yet so far away from freedom. |
This is why I left a day earlier than planned I guess. I quickly decided to spend the night in Mount Magnet and get a donga, an actual bed to sleep on. Turns out I was cutting it VERY fine with the fuel. My fuel light had just come on when I got into town. Cost me about $65 to fill up!! I found the place Gary recommended to me. A yard of dongas, mostly catering to fly-in fly-out miners. For $70 I got a donga with a bed, a shower, a toilet, a sink, a fridge, air-con and a TV (the guy actually mentioned the TV as if that made it all worth it. I didn't really care for TV, but seeing as it was there and I was paying for it, I watched a bit anyway, nothing good on).
I immediately had a shower and assessed my feet - a few blisters, but not too bad. My boots are covered in mud and the soles are actually breaking up (I noticed this yesterday). Hopefully they see me out until I get back to Perth, if not I may be able to get a new pair in Newman or Broome - I'll just pay the premium price for them.
I slept well. I took a walk around the grounds this morning and found to my surprise that my legs do hurt a bit, but nowhere near as bad as I'd feared. My sunburn isn't major. And I can get internet here! So I let mum and Matt know I was okay and had dinner before I went to bed.
Now I'm about to get all my crap organised again and head off to Nallan. If the road into Nallan is impassable, I'll probably push on to Kumarina.
Here's to more new birds today! I would like a Crimson Chat to complete my set please!
4/3/2011 (Ninghan Station, Payne's Find, Warne River, Narndee Station, Mount Magnet)
Australian Pipit
Australian Raven
Australian Ringneck
Australian Wood Duck
Banded Lapwing
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Brown Falcon
Brown Honeyeater
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
Crested Bellbird (H)
Crested Pigeon
Diamond Dove (H)
Gilbert's Whistler (H?????)
Inland Thornbill
Little Woodswallow
Magpie
Magpie Lark
Pied Butcherbird (H)
Rainbow Bee-eater (H)
Red-capped Robin (H)
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
Rock Dove
Rufous Whistler
Singing Honeyeater
Slaty-backed Thornbill
Southern Whiteface
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Tree Martin
UnIDed wader (Common Sandpiper?)
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Welcome Swallow
Western Bowerbird
Western Gerygone (H)
White-backed Swallow
White-plumed Honeyeater
White-winged Fairy-wren
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Yellow-throated Miner
Zebra Finch
See more photos from today here.
