Day 113 | Malcolm Dam, near Leonora: finally striking out due east

62 km | zzOz total: 5,570 km

Leonora has been a town in the news this week, a group of mostly Afghan refugees have been dumped here while the bureaucratic processes do their thing.

They are all “unaccompanied minors”, basically boys aged 12 to 17 whose home is now an abandoned mining camp. Maybe the authorities believe the desolate countryside will make them feel at home but there isn’t too much in the way of mountains out here. Or perhaps this taste of the real Australia will assist in easing them into society.

I’m in town for the AFL Grand Final, and find myself at the appointed time at the White House Hotel which advertises a Big Screen but otherwise falls short of the type of amenity one would have in Washington. The streets have been deserted, now I find the populace, well mostly travellers and hi-vis shirt wearers, have already made themselves at home.

There’s overwhelming support at the White House for the Geelong Cats who are chasing their 3rd premiership in 5 years, despite the loss of their coach and their best player at the end of last season. The Collingwood Magpies, the most famous sporting club in Australia, harness the antipathy of all non-Pies supporters, ie, most of the rest of the country. Their long serving coach, been a player or coach for the last 40 years, has the opportunity of a much talked about fairytale finish to his career. Today will be the last day of his chosen vocation.

The Big Screen waves slightly whenever someone heads for the urinal, ie, constantly, the sound level insufficient to provide complete atmosphere to these deaf ears, maybe the abrupt intervention of advertising every time a side scores dissipated the intensity.

It was a cracker game, the lead changed 10 or so times, both teams attacking furiously, and Collingwood, true to form, having lost more Grand Finals than any other team, kept up the tradition.

Leonora is where I make a left turn and finally take off on an almost exclusively easterly direction.

I’ve toyed with the idea of having another diversion, off to Lake Ballard, or down to the extinct Sons of Gwalia mine settlement, but I’ve had enough of sidetracks for a while.

So it’s Laverton and then the X kms of almost exclusively dirt road for the next month.