Day 45 | Wialki: the tent fly's up in the doorless, abandoned, primary school
67 km | zzOz total: 2,153 km
As I was leaving Perth, rumbling south to Cape Leeuwin, David Holmes was steaming down the west coast of Australia.
His impression of the West Coast Highway confirmed much of what I’d previously heard: it’s generally yonks away from the coast, ie, it’s not coastal as in proximity to the Indian Ocean; there’s an excess of heavy traffic and, shudder, caravans; not much in the way of facilities; and the country is, what can we say politely, somewhat monotonous.
Travelling around the west coast there’s some parts of the highway that can’t be avoided, no alternative, Derby to Port Hedland, or even Karratha, but at least up there the traffic is reasonably light.
My next major objective is Exmouth, a sort of north west corner of the continent, my excellent reason for that destination is I want to visit Mt Augustus, not only Australia’s biggest monolith, but also the world’s, which requires a route from Exmouth, last supply point, to Meekatharra, and yes, there is a minor, if unsealed, road to connect the points.
My route to Exmouth will begin on a sealed, but less trafficked, road more or less parallel to the said highway, via Dalwallinu to Mullewa, ie, 100km due east of Geraldton. Mullewa is 414km from here.
The fun bit will be the unsealed Mullewa Carnarvon Road, first the 212km to Murchison Settlement, then 316km to Gascoyne Junction, washed out in floods over Christmas so I hope there’s something still there, where I’ll pop back out onto the sealed road to run the last 169km into Carnarvon, a biggish town on the coast. From there Exmouth is a mere 372km away, mixing it with the tourist and mining traffic on the highway for much of it.
So Mullewa Carnarvon is a bumpy 697km, I guess I can add the occasional excursion to that, with two dots on the map on the way.
Boring?
I can’t see it, should be a great little adventure.