Day One Saturday 23/09/06
Tim arrived here at 10-00am already having picked Don up. I was relegated to the front seat as Don was playing with the computer. Tim has made up a program & has a little green car that moves along & shows us exactly where we are at all times. I am sure Tom would have had exactly the same thing when they were travelling around the State early in the 20th Century. By the way Tim has informed us that we are running on used oil from the fish & chip shop.
First stop was Wungong where Tom & Paula managed a farm, we are fairly sure the farm belonged to the Pustkuchens. From there we tried to travel in the direction they would have gone when they went to Southern Hills.
All in the spirit of adventure we had not long left Wungong & Tim exclaimed we have a problem as the car is misfiring so we best stop. Don & I made lunch while Tim changed the filter & then we headed off in great style. It wasn’t long before we had the same problem again so Tim decided the filter must have been okay but now he thinks we have a fuel pump full of air. Wish I had taken a photo of Tim in the engine, bottom up & Don offering advice ”When you undid that screw fuel should have spurted out”. This stop proved very fruitful I think because whatever Tim did made the Cruiser a lot happier. Stopped in Brookton to look at the old carts & carriages as we were trying to understand the type of conveyance Tom & Paula used.
This turned out to be the last of the mobile coverage for some days, we didn’t even find out the Semi Final footy scores until Norseman where we asked someone. Don asked for a drive but he was VERY naughty & kept going toooo fast so he was banished from the drivers seat for several days. Actually Don is beginning to be quite a problem, the Cruiser is pretty well full of gear & every time we stop he disappears for ages & arrives back with all this stuff to show the kids. We travelled through Hyden & then directly to Norseman, it is possible though they may have gone to Katanning first & then across to Salmon Gums & up to Norseman as further investigations caused us to believe the Hyden Norseman route was not opened until quite a bit later & we are unable to understand why Helen was born in Katanning. Time was getting on & Tim keen to get to a very nice breakaway he had found on a previous trip about 100ks from Norseman so not only was Don banned from driving he was also banned from getting out of the car when we stopped to look at things “naughty Don”. This philosophy worked well though because we got to the breakaway about 5-30 & found a great spot to camp.
Tim radioed in to Perth base on HF radio to report on where we were & check for messages. All went well setting up camp & then the problems started, what do we have for dinner “The list Tim pipes up, check the list” What do you know Kerry has written a detailed list of what we should eat each night & how to cook it “UNBELIEVABLE”, we had T bone steak, sausages & vegetables (couldn’t eat all the sausages so put them in the fridge for lunch). If every day is going to be like this one we are going to have one hell of a great time.
Barry Dennis