ride4acure

Kalgoorlie farrier Steve Routledge shoeing 'Surprise' with Esther.

Kalgoorlie is a surprising area.  Great people, fascinating environment and to Joe’s joy wild goats all over the place! We pulled in here Friday afternoon to go through quarintine again.  We had to get the horses drenched again for liver fluke (previously drenched at Port Augusta), and have the truck washed down.  We were able to camp here with the horses for the weekend which has been great and a luxury with BBQ area, hot showers etc and only 15 minutes into Kalgoorlie. Today saw us take in the final Harry Potter movie, felt surreal to be sitting in a cinema after so long in the bush!

The trip across from Norseman was wet and muddy!  A word about Norseman, another gold mining town (1 pub, 1 store, 1 cafe!)  the first since Ceduna 5 weeks ago! It was named after a horse that was called Norseman, when a local farmer a century ago pulled up there and his horse pawed the ground and uncovered a massive gold nugget and the town was born!

'Titan' & Esther meet 'Norseman' WA.

Makes it hard in this country pulling off the road to change horses, have to be very careful to avoid bogging the truck, but I managed.  Has been delightful weather, low 20’s during the day down to just our shirts. There are a gazillion mines in this area, mullock heaps abounding.  Just up the road from here is a massive nickel smelter.  Half the vehicles on the highway are mine utes (all covered in red mud, they’ve had nearly two inches of rain this last week).

Perth in our sights again!

We’re going through Coolgardie tomorrow and taking the next three days to get to Southern Cross (my paternal grandmothers childhood home) they had a wheat farm there a century ago.

It feels surreal being back in ‘civilisation’ after so long in the bush.  The thing that blows me away is after so long of counting every drop of prescious water having hoses at truckstops, there’s a hose and water trough in every yard here at quarantine…..keeping up with water was a big challenge since we left Ceduna 31 days ago.  Thats nearly 5 weeks of watching every drop.  The Nullarbour roadhouses predominantly relied on their own desalination plants or rainwater.  showers were mostly costed out at $1 for 3-5 minutes and were coin operated.  I don’t think that would’ve covered the cost really of the deisel to run generators and their desalination plants!  And we so appreciate the generosity of the Managers who gave us water. Most people drive across the Nullarbor in two days from Ceduna to Norseman, we took 5 weeks! The ladies at Eucla Roadhouse generously donated us a box of fruit and veges to keep us going to Norseman! Human food wise we’d planned two red meat meals a week, a couple of tuna meals, beans and eggs!  We had a well stocked tucker box, plenty of long life milk, flat bread etc. Coped really well. We had Viv Kyle from Kempsey and her family do a drop off of beer and chocolates on their way back from Perth!  Awesome!!

Crossing the Nullarbor these last 5 weeks has been totally awesome.  I’ve seen some of the most awe-striking country in my life and the grandeur and majesty of it has taken my breath away.  I feel like 5 weeks was to fast to take it all in it is such a vast landscape, and that’s just following the Eyre Highway!

One of my greatest discoveries on this trek has been the stories of Daisy Bates, a notable Australian pioneering woman who in the 20s lived on the Nullarbor with Aboriginal communities for 16 years  to understand more about traditional life and the impact of European settlement on Aboriginal culture.  Certainly on my agenda to read up on the history of her life.

We three are making each day count enjoying every minute of these final two weeks of this trek and of course excited also for Esther that she’ll be making history riding 4600kms from Coast2Coast as a young 20 yo woman, and landing at Cottlesloe Beach on her own milestone, her 21st Birthday, that’s a totally awesome way to make it both memorable and remarkable! And most importantly for Esther, Joe and I is that the backdrop to everything we do is remembering Hannah, bringing her hopes to life to ‘put melanoma on the map’, and we’re doing that one hoof/step at a time…with Hannah on our minds and in our hearts every step of the way…

Wow to finally be back in range of Internet and Mobile service. 16 days of being ‘disconnected’ got us all back to basic’s and enjoying the simple things.

Day 64 to 66 Nullarbor Roadhouse to Border Village ~ Leaving Nullarbor Roadhouse early morning was like waving goodbye to civilisation! It was so COLD! The road travels about 150 to 200 metres of the edge of the cliffs of The Great Australian Bight. I had the chance while I was on Titan to ride right to the edge when a thunderstorm was rolling in. INCREDIBLE! I thought the view from Andy’s plane was amazing, but the feeling of riding my horse right to the very edge of the cliffs was the single most outstanding moment of my life.  I had just been caught in gale force winds and heavy rain, I was still 15k’s out of night camp and the ten metres before I got a view of the cliffs my body was riddled with aches and pains. But walking right to the edge felt like sitting on the edge of the earth. A beam of light burst through the rain and shone off the cliffs and everything was glistening in the light after the storm. Then playing catch up once I got to camp Mum and Joe found a beaut rest area only 150 metres of the cliffs with a pod of whales there. Leading all three horses to the edge and listening to the roar of the waves and the noises the whales were making was the perfect ending to my day! (Not to mention while I was have a moment Mum and Joe finished setting yards up, getting water and mixing night feed up!) We got to catch up with Viv (from Just Lingerie Kempsey) and her family! We caught up with them in Ceduna and jokingly asked for beer and chocolate when they passed us on the way back! It was the best beer I have ever drank and the chocolate was perfect! We made it to Border Village in time to watch state of origin. Mother nature threw a bit of wild weather my way, Luckily I have my great Muddy Creek Raincoat and stayed warm and dry!

Day 67 ~ Rest day at Border village, loaded three pallet loads of Western Hay feed on the roof and into the truck.

Esther and joe loading feed onto roof at border Village

Day 68 to 72 Border Village to Cocklebiddy ~ Crossing in to WA on Titan felt terrific! He crossed the Victorian border for me in the Early hours of the morning and crossing my last border felt like we where entering the last leg of the journey. Mundrabilla was the first camp, and the shocking reality that my bed was now a dedicated horse feed area saw me sleeping out side. I need to mention that it was raining, windy and Bobby made his way into my bed, I was five metres away from the horses so not only did I have a considerably large lump of red heeler snoring ‘in’ my bed I had Titan snoring while he was asleep and licking rails when he was awake, Surprise grunting and Meg snoring, which was a perfect combination for me to be awake at 3am making a cup of tea. Mum woke up up and nearly died of shock! Adjusting to the time difference was weird, and even though I rode through the time zones  it was still hard to get in the swing of WA time. I saw my first camel tracks on day 69, they were old so didn’t worry me too much! I didn’t make it all the way to Madura roadhouse, so we camped in the scrub again! Titan was first horse out and Mum was still behind me packing up camp and out of nowhere there is the ‘Madura Pass’ where you cut up the mountains and on the a plateau and looked way out over the plains that I had been riding across for days! I rode right to the edge of the rocky edge on Titan and was admiring the view taking a few pictures and we turned to walk away and notice the lookout behind me had six or seven people lined up taking pictures of Titan and me! Riding into Cocklebiddy gave me a sense of relief that there was a rest day ahead of us!! A massive Thankyou to Shona and Tony for their Hospitality!

Titan admiring the view at Madura Pass

Day 73 to 76 Cocklebiddy to Balladonia ~ Leaving Cocklebiddy later than expected due to fog made our morning relaxing! I arrived in Caiguna just on dark, meeting up with a few push bikers from Byron Bay. They have ridden from Perth and heading back to Byron Bay raising money for Diabetes along the way. I need to mention, I am still bedless at this stage! Either sleeping under the annex or in the very back of the truck where the horses travel. This experience allowed me (and Mum) to further understand the depths of my temper. Getting into camp in the dark, tired, mostly wet and a little wind swept and then attempting to move massive bales of hay to procure a flat space for my swag to get rolled out on. In the process of attempting to dislodge an incredibly heavy large bale of hay the threads of containment of both the hay bale and my temper snapped. Seeing Mum ever so quietly back out of truck and leave me to my cursing and hay tossing. After the grey cloud above my head cleared the next day Mum took a moment to tell me about the flash back she had of me as a year old baby and droving on the Hay plains. Standing in the caravan playing with Duplo blocks on the toy box building things, and when it didnt work I would have a total temper tantrum and swipe my arm along the box wiping all of the blocks out of the door on to the clay pan, for working dogs and older siblings to steal! And had I been able to have got hold of that bale of hay it would have come to the same end. Mum realising this, she quickly exited the truck!   Arriving at Balladonia felt like we were back in civilisation! The meal was delicious! I caught up with a bloke who pulled up near Iron Knob and liked the look of Meg. He was stoked to know we had had such a successful trip! The horses where happy to have another Rest day! As was I!

Es n Meg having a Deep and Meaningful at Balladonia

Day 77 to 79 Balladonia to Norseman ~ Leaving Balladonia on Surprise in the fog was an experience! he is always a little spooky anyway but after a day off and brisk morning air he was particularly jumpy! Lucky I love him and he is a ripper! We made it to Fraser Range sheep station with an hour of daylight left! So I was casually wandering down the 2k driveway hoping that by the time I arrived Mum and Joe had the yards set up! The joke was on me because there was beaut sandy sheep yards. Titan and Surprise rolled and rolled! Titan did the first shift out of Fraser Range and we arrived in Norseman late last night. Norseman got it’s name from an Explorer’s horse who pawed the ground and dug up a gold nugget.

We have two rest days here in Norseman and will enjoy them thoroughly!

So I have now crossed the Nullarbor. And being honest, I enjoyed this bit of the trip the most! Feeling at home in the remoteness and wide open spaces. there is only 18days left on the trek and I am finding hard to believe that I have ridden 3900 kilometres… I have mixed emotions about finishing the trek. The most part of this year has been focused on this trip, and to finish will be a great sense of achievement I am sure, but will also be the end of this chapter and open the door for the next adventure to begin.

Meg and Esther at the Great Australian Bight

Happy Trails. X Es

Nullabor Roadhouse is a welcome oasis after the two day haul from Nundroo.  We camped in the scrub inbetween Nundroo and Nullabor and it was wet and cold.  Luckily our camp was on an old gravel pile where the ground was good.  Got a good early start on Saturday and Esther rode 75kms into Nullabor getting here about 4.30pm.  When she arrived here on Surprise two massive 750 hp prime movers pulled up towing train engines from Brisbane! Amazing sight.   We had a yarn with the drivers.  We had to build our yards for the horses.  There’s absolutely no grazing for them here, only salt bush and spear grass.  Had a great day which included the flight with Pilot Andy Morris whose contracting here from the Roadhouse with scenic whale watching tours over the Great Australian Bight.  Both Esther and Joe rated it as one of the most amazing things they’ve done ever! Now that’s saying something.

Nullabor Train transports 750hp prime movers towing the train engines. 2.7.11

The days are melding into each other on the Nullabor, we’re on the ‘treeless’ section of the plains now, which is a pain for me the strapper as there’s no where to tie horses up out of the wind a little!

Anyway that will change down the road! Off in the morning heading toward Eucla the WA/SA border.  We’ll take two and a half days to reach the border. We’ll actually pull up at  Border Village on the SA side on Wednesday night and we have to go through all our quarintine criteria, including yarding horses overnight to ’empty’ them of their NSW feed, and we have 3 pallet loads of WA product waiting for us.  We also have to surrender any fruit and veges, honey, nuts, seeds.  Of course we’re trying to arrive with as little of all those items as possible.  Additionally we have to remove any dirt from SA/NSW from the truck too.  Good luck with that for us! Will need to get somewhere where there’s actually water to spare to clean it.

I would encourage any travellers crossing the Nullabor to have a stop over here.  The environment is amazing, (reminds me of Hay Plains only bigger) the Nullabor Plains is 200 000 square kms! This roadhouse accommodates campers, caravans, and also has bunkhouse style accommodation and good motel rooms.  The best showers and good laundry facilities, all of which we road tested! I’m only sorry we couldn’t have another day here!  Met up with travellers in the bar, had a quiet beer and talked about ride4acure.  Actually met a lady from Gisborne Saddlery I talked with last July when I was preparing to ride into Melbourne at the end of my pack horse ride.  She and her husband have been travelling around WA for a while and where fuelling up when I pulled the truck in to the camping area. Small world.

The horses are going great.  Getting fitter every day… unbelievable how good they look for such grueling work.  But they keep pulling up sound and the feedback from people on how magnificent they look is testament to the quality horse feed we’ve got from both Mitavite and Manuka.  The other fantastic thing is the top quality tungstan plugs and tungstan road nails we have been sponsored with in addition to our horse shoes from Clarke Horseshoes from Wingham, with the tungstan we’ve prolonged the life of the shoes x 4 or 5 times at least.  So fingers crossed we’ll be right to Kalgoorlie!

Esther & Titan 50 kms east Nullabor Roadhouse.2.7.11

We will definitely be out of  phone range now for a couple of weeks.  We lucked it here with a phone tower right at the roadhouse!  We didn’t know about this.  But we’ve been told no more!