John and Viv, having just moved to Southern Cross and being members of the
Mitsubishi Club, invited them to Karalee for the long weekend in September.
You know, the same weekend that Footy diehards live to be humiliated or
exonerated – only in this case, they have to go back again, next weekend.
Runger had been talking to John about the Yilgarn was asked if we would like
to join them. Is the Pope Catholic? Are we keen???
The Mitsi Mob arrived on Friday night, and we couldn’t get there until the
Saturday afternoon, but that’s OK. We set up our camper amongst all the
others when we did arrive – all 11 of them, at the eastern end of Karalee
dam. Over at the toilet end, it was rapidly filling up with other campers.
All up, there were 12 campers where we were; 12 campers/vans, 2 tents and 5
bikes at the western end; 1 camper at the northern end; 2 campers in the
bush at the southern end. Most of these vehicles we had seen in Southern
Cross on Saturday morning at the Service Stations, or parked up the main
street.
We thought we might go and meet the travellers at Yellowdine, as they had
taken a trip in to Weowannie via Duladgin, and figured they would coming
back around the road, and not through the bush to Karalee from Weowannie –
the Australian Safari had gone that way, but the scrub is still too close to
the duco for most vehicles.
We all wandered back to Karalee and to the fire. The men were cooking tea.
In fact they cooked tea each night – it was funny seeing 10/11 camp ovens
sitting around the big fire and the men with little hooks taking off the
lids, checking out their culinary masterpieces.
John, who will be for now on called Jacques, the Mighty Master chef, had a
feast organized for us. A roast, out there in the bush. He had a beaut
little roasting pot, that cooked everything to perfection. Roast chicken,
spuds, and gravy. Just yum!!
It was great sitting around the fire listening to the stories and teasing
from people who are comfortable with each other and being made feel very
welcome.
At about 10.30 I wandered off to bed in our little camper. We had even
erected the annex, and I was dreading putting it away, because it was such a
pain at Christmas. Still, it kept out the flies next morning, and they
weren’t small. Where do blowies come from, out there in the bush?
Our aim was Mount Palmer to see the ruins and gold mine, and a bit of
detecting, maybe. At Mount Palmer, there were 2 lots of campers in the bush
with 5 vehicles between them. Now is the best time to go bush in the Yilgarn,
because it is still cool enough to explore, the flies aren’t that bad, and
who want to go to the beach to be blown away and frozen??
We had lunch overlooking the lake, and the intrepid ones, went down to the
open cut for a look-see. The more indolent ones, stayed up at the cars
chatting and swapping stories. It was great seeing kids having a go, in fact
the kids were great all weekend. Mums and dads, you are to be commended.
On the way back to camp, we came across the only water barrier for the day-
the pothole on the fire access road. John the Tour Leader powered through
the bog in his blue V8 beast, and as we were behind, and not to be outdone,
Runger, stopped, put the hubs in, got back in and powered through as well.
Only trouble was he had forgotten to change to 4x4 and I thought there for a
sec, that he would need a little tug, but the wonderful Mitui (lost a few
more letters) came through wonderfully. All the rest, except one vehicle,
took the Chicken track. What a disappointment!!! I wanted a photo to write
home about.
Sunday night saw us having another great feast, this time Rogan Josh, a
beautiful curry made with beef and whatever Jacques the Mighty Master Chef
could find. Runger doesn’t like tomatoes, so he was cooked a beautiful
chicken breast and vegies. Talk about spoilt. He does the cooking at home,
so it was a novelty for him.
By 9.30, we were all knackered, so one by one; we all fell off our perches
and toddled to our respective beds.
Thank you to John and Viv for inviting us to join you all for the weekend.
We have met some wonderful people, and staying in touch with them would not
be a hardship, such was the camaraderie and hospitality. They are very
conscious of doing the right thing in the bush, cleaning up their campsites,
taking rubbish away, so I, for one, invite them back again. The only
downside was coming home along Great Eastern Rubbish Tip. What a disgusting
mess. If everyone was as conscious as the Mitsubishi Club about hygiene,
then we would not have millions of kilometres of plastic containers,
aluminium cans, paper, tyres, oil containers and anything else you can
imagine, anywhere on our roads. Maybe if there was a refund on plastics and
cans, there may not be as many on the roads? Maybe if there was a payment
for all the truck tyres in the bush, they may be disposed of correctly??
Maybe if all the abusers took responsibility for their actions, we might
have a nice, clean highway?? One can only hope.