1-Wave Rock (Hyden)

Thursday 8th May:
We eventually left our house in Perth @ 4pm and realising it was too late to hit the road and get anywhere, we decided to spend the night on Sean and Tarm's (our son and his wife) back lawn in the caravan and get a good nights sleep.

On the way there, we hit the new roadworks at Ellenbrook and guess what, a short road renovation consisting of mud and slush turned our bright and shiny rig into a dirty dogs breakfast. Couldn't belief the state of the caravan when we arrived at Sean's.
Then more problems hit us when we arrived there. When we connected the mains water supply to the caravan, the water started pouring out the overflow pipes and basically watering the lawn leaving nothing for the caravan.
Also no hot water. We soon discovered that the pressure relief valve on the gas hot water system had failed which was why everything was being dumped on the lawn. As the pressure relief valve has a safety device incorporated into it and it had failed, the hot water system wouldn't work either so stuck with cold water.
Used their house facilities, thanks guys for the help and hospitality

Friday 9th May:
Down to the warranty workshop first thing this morning and they were absolutely first class.
Although they were already fully booked, they spent the whole morning sorting the water and gas system out and replacing the necessary parts. Thanks to Ken Peachey Caravans for the excellant service.

Finally left Perth at lunch time and arrived at Wave rock at 6:30 in pitch darkness, so setting up took a little longer than normal.
A nice juicy sirloin on the barbie served with mushrooms, salad and a nice bottle of Shiraz topped our first day on the road.
We then realised it was our wedding anniversary yesterday (8th of May) and we'd both forgotten about it, a whole 37 years, so that called for another glass of wine.

Saturday May 10th:
Although Wave Rock and Hippo Rock are awesome to see, once you've seen them that's it, nothing else to do in Hyden.
Did all the Wave Rock tourist thing this morning and shot some footage etc, then decided to head for Kalgoorlie.
Yes you heard right. I know we planned to head onto Esperance next, but Marlene's never been to Kalgoorlie, or seen an open pit mine, or walked the Golden Mile (brothel strip) or been to the home of 2UP, so why not :)

Most of the roads heading north from Wave Rock are being re-done and re-routed and the GPS was totally confused telling us to turn up non existant roads then trying to send us up bush tracks etc. Even all our road maps and atlas were no help so decided to head for the last known main road to Naranbeem, then Merridin which put us on the Gt Eastern Highway to Kalgoorlie. That obviously set us back a few hours, buy hey, time isn't an issue anymore and I'm surprised how it didn't bother us or stress us out at all.

As it was getting on towards 4:30pm, decided to stop at Southern Cross for the night while it was still light, didn't really want another setup in the dark.

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Travelling Oz