Hi all,

 Thanks for following us on our adventures.

Lets continue our journey west  from Linster WA. Sandstone is one place we are stopping at, but not on our forward journey. The CV park is well catered for GN's. with a good mob parked up as we pasted through. The return visit becomes special. 24 hour fuel via Credit card, the same as Linster. ( take note) these 24 hour self serves are 10 cents a litre cheaper then managed servo's. Our aim on the forward trip was to meet up with friends over in Exmouth. Then slow it right back on the way home to visit yet other Gn's on this site,  for the very first time.

Lunch was Mt Magnet. The BP fuel servo was getting its pumps removed and a newer road house has taken over on the northern end of town. The boom may be over, however mining continues throughout the country.

On reaching Yalgoo our mobile phone brings us sad new of one of our friends mother passing.We arrange with our daughter to send flowers and we make a few phone calls before continuing on to Mullewa for yet another free camp 10km north. We had a camp roast with a wonderful sunset. Our camper Sat King working a treat at every stop.

The Road ahead has keep me intrigued for many years. Vince on here has put up many photo's of his travels on this road. ( Thanks Vince) The road in question is the Mullewa to Carnarvon via Gas Coin Juction. We were away early as the nickel mine up the road that was ment to have ceased, was indeed running at full power. The road ahead is sealed for the first 50 km before we hit the gravel. A good hard surface for many km before retuning to a single black top road with nothing in front of us, the pedal finds the metal. The wind is up our behind and, I try to see if the truck will drop into sixth as we were just floating along ( Leagal like) (Thinking at this pace we would be at Carnarvon for the night.) It would not go in so fifth it is. We cop our first rain of our trip and we slow to the conditions. Murchinson is our stop for morning tea, with the couple who run the road house. We talk for an hour. This place is well run an We would love to stay over, The powered sites are first class. I ask rick how far ahead will we find the gravel again. ( By the time you find third gear you'll find it) Is the road open and ok to drive on. Yep, we have had some rain over the last week or two but she's open and away we go.

Half an hour out from Murchinson the heavens open and down she comes. This is no good Lambie I exclaim. We were sitting on 70-80km before the rain, now im down to 50km, 40km, Please let their be no oncoming traffic. I have my right wheels in the rut and lights on. The sholders are full of water we must stay on top. Its so slippery if you just twich the wheel. This road should be closed to all traffic. Traffic coming we slow to 20km, a couple of camper trailers. All good and another five minutes go by. Get on the shoulder and we could  end up in the ditch. Traffic coming, Ho No its a road train, he's in the middle traveling at speed with no throught for us. Wipers on full the mud flies the wind pressure was just enough we are out of the rut the the van is pushing our rear end out over the shoulder. I go for the centre of the road. Sorry Lambie she's sliding at 20km I steer to the left, Nothing 10km 9,8,7,6,5, we are going to jack knife at 5kmph. Lambie says you did well son. Well done!

Not quite dear the car has collided with the firewood basket on the A frame and stopped us coming together, nor doing any damage to the van. I could pull the total rig around and put the hazard lights on. I found a  high spot on the road and checked it out. Ok to drive. the rear bumper bar was catus and we continued till the rain stopped and we found dry ground to check out the lot.

The mud, call it clay. I had to get it off the mud guards, the stone stomper was full the side steps to. Thank god we had the shovel. The van from behind you could not reconise or see any of the tail lights. Another van pulled up and complained about the same road train.

We continued on to the Gas Coin Junction CV Park for the night. I washed clay off both car and van in my swimmers all night in the freezing cold as this stuff would set again like concrete if I did not.At Exmouth I did my bush smash repairs to pull the right side of the bumper from under the car by using one U bolt from my fire basket drilled into the bumper and using the fish plate from behind with the two nuts and my tree trunk protector pulled it back into place, plus $5 worth of self tapers to hold the side of the bumper in place till we got home.

To be continued...............................Part 3.

Jim